Okay, well in the second JLA story I ever read, it was a very simple done in one story which featured JLA members Superman, Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, and Black Canary versus a misunderstood hero that has been around and been not an enemy of the JLA for the most part, but is a character that tends to let his naivety get in the way of his ability to do good things.

Ultraa is the hero in question, the man with the bright red hair and purple outfit.

 

And as you can tell, he packs quite a punch.

Now, this story is fairly simple, Ultraa duped by a con man named Joe Parry is tricked into helping Joe commit some robberies and the JLA gets involved as the police can’t handle Ultraa. Ultraa realizes at the end that even though Joe offered him friendship it was not worth his soul and recants. All is forgiven, for the most part.

Now, the REAL juicy part of this story is that Ultraa is not from the Earth that our heroes are from, but instead is from an Earth designated Earth-Prime.

Okay, here is where we get our first piece of DCU Cosmology.

There are multiple Earths in the DC Universe, all are vibrating at slightly different rates and have slight to major differences in their histories.

The Earth that the heroes we have been talking about to this point are all from Earth-One. On Earth-Prime there are no super-heroes on Earth-Prime and in Ultraa’s first appearance he self-exiled himself to Earth-One as he perceived his Earth as not ready for individuals with powers.. yet.

Earth-Prime in DC Lore is the world in which, we, the readers exist. Instead of writers and artists and other comic pros being insanely talented original people (which they are) on Earth-Prime apparently the writers go to sleep and dream and while they dream they see the adventures of the other Earths.

It also turns out that Ultraa was rocketed to Earth as an infant from his dying home world, he landed in Australia and has super-strength, super-speed, and stamina. Hmmm. he sounds familiar, doesn’t he? So is Ultraa the Earth-Prime universe version of our Earth-One universe Superman? It seems that way doesn’t it?

So, let’s make this really simple.

Earth-One: Our modern day heroes such as the Justice League or the Teen Titans.

Earth-Prime: No active super-heroes and the location of the readers of DC Comics.

Now, the implications of all this is an unlimited amount of variations for the writers and artists to draw from in order for stories to occur that couldn’t normally in a world that strongly mirrors our own.

The downside? Well.. the unlimited amount of variations for the writers and artists to draw from in order for stories to occur that couldn’t normally in a world that strongly mirrors our own.

It’s a double-edged sword.

Instead of just ONE world to keep track of, there are now two here, Earth-One and Earth-Prime. And a lot of different writers working in the same universe possibly telling conflicting stories.. leading to a complicated continuity.

Are you still with me here? I’m betting your eyes just glazed over.

Go get a drink. It’s okay. I’ll wait.

The next few JLA stories were fairly simple, a done in one sci-fi story in which Batman turns into a monster and Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, Atom, and Red Tornado have to help hunt him down and cure him, but don’t worry, Bats is fine.

Next up: A 3-part epic of the Justice League of America versus the Royal Flush Gang. Our first real villain team!