ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the creation and development of the DC Multiverse over the course of the publisher’s first 40 years of stories. This was the “first phase” of the DC Multiverse, which featured ever-more parallel worlds added to an increasingly complex cosmology. It was during this time that DC first exploited the possibilities inherent in a multiverse, with multiple versions of familiar characters featured in different storylines and ongoing series that allow for the legacy of the company’s output to be celebrated and renewed. In essence, this chapter takes a deep dive into what Henry Jenkins has called comics’ discovery “that readers take great pleasure in encountering and comparing multiple versions of the same characters.”
