Tuesday 5 January 2021

Death Metal Ends And Infinite Frontier Begins

DC Comics welcomes the first week of 2021 with a big bang! Literally! On the first week of January, Dark Nights: Death Metal delivered its epic finale that not only launched DC's two-month event Future State on the same day, but more importantly, started the new era of DC: Infinite Frontier

What exactly is Infinite Frontier? It's hard to say at this point in time with so many details still being revealed as 2021 continues to roll out. What we do know as of Death Metal's conclusion is that DC is back to—spoiler alert—having an infinite multiverse again. Huh? What does this even mean? Does this mean the pre-Crisis DC Multiverse is back or something different? Well, the answer to that is 'both.'

Like the conclusion of 2019's Doomsday Clock, Death Metal once again posits that every DC story that ever was, currently is, and ever will be is now part of the mainstream DC canon. So that pre-Crisis DC Multiverse where the Justice Society exists on Earth-2 and the Justice League on Earth-1? Canon. That New Earth that formed as a result of the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths? Canon. That original 52 Multiverse that came out of the events of Infinite Crisis? Canon. That New 52 multiverse that came out of the events of Flashpoint a decade ago? Canon. Even all the Elseworlds stories DC published since 1986 like Kingdom Come, Gotham by Gaslight, Superman: Red Son, and more recent ones like Injustice, Batman: Last Knight on Earth, and Batman: White Knight are all part of the Infinite Frontier canon.

So, now, where do we go from here? Well, see...that, right there, is the money question: what is DC going to do with their infinite multiverse?

As of March, we do know that the majority of DC's monthly titles will be set on Earth-0, with The Crime Syndicate being the only book set on Earth-3. As of Death Metal #7, we know—spoiler alert—that the classic Justice Society is back on Earth-0, but Earth-0 is no longer the centre of the infinite multiverse. It's now just another Earth in an infinite sea of Earths with another Elseworld (maybe the base template world?) now occupying that space. Where will the Future State stories fit into that timeline, only time will tell.

So where does this leave the classic Earth-2 and two of its well known residents: the original Helena Wayne Huntress and Power Girl? Well, with the Justice Society now being published as part Earth-0's canon again, who the heck knows. Since they are the characters who are frequent casualties of DC's cosmic reboots because of their blood relations to Batman and Superman respectively, their future is always up in the air. At best, they will either resurface on another incarnation of Earth-2, or they will somehow be added to Earth-0 in some capacity. (Just as long as Helena Wayne continues using her original Huntress identity, but I'll save that discussion for a new post I'll be writing soon.)

What do you think, DC fans? Where do you think DC will go with Infinite Frontier? More comics set on DC's multiple Earths with some familiar faces returning? Maybe some of those multiple Earths will get DC Digital First comics? Maybe even graphic novels? Share your thoughts in the comments below!   

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