Freedom Fighters on Earth-X: The X-Factors

Of all world's in the original Multiverse, only two had no resident superheroes, at least initially... Earth-Prime and Earth-X. The former eventually had two, known as Ultraa and Superboy. And the latter had their own superhumans, although these would only appear following the migration of a legion of champions from another universe, and then with mixed results.

The history of Earth-X was left undocumented save for the exploits of those Quality heroes who arrived from Earth-Two in 1942. In the reconstituted Earth-10 following the Infinite Crisis, a world was formed modeled after Earth-X, with a version of Axis Amerika there known there as JLAxis. This team had a variation of Batman known as Der Grösshorn Eule or Leatherwing. Apparently, there was also a variation on the Flash and Green Lantern heretofore unseen as well as a pair of Winged Warriors. Also, a Valkyrie named Brunhilde was among the JLAxis, corresponding to Gudra of Earth-Two who had joined Axis Amerika, and who filled the role of a Wonder Woman there.

On the reconstituted Earth-10, there was a Superman named Ubermensch, although in the original Earth-X history there was instead a de-powered Clark Kent who disguised himself a a variation of the Joker, leading the LUTHAR League which battled Jimmy Olsen of Earth-One, who while on Earth-X was temporarily the superhero known as Steelman. In place of a Superman in the original Earth-X history, there was Lance and Michael Gallant who, like Billy Batson and Freedy Freeman aka Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior of Earth-S, became Captain Triumph. While not officially joining the Freedom Fighters, Triumph was his world's most powerful... and only native... superhero.

Of course, the preeminent team of superheroes on Earth-X was the Freedom Fighters. Recruited and led by Uncle Sam, who along with his compatriots arrived from their native Earth-Two to assist the then-hero-less world against the hordes of the Axis Powers. As he brought most of these former All-Stars from Earth-Two during a Crisis event in 1942, something similar happened on Earth-X as happened when the citizens of Earth-B migrated to Earth-One during the Crisis... the Fighters seemingly merged with their Earth-X counterparts! And so, such heroes as Doll Man and Phantom Lady merged with the Darrel Dane and Sandra Knight of Earth-X, which enabled them to renew acquaintances with counterparts of Darrell's girlfriend Martha and Sandra's father Henry, among others. Meanwhile, the original friends and family members they left behind on Earth-Two undoubtedly had significant holes to fill with the departure of their loved ones. Such was an eventuality during times of war and conflict.

Migrants of Multiple Earths Thesis: Part 2

When Uncle Sam returned to Earth-Two, he recruited a small group of All-Star Squadron members, of whom the Ray and Black Condor permanently moved to Earth-X. This was to maintain the cosmic balance between both Earths, as Baron Blitzkrieg brought three elite Nazis with him from Earth-X. A fourth hero who remained there, the Red Bee, was killed by the Baron… just as the Baron had only hours before sent one of his Earth-X Nazis to his death as he fell off an Earth-Two building. 

Hourman only spent a few months on Earth-X (after five of his allies perished at Pearl Harbor) before returning to Earth-Two. So he wouldn’t be classified as one of these permanent migrants, but one of five Justice League and Justice Society members who aided the Freedom Fighters during their brief visits to Earth-X. Doll Man and Midnight journeyed there during Sam’s first visit, exchanging places with Baron Blitzkrieg’s initial Earth-X Nazis.

The next batch of new heroes who moved to Earth-X a few months later, during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, were: Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, Spider, Manhunter* (and his robot dog Thor), Plastic Man**, the Jester, Quicksilver and the Blackhawk Squadron*** (Blackhawk*, Stanislaus*, Olaf*, Hendrickson*, Chop Chop*, Andre* and Chuck*). Lance and Michael Gallant also previously journeyed to Earth-X as Captain Triumph in 1942, before returning to Earth-Two to join the All-Star Squadron... though their brief stay would like Hourman's disqualify them as offical cross-Earth migrants.

During the same Crisis event, a number of Earth-One heroes fought to save all reality in other universes, where they perished in the universes of Qward and Earth-Four. These included Nighthawk, Kid Psycho, Supergirl, the Flash, Aquagirl, Prince Gavyn the Starman, Immortal Man, Xax the insect Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Tomar-Re (as well as the robot body of Red Tornado). Additionally five renegade Guardians of the Universe perished in an Anti-Matter Universe barrage projected upon their meeting chamber on the planet Oa. 

By 1943, Firebrand and his arch-foe Silver Ghost traveled to Earth-X under undisclosed circumstances, leaving Earth-Two behind forever. Silver Ghost forsook his American citizenship to join Germany while Firebrand’s alter ego Rod Reilly used his status in their military to become a double agent for America. It could be assumed that when Manhunter traveled back to Earth-Two, he traded places with Firebrand if perhaps inadvertently (while Silver Ghost arrived on Earth-X during the same time period that Doll Man from the 1970s reappeared on Earth-Two* to reunite with his fiancé Martha Roberts).

* These Freedom Fighters eventually migrated back to Earth-Two. We know this because; 1.) Doll Man had adventures in the late 1940s with the Martha "Doll Girl" Roberts of Earth-Two, 2.) Dan "Manhunter" Richards, always accompanied by his loyal pooch Thor, became grandfather to Marcie "Harlequin" Cooper of Earth-Two, 3.) the seven Blackhawks had an adventure in September 1944 with the Batman of Earth-Two.

** Plastic Man later migrated to Earth-Twelve during the Convergence event, where he sired Plastic Man Jr. who became a frenemy of the Inferior Five of that world and his father’s counterpart.

*** While the Losers of Earth-One along with their fellow soldiers on the same battlefield perished at the same time as their Earth-Two counterparts, they died due to non-Crisis causes. So they wouldn’t be considered as offsetting in this multiverse erasure of characters. Instead, the Blackhawks’ reappearance on Earth-Two took their place.

The Other Heroes of Earth-X - from Earths One and Two

By far the most famous superheroes on Earth-X were the Freedom Fighters, who migrated from Earth-Two in order to combat the Axis Powers that dominated that world. Brought there by Uncle Sam, among their most prominent members were the Ray, Black Condor, Phantom Lady, Human Bomb and Doll Man. All former members of the All-Star Squadron, which itself had scores of members to defend their world which included teams such as the Justice Society and Law's Legionnaires, there were several others who joined Sam and for a brief period of time were themselves Freedom Fighters.

Sadly most of these individuals evidently perished on Earth-X... such as Red Bee, the Jester, the Spider, Quicksilver. Others left that planet relatively soon after their arrival there. The Blackhawk Squadron ventured back to Earth-Two in 1943, sometime later during the Convergence event Plastic Man... presumed dead by his teammates... ended up on Earth-Twelve where his son would follow in his footsteps and eventually met the Inferior Five. Then there was the case of Dan Richards, aka Manhunter.

Richards decided he wanted to return to Earth-Two, which is evident as he would have a child there, then a grandchild in Marcie Cooper, herself girlfriend to Infinity Inc.'s Obsidian aka Todd Rice. His method for returning was through the dimension-spanning android Manhunters, originally designed by the Guardians of the Earth-One Universe, who initially recruited Richards as well as Paul Kirk to become their agents. Although he was sent to Earth-X so that these androids could extend their influence to another universe, Richards ultimately decided to retire his costumed identity. 

However, upon returning to Earth-Two in 1943, he must have brought back with him another superhero native to Earth-Two... Captain Triumph. Triumph briefly joined the All-Star Squadron,  no doubt learning from the more experienced members on a few unspecified adventures together.

Early in that same year, Triumph first journeyed to Earth-X, apparently accompanying Rod Reilly aka Firebrand, who desired to journey to that world and had an undefined ability to cross dimensions.

Accidentally journeying to Earth-X thanks to a device created by his friend Professor Potter, Jimmy Olsen of Earth-One discovered there that he gained powers (due to an exploding volcano) comparable to those of his pal Superman. Adopting the alias of Steel-Man, a fictional creation of writer Clark Kent of that world, Olsen battled the evil LUTHAR League and its leader. That leader, who appeared like the Joker of Earths One and Two, was in actuality Kent himself. Clark lured Jimmy into a trap, allowing him to steal Steel-Man's powers, although Olsen used Krypton gas to render the villain's powers inert. 

Clark was originally Kal-L, sole survivor of the planet Krypton in his universe known as Viro. Instead of landing on Earth-X in his home dimension, he ended up on Earth-Two where he used his powers for good as Wonder Boy. When his abilities began to wane in the mid-1940s, he traveled back to the world he was meant to live on… Earth-X. Sadly, as an adult Clark Kent, his thirst for his former amazing abilities turned him corrupt.

Once that threat was dealt with, Jimmy returned to Earth-One along with Professor Potter. And then, the Allied Powers of Earth-X finally lost to the Axis Powers, with the Freedom Fighters as the last surviving superheroes opposing them.

* It has been disputed that this Earth-X wasn’t the same Earth that the Freedom Fighters operated on, as there was no reference as to World War II having continued past 1945. However, Uncle Sam told the Justice Society and Justice League in 1973 that the German forces were unable to invade America until "5 years ago", in 1968. Two years prior to that, in 1966, Jimmy Olsen arrived on Earth-X and became Steel-Man over a period of mere weeks. Of course, there is no record of his meeting the Freedom Fighters, who may have been busy in Europe.

Migrants of Multiple Earths Thesis: Part 1

A seemingly throwaway line at the conclusion of a confrontation between the Freedom Fighters from Earth-Two, while battling their world's Baron Blitzkrieg on the hero-less Earth-X, was that the cosmic balance was jeopardized due to the All-Stars' presence on a world not their own. 

The three who remained behind on Earth-X were Uncle Sam, Black Condor and the Ray; after three Nazi troopers returned with the Baron to Earth-Two to serve him on his home-world. 

Months earlier, Sam had brought other heroes to Earth-X, all of whom (save for Hourman and Sam) remained on this world before their premature deaths protecting that world’s Pearl Harbor.

According to the law of conservation of mass, also known as the principle of mass/matter conservation, is that the mass of a closed system will remain constant over time. The mass of an isolated system cannot be changed as a result of processes acting inside the system. A similar statement is that mass cannot be created/destroyed, although it may be rearranged in space, and changed into different types of particles.

So the mass of these metahumans removed from one closed system, or universe, and transferred into another. How did the multiverse compensate for this unauthorized transfer? Well another incursion happened shortly thereafter when several Nazi troops followed Midnight and Doll Man back from the Nazi's Earth-X to the heroes' Earth-Two:

In the third panel, if you squint you can make out eight soldiers on the opposite rooftop from Midnight, and two falling presumably to a life-ending landing. That's ten, so five of these would cancel out the five late heroes Red Torpedo, Magno, Miss America, Neon the Unknown and the Invisible Hood. The remaining Nazi troopers correlated with Uncle Sam and Hourman (whom Red Bee later traded places with on Earth-X when Hourman returned to Earth-Two), as well as Doll Man, Midnight and Baron Blitzkrieg who simultaneously traveled to Earth-X at the same time as the fatal five freedom fighters.

So the total number of Nazi soldiers and Fighters who permanently moved Earth balanced out, thus compensating for the transfer of mass. 

During this initial encounter between two parallel Earths, this formative Freedom Fighters departed Earth-Two to protect the Pearl Harbor of Earth-X from a devastating attack, with five of the seven perishing when a kamikaze pilot took their lives (note: Uncle Sam and Hourman, due to their invulnerability, survived this encounter). Meanwhile, Doll Man and Midnight followed Uncle Sam through his portal to Earth-X, and then retreated back to Earth-Two a couple months later with the aforementioned ten Earth-X Nazi troops who followed them.

While most of these Nazis soon perished, five of their number became Baron Blitzkrieg’s henchmen the Human Bombs, which were quickly dispatched by Wonder Woman. Five foes of freedom…five fighters of freedom, removed from the cosmic equation in the 1st Freedom Fighters and Nazi Human Bombs.

Migrants of Multiple Earths Thesis: Part 3

In the previous chapters of our Migrants of Multiple Earths Thesis here and there we considered the loss of heroes from Earth-Two that migrated to Earth-One. It would seem that this golden age Earth became a provider for metahumans throughout the Multiverse, as we'll learn in this and future chapters, other Earths experienced this as well in later years. Let's now focus on the Freedom Fighters of three Earths!

We already learned how Uncle Sam, the Ray and Black Condor remained on Earth-X to offset the presence of Baron Blitzkrieg's three Nazi troops from that world. Similarly, Doll Man, the Human Bomb, Phantom Lady and the original Firebrand (not pictured but whom we previously considered) also left their home world of Earth-Two for that hero-less Earth. They were followed to Earth-One in late 1970's by the resident Earth-X bad guy the Silver Ghost.  In the course of their brief but memorable stay on this silver age world, they ended up running from the law for being framed by both foe and bad circumstances, yet did their part to protect another world though not their own.

Interestingly, it was later revealed in the so-called "Diary of Batman" that the Freedom Fighters had at some point during the 1970's journeyed back to the world of their birth, as Batman had said that the Freedom Fighters "have been seen back on this earth in recent years". When would this have occured... before or after their appearances on Earth-One in the mid to late 1970s? 

Well, Batman had delivered his diary to long-time friend Doctor Carter Nichols "months before he died", and it had been tainted with insanity due to mind control inflicted upon Batman's alter ego Commissoner Bruce Wayne by the Psycho Pirate. During that period of time, when Wayne manipulated retired members of the Justice Society into fighting its active members, the Freedom Fighters had left Earth-One following a battle with the Secret Society of Super-Villains. The only way Wayne would know that the Freedom Fighters were back on his Earth is if they visited the Justice Society.

It had been "two years" since the Freedom Fighters, with help from the Justice League and Justice Society, defeated the Nazi Regime on Earth-X. After this, a professor friend of theirs had developed an interdimensional teleporter, which the Fighters first  used to immediately travel from Earth-X to Earth-One. Thus, after a months long stay on Earth-One, Sam used his natural abilities to bring them to Earth-Two. In fact, at that point it seems Doll Man traveled back in time to the late 1940s (no doubt using the Flash’s recently invented time vortex device) to reunite with his first love Martha shortly before she had gained her Doll Girl abilities.

During this period of time, the Secret Society of Super-Villains had been battling individual members of the Justice Society on Earth-Two... while also battling the Freedom Fighters as directed by Silver Ghost. Five members of the Secret Society of Super Villains consisting of the Wizard, Blockbuster, Reverse Flash, Floronic Man, and Star Sapphire were being pursued by the hero known as Captain Comet. Note in the accompanying box the words of their leader the Earth-Two Wizard had spent "several profitable months on Earth-2".*

Meanwhile, on Earth-One, Mirror Master and Copperhead led another faction of the Secret Society into battle with the Freedom Fighters at the direction of Silver Ghost. After this conflict concluded with the Fighters proved victorious, they left Earth-One behind, and soon afterwards Phantom Lady was shown to be operating in the Paris France of Earth-X. Months later, the male members of the Freedom Fighters travel one last time to Earth-One to aid Superman on a case.

After their foray on Earth-Two, the Wizard reviews what became of he and his colleagues, as they were trapped for months in limbo between universes. This no doubt sounds similar to what transpired in the near future, wherein other members of the Secret Society also found themselves trapped in the same netherworld between parallel realities. For the Wizard's team there were five beings of Earth-One (Reverse Flash, Star Sapphire, Floronic Man, and Blockbuster) and Wizard of Earth-Two, while the Ultra-Humanite's team would lead seven beings of Earth-Two (Ultra, Psycho-Pirate, Brain Wave, Rag Doll, the Mist, Monocle... and a seventh in the form of Vulcan who arrived in Limbo through a different manner) and five different beings of Earth-One (Gorilla Grodd, Killer Frost, Cheetah II, Signalman). Of course, Floronic Man of Earth-One and Brain Wave of Earth-Two resided in Limbo twice!

That's eight villains of Earth-One and eight of Earth-Two removed from their native worlds at various times, once more showing how the cosmos offset itself repeatedly despite the best of intentions of these puny mortals. Not to mention the five members of Earth-Three's Crime Syndicate of America, who had been kept in prison there within an emerald bubble for several years!

Interestingly, the first known reference to this inbetween Limbo dimension was when the Crime Champions of Earths One and Two created a base of operations there, in order to escape detection from their foes. Years later, after their defeat, the Champions' enemies.... the Justice League and Justice Society... would co-op these headquarters to team-up with a third heroic group known as the Squadron of Justice from Earth-S.

By the time of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, all members of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, the Crime Syndicate, and all Leaguers, Socialites and Squadroners were back on their native homeworlds. However, several of these malevolent metahumans would resurface during the "Villain War" at the height of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and under the leadership of Lex Luthor and Brainiac attempt to usurp control over Earths Four, X and S.

* During the several month sojourn of the Secret Society on Earth-Two, the Wizard led his five Earth-One minions into several successful victories versus individual members of the Justice Society. These included the Atom, Doctor Mid-Nite, Mister Terrific, and apparently Starman... the latter of whom had along with his teammates been captured by the Super-Villains. At some point, the active members of the Justice Society became aware of this, and tracked down the Secret Society where they eventually overpowered  the costumed criminals. While the Secret Society fled Earth-Two, the Justice Society successfully freed their colleagues soon after.

Migrants of Multiple Earths Thesis: Part 8 Crisis Conundrem

During the height of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Lex Luthor and Brainiac assembled a large number of supervillains from the five surviving Earths in order to conquer three of them and ultimately subdue all of them. As a result, the Dastardly Duo sent legions of these costumed crooks to accomplish this task in the so-called Villain War, while the superheroes were divided up in teams to tackle this treat and protect these worlds that were under represented by champions like Earths One and Two were. As an unintended side effect of this, a number of these individuals moved permanently to new worlds in universes they were not born in and seemingly remained there through the end of Crisis.

Among the armies that arrive on Earth-Four were Black Manta, Black Spider, the new Cheetah, Evil Star, Kobra, and Lady Lunar who originated on Earth-One, and Dragon King, Gambler and Solomon Grundy of Earth-Two (while prior to this, Alexei Luthor of Earth-Two was slain before he could be disparched to this world). This was the last documented sighting of each of these individuals, hence after their collective defeat they remained there. But they were not alone. Another misguided immortal like Evil Star took his place on Earth-One, that being the immortal sole survivor of Earth-Omega, Pariah! And Lady Lunar’s departure from Earth-One was replaced by Lady Quark, last survivor of Earth-Six!

Aquagirl aka Tula of Earth-One... a native the Atlantean city of Poseidonis... was among the contingent that traveled to Earth-Four to protect it, and was asphyxiated by Chemo. Such an eventuality would not transpire with her Earth-Two twin, Princess Lanya who lived out her life in the underwater city of Venturia in that Atlantis.

The next world to be assaulted by villains and assisted by heroes was Earth-S. Among the former, were Earth-One's Clock King, Eclipso, Queen Bee and Starro alongside Earth-Two's Cheetah. Those who remained with these miscreants on Captain Marvel's home world were the six Metal Men: Gold, Lead, Iron, Tin, Mercury and Platinum.

Concurrent with these events, the she-robot Mekanique of Earth-Two ended her temporary stay on Earth-One under Commander Steel's employee, then disappearing from before the combined might of the Justice Society and Justice League. She has been proceeded by two other mechanized marvels in Robotman and Commander Steel himself (a fourth self-aware automaton Goitrude the Taxi had also been sent from Earth-Two to Earth-One previously)!

The last of the terra-firma triad, Earth-X, was itself home to a large number of migrants from Earth-Two decades earlier. This included Doll Man*, Firebrand*, Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, as well as others who have since left that world behind in Jester, Manhunter* with his dog Thor, Plastic Man, Quicksilver and the Spider. While this left a vacancy of 15 living entities who left Earth-Two during the peak of the Crisis, this same event precipitated the removal of 15 protectors from Earth-One’s universe, who either perished in Earth-Four, the Anti-Matter Universe or waves emanating from it into their reality.  

 

That world only had three from this conflict who arrived during the Villain War that remained on Earth-X... Fastball of Earth-One, aa well as the Silver Ghost and the Mist of Earth-Two.

Another individual displaced was Earth-One's Justice League of Wonder Woman, shortly after she'd been tasked with protecting Earth-S. Her time-displaced younger self Wonder Tot was removed simultaneously from Earth-One continuity by Jonni DC, who deposited the Tot into Limbo between universes. This ultimately erased Wonder Woman from existence later during the conclusion of the Crisis, with her presence on Earth-One then being filled with Jonni who had migrated from Earth-Two.

Indeed, an equal number of persons from both Earths One and Two left these behind for new universes. But there were other notable departures during this Multiverse scale conflict.

Nighthawk of the 18th century Earth-One along with a pair of lasses also perished due to an anti-matter wave along with his horse, while the four Losers during Earth-Two's World War II also perished from "shadow demons", enhanced soldiers from the Anti-Matter Universe. Interestingly, the Earth-One Losers perished shortly thereafter as casualties of the War itself.

Prince Gavyn aka the cosmic powered Starman perished while protecting his planet-less people due to an anti-matter wave, leaving behind his home realm within the the Earth-One universe.

Another cosmic powered hero who was a former occupant of Earth-Two, after he lived for a brief period of time on Earth-One, was the Immortal Man. In his most current form, he used his abilities to protect others while at risk to his own life. Due to the Crisis, he never returned to his native universe.

Instances of Crisis-level events precipitating the transfer of inhabitants from one universe to another had occurred in the years proceeding these monumental event. For example, the Earth-One Champion family... all four of them... left for Earth-Two after indirect interference with one of the Monitors responsible for the Crisis.. Another quartet, the Newsboy Legion, had come from Earth-Two and moved to the Champion's former world during a crisis of their own.

Then there were the instances of "Crisis on Earth-One" or "Crisis on Earth-Two", etc. Such as when  the Justice Society met Earth-One's Legion of Super-Heroes and the Justice League met Earth-Two's Law's Legionnaires. Or when allies of the Justice League who were (at that time) non-members such as Elongated Man, Metamorpho and Zatanna joined them on a case to save Earth-Two, while villains such as the Shade, Thinker and the Fiddler tormented Earth-One's Flash, Atom and Teen Titans. While not permanent migrants, these individuals had prominent and often significant effects on these alternate earths thanks to their influence on these occasions.

* Some heroes moving to Earth-X during Crisis such as Doll Man and Manhunter returned to Earth-Two years later, while other Earth-Two characters such as Firebrand and Silver Ghost left Earth-Two for Earth-X and took their place.

Will the Real Martha Roberts Please Stand Up... Please Stand Up...Please Stand Up?

She was there from the very beginning... when the original Mighty Mite first appeared. The perpetual fiancee of Darrel Dane, aka the Doll Man, Martha Roberts was a stalwart girlfriend to her guy's dual identities. Indeed, all three of her were loyal to him!

Doll Man originated on Earth-Two, and thus that world had its own Martha, who along were her father Professor Roberts were the only ones who knew of Darrel's secret life. And from 1939 until at least 1942, the two lovebirds were near inseperable. Then what happened?

Somehow, Doll Man as well as fellow mystery man Midnight heard of a man named Uncle Sam recruiting various heroes for an urgent mission. Arriving to late, as Sam and six other superheroes disappeared from their world, Doll Man and his new friend followed them through the rift created. They ended up on Earth-X.

After a couple months on that world, the pair along with Sam returned to their native world, meeting at the Perisphere where the full membership of the All-Star Squadron had been invited for a joint meeting. After a brief trip back to Earth-X with his fellow All-Stars, Doll Man soon returned home, into the loving arms of Martha.

However, a couple months later in April of 1941, Uncle Sam returned to recruit a larger group of All-Stars for his Freedom Fighters on Earth-X. Among those was Doll Man, who like the others moved Earths during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. He no doubt believe this was  a temporary move, until they defeated the Axis Powers, however took many years to do this.

On Earth-X, Dane eventually formed a new relationship with that world's Martha Roberts, who was an ally of Doll Man and his Freedom Fighters teammates. We know this Martha wasn't the Earth-Two version, as she didn't become Doll Girl in order to protect herself and her father when Nazis attacked and killed her!

Batman verifies that the Freedom
Fighters return to Earth-Two

Heartbroken, Darrel soon found a third opportunity to be with his love, this time on Earth-One where he and the remaining Freedom Fighters moved to in the late 1940. Kept young through the decades, Dane met reporter Martha Roberts, and the two soon fell in love.  After a series of misunderstandings led to the Freedom Fighters being hunted by the law, they left Earth-One to return to their home world, Dane decided to leave this Martha behind, as it was evident her career was more important. 

Doll Man and his allies returned to Earth-Two in the late 1970s to visit the Justice Society, as Batman acknowledged they had appeared there at that time in his infamous Dairy. While this would have been a brief reunion with their old allies from the All-Star Squadron... and more recently from when the Justice Society with the Justice League traveled to Earth-X accidentally to aid the Freedom Fighters in liberating their adopted world. 

While it is logical that the individual members would look up old family and friends... Phantom Lady's father Senator Knight and her cousin Ted "Starman" Knight, Black Condor his former girlfriend Wendy Foster, Human Bomb's ex-girlfriend Jean Adams, Uncle Sam's sidekick Buddy... there were no lasting bounds between them. However, the bond between Darrel and Martha was deeper, more profound, with both driven toward being together. This bond traversed even the dimensional barriers of separate universes, with Darrel always gravitating towards the Martha of whichever Earth he was currently living.

After having left the original Martha decades ago, Darrel traveled back to the 1940s to reunite with Martha (no doubt using the Flash’s recently built Time Vortex in Justice Society headquarters)*. 

We know this because Martha’s “Who’s Who” entry mentions her being with Darrel when he became Doll Man in 1939, and in 1951 joined his crime fighting crusade as his partner Doll Girl. Between those dates, the Earth-Two Martha continued to have hundreds more adventures in the late 1940s and early 1950s. And really, it is unimaginable that he would leave his first love behind indefinitely! 

The dynamic between Doll Man and Doll Girl echoed that on Earth-One between Superboy and his childhood girlfriend Lana Lang, in her various aliases such as Sky Girl, Flying Girl and Gravity Girl. Like Darrel and Martha on Earth-Two, Superboy's alter ego Clark Kent and Lana Lang rekindled their love as adults many years later while working together as news anchors.

* A later told tale of the Freedom Fighters returning to Earth-One to assist Superman versus neo-Nazis would've occurred just before they left Earth-Two and returned to Earth-X, and thus before Doll Man journeyed back to the mid 1940s. And a later 1985 appearance of Doll Man alongside his teammates on Earth-X was of a temporarily time-displaced Darrel Dane… as many heroes from the past were pulled into the present day including Doll Man’s fellow All-Stars Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle!

Mighty Midgets: Don-El and Darrel the Super Mite and Doll Man

Don-El and Darrel Dane were a pair of "Mighty Mites" and Superman lookalikes. Allied with counterparts Flamebird and Nighwing, and Nightwing and Wing, they made their mark as heroes of stature.

Don-El as  Captain of the Superman Emergency Squad, a team of Kandorians in miniature size who wore costumes of the famous Kryptonian and aided that caped crusader on occasion on their adopted Earth-One. In his first appearance, he adopted the alias of Super-Mite.

Darrel Dane aka Doll Man was a chemist and as a member of the All-Star Squadron was a teammate of Superman. The original Mighty Mite, Doll Man was like his contemporary Superman of Earth-Two, among the earlies of caped crusaders on their world, and fought crime there for over two years.

Don-El was the son of Nim-El, who was the twin brother of Zor-El, himself the father of Kal-El. So Don-El was the twin cousin of Superman (Kal-El), although he survived not in a space ship sent directly to Earth-One but rather as an inhabitant of the shrunken bottled city of Kandor. When Superman years later battled and defeated Kandor's captor, Brainiac, he found the city a new home inside his Fortress of Solitude.

Darrel Dane as Doll Man decided due put to good use the shrinking formula that gave him various mental abilities and the power to shrink to 6 inches tall. Aided by his girlfriend Martha Roberts and her father, Doll Man had several solo adventures and was also a member of the aforementioned All-Star Squadron and Freedom Fighters. 

Don-El temporarily assumed Superman's identity during a moment of psychological breakdown, before returning to Kandor. Eventually that city and all its inhabitant's, including Don-El, were restored to normal size and lived in the extra-dimensional world of Rokyn which oscillated between Earth-One's universe and that of another. Which of the other universes Rokyn was normally located within... Earth-X, Earth-S, Earth-Four or (most probably) Earth-Two is unknown... but would have to have been one of them as Rokyn still existed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths when all other universes were destroyed.

Darrel eventually left behind his native world with the Freedom Fighters to aid Earth-X, where he and his teammates would face that world's Nazi forces for decades before finally defeating them. Eventually, Superman (Kal-L) and his Justice Society allies as well as the Justice League visited Earth-X, and he worked alongside Doll Man to liberate that world. 

Following this, Doll Man and his pals migrated to Don-El's Earth-One to revitalize their costumed careers, but were portrayed as criminals, and so left for Earth-Two. Unlike his fellow Freedom Fighters, there is evidence that Doll Man returned to the past... shortly after he had left for Earth-X.. and reunited with Martha*. We know this because Martha’s “Who’s Who” entry mentions her being with Darrell in 1939 when he became Doll Man, and still with him in 1951 when she became his crimefighting partner, Doll Girl. Dane's trip through time made possible due to the Justice Society member Flash's Time Vortex device, allowing for traveling through time from the late 1970s to the mid 1940s.

* A later told tale of the Freedom Fighters returning to Earth-One to assist Superman versus neo-Nazis could’ve occurred right after they (aside from Dane) left Earth-Two and returned to Earth-X. And still later, when Doll Man appeared with his teammates in 1985 on Earth-X, this was a temporally time-displaced Darrel Dane… as many heroes from the past were pulled to the present day including Doll Man’s fellow All-Stars Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle!

The Mystery of the Blackhawks Through Time

In August 1941 a team debuted that would endure for decades to come. As high flying aviators combating the Nazi regime and other treats to humanity, the Blackhawks consisted of the following:

• Blackhawk - The group's leader, Bart Hawk, a Polish American
• Andre Blanc-Dumont - He is a French member of the this group.
• Olaf Bjornson - He is either from Norway or Sweden.
• Chuck Wilson - He is an American from Texas.
• Hans Hendrickson - He is their Dutch member.
• Stanislaus  - He is another Polish member.
• Chop-Chop - Named Liu Huang/Wu Cheng

And, of course, their unofficial member Lady Blackhawk- Zinda Blake of Earth-One, and Eva Rice of Earth-Two.

And yet, their multiple appearences in latter years beside various superheroes from different eras, and different worlds, caused no shortage of confusion as to whether there was more than one set of seven such soldiers. And indeed there were, for the first such team (appearing in Quality Comics) resided on Earth-Two, that is until Uncle Sam recruited several freedom fighters from that world to the parallel planet of Earth-X in 1942 with no resident heroes up to that point. When the Freedom Fighters reappeared in 1973, only six costumed crusaders remained on that world (Firebrand would show up later), stating that their fellow Quality comrades who aided them against the Nazis had perished. Specifically spotlighted were the Blackhawks and Plastic Man. A second set of Blackhawks, the ones who appeared when DC Comics acquired the Blackhawks' title from Quality in January 1957 onward, resided on Earth-One. Those tales chronicled their modern day adventures, while a latter reappearence of their publication in the 1980's showed their tales during the 1940's (confusing isn't it)? However, two oddities have thus far not been reconciled, until today. First, the Earth-One Blackhawks, who battled during World War II, appeared unaged and still in their prime alongside the Justice League... in the modern day... decades later! And the Earth-Two Blackhawks appeared alongside that world's Batman in September 1944, two years after they supposedly left for Earth-X!

This can be explained a few different ways. First, we may postulate that during the Crisis on Infinite Earths which distorted space and time (at which point Earth-Two's team left for Earth-X), perhaps the Earth-One flying aces were plucked from the 40's ending up in the 60's/70's to work alongside the League. The second possibility is that the original teams inspired copycats to duplicate their idols, even going by the names of the first Blackhawks on each world. It is known that Kid Eternity pulled the Blackhawk from "Eternity" to his native Earth-S, where he operated through the mid-1950's.

These original Blackhawks of Earth-Two returned to their home world, a Blackhawk team labeling themselves as Freedom Fighters eludes to their past history as protectors of a second world at war until they were pulled back to the universe of their birth. 

Their former allies like Uncle Sam who were still on Earth-X believed that the Blackhawks has perished when in fact they continued their aviation adventures into the middle of the 1950's. These seven soldiers of victory carried on their mission to right wrongs around the world from the mid 1940's through 1956, having hundreds of adventures. Then, the mysteriously disappeared, while the Earth-One version carried on later that year after having been unseen since the early days of World War II!

What became of this version of the team is unknown as their disappearance on Earth-Two was never esplained. Nevertheless, all three Blackhawk Squadrons on Earths One, Two and S were separate and distinct with only minor variations in their respective members' personal histories.

Plentifully Prodigious Plastic Men

One of the iconic heroes in comic book history has to be the stretch sleuth known as Plastic Man, created by legendary writer Jack Cole. And from his initial 1941 appearance in Police Comics #1 through that series' conclusion and that of his own title published during that decade, the former Eel O'Brien became a legend. And a desired property for other publishers, particularly DC Comics which acquired the Quality Comics character.

So in 1966 Plas was reintroduced, or rather it turned out to be his son. Then, the original turned up in a couple of early 1970's Brave and the Bold issues teaming up with Batman. But was this the original? And what became of his son? Well after his own revitalized mid-70's series had concluded, he had a string of Adventure/Super Friends/Worlds Finest Comics solo tales. Intermixed, he was affiliated with at least three teams of champions of three Earths!

Once the dust cleared and time helped place things in perceptive, a few facts were made somewhat clear. The initial incarnation of Plastic Man resided on Earth-Two, home to most golden age heroes. Joining the All-Star Squadron as their FBI liason, he would stick around. During this period he met Captain Marvel from Earth-S, and Uncle Sam who moved to Earth-X. Around this time, an inventive crook created synthetic Plastic Men to bedevil the original. Even Woozy Winks became a stretchy sidekick accidentally and helped his pal to defeat the fakes.

It was the latter that finally motivated Plastic Man to journey with fellow heroes from Earth-Two to this hero-less world to protect it from the Nazi hordes. Sadly, this journey was not kind to this incarnation of Plastic Man, as alluded to by Uncle Sam's cryptic comments decades later. And yet, according to his "Who's Who" entry, this golden age Plastic Man still survived into the present day even though he was thought deceased on Earth-X!

Prior to his departure from Earth-Two, however, a gangster allied with a criminal mastermind created synthetic Plastic Men, with the same abilities and appearance of the original, which he used to initiate a crime wave. During this caper, Woozy Winks had himself transformed through this process into a version of his partner Plastic Man. After the pair defeated the crooks behind the elastic clones, apparently all the Plastic Men were eliminated, although conceivably at least one may have remained behind to aid Woozy in crime fighting when the original journeyed to Earth-X.

During the Convergence event that pulled various cities and their heroes to a planet outside space and time, Plastic Man along with you fellow Freedom Fighter battled the Nazi villain Silver Ghost. During the conflict, Plas and the Ghost formed an uneasy alliance to track down the origin of deadly cyborgs threatening the citizens of their displaced New York City. After a final battle when the Ghost betrayed his foe turned ally, Plastic Man was left outside and separated from the Fighters. Where this version of the hero ended up in the multitude of cities on Telos wasn't initially revealed. He didn't return to Earth-Two, as the Senate hearing that tried the Justice Society for treason in the 1980's stated that Plastic Man disappeared in the 1940's. It appears that this Plas journeyed to the Gotham City of Earth-Twelve, which was also listed as having temporarily been located on Telos, and on this Earth he ultimately settled down and sired a son in his own image!

The Earth-One Plastic Man first appeared chronologically alongside the Justice League of America in their origin story and later team up with that world's Batman in Brave and the Bold, then would go on to have solo tales in the 1970's in his own title, Super Friends Adventure and World's Finest Comics! After a notable career, this Plastic Man assumed the guise of explorer Kyle Morgan, and was engaged to corrupt businesswoman Ruby Ryder. From this experience, he saw the futility of having a life separate from his superhero persona, and resumed his career as the pliable protector and as an agent of the National Bureau of Investigation with pal Woozy Winks.

This pliable protector found a foe in the young Robby Reed, the possessor of the H-Dial, enabling him to "Dial 'H' for Hero" which he did over a dozen times in his brief career. Twice Robby become a clone of Plastic Man, first as a hero and years later as a misguided villain for a brief period.

Robby's Dial-generated Plas was similar to Burp the Twerp aka the Super Son-of-a-Gun, who had various shape-changing powers and met Earth-Two's Plastic Man on at least two occasions during his chaotic crimefighting career. 

Then there was the wacky 1960's son of the original, Eel O'Brien Jr. and a Plastic Man who had teamed up with the Inferior Five in their issue #6. It was then revealed that the golden age Eel (who originated on Earth-Two) made a home for himself on this third world he traveled to, one that unlike his home-world and his initial adopted world gripped by World War was more comical in nature.

Rather, this was a more lighthearted Earth, and it appears it was there that he carried on his adventures in  his self-titled own magazine during the late 1940s and early 1950s. He eventually married and accidentally bequeathed similar powers to his son, who carried on his legacy. This son Eel Junior would be, in effect, the Earth-Twelve doppelgänger of his dear old, dad the original Plastic Man of Earth-Two.

Eventually, the rigors of stretching his body in various ways causes the original Plastic Man crippling pain, leading to his retirement until called upon to aid his son later on.

Eel Junior existed contemporaneous to the Inferior Five, who were said to reside on Earth-Twelve, on that parallel world prone towards comedic circumstances. However, despite being a second generation hero like the Five (who themselves were the offspring of the golden age Freedom Brigade) Junior did not deem it worthy of joining them. What became of him after his dozen chronicled tales is unknown, as his Earth also encountered the Crisis that had engulfed the Multiverse.

Another Plastic Man was one who appeared alongside Kid Eternity on Earth-S. While this may, on the surface, seem similar to when Earth-One's Robbie Reed used his Dial "H" for Hero device to transform into the malleable manhunter himself on two occasions, this was the Eel O'Brien from the Kid's Eternity dimension, which was attached to Earth-S. It was this Plastic Man's exploits in the middle to latter part of the 1940's that were being chronicled in Police Comics, as mentioned in this particular story... on the Kid's Earth-S. 

Additionally, Blackhawk had tales in his own series during this time and also aided Kid Eternity on occasion. As with Plastic Man, it seems Blackhawk... and by extension his six teammates...migrated from Eternity to Earth-S. Or perhaps remained in the Eternity dimension These heroes continued to operate into the mid 1950's as chronicled in their Quality Comics tales.

Indeed, this legend stretched himself quite thin, in a sense... as five versions of him helped to protect five worlds! So in the end, there was Plastic Man of Earth-Two who was a founding member of the All-Star Squadron and later moved to Earth-X thanks to Uncle Sam, then due to the Convergence moved to Earth-Twelve where he sired that universe's native version of Plastic Man, the Plastic Man from Eternity that Kid Eternity brought to Earth-S where he remained, the Earth-One Plastic Man and his Robby Reed clone. And we aren't even counting the dozens of synthetic Plastic Men that one of the original's foes created in the early 1940's on Earth-Two. Whew!

Twice-Told-Tales Untold of Sinister Societies

During the relatively brief yet memorial history of the original Secret Society of Super-Villians, there came a point where this group fragmented into at least three parts. One section, led by Gorilla Grodd, pursued a vendetta against his arch-foe the Flash and other members of the Justice League of America. Another faction accompanied the Wizard back to his home world of Earth-Two to battle the Justice Society of America. 

Meanwhile, back on Earth-One, Mirror Master and Copperhead recruited four previously unaffiliated members to assist them and their employer Silver Ghost. Their goal, to eliminate the Freedom Fighters, whom the Ghost has quarreled with for several months since their arrival from Earth-X. Originally from Earth-Two, the seven Fighters fought the Axis Powers on their adopted world for decades, before deciding to journey to a third Earth to start their careers anew.

Regrettably, their reputations were marred by Silver Ghost, who secretly was Raphael Van Zandt, a Nazi corroborator on Earth-X. When Van Zandt decided to create a criminal empire on Earth-One, he was pursued by his enemy Firebrand to this new planet. There, he would soon after encounter his old adversaries in the Freedom Fighters whom he also believed were following him. Wishing to rid himself of these pest, he sought the aid of the Secret Society.

While not much is known of how this battle between the two teams developed, we do know the outcome as Silver Ghost ended up transforming both himself and Firebrand into silver statues when exposed to his transmutation abilities (this process was reversed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths). Meanwhile, the remaining Freedom Fighters returned to Earth-X, while some of the members of the Secret Society such as Mirror Master and Chronos returned with their original group, the Injustice Gang a couple months later.

A similar untold tale of the Injustice Society on Earth-Two took place in the late 1940s, when future marriage mates Brain Wave and Merry the Gimmick Girl first met as opponents. During this case, the counterpart to Secret Society arch-foe Captain Comet battled the Injustice Society alongside Merry and other former allies of the All-Star Squadron. This man, Captain Triumph, had also traveled to Earth-X to assist the Freedom Fighters briefly before coming home, where he joined the Squadron. Among those present on this occasion was Doll Man, who had returned from the future to reunite with his fiancée Martha Roberts after several years with the Fighters.

This assemblage of evil was apparently led by the Wizard, and shortly after this while dueling with Superman, he conceived of reinventing this gang into a Secret Society. With this in mind, the Wizard was drawn to an actual realization of his concept while exiled on Earth-One in the late 1970s. Although most of the villains portrayed in this battle of 1949, such as Shade and Icicle, were the originals… the Solomon Grundy here present was evidently the imposter whom Johnny Thunder met a couple years earlier, when the Justice Society tracked down the real version who was terrorizing across the United States. At this point. Grundy was exiled on the moon (first by Green Lantern, later by Per Degaton) until the mid 1960s.

Merging of Doppelgängers: The Cosmic Treadmill's Strange Power

The Cosmic Treadmill was a device invented by Barry “Flash” Allen powered by cosmic energy. This device enabled Flash to travel through time, with positive radiation drawing him into the future and negative radiation drawing him back into the past, coordinated by pulsations emanating from its cosmic ray-powered clock. 

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Barry along with fellow Justice Leaguers and members of the Justice Alliance of Earth-D constructed a larger version of the Threadmill. The became an interdimensional transport for millions of inhabitants of that world, which were being destroyed by the anti-matter wave destroying the Multiverse. Working with his counterpart Tanaka Rei, Barry created another treadmill, with the ability to merge doppelgängers!

Barry shared this invention with his nephew Wally "Kid Flash" West and his counterpart Jay "Flash" Garrick of Earth-Two. Jay later created his own version of the Threadmill, the Time Vortex. This mechanism similarly allowed for guided time travel, as well as fabricating period-specific clothing for individuals using it. Star-Spangled Kid suspected it manipulated cosmic energy like his  cosmic converter belt and Starman's cosmic rod.

While on Earth-Prime, Barry created another treadmill allowing him to return to Earth-One. Now realizing it bend time and space, upon Tanaka's suggestion they modified the Earth-D version. Those individuals of Earth-D travelling through its portal merged with their "genetic doppelgängers" on Earth-One. Of course, some like Barry and Tanaka weren't genetic counterparts, and so would've remained separate.

A similar occurence happened years earlier, when the Aquaman of Earth-One encountered the city of Necrus, which shifted from its native universe to another from time-to-time. On this occasion, the beam that brought Necrus to his world also struck the King of the Seas, causing a doppelgänger of his appear to be splitting off from him. In fact, this was the long lost Aquaman of Earth-Two, whom Arthur Curry's mind was connected with during this process. Together they defeated Mecrus' leader Mongo and his evil forces attempting to invade Atlantis and attack the surface world, although at the cost of the second Aquaman's life.

The device causing Necrus and the golden age Aquaman to shift from universe to universe was a "dimensional time reflex" machine created by a scientist from a doomed world in space. While merged, the Aquaman pulled into Earth-One's universe was mentally tied to that planet's native Aquaman, as would the Earth-D citizens with the Earth-One twins.

Even the transmatter cubes, created by the Justice League and Justice Society to travel to one another's worlds annually, was used to this effect. When Earth-One was invaded by the creature known as Krogg, who had resided in the Limbo realm between universes for centuries. the Kal-El and Kal-L used the device to become a composite Superman. Just as they doubled their own power, the two felt each other's minds slowly become one.

Something similar probably occured with the Freedom Fighters of Earth-Two, recruited by Uncle Sam to protect Earth-X. Each member may have merged with their Earth-X doppelgänger, which had near identical lives to their own (aside from not being superheroes themselves) and allowing them to carry on their wartime adventures chronicled in Quality Comics.

Perhaps the most widespread effect of this occuring was when the alien Creator2 tried to merge Earth-Two and Earth-One together using the android Red Tornado's dimension-travelling ability. On this occasion, all of the worlds' citizens met their doppelgängers of he other world for a brief period.

What effect this merging had on the minds and bodies of those of Earth-One who now gained the lives and experiences of their Earth-D doppelgängers in unknown.