Timelines of Injustice: Sinister Society's Successful Schemes

The Injustice Society may have ultimately proved a failure when battling their opposite number, the Justice Society, however two of their members succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in ruling the world. Of a kind.

Vandal Savage had the longest run of a rogue's reign, when he schemed to have Superman follow him back through the ages the detonate various time bombs that reset history. As a result, Earth-One was transformed into a perpetual kingdom was the Earth-Two Savage as its sole sovereign for centuries. Or at least for several days, though it seemed longer given how the time stream was altered. 

Vandal was known for pilfering the equipment of his fellow Socialites back when he worked with them in the late 1940's, and thus it would've been his ally Per Degaton's temporal technology that was instrumental in the immortal villain's victory. Although Superman figured this out and reverts history to how it was intended to be.

And speaking of Degaton, when he was a lowly lab assistant for Time Trust scientist Professor Malachi Zee, he gained access to temporal technology. In 1947, Per stole Zee's time cabinet and journeyed back in time with armies and 20th century weaponry in order to alter the course of the key Battle of Arbela in 331 BC which changed the course of history. As such, Earth-Two did not technologically advance past a medieval state, while Degaton secured his modern armaments in a chromium lined cave. Even into the late 1950's, this resulted in this tyrant having unmatched power which even the Justice Society could not overcome.

That is, until Green Lantern journeyed back in time with his teammates and tipped the Battle of Arbela back in favor of the true victors according to history. This led to time being reset, with Per's reign of tyranny ending. Although, the memory of his fleeting victory would remain and prompt him to pursue this path once more.

On his second attempt, Degaton stole atomic weapons from Earth-Prime,enlisting the aid of Earth-Three's Crime Syndicate in order to control Earth-Two. Apparently, this was the decisive step needed so that into the 1980's, Degaton's new history proved him master of his native world. In this reality, superheroes still existed however the Crime Syndicate members Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring remained as his enforcers allowing them to subjugate this world. 

The combined efforts of the Justice Society, Justice League and All-Star Squadron were needed to thwart Degaton's determination for dominance. In the process, they changed back the altered timeline on Earth-Prime that had resulted from the Syndicate's theft of weaponry, when that world was reduced to a devastated landscape. With not atom bombs nor his Syndicate at his disposal, Degaton once more retreated to his native 1947 leaving all save him forgetting about this encounter. His desire would remain.

On Earth-One, Professor Ronson accidentally unleashed via his chronal transponder an energy wave that altered that planet's future causing its superheroes to be eliminated with only their alter egos remaining. Thankfully, the World's Finest Team from the future of Earths One and Two restored reality to its natural course.

Interestingly, the first chronological reset of history on Earth-One was actually the creation of a deviant planet and universe spawned by Earth-Two's Thunderbolt at the behest of the criminal Johnny Thunder who wanted the Justice League eliminated. Replacing them with his Lawless League, themselves counterparts to the Crime Syndicate that were displaced in the alternate timeline on Earth-Two, this quintet of crooks had fleeting careers before they were dispatched by the visiting Justice Society. Although this world exists somewhere within the Multiverse, as does the altered timelines we've considered, they've been folded back into non-existence from whence they came as far as we're concerned.

However, an interesting aside is one final artificially created timeline and universe in the form of Earth-Zero, which was made manifest when Mister Mxyztplk and the entity known as Aethyr destroyed the short-lived planet Aethyr in Earth-One's reality yet projected it and its Bizarro inhabitants into a pocket universe much like Earth-A or these timelines. With their own evil replicas of Justice League and Justice Society members, these worlds would only be liberated from such oppression (although the Bizarro's enjoyed it, given their warped nature living in reverse) when the champions of main-stream realities intervened.

So while history cannot be changed in the universes of the Multiverse, it can be branched off into timelines or universes distinct and different from each individual universe. Although due to the nature of time and the fluidity of their states of being, such existence is transient to say the least!

Twice-Told-Tales: Majestic Multiverse Myths

The Multiverse holds various Twice-Told-Tales, some chronicled, many left to the imagination. And all tied in to the nature of the cosmos in the DC Universe. This is only natural considering that they all originated from the Earth-One cosmos, when the Malthusian known as Krona unleashed cosmic forces while attempting to view the dawn of creation. As a result, his universe was cloned an infinite number of times to become with countless positive matter and one Anti-Matter Universe of Qward. Undoubtedly the main universe that mirror Krona's own was Earth-Two which seemed to be twenty years ahead of Earth-One due to exhibiting a slower vibratory rate. This may be due to the fact that Earth-One existed for untold eons prior to the other universes, and as such this is a way for all universes to stay in sync.

From Earth-One's universe was spawned the imperfect clones that would become the Bizarro race migrated to a world that Superman remodeled into a square planet at its inhabitants' decree. Several years after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, when the Multiverse was transformed into a single matter and anti-matter universe, another Crisis reignited the Multiverse due to the machinations of Alex Luthor from Earth-Three. Not only was his world recreated, but so was Earth-Zero which mirror the Bizarro Earth of Htrae, alluding to the possibility that the planet which the Bizarros migrated to was actually not in their own universe but a parallel one, accessed by a wormhole Superman used when he first ventured there. This world had a twisted nature, wherein the Bizarro League mirrored the evil sensibilities of the Lawless League from Earth-A and that of Earth-Three with its Crime Syndicate, with sinister counterparts of superheroes.

Then there were the seemingly peripheral planets that didn't seem to resemble Earth-One's Justice League of America and Earth-Two's Justice Society of America, yet had heroes of equal measure. There was, for example, Earth-S that like Earth-Two debuted superheroes in the golden age of the 1940's, and Earth-Four that for the most part had their superhero explosion in the modern age like Earth-One. Then there was the initially hero-less worlds such as Earth-Prime and Earth-X, although they eventually would have their own versions of costumed crusaders. And, lest we forget, just as their was a heroic Justice Alliance of America on Earth-D there was also a Freedom Brigade on Earth-Twelve that were also erstwhile imitators of the League and Society that were more well known. This doesn't even include Earth-666 where Marvel's mightiest reign, nor Earth-MLJ that are published elsewhere....

Bizarre Baddies - Creepy Clones - Demented Duplicates

One of the core staples of comics is an opposite number or evil twin. In the late 1950's DC Comics hit upon this theme and developed an entire planet of these type of creatures with a catch, they were the imperfect duplicates of established characters. Only this wasn't a new concept, it was already explored previously and would be once more years later, as we shall see.

On Earth-One, Professor Dalton developed a duplicator ray which created a distorted doppleganger of Superboy, soon after destroyed. Years later, Lex Luthor recreated this device and spawned the pale jagged-skinned Bizarro, and from this template derived a whole civilization. Originally mirrored after this Bizarro Superman #1 and his mate Bizarro Lois Lane #1, after creating several of their own duplicates the original decided to build his own copies of some of Superman's closest friends like Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, and bitterest foes. Htrae was a square shaped world otherwise resembling Earth which Superman created as an act of penance on one occasion. He even went so far as to create a Bizarro Justice League with a Batman, Hawkman, Aquaman, Flash aka "Hero", and Yellow Lantern... as well as some of Superman's greatest enemies including Lex Luthor, the Joker, Kltpzym and Amazo. These beings were not carbon-based life forms yet had sentience based on perverse reverse logic, deriving their matter from another reality. Earth-Two analogues would be Flying Tiger, a Fairy Tale Batman, Secret City Flash clones, Grundy Lantern, and various others. On Earth-Two, there were also non-living animated “proxies” of Alexei Luthor, Mister Mxyztplk, and Prankster as well as a faux-Lois Lane

On Earth-Two, a criminal known only as Funny Face replicated a bio-ray projector original created by Professor Anderson which Batman encountered previously, a projector which was capable of creating pseudo three-dimensional life to imaginary characters illustrated by others Utilizing this to create a gang consisting of fictional felons Torgo, Machine-Gun Mike, the Black Rider, Goola and the Viper who all plundered Metropolis. Each was confronted by Superman, and each time the malevolent mastermind's gigantic Funny Face clones appeared to torment the hero. Meanwhile, reporter Lois Lane tracked down the culprit behind these creatures, a disgruntled failure of a cartoonist who nevertheless had exceptional genius in devising the device behind these deviants. Eventually tipping Superman off as to Funny Faces' location, and that of his captured girlfriend, the Man of Steel was confronted by all five menaces. Helping her hero once more, Lois turned the projector on the same newspaper pages to bring to life these criminals' arch-enemies in Prince Peril, Detective Craig, Solitary Rider, Streak Dugan and Happy Daze which defeated their foes. While Lane was transformed by Face into an image on a page, she was revived much as Bizarro-Lois came to "life" decades later a universe away.

A decade later, Funny Face returned with an animated illustrated depiction of Superman's criminal alter ego, Flying Tiger. This was an alias used by the Metropolis Marvel to discover the source of the underworld's Kryptonite, and as such several staged thefts over the new few weeks until he earned the trust of the mysterious kingpin known as Mister K. After the disguised Clark and Lois Kent turned the tables on the crimelord, the pair thought that Flying Tiger's crooked career had concluded. However, when shortly thereafter the faux-Tiger continued in his predecessor's steps, the Bizarro of Earth-Two was born! As before, Funny Face was defeated as was his Superman-clone, who was susceptible to green Kryptonite, and like its "brothers" was returned to the newspaper from whence it came.  Although, as before, Lois was transformed into a two-dimensional creature before being revived.

Similarly, not to many years after the Bizarros were created, Mr. Mxyzptlk returned to Earth-One's universe and merged with an entity known as Aethyr. These two proceeded to devastate Htrae while destroying all Bizarros as well. However, there was apparently a pre-Crisis Earth-Zero that replicated Htrae with the same Bizarro inhabitants residing on it. It is quite possible and most probable that Mxyzptlk/Aethyr used its inter-dimensional abilities of the Phantom Zone to recreate these creatures in this pocket reality, in much the same way Earth-Two's Thunderbolt spawned the Lawless League of Earth-A. This Lawless team was a twisted mirror image of Earth-One's Justice league, whom the Justice Society battled. And both Bizarro and Lawless Leagues would be counterparts to Earth-Three's criminal Crime Syndicate, as well, wherein good was replaced with evil and evil with good.

Twice-Told Tales: Satellites of Injustice And Purloined Power!

Just as the Justice League and Justice Society had satellite headquarters, albeit very briefly for the latter, the same could be said for their arch-enemies as well.

The Injustice Gang's inaugural appearance was prompted by the mysterious Libra recruiting six other supervillains to battle Earth-One's League and thereby acquire their powers for himself. The Injustice Society, or rather two members of its first incarnation... Brain Wave and Per Degaton... joined forces aboard the former's satellite headquaters. His goal? To acquire energies from Earth-Two exerted by young members of the Justice Society of America to gain a superhuman body for himself!

However the story of Libra parallels another tale from the Justice Society's old case files. Doctor Egri had harnessed cosmic radiation and focused it into six objects, which he arranged six criminals to steal and field test against the Justice Society. The gang leader, Rocky Castle, gained a magnetized ring like Green Lantern's; Specs had a black light to face Doctor Mid-Nite; Ox wore stick pin that allowed him to fly like Hawkman; Peewee wore gloves giving him superstrength like the Atom; Gun-Shy had a wristwatch that protects him much like Wonder Woman's bracelets; and Slowpoke donned a jacket giving him superspeed like the Flash. These crooks were eventually beaten by the Society and then trapped by Egri, who regained the devices to battle the combined team.

This may remind us of the Lawless League, created by that world's Johnny Thunder on an alternate timeline that spawned the Earth-Two world of Earth-A. His gang of crooks gained powers comparable to the Justice League and also, like the Rocky Castle Gang, battled the Justice Society. These included Monk Loomis, possessing a power ring like Green Lantern's;  Bill Gore assuming the mantle of the Batman; Eddie Orson acquiring the powers of Martian Manhunter;  Barney Judson now appearing as the Atom; Ripper Jones becoming a new Superman; Race Morrison gained superspeed like the Flash. The original members of Thunder's gang were the counterparts of Castle's gang, although their Lawless clones were the counterparts to the Bizarro Justice League. 

In the main timeline, Professor Amos Fortine would form a different League (its members were: Acrobat, Crier, Cyclone, Racer, Shrinking Man, Strongman, Water King) which possessed the ability of transferring the Justice League’s powers to other people. This faux League was defeated pretty quickly, despite their seeming invincibility.

But returning to Libra, this rogue manipulated matters through his six criminal cronies to siphon the superhuman energies from Superman, Batman (?), Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Elongated Man... in much the same manner as the aforementioned Professor Egri. However, the result proved disastrous for each as their human bodies could not contain the combined six-fold energies, and they exploded/evaporated into nothingness!

And thus, a twice-told-tale intermingled in several stories but with the same conclusion!