Twice-Told-Tales: Bald Bad Boys vs Red Tornado

The Weaponers of Qward had a long-standing emnity towards inhabitants of Earth-One, seeking to invade that world using a portal that bridged the gap between the positive-matter universe of Earth with the anti-matter universe their world resided within. Seeking to conquer this planet, making it a base of operations from which to launch attacks again their rival dopplegangers, the Guardians of the Universe from the planet Oa, the Qwardians nearly succeeded thanks to their mastery of the Q-Force. This energy was other universe's correspondencing fundamental force to the emerald energy which the Guardians manifested in their reality.

A similar tale was told years earlier, when sinister scientist T.O. Morrow of Earth-One traveled to Earth-Two to plunder and conquer that world. Utilizing his time grapple and future viewer, he replicated a sentient computer which provided him with the humaniztron. This device could take inorganic material and replicate into human-like authorized beings, from which he built a subservient army of faceless androids. Among these was his greatest creation, the Red Tornado, whom Morrow implanted with the Justice Society to betray them from within. After felonious forays first of Earth-Two and soon after on Earth-One versus the Justice Society and Justice League, the latter of whom he temporarily disabled with deadly clones* of the Leaguer's romantic partners. Morrow's ultimate plan nearly came to fruition when he attempted to launch a war between both Earths with his android forces as the catalyst for this cosmic conflict.

Just as with Morrow and his menacing mechanoids, the Weaponer warlord Kaman and his fellow Qwardans’ schemes were overturned by the Red Tornado. Reddy soon revived and recruited the Justice League and Justice Society to repel the faceless armies staged in Inter-dimensional limbo, he also led the attack against the Qwardians after freeing their captive, Superman who along with Tornado helped revive their fellow Leaguers and Earths population kept comatose by Q-Energy.

As for the raw material which Morrow used as building blocks to build his amazing android army, these were fragments of Earth-One’s Meteor Crater. The Flash of Earth-Two transported this meteor to his world in order to absorb deadly radiation emitted from that world’s sun, after a comet collided with it. While the meteor located within the Meteor Crater of Earth-Two negated the radioactivity lingering in its atmosphere, a second dose was needed from the meteor’s Earth-One doppelgänger. This irradiated meteor dust would have the necessary properties for Morrow’s humaniztron to bring his synthetic creations to artificial life.

Despite having access to awesome power derived from Q-Force irradiated twin suns in Qward's Universe and from an atomic sun in the Limbo realm between universes, neither Kaman and his Weaponers nor Morrow and his androids triumphed. While most of these adversarial androids were evidentially left behind in the Atlantis of Earth-Two, the 1279 Qwardians now on Earth-One made a new home within the Australian outback of Earth-One, in a secluded village named New Qward.

* Morrow used his Futurenergy to create energy duplicates of five friends (Steve Trevor, Jean Loring, Shayera "Hawkgirl" Hol, Midge and Mera Curry) and one foe (Doctor Light) of the League, while Per Degaton's time machine created six temporal duplicates of the Society's old foes (Per Degaton, Wotan, Professor Zodiak, King Bee, Monster and Sky Pirate) from 1948 in 1941. The original friends and foes of these heroes existed separate and simultaneous to their "chronal-clones" on these occasions.

Dawn of the Guardians of a Universe & the Multiverse

Ten billion years ago, in the positive matter universe that spawned a multiverse, a battle ensued between those who would become protectors and those who would become predators. The Maltusians who migrated from their native world to the planet Oa found their world invaded by strange super-powered humanoid.

These colorful criminals were supervillains, sent into their past to prevent the rogue Oan scientist known as Krona from peering back to the dawn of creation, which would inadvertently unleashed a wave of evil upon his realm, which would also duplicated his own universe an infinite number of times… giving birth to the sinister anti-matter universe. Within that reverse reality, a correlating world known as Qward mirrored that of Oa.

Those seeds of evil were first implanted by the presence of supervillains from Earths One, Two, Four and S, as well as from the universe where the most powerful of their number originated. That being,  Maaldor, had consumed his universe in order to achieve this power, and so his presence in Krona’s laboratory was a building block towards forming the Multiverse. And undoubtedly, the Earth-One Mirror Master and Earth-Two Icicle (who were also in this lab) provided the necessary ingredient with their two distinct vibratory frequencies matching those of their native Earths, which would henceforth link those two worlds.

Additionally, this conflict with both Krona and the villains led the immortal Oans into becoming the Guardians of the Earth-One Universe, which sharing their emerald enemies with neighboring universes to protect them from these same threats.

However, one such threat was the Guardian’s own counterparts the Buddak, who through their intermediary Creator2 attempted to refashion Earth-Two into their universe’s version of Oa. Attempting to do so by unleashing the interconnectivity of that world and Earth-One, they apparently pieced together this symbiotic nature between both parallel planets. Perhaps this was thanks to one of their number… their version of Krona…having mentally connected with Kent “Doctor Fate” Nelson who had experience with this through several cross-dimensional Crisis he dealt with alongside his Justice Society teammates and Justice League allies.

The Mysterious Earth of the Anti-Matter Universe

When the rogue scientist from Malthus, Krona, unleashed a wave of energy across his universe, an infinite number of additional positive matter universes and a single anti-matter universe were formed. Just as that sole realm had the planet Qward in the center of the Anti-Matter universe, so too existed planet Oa within the universe of Earth-One, where some of Krona’s fellow Maltusians became the Guardians of the Universe.

Elsewhere in the anti-matter universe of Qward, there existed a corresponding Earth, only there instead of just humans, a different life form existed on that world… Stone Giants! After six stone scientists detonated a cobalt bomb simultaneous to the nuclear bomb detonated by humans on Earth-One, the fabric of realty began to tear between both universes. To prevent the twin Earths from merging, the stone giants took destructive action against Central City, Brasilia and Tokyo, which the Justice League then protected. 

Eventually the League and the "untouchable aliens" (a side effect the giants experienced from the radiation exposure) communicated and together prevented their parallel planets from merging. Both teams returned to their native dimensions, never again meeting despite League members encountering the Thunderers of Qward time and time throughout the years. Unlike the residents of Qward, the residents of anti-matter Earth were not intrinsically evil merely inquisitive.

This makes some sense, however, as the majority of these Giants’ counterparts in the positive matter universes were inherently malicious towards humanity. This was certainly true of the Sand-Beings on Earth-Two, who were a minority who opposed mankind by creating a destructive weapons against them. Then there were the inhuman variants on Earth-One known as the Metamorphs. Of these, only Earth-One's Metamorpho (and Element Girl) and Earth-Two's Sandy the Silicon Creature had heroic dispositions.

Interestingly, a creature known as Quarrmer or the “Sand Superman”  was spawned when an experimental Kryptonite-powered reactor experienced a nuclear meltdown. While attempting to avert a disaster, Superman inadvertently irradiated some sand which an energy-based creature molded into a duplicate body. Syphoning off some of Superman's powers, this Quarrmer gained control of his body, transforming it into a silicon-carbon hybrid. 

Revealing himself to having originated in the "dimension of Quarm", he entered into the Earth-One universe which a breach in the dimensional wall caused by the reaction meltdown allowing the entity to enter the human's world. Once realizing that Quarrmer could not coexist in the same realm alongside a counterpart with an "opposite charge" molecularly, he returned to his own universe.

Shortly thereafter, the immortal Martian known as Karmang enlisted the aid of both Quarrmer and Black Adam with the intent of having each of them impersonate their foes, Superman and Captain Marvel. Seeking to use these pawns to incite a conflict that would merge and then destroy Earth-One and Earth-S, in a misguided attempt to revive Karmang's long-lost people, instead Quarrmer aided the heroes in repelling this threat from both Earths. While last seen on Earth-S, it is logical that Quarrmer would have returned to either Quarrm, unless the dimensional rift was closed following this encounter. If so, this Sand Superman would be trapped on Earth-S forevermore!

Qward the Antimatter Universe: Weaponers VS Guardians

Among the infinite number of universes throughout the Multiverse, the most distinct would be the sole Antimatter Universe. This realm, unlike its positive univers counterparts, was based on evil rather than good being the dominant philosophy. While Earth-Three had supervillians taking the role of superheroes on other parallel planets, there was still an underlying goodness in that universe. However, the core world in the center of this distinct dimension was the reason why its view of what is noble had been distorted.

As Oa was the planet in the center of the Earth-One universe, Qward was the world correspondening to it in the Antimatter Universe. Other positive universes had other objects at their center, such as on Earth-Two there was the Starheart spawned by the Oans that contained energies they could not control, and on Earth-S there was the Rock of Eternity which functioned at the center of time and space.

The race that developed on Qward that mirrored the Guardians on Oa were the Weaponers. This militaristic society dispatched their minions such as the Destroyers and the Thunderers throughout their universe, to subjegate all its worlds. As such, the Weaponers race grew and expanded at the cost to other life forms in their plane of existence, while the Guardians of the Universe were only  a small minority that remained from the ancient Malthusian race they descended from aeons earlier. 

This explains why the Guardians enlisted the aid of 3600 members from diverse species to join their Green Lantern Corps, yet still together the Corps and their masters were outnumbers by the Weaponers. The vast majority of humanoids on Qward were unaffiliated yet compliant with the ruling elite that exercised absolute authority over them.

Yet despite all their technological advances, none of these were sufficient enough for them to overcome their opponents in the Earth-One universe, and later when they face Earth-Two's heroes during the Convergence event. Their staunchest modern day threat was the Green Lantern named Hal Jordan, with their most recurrent confederate being former Green Lantern Sinestro, who always lost to Jordan.

Q-Energy: Mysterious Radiation from Another Universe

Kryptonite is the most harmful substance a superhumanly powered Kryptonian can encounter, as extended exposure to it can be fatal. However, this is not the only deadly radiation that can cripple a Superman. There is also... Q-Energy!

The Superman of Earth-One first encountered Q-Energy in February 1968, shortly after a prominent scientist named Lorraine Lewis discovered it. She had on three separate occasions tried to assist the man whom she secretly loved, Superman, using her intelligence and her inventions. However, each time, it was three other women with double L initials... Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris... who ultimately helped him and outshined Lorraine. Seeking revenge, she devised a trap harnessing the Q-Energy that would kill Superman, although this backfired as he escaped... and it killed her instead.

However, when explaining this mysterious radiation to Superman, Lewis said that it came from "another dimensional universe". And a few years later, some agents sent by the Weaponers of Qward from the Anti-Matter Universe used weapons charged with Q-Energy to immobilize Superman, and then use him as a conduit to mentally mesmerize the entire population of Earth-One in order to control and colonize it. Thankfully, the android Red Tornado proved immune to this energy, and destroyed Qward's device freeing humanity. During this encounter, Kaman who led the Weaponers, was curious as to why Tornado was immune to it. Part of this was due to his android nature, part due to his origin.

Red Tornado originated in the Earth-Two universe, having crossed over to Earth-One while saving the world of his "birth". Interestingly, another resident from his universe, Princess Ramia of the planet Myrg, possessed this energy. Ramia brought Q-Energy with her in June 1966 to Earth-One, while being pursued by her tyranical suitor Prince Peril, using it to enable Doiby Dickle's cab Goitrude to fly. Ramia, Doiby and Peril returned to Earth-Two's universe... with the latter defeated by the Green Lanterns of both Earths... while the former two ended up marrying. However, some of Ramia's Q-Energy remained on Earth-One*, later discovered first by Lorraine. Meanwhile, Kaman’s technicians on Qward harnessed a version of Q-Energy in their universe to empower the Thunderers’ Qwa-Bolts..

Q-Energy's properties include, but are not limited to: anti-gravity or flying, mind-control, potent energy blasts. It seems this may be the Earth-Two universe's equivalent to the emerald energy harnessed by the Guardians of the Universe and their Green Lantern Corps... a portion of which they sent to Earth-Two's universe to stabilize this subsection of the multiverse. It seems, that the Q-Energy arriving from Earth-Two to Earth-One helped rebalance both universes... as each had the others' energy**. As would the Anti-Matter universe of Qward.

* After the taxi cab Goitrude was injected with Q-Energy by Ramia, the energized form of Sinestro entered the taxi and absorbed the energy from it. Sinestro was then restored to his physical form and became a carrier of the energy, spreading it both throughout Earth-One’s plane of existence and that of Qward’s, where he periodically returned to on occasion. 

This was prior to the time when two warring alien races used Q-Energy on Superman, and shortly thereafter when the Qwardians’ invasion of Earth-One which Red Tornado thwarted in 1978. It may be that, due to the prevelance of alternate emerald energy from Earth-One's universe sent by the Guardians, this surpressed the amount of Q-Energy present in the Earth-Two universe where it originated.

** Q-Energy also existed in Existence Level 24 in the 86th planet known as Gobdor which like Earth-Two was in a parallel dimensional plane to that of Earth-One. A tele-vis director used a device to manipulate this energy against the Flash of Earth-One, controlling molecular bonds in water and causing the speedster to become super-heavy. Similarly, the Thinker and later Vandal Savage used a heavy ray device versus his arch-enemy, the Flash of Earth-Two. Undoubtedly, this was most probably powered by Q-Energy. As for the Earth-One Flash being a carrier of Q-Energy prior to Princess Ramia's appearance on Earth-One, this seems improbable as the Scarlet Speedster had complete control over his molecules, and returned to normal following his encounter with the Gobdor people.

The Master Plan of the Buddak OR Mirror-Mirror Guardians

In August of 1970, the oldest alien entities of a distant galaxy apparently enlisted the aid of a master builder known as Creator2 into creating a planet to become the center of their universe. In order to do this, they would have to destroy the world where it was located and in its place create a replica of the planet Oa in the Earth-One* positive matter universe, and the planet Qward in the Anti-Matter universe. And that doomed world was Earth-Two!

In order to perform this dastardly deed, after determining that its denizens weren't worthy of continued existence, Creator2 captured and converted the android Red Tornado... making him a focal point to merge Earth-Two with its closest cosmic counterpart, Earth-One. This was possible because Red Tornado was a being of two universes, his android exterior and programming spawned from Earth-Two, and his inner cyclonic being and personality were from Earth-One's dimension.

With the two Earths occupying the same space in Earth-Two's universe, both would be destroyed. The resulting material and energy unleashed from this explosion would be the elements that Creator2 could use to create a Oa/Qward twin. The Justice Society thwarted this scheme, with Creator2 and his pawns perishing instead. Instrumental in their defeat and his world's preservation was Doctor Fate, and he could soon have to once more defend it when the aliens behind this amoral act appeared to finish the job...

In December 1971, those aliens known as the Buddak came to Earth-Two in order to complete their servant Creator2’s task. Unleashing their powers, on par with those of their counterparts the Guardians of Earth-One's Universe, the Buddak unleashed natural disasters and other climatic events including the shifting of continents. Yet before they could redesign Earth-Two into another Oa or Qward, Superman and Doctor Fate intervened and stopped them.

Sometime later, Darkseid of the planet Apokolips attempted to shift his world from Earth-One's universe to where Earth-Two was located... thus bringing it into the center of that universe as its own version of Oa which he could rule. Many years later, during a possible future after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superboy of Earth-Prime and Alex Luthor of Earth-Three temporarily shifted the new sole universe so that instead of Oa, the space where Earth-Two had been now the center of the universe...to restore the Multiverse.

* The Weaponers of Qward created a bridge from their planet, at the center of the Anti-Matter Universe, to an alternative world to Oa to the center of the prime positive-matter universe, that being Earth-One. This space bridge would be used repeatedly by Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern and others from time to time.

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....

Twice-Told-Tales: Invaders from Another Universe Redux

Stop us if you've heard this before. So there is an invasion force that arrives from another universe, gleaming in golden armor, seeking to plunder Earth of its resources and gain dominance over those whom they view as inferior. This scenario in fact played out twice, on Earths One and Two. Here's how it played out.

The Dronndarians enlisted the aid of Two-Face to purchase pure energy from them, which was a scam in order to siphon deadly energies from their native universe into Earth-One's realm in order to save their world and all they knew. Inhabiting the statutes of Napoleon, Julius Caesar and Benjamin Franklin, the trio from Dronndaria thought a greedy criminal like Two-Face would jump at the chance of such power. However, the felon realized the threat this posed to his world and sought the help of the Justice League of America. Side-by-side, this unlikely alliance was able to overturn the nefarious scheme, thereby returning to their native universe only to transform into beings of pure energy as they were actually supposed to become.

On another dimensional plane decades prior, Earth-Two was being invaded by gold plated men disguised as circus performers that were in fact raiding that world of its precious iron. Investigating a series of weird crimes by alleged metallic men following a tip by a reporter of the Boston Globe named Benson, the Justice Society of America were stunned to learn that the told plating was the natural skin of the thieves. Confronting their leader Aurikon and his minions, the Society were soon overpowered. Seeing the means of the Golden Men's escape, the Society decided to follow them.

When they awoke, they found themselves on what seemed to be a caterpillar shaped ride that turned out to be a dimensional transport device, which brought them to the Golden Universe that their adversaries originated from, known as Xenca.

As to the Justice League, after their victory versus the Dronndarians it turns out that their former foes' secret allies were the Weaponers of Qward from the Anti-Matter Universe, old adversaries of the Green Lantern and his Guardian seers. Exploiting the situation while enlisting the help of Two-Face, who felt betrayed when the League repaid his help by returning him to Arkham Asylum. They may well regret that decision.

Sneaking up on Lantern and then recruiting Two-Face, who this time acts out of vengeance towards the League, the Thunderers of Qward stealthily task their new ally with implanting devices upon each Leaguer. Their goal, was to destroy the positive matter universe that the Anti-Matter Weaponers of Qward view as their chief rival.  Yet despite this crafty maneuver, the Qwardians were still thwarted when the League got wise to this ploy and defeated these golden goons. And for all his troubles, Two-Face was once more deposited in Arkham Asylum.

And to finish up the tale of the Society in the Golden Universe, we pick up when the Society are revived by that world's queen Myrla and her men, after which they quickly inform her of her half-brother Aurikon's thefts. Turns out that the iron from Earth-Two is needed in order to power large robots that have lied dormant during 1000 years of peaceful relations on Xenca. Craving power, Aurikon and his forces felt this was the means by which they could seize control of their world, perhaps even their entire universe. Splitting off into teams, the Society like their League counterparts were quickly able to deduce their enemies' plans and quickly overturn them.  After defeated Aurikon and his forces, the team returned to their native universe.

While Qward had a dimensional access point to Earth-One, apparently Xenca had something similar with Earth-Two. And just as Qward's Anti-Matter Universe was in direct opposition, due to the laws of physics, to that of the positive matter universes... so to was the Golden Universe in direct opposition to the nature of the carbon-based universes. However. while Qward would continue to grow into being a cesspool of despotism, Xenca would maintain its known attribute as a beacon of civil society.