Twice-Told-Tales: Angry Angor Allies Aggressively Attack

In 1971, The Champions of Angor traced a rogue robot that attacked their planet back to its home world of Cam-Lam-Lo, they inadvertently became adversaries of the visiting Justice League of America. Cam-Lam-Lo was racked with war from opposing sides spawning vehicles and weapons of destruction. Three members of the League and a friend had earlier faced a gigantic mech which attacked the county of Peru on Earth-One, and temporarily inflicted insanity upon fellow Leaguers Batman and Hawkman. 

After tackling the robot using android duplicates of the heroes, Green Lantern along with fellow members the Flash and the Atom as well as honorary associate Zatanna traveled to the origin point of their automaton aggressor. Initially the Leaguers found stiff opposition with the Champion’s evasive super-speedster, a bad-tempered bald-man, an avian winged warrior, and a caped yellow-and-red garbed matter-manipulating maiden. The two teams eventually mended the rift between them, and combined to defeat their mutual foe.

In 1968, an evil entity traveled to Earth-Two and empowered a youth with vast abilities, in order to destroy that world. This being previously invaded the Cam-Lam-Lo of that universe, that like its counterpart planet was racked with war from opposing sides spawning vehicles and weapons of destruction. In order to combat this threat, the Justice Society member known as the Spectre confronted a make-shift team including an evasive swift-stripling, a bad-tempered bald-man, an aircraft winged warrior, and a caped yellow-and-free Roman gladiator.

Along with his duplicate, the Spectre was able to subdue the trifecta of terror, preventing his world from having the same eventuality as Cam-Lam-Lo itself. The lad Hamilton Benedict returned to normal, his sinister puppeteer faded from existence, and the gladiator himself vanished back to whence he came.

While Hamilton and his allies attacked the Gateway City of Earth-Two, such a threat wasn't lodged against its corresponding counterpart Coast City of Earth-One by either Cam-Lam-Lao nor the Angorians. 

However, this tale highlights remarkably similar threats that those cities' champions Green Lantern and Spectre encountered. A few of these were the red-skinned devious deviants of other dimensions known as Lord Ys (when Green Lantern first met Zatanna) and Azmodus (when Spectre first returned in the 1960s) which attempted to invade each Earth. Then there was the similarly clad Invisible Destroyer and Sad Jack the Mastermind who met Lantern and Spectre.

Hidden Hemispheres of Hyperspace

Hyperspace is defined as four or more dimensions folded upon itself, creating a multi-dimensional universal plane of existence. 

On one occasion, four Krptonian prisoners of the Phantom Zone discovered the means to reach a planet with unusual properties in an adjacent dimension they also labeled an "alternate universe"*. From this world, they launched deadly robotic Anachroids to wreak havok in space and time, until the Superman and Flash of Earth-One tracked them to their source and defeated these creatures and their masters. This trans-dimensional world may have been the same as Rokyn, where the Kandorians resided once Superman and Supergirl enlarged them.

This world had a counterpart in an "alternate universe"* of Earth-Two, a psuedo-Pluto which the Spectre had been exiled to, wherein the inhabitants spoke a language derived from that of the Andromedan Galaxy, the same galaxy where Krypton once resided! Could these have been long lost Kryptonian refugees? The domed city on this Pluto mirrored the once bottled city of Kandor. After quelling a civil war, Spectre later returned to this world, exiling Nazi agents there, no doubt out of revenge for their treatment of he and his Justice Society allies.

In face, six of his Justice Society colleagues had been simultaneously captured and also exiled into hyperspace via experimental rocketships by enemy Nazi agents. Hawkman was sent to a Saturn-like world named Arkania, a militant people like those of the extra-dimensional world Llorth, whom the Earth-One Hawkman once encountered. Later, the younger Hawkman traveled on twice through another dimensional warp to the world of Illoral, a mirror image of the Wingworld that Wonder Woman of the Justice Society visited more than once. Queen Desira and her daughter Princess Eve of Wingworld had counterparts in Dwyanna Ral of Llorth and Queen Maya of Floria.

The Atom of Earth-One and Doctor Mid-Nite of Earth-Two likewise visited other-dimensional worlds in Floria and Faux-Neptune (the Atom of Earth-Two visited a hyperspacial version of Mars like that of Mars II settled by the Martian Manhunter and his people in Earth-One's universe). 

Fellow Justice Society members Starman and Sandman visited worlds resembling Jupiter and Uranus with strange substance sentients as had the Metal Men of Earth-One , such as the alien Robot-spider Queen and minions of Metalus 5. Jimmy Olsen of Earth-One and Johnny Thunder of Earth-Two likewise ventured to alien dimensions on the same occasions as their peers Superman and Spectre above.

* The term "alternate universe" used for worlds visited by the individual Justice Leaguers and Justice Socialites as mentioned is different from that of planets in a "parallel universe". The alternate universe simply means an adjacent dimension attached to either the Earth-One or Earth-Two universe, respectively.

Twice-Told-Tales: Danger - Dinosaurs at Large!

It is the summer of 1977 on Earth-One, and the summer of 1968 on Earth-Two. Each world finds themselves plagued by disturbances in time, with humans shifted from the centuries they were born into past eras, with monsterous dinosaurs taking their place in the 20th century. The cause for these odd occurences on parallel worlds is due to green caped time-masters wearing white masks, genetically modified opponents they must face, and cosmic radiation due to celestrial objects. These three factors conspire into strange tales.

On Earth-Two, the villian known as Psycho-Pirate secretly manipulates a fallen felon named Gat Benson, using remnants of the green Starheart meteor to transform him into a giant. Causing terror due to both his appearance and radiation he emits, Gat attracts the attention of the Justice Society charter member known as the Spectre. 

While attempting to use time-suspension and altering time cycles in order to calm an anxious crowd, Spectre inadvertently teleports some citizens of Gateway City to America' colonial era and prehistoric era. While attempting to retrieve these innocents, he exposed some of them to predactory pterodactyls and draws a tyrannosaurus rex back to the present. After battling the beast, Spectre returns it to its era.

On Earth-One, the villian known as Chronos secretly used his temporal technology to retrieve a comet from the future, a comet with special powers over time. Inadvertently, the comet is pulled along with it the crew of future Colonel Tommy Tomorrow into a prehistoric era, where they faced predactory pterodactyls and a tyrannosaurus rex that mutated into the humanoid Tyranno Rex. 

While using his vessel to transport his crew and the comet through a portal back to the future, they end up meeting Captain Comet. As an honorary member of the Justice League, he was working with other Leaguers to subdue the time-displaced dinosaurs. When Tomorrow's vessel arrives in the 20th century, in includes a stowaway in Tyrano Rex, seeking to reclaim the comet. During a battle with Captain Comet and Chronos, Rex in transformed back into a T-Rex, then sent back to its own time.

The villains, Psycho-Pirate and Chronos, are each brought to justice by the heroes with the help of Tommy Tomorrow and Jim Corrigan. While the green meteor globe on Earth-Two is dropped and thus smashed to pieces, the comet is destroyed as well. The Globe was tied to Earth-Two's Green Lantern and his power source, while the comet quite possibly was the Earth-One version of the comet that Lantern's old foe Vandal Savage gained his immortality from centuries earlier on his native world. And while their schemes with these extraterrestrial objects failed, Chronos and Psycho-Pirate would extract from this situation the means to gain greater manipulations over that which they craved. For Chronos, actual time travel that he would use versus the World's Finest Team of Superman and Batman, and for Psycho-Pirate, control over the emerald energy of the meteor through Green Lantern.

Crisis on Earth-Prime: Bat-Mite and Ultraa

Bat-Mite left Earth-One for Earth-Prime in an attempt the gain more notoriety using the production staff at DC Comics. After this caper, he disappeared never returning to Earth-One's dimension. While his counterpart, the Thunderbolt of Earth-Two, remained on that world... Mite's presence in his home universe was compensated by another powerhouse. Who might this be?

It was Ultraa aka Jack Grey, the sole superhero of Earth-Prime, who first encountered the Justice League when that team accidentally entered that universe. After these costumed crusaders together defeated a computer entity from Grey's homeworld, the League departed back to Earth-One. What they did not know was that they were being followed by the young hero.

Determined not to infect Earth-Prime with what he deemed a plague of super-powered threats there, Ultraa journeyed to Earth-One in order to reverse the trend there as well. Using alien technology, Ultraa depowered the League but errantly gave those stolen energies to the team's rivals in the Injustice Gang. Eventually, the heroes were able to defeat their foes, and imprisoned Ultraa. However, he would escape and twice more battle the League before retiring to the solitude of his new Earth's Australia, similar to where he had been raised as a boy.

Another resident of Earth-Prime, writer Cary Bates, briefly operated on Earth-Two as a pawn of the Injustice Society. Once his fellow author Elliott S. Maggin along with the Justice Society and visiting Justice League defeated the supervillains, Bates and Maggin returned to Earth-Prime.

Interestingly, around the same time Bat-Mite left the Earth-One universe, his counterpart Spectre migrated from his native Earth-Two universe to Earth-One. This occurred following the Justice Society’s battle with Creator2. When he next reappeared, Spectre was now residing on Earth-One. This Spectre could divide in two, which correlated with Batman Family pests Bat-Mite and the sinister alter ego of Batman’s butler Alfred Pennyworth, known as the Outsider.

However, another Spectre from the post-Crisis Earth journeyed to Earth-Two in 1945, and there remained aiding the Justice Society in the artificially created Asgard. And so, both Earths One and Two each had a Spectre remaining on both planets through the 1970s.

Battle for the Cowl: The Alfreds - Pennyworth and Beagle

The right-hand men of the Batmen were the given name for two men with different surnames, different body types, yet similar integrity and devotion to their duties. While both men had nieces, Pennyworth's named Daphne, Beagle's named Valerie. Beagle never had a daughter while Pennyworth had one, Julia, through Marie.

Alfred Pennyworth of Earth-One served in World War II, while Alfred Beagle service in World War I. Both were field medics and intelligent agents for the Allied forces, yet while Pennyworth met Mademoiselle Marie during the war, Beagle never met her equally famous counterpart who was in Europe while he was already in Wayne Manor.

Both met Bruce Wayne and his ward Dick Grayson, and as their butler learned of their alter egos, becoming trusted companions to the pair. Pennyworth was always fit, Beagle had to go to a weight loss resort to trim down to his more familiar size. However, Pennyworth's health quickly declined upon encountering the Tri-State Gang, and only thanks to the timely intervention of a scientist revived Alfred. However, the formerly good-natured man turned evil as the powerful Outsider until ultimately cured and reverting to his natural self. This being would be counterpart to Earth-Two's Spectre.

On previous occasion, both Alfreds substituted for the Batman when the Dark Knights’ secret identity needed to appear side-by-side with his costumed alias. Another time, Pennyworth gained temporary superpowers though this time as the heroic Eagle. Beagle never gained powers, although Earth-Two's young Mr. Grayson had gained a temporary adult body and became Owlman.

However, the formerly good-natured man turned evil as the powerful Outsider until ultimately cured and reverting to his natural self. This being would be one of the counterparts to Earth-Two's Spectre. When that world's Jim Corrigan also seemingly died but was soon revived, he gained awesome powers although unlike the Outsider, the Spectre used his powers for good as a member of the Justice Society of America.

The other counterpart of Spectre was Bat-Mite, with both beings possessing similar powers and having previously resided in alternate dimensions. During a period when the Outsider laid dormant, Spectre migrated to Earth-One to aid that world's Jim Corrigan before ultimately returning to Earth-Two and becoming dormant himself during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Each had massive mind over matter and transmutation abilities. Spectre filled a founding membership in the  Justice Society similar to that of the Martian Manhunter in the Justice League (the Manhunter's doppleganger Roh Kar was not a member of the JSA just as Outsider wasn't member of the JLA).

And in August 1966, an experimental cosmic scanning device designed by research assistant Enrichetta Negrini opened a rift in the dimensional fabric between the universes of her world, Earth-One, and the neighboring realm of Earth-Two. As the two worlds began to merge into one, Spectre traveled to the buffer dimension between both to stall their approach towards assimilation. While there, he encountered his counterpart from the Anti-Matter Universe of Qward.

This entity, known as Anti-Matter Man, like the Spectre(s) of Earth-Two as well as Bat-Mite and Outsider of Earth-One, had a dual nature, and similar reality bending abilities. With the aid of his Justice Society allies as well as the Justice League, Spectre was able to shunt Anti-Matter Man back into his native reality.

While his planet of origin wasn’t identified, it is most likely given to his proximity to the twin Earths and the native worlds of his doppelgängers that Anti-Matter Man originated from the Universe of Qward. He may have already been made aware of these other universes from an earlier encounter between the Justice League and the stone giant scientists from Anti-Matter Earth. Whether his powers were innate or caused by a catalyst as that which transformed Alfred Pennyworth is indeterminate. His lack of humanity and compassion, however, seems to indicate this is his true nature since his point of creation.

Thunderbolts, Water Sprites, and Imps

Not all super-beings on Earth are in fact grounded in three-dimensional reality. Some visitors from other dimensions have had influence on the Earths. Such was the case with Mister Mxyzptlk and Mister Mxyztplk from the 5th dimensional realms adjacent  to Earths One and Two, who were persistent pests of their universes' Supermen throughout the years. However, they were only two of the many like powered interdimensional beings invading the Earths' realm, at time indiscriminately using their reality altering abilities.

Bat-Mite's real name and that of his native dimension are unknown. He was more of a hindrance then a help for Batman, although he claimed to be the hero's biggest fan. As such, Bat-Mite would repeatedly concoct various threats that would test the mettle of Batman and Robin, with the Dynamic Duo each time rising to the challenge. Over time, he would also encounter Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Superman  and Supergirl, as well as fellow mighty mite Mister Mxyzptlk whom he had an adversarial relationship with. Eventually, Bat-Mite left Earth-One, migrating to Earth-Prime in an attempt to gain greater fame and recognition.

His counterpart was the Spectre that appeared on Earth-Two. This Spectre animated a wooden ventriloquist doll known as the Dummy, which eventually adopted the persona of a human villain also known as the Dummy. This malevolent midget would like Bat-Mite torment a caped crusader of Gotham City, only in his case it was the Green Lantern born Alan Scott rather than his fellow Justice Society teammate Batman. This synthetic Dummy ceased to exist when the original Spectre disappears for twenty years, starting in 1945 (and would be replaced by a Spectre from a post-Crisis Earth, now residing in the dimension of Asgard).

By the 1960s, while threatened by an evil in space, Spectre split off these two personas temporarily. These twin Earth-Two Spectres were themselves twisted reflections of their Earth-One doppelgängers (with the former Dummy clone now good) of Bat-Mite and Alfred Pennyworth’s evil alter ego Outsider.. Both Spectres as well as Bat-Mite and the Outsider had impact on the lives of their worlds’ Batmen. The original Spectre eventually migrated to Earth-One, around the time that the Outsider ceased to exist when Alfred was restored to normalcy. Both Outsider and Spectre would reappear on Earths One and Two respectively on a couple occasions.

As incompetent as Bat-Mite was, he was a savant compared to King Brpxz. This monarch had childlike intellect and was a puppet ruler which his court jester Mister Mxyztplk bossed around. Given his jester's amusing games, the king was content with leaving affairs of state with this troublesome minion. Several years later, Superman and Lois once more encountered Brpxz, who was still not cognizant of his surroundings, much when they met him the first time. 

For a time, Brpxz’s rule was usurped by a much more adversarial king who attempted to wed Mxyztplk to his ugly daughter Princess Bgbznz. This obese king found a corresponding counterpart in Judge Grlprzr, who similarly tried to meddle in the affairs of Mxyzptlk and his betrothed Miss Bgbznz. 

When Miss Bgbznz was exposed, the marriage was annulled, although the Judge officiating the proceedings later confirmed the marital union was still in effect. However, when a vengeful Mxyzptlk (now merged with the consciousness of the Phantom Zone) laid waste to his home world, it is safe to assume that this ended his wedded bonds with her. But that’s a tale left to be told for another time.

Eventually, Brpxz regained his undeserved rulership. However, this King wasn’t a factor in the Earth-Two lives of Superman and his friends, as was his counterpart Miss Gzptlsnz during her handful of appearances over in Earth-One's universe.

Miss Gzptlsnz was the ex-girlfriend of Mister Mxyzptlk, who first met Lois Lane and then became infatuated with the Jimmy Olsen of Earth-One. Due to her unwanted affection, Jimmy was transformed into a wolf-man and later a human porcupine.

When Gzptlsnz returned to her home dimension each time, the effects of these transformations would ware off. She even went so far as to the disrupt the wedding of Olsen and Lucy Lane, which led to a duel between Gzptlsnz and a like powered woman named Rona of the 7th dimension. This conflict caused the bride into backing out of marriage to Jimmy, given the loony alien women in his life.

Thunderbolt went by the name Archibald with his imitate family being his wife Mildred and son Shocko. Indentured into the service of Johnny Thunder, Thunderbolt had to obey Johnny’s commands when prefaced with the keyword "Cei-U" gained through an ancient Badhnesian belt. While the Thinderbolt family of Archibald, Mildred and Shocko aided humanity, their counterparts were arch-foes of mankind. This trio of brothers, Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast, were among the most dangerous of foes for the Justice League of America. On one adventure in the 30th century, these three powerful tyrants battled the League, the Society and the Legion of Super-Heroes nearly to a standstill.. until the three teams turned brother against brother against brother.

While Thunderbolt visited Earth-One on occasion when the evil Johnny Thunder of that world took control of him temporarily and battled the Society and the League, he mainly operated on his master Johnny's Earth-Two (which his own dimension was attached to), and became an unofficial member of the Justice Society throughout both its golden age years and when it was revived in modern times.

There were other Thunderbolts like Mazda, Ampere and Uncle ReVolting existing in Earth-Two's universe... who would their corresponding life forms be? Well, Aquaman of Earth-One met Quisp, Quink, Quirk and other Water Sprites, themselves elemental life forms. These creatures were often benevolent while occasionally malevolent, but did not appear quite as often as had the Mite and T-Bolt. Nevertheless, their abilities matched those of their more famous peers, as they were not only were capable of emitting awesome arrays of energy, but could create matter into various forms limited only by their own imagination! 

Indeed, similar powerful beings originated from the same universe as the Supermen's foes Mister Mxyzptlk and Mister Mxyztplk of Earths One and Two, as has been established as an actual fact in this retrospective.

When the Multiverse Became a Universe

The presence of a 30th century Legion of Super-Heroes who never met nor knew of a Justice Society of America, and a parallel planet's 30th century that had to recruit the same Society to act as their own Legion to defeat invade Chameleons, highlights that there were two different outcomes to the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The one published over the past few decades was a composite Earth, however the one we will consider is the past, present and future of various Earths.

The point at which history diverged in undoubtedly the influence of Spectre at the alleged dawn of creation, when he interfered with the Anti-Monitor's scheme to bring about the birth of that which he would later consume. Had Spectre not had the power nor circumstances to do this at the last possible moment, the Multiverse would have continued and the Anti-Monitor would have been dispersed into his own realm once more.