What Has Come Before

It was nearly the end of the universe..

Years ago, in another time, the universe was one..until the machinations of a mad scientist changed that forever, causing the universe to multiply in an infinite wave of realities. These multiple realities were each slightly different from their counterparts. These other 'Earths', were known collectively as the Multiverse. They co-existed relatively peacefully together, many not even aware of the existence of the others.

In the prime universe designated Earth-1, on the moon of the planet Oa, itself the center of its universe, a creature of great power was born. He called himself the Monitor.

On another of these parallel universes called the Anti-Matter Universe, on the moon of the planet Qward, the center of that universe, a demon was born calling himself the Anti-Monitor. These two beings were unique in the Multiverse, having no counterparts in any other reality. The Anti-Monitor was a power hungry despot who quickly came to rule his universe with an iron hand. Despite conquering all he surveyed, he hungered for more.and soon learned of the existence of other realities, other universe that were ripe for the taking. He would destroy them all and absorb their energies into himself, making him the undisputed ruler of all of existence. His universe was made up of anti-matter, itself anathema to the positive matter all other realities were composed of. He used that to launch a wave of anti-matter energy into these other universes, destroying them one-by-one, growing more and more powerful as he did so.

The Monitor, connected in some way to his twisted brother, knew the twisted intentions of the Anti-Monitor and vowed to stop him and preserve life in the universe. To this end, the Monitor recruited the greatest heroes of many of the surviving Earths into an army to stop the Anti-Monitor's invasion. The Monitor succeeded in delaying the Anti-Monitor's progression, but was unable to stop it. The Monitor himself was murdered by his protégé, Harbinger, who was under the possession of the Anti-Monitor himself. The Anti-Monitor seemed on the verge of eradicating all of existence.

Before his death, the Monitor had rescued a young child that had been sent to Earth-1 from Earth-3 by his father, that world's Lex Luthor and its greatest hero. Young Alexander Luthor was taken in by the Monitor and aged at a rapid rate into adulthood. By crossing the dimensional barrier, young Alex was changed at the atomic level, becoming a being composed equally of anti-matter and positive matter. Alex was educated just as quickly by the Monitor, such that in the event of his demise, Alex and Harbinger could continue on with the war against the Anti-Monitor.

Many heroes lost their lives in the battle, including the Earth-1 Supergirl and the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen. In the end, the assembled heroes were unable to prevent the Anti-Monitor from going to the dawn of time itself and reshaping history, merging all of the previous universes back into one.

History was much different now than what was known before. The various surviving Earths had been merged into one and now history was an amalgamation of those other Earths. The Anti-Monitor had survived, however, and attacked the Earth once again. The heroes again retaliated and brought the fight to the Anti-Monitor in the still existing Anti-Matter Universe itself, thanks to Alex Luthor's ability to create a portal between the universes. The fight was bloody, but in the end the Anti-Monitor was destroyed thanks to the actions of Alex Luthor, the Golden Age Superman of Earth-2 and the Superboy of Earth-Prime. As a cataclysmic shockwave resulting from the Anti-Monitor's demise made its way to the heroes, Alex opened another portal, where it was revealed he had hidden Superman's wife Lois safely away from harm when the universes re-merged. The portal was described by Lois as 'Heaven', and was the only avenue of escape for them all. Alex was unable to create a portal back to the positive matter universe..so the heroes went to 'Heaven' just as the shockwave would have killed them all.

The new Earth created continued to have its history adjusted and corrected, leaving all of Earth's heroes with no memory of exactly just what had transpired during the events of the Crisis. Only Harbinger, Lady Quark (only survivor of Earth-5), Pariah (a scientist doomed to appear as a witness at cataclysmic events) and the deranged Psycho Pirate (who had been used as a pawn by the Anti-Monitor) retained their memories of the Crisis.

The 'Heaven' that Alex, Superman, Lois and Superboy-Prime found themselves in was a place where their every thought remade reality into their wishes. They lived there peacefully for a time..until Superboy-Prime was wracked with torment that he could never return to his own Earth and see his parents and loved ones again. The four watched into the new reality left in the wake of the Crisis with dismay as the heroes there became darker and more malevolent, the actions they would take disheartening to the four survivors. Superman (Kal-L) was distraught over the lack of action the Superman of this new reality (Kal-El) took to right the wrongs of the world. Batman was dark and vicious, Wonder Woman was a fierce and merciless warrior, the Justice League mindwiped villains they considered too dangerous..the list went on and on. This new world they had fought for was not a bright, shining example of good, but a dark and senseless travesty.

Alex Luthor agreed with this sentiment, and made a plan to remake the Earth they watched into what he called 'The Perfect Earth'. Goading Superboy-Prime into anger and grief with repeated viewings of the life he would never regain, Superboy-Prime used his incredible strength to pound on the very crystal walls that surrounded their home, the very walls of reality itself. These poundings created reality waves across time and space that subtly changed history in alarming ways..Jason Todd, the second Robin, was brought back to life while six feet under the ground..the Doom Patrol was seemingly erased from existence, replaced by a new Doom Patrol that debuted much later than their predecessors..The Legion of Super-Heroes of the 31 st Century were seemingly erased from time, replaced by another, much different Legion timeline..and many other changes were wrought, throwing reality into upheaval.

Eventually, Superboy-Prime breached the walls imprisoning them all in 'Heaven', and together with Alex, hatched a plan to create the 'Perfect Earth'. Alex, using a computer he created called the World View, assumed the identity of Lex Luthor and organized the world's villains into a Society, an army that would be ready to move at his bidding. Superboy-Prime traversed the universe, moving entire planets from their orbits. These orbital changes resulted in the center of the universe shifting from that of Oa to a location in the Polaris system, home to the planet Thanagar. Alex took control of a satellite created by Batman called Brother I and gave it artificial intelligence. Brother I would have data on all metahumans on Earth..information Alex desperately needed. Brother I's control was given to Maxwell Lord, the secret ruler of the intelligence organization Checkmate, to use in his war on metahumans, even using the technology Alex offered to create an army of OMACs (One Man Army Corps) to make normal everyday people unsuspecting troops to work at his (and also Alex's) bidding. The Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) found out about Max's plans (and unknowingly, Alex's) but was killed before he could notify anyone. Alex also used the Psycho Pirate to get Eclipso to convince the Spectre that all magic on Earth must be destroyed. The Spectre succeeded in destroying the very universal nature of magic, destroying Atlantis and killing many magical entities, including Nabu, the Lord of Order who was responsible for Dr. Fate.

In Heaven, the reality waves created by Superboy-Prime were causing Lois to fall extremely ill. Alex convinced Kal-L that if they restored Earth-2, his and Lois's original world, that she would live. Desperate for his wife's life and sickened by the dark place the world had become, he used his massive strength to break the dimensional barrier and traveled with Lois, Alex and Superboy-Prime to Earth, residing in Superman's former Fortress of Solitude. There, Alex constructed a tower from his knowledge of the Monitor's technology to use in recreating the multiverse. Now it was time to put the pieces of his plan together.

Alex, in his disguise as Lex Luthor, murdered Pariah and used the Society and Superboy-Prime to kidnap specific people whose genetic codes still retained a link to their original worlds: The Ray (formerly of Earth-X), Lady Quark (formerly of Earth-5), Breach (formerly of Earth-8), Martian Manhunter (formerly of Earth-1), Nightshade (formerly of Earth-4), Black Adam (Formerly of Earth-S) and Power Girl, Kal-L's cousin and another survivor of the first Crisis, to represent Earth-2. Together, strapped into Alex's tower, their vibrational frequencies would be used to restore the Multiverse. Alex then had the sudden energy outflow from the Spectre's destruction of magic funneled through the Brother I satellite (now calling itself Brother Eye) and broadcast to his tower. Then, as the energies were utilized by the tower, the 'new' center of the universe in the Polaris system was opened into a portal that Alex could use to reshape the Multiverse. All over the skyline of Earth, hundreds and thousands of Earths were recreated, including Earth-2. Kal-L was spirited away with Lois to Earth-2, where she died in his arms.

The Society used the sentient chemical creature Chemo like a bomb, dropping him on Bludhaven, destroying the city and turning it into a radioactive, toxic wasteland.

Superboy-Prime, disgusted with the waste that Superboy (Conner Kent), confronted Conner and began to beat him to death. Assisted by the Teen Titans, Superboy-Prime was eventually taken by the Flash (Wally West) and Kid Flash (Bart Allen, grandson of Barry Allen) into the Speed Force to contain him.

Donna Troy, long thought dead, returned with a warning from the Titans of Myth: a grave threat to all reality was coming, and it would be centered in the Polaris system. Donna came to Earth and recruited many of Earth's heroes, including Firestorm, Animal Man, Green Lantern Alan Scott, his daughter Jade, Starfire, the Outsiders, Cyborg and others. They were joined in the Polaris system by the Green Lantern Corps, Hawkman & Hawkgirl, Starman, Captain Comet and Adam Strange. Unfortunately, Jade was killed, but not before transferring her power to Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, transforming him into a much more powerful entity called Ion. Despite the planet Thanagar waging on war on Rann (believing the Rannians were behind Superboy-Prime's actions) the heroes were able to stop Alex from merging Earths 2 and 3 and killing Kal-El, Kal-L and Wonder Woman. Despite this, an energy wave erupted and scattered the heroes to whereabouts unknown..alive or dead, nobody knows.

On Earth, Batman led a team to take down the Brother Eye satellite he had created. They succeeded in shutting down the OMAC network and caused Brother Eye to crash back to Earth. In the end, Checkmate agent Sasha Bordeaux finished off Brother Eye. Checkmate itself had control assumed over it by Amanda Waller by order of the President of the United States .

The Spectre's actions were noticed by a Higher Power, and consequently he was forced to bond with another human soul, that of Crispus Allen, former detective with the Gotham City Police Force.

Nightwing and Superboy were able to stop and destroy Alex's tower (with a little help from the real Lex Luthor) and stop Alex's insane plans. The multiple Earths were then re-merged and the Earth (and its history) was made into what it was always intended to be. Superboy-Prime returned from the Speed Force, several years older and more powerful than ever, to take his revenge. Unfortunately, the destruction of the tower resulted in Conner's death.

Realizing that Alex and Superboy-Prime had been manipulating him and that they were responsible for Lois' death, Kal-L joined forces with Kal-El, Batman, Wonder Woman and others to bring a final end to Alex's insane plans. With the destruction of the tower, Alex then used his ruse as Lex Luthor to stage a worldwide jailbreak of all metahuman criminals and had them invade Metropolis. He decided that if he couldn't make his perfect Earth, then he would take this one and remake it himself. The world's heroes assembled together, led by two Supermen, and were able to defeat the villains. Superboy-Prime was attacked by the Flash (Bart Allen), also several years older and wearing his grandfather's original uniform. Superboy-Prime decided he would fly through the planet Oa, releasing its energies to start a new Big Bang, thereby creating a new universe that he could be the hero of. The two Supermen intercepted him, with the help of the Green Lantern Corps, and flew Superboy-Prime through a red sun. They landed on the planet sized Green Lantern named Mogo, where severely depowered from the red sun exposure, Superboy-Prime beat Kal-L to death. Kal-El then, despite his loss of power and exposure to Kryptonite, knocked Superboy-Prime unconscious, where Green Lanterns imprisoned him.

In the end, Superboy-Prime was imprisoned on Oa with an infant Red Sun Eater and surrounded by 50 Green Lanterns at all times. In his prison, Superboy-Prime swore he would escape as he carved the Superman symbol into his chest.

Alex Luthor escaped Metropolis, but was found and killed by the Joker, with the aid of the real Lex Luthor, who was not pleased about Alex's abuse of his identity.

Kal-L, having lost his powers from the red sun, has decided to spend more time with his wife Lois, leaving the protection of Metropolis to others..

Batman, deciding he needed time to re-evaluate his priorities again, decided to take a sabbatical with Tim Drake (Robin) and Dick Grayson (Nightwing). His thoughts are towards the future..

Wonder Woman decided to take time to see just what it is she is fighting for..

Nightwing, before leaving with Bruce, proposed marriage to Barbara Gordon, aka Oracle. Her response was..?

Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, found Star City under attack from Dr. Light and Merlyn. In the end, he saved Star City from being totally destroyed, but was himself pierced through the chest by two arrows..

Batgirl found out Lady Shiva was her mother, but was caught in a violent explosion, her condition unknown..

Catwoman confronted Gotham crime lord Black Mask, killing him with a gunshot to the head, ending the torture he had put her and others through..

Aquaman found Sub Diego under attack from the Society, but was able to turn it back with help from his allies. Now, in the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, he ponders the direction his life will take now that Atlantis is destroyed and his son Koryak is dead..

With the backlash of energy leaving many heroes unaccounted for, what are the fates of Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Captain Comet, Firestorm, Green Lantern Alan Scott, Ion, Starman, Cyborg, Starfire, the Outsiders, Donna Troy, and Supergirl?

DC Infinity begins One Year Later..so check out our new releases every week to see what has happened to the World's Greatest Heroes..and check out our weekly series 52 to see what happened in the One Year Gap!