DC comics... I see what you did there

So I kind of poo-pooed the DC Comics "Earth 2" concept when they first started it because I felt that they'd just cleaned up the metaverse. But now I think I understand what they're doing. First, some comics history. DC comics has had two "major" super hero teams. The Justice League and the Justice Society. These two teams were actually the primary source for the major continuity "kerfluffles" that DC has had. The Justice Society had different members and spanned a period starting with the 2nd World War. So on the one hand, it should be easy to hand wave them away as "different" people. And this works for the Flash and Green Lantern. Their powers were different. Their names were different. All in all, not a big deal. But you run into problems when both teams have a Kal-el who's from Krypton and now goes as Superman or both have a vigilante Batman whose real name is Bruce Wayne. And the one from the Justice Society (the team with the older / longer history) was already old at that time (which in his hair, for example). So either we come up with some convoluted way to de-age superman in the 70's, send him back into space to re-land as a baby and grow up. Or we create a separate universe where he came to Earth sooner.

So that's the history of this issue. Fast forward to today's reboot. DC has rebooted the DC universe and the Justice League. They've stripped down the League to the core members of old (Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman) and added Cyborg for reasons that are not entirely clear. But where does that leave the old guard? What about that OTHER Green Lantern? What about Hawk Woman? The Atom? Mr. Terrific? Those characters don't have a place now. Sure, we could create a "retro" story for them and push them to World War II. But that probably wouldn't sell well. People tend to want to save retro things for small doses of flashback. Not to mention, having two Green Lanterns floating around with different Mythos would be a little weird (Why is this guy calling himself Green Lantern? Sure it works with his powers but there's ALREADY a Green Lantern).

Instead, they've chosen to do "Earth-2". This is a universe designed to be concurrent with the DC main timeline and "main" universe. But it lets them recreate the Justice Society as they want it. I think you'll see very few "identical" characters from the Justice League after these first two (Flash and Green Lantern). They've already brought Mr. Terrific over to that timeline. I suspect you'll see Dr. Midnite before too long and we know that Power Girl and the Huntress are trying to get back (I suspect they will within the next 5-6 months at which point they'll role into the Justice Society and Worlds' Finest will become a story about someone else on Earth-2). At some point, we'll likely see Dr. Fate, Sandman and likely some others as part of this reboot.

It also gives them a safety valve for future continuity snafus. They can always say that a certain story has actually been on Earth-2 and not Earth-1 if they find themselves in a bind. Having established early on that they're different, it could make things smoother going forward.

I still don't think it's necessarily the best solution. Spending the time and effort to have decent continuity was, is, and will continue to be the optimal solution. But this is DC... They don't believe in that.