When Flash #123 established Jay Garrick was as real as Barry Allen it changed the direction of the DC universe. It also established that at least some comic-book writers in the DCU are psychic.
Writing âFlash of Two Worlds,â Gardner Fox had to explain the unlikely chance that Barry Allen would land on a parallel world exactly like the one he read about in Golden Age Earth-One comics. Foxâs solution: his Earth-One counterpart could vibe (as the TV show puts it) on Earth-Two.
As we later learned, Fox also tuned into Earth-Twoâs Justice Society, and by implication used the power for the rest of his Golden Age stories. This ability wasnât unique. The Gardner Fox of Earth-Prime, for instance, vibed on Barry Allenâs Earth-One adventures and once picked up the thoughts of alien invaders (Strange Adventures #140).
Cary Bates of Earth Prime is not only tuned in to Barry Allenâs adventures, he once thought about them so hard it transported him across the dimensions to Earth-One. It also enabled him to influence events there, though this seems to have been a one-in-a-million fluke; neither he nor Elliott Maggin have the power when they dimension-jump in JLA #123.
(Thereâs also a story in B&B #124 in which terrorists think they can kill Batman by controlling the way Bob Haney and Jim Aparo write and draw it, but Iâm inclined to treat that as just a gloriously weird yarn).
Not all superhero writers depend on this power. DC writers on Earth-Two were fictionalizing real events; Earth-Oneâs DC comics also published true-crime superhero stories in the 1960s (as detailed in Detective #398). Some comics superheroes may have been completely fictitious such as Earth-Twoâs Geezer and Earth-Oneâs Crusaders (Freedom Fighters #8). However, as most comic books about the rest of the multiverse appear to be reasonably accurate â Captain Marvelâs portrayal on Earth-Two, Superman in Earth-S â itâs probable most writers have the knack.
Given that Earth-Prime comics fans were able to teleport some of the JLA from Earth-One just by thinking about them (JLA#153), the writers psi-abiities are presumably present to a smaller degree in most DCU humans. Probably most of them aren’t even aware of their power: when screenwriter Harlequin Ellis warps reality with his writing in JLA #89, he appears completely unaware this is a tool in his toolbox. As I’ve said before, “normal” may be a very different thing in the MU and DCU.
Although Fox-One got his story ideas in dreams, not everyone does; Bates-Prime vibes on Earth-One in that Flash story just by daydreaming and playing with ideas. Probably most writers and artists do it the same way: they try to come up with a story or a character and if their concentration is intense enough, they make contact with another world. Itâs definitely possible for more than one creator to tap into the same hero, otherwise Bates and Fox wouldnât both have tuned in on Barry. Plus, of course, if the artists didnât have the same power, the faces and costumes wouldnât match the real people as well as they do.
It doesnât follow, though, that the Earth-One comics about Earth-Two or Earth-Twoâs books about Earth-S must have had every detail right. Itâs possible these psychic glimpses arenât always clear, or sometimes only give a basic concept (âI dreamed of Captain Boomerang shooting Flash into space on one of his giant boomerangs â nah, done that too oftenâ). And, of course, writers and artists may make changes to their impressions to create a better story or throw in extra stories. If weâd gone comics shopping on Earth-S or Earth-One, who knows what weâd discover?
Images top to bottom by Carmine Infantino, Sid Greene, Irv Novick and Rich Buckler
