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What is Earth-27?
Earth-27 is a dynamic reinvention of the DC Comics Universe, created by Roy Westerman. Combining the best elements of various timelines and continuities together, it is intended to be a more simple and user-friendly version. Created in memory of Joshua Westerman, Roy’s stillborn son, it began simply as the villains of Arkham Asylum and expanded into the rest of Gotham and beyond. Within it you will find classic characters reinvigorated, original characters bursting upon the scene, and composite characters made of combining the best elements of others. All drawn with the same magnificence by Phil Cho phil-cho , and then used by Roy to create files summarizing said character’s history within Earth-27, mostly told from the viewpoint of Oracle, Barbara Gordon.
(explanation by E27 fan Narnil )
What do I need to know about Earth-27?
Earth-27 is created through donations made at www.gofundme.com/Earth27Projec… and www.patreon.com/Roysovitch . It a passion project, meaning that I do this as a hobby and for therapeutic purposes. I do not make a living off of Earth-27 and funds given to me for this project are always rolled back into the project in some fashion (commissioning art is the biggest expense, but we also need to buy online storage space for the full res artwork and assets and other miscellaneous expenses that may pop up). The artwork done by Phil Cho is done at a fraction of his normal costs so this should be considered a passion project for him as well.
Most of the characters in Earth-27 are based off characters from the DC Universe’s comic continuities, as well as from related movies, video games, television series (both live action and animated), and so forth. The Creators of Earth-27 do not own, nor do we claim to own, these characters. In our effort to pay homage to the DC Comics, which we love, many of our storylines both “current” and featured in character backstories are inspired by or adapted from those of those previously mentioned mediums.
In Earth-27, we also have a limited number of original characters, composite characters, and fan-submitted characters. Original and fan-submitted characters are the intellectual property of their respective creators and are featured in Earth-27 through special arrangement and/or partnership.
If you would like to feature Earth-27’s content via social media or by way of a fan-site, we only ask that you credit DC Comics, as well as Roy Westerman and Phil Cho. If you make any alterations to the original material, we ask that request permission to do so or explain what it is you have altered.
I’m new. Where do I begin? What should I know?
Earth-27 has a few rules and guidelines to keep in mind with its narrative.
Rule #1: No Time Travel
In Earth-27, time only ticks forward. Time might be slowed, sped up, stopped, or bypassed but it cannot be reversed. As a result, some characters’ origins may have been reworked to allow them to feature in Earth-27 (such as Booster Gold or the Reverse-Flash). The decision to do this was to establish a world with real consequences and to avoid messy time travel storylines.
Rule #2: No Access to Parallel Earths
Similar to above, for a reason explored in the narrative, Earth-27 is part of the multiverse but is also isolated from it. In fact, it’s part of its own fragment of reality where there exists its own versions of dimensions such as heaven, hell, Olympus, Azarath, its own speed force, etc. But in its own pocket multiverse, there exists no other Earth except its own. As a result, some characters (like Power Girl) have different origins or are omitted entirely by design.
Rule #3: The Timeline is Alive
Due to some production difficulties, this rule is currently being relaxed. When it is in effect, our present day is the present day of Earth-27. Likewise, if you add ten years, that is the day of Earth-27’s projected future series: 2027.
Currently, the “present day” of Earth-27 is mid-June, 2017 and early February, 2027 in 2027. These are subject to change according to story needs.
Rule #4: Power is Finite
Similar to Rules 1 and 2, there is a story reason for why things are different in Earth-27. Some characters (such as Superman) have drastically different power levels than they do in other continuities. Other characters may have different powers entirely or their powers may work in a totally different fashion. This is all by design for the most part.
Guideline #1: Death is (often) Final
As part of Earth-27’s commitment to making a timeline with consequences, character death is rare and when it does happen, it tends to remain that way. There are some exceptions (like Jason Todd) but in those circumstances, there are usually very serious reprucussions that come with it. Characters coming back from the dead is an exceptional event and is not something regarded as a certainty within the confines of Earth-27.
Guideline #2: Not Everyone Is The Same
Characters in Earth-27 may have different personalities, be involved in different relationships, have different origin stories, or even have different superhero identities. While most characters should remain identifiable or familiar, there are a number of exceptions.
As mentioned earlier, Earth-27 also has composite characters (a fusion of one or more characters, usually condensed into a single character).
Guideline #3: Exploration and Experimentation, not Expectation
Due to the compression of all the above rules and guidelines, and to help Earth-27 stand on its own, we advise you not to ever expect a certain outcome. Things that seem to be a multiversal constant may not hold true in Earth-27. Different kinds of Kryptonite exist on Earth-27, speedsters can’t time travel, Superman cannot fly at lightspeed or survive the vacuum of space indefinitely, Batman and Green Arrow were trained by the League of Assassins (and may have killed people during that time), and Lex Luthor is a well-respected businessman and recently elected President (despite Superman’s insistance that he is up to no good).
A (Kinda) Brief History of Earth-27 (A Primer for New Readers and Refresher for Veterans)
While there have always been mysteries in this world, things that could not be explained by the science of the time, things like tales of an immortal caveman, a hidden sanctuary where time flowed differently, a winged man and woman that appeared throughout time, a woman who fought among better than any men in the Hundred Year War, and a hidden enclave of assassins answering to a man whose willpower was so strong to defy aging. But these things seemed confined to the realm of legend and myth for the longest time. As a result, the history of this world was largely identical to our own.
There were major events that are worth mentioning, such as the meteor storm that hit the world in 1978, spreading meteor rock from the American midwest to the jungles of Africe and then another one a few days later scattered remnants from Siberia to the Pacific. Or the deaths of the Waynes in 1980 that plunged the city of Gotham into urban decline, inviting the city’s criminal element to seize power left in the wake of the death of such prominent figures.
Still, however, the eighties continued on. The Cold War reached its climax and then faded away. The Berlin Wall came down and life went on, remaining normal for the most part.
In the nineties, however, strange reports of unusual activity caught the media’s attention. The government began investigating what would alter be known as the metahuman crisis. The cause for this sudden emergence of the meta-gene among the human populace has still yet to be indentified but rumors are that the meteor storm may have introduced alien particles into the atmosphere that had an effect on the human genome, causing the meta-gene mutation to develop (or merely increased its likelihood as there are known examples that pre-date the meteor storm).
And then the world had a real shake-up when a man stepped out of the shadows dressed like a bat. It was the late nineties and this “Batman” took Gotham by storm. After a while, the world seemed to be erupting with these costumed vigilantes: a scarlet speedster in Central City, a caped flying man in Metropolis, an emerald archer in Star City, a screaming bombshell, and a woman clad in armor rescuing a downed fighter emerging from the waters on a beach in Florida.
These six would become symbols for a movement on the rise. Metahumans, aliens, and well-trained vigilantes began taking up the cause, fighting for the greater good against crime and injustice. It took some time, but eventually they became known as heroes.
As if to oppose the rise of heroes, there was also a rise of so-called “villains”, eccentric criminals, evil metahumans, and would be alien overlords challenged these heroes and as the threat grew worst, heroes began forming teams. The most well-known of these teams was the ‘super friends’, the six most iconic heroes in the early days joining forces in a loose alliance to deal with the larger threats.
These ‘super friends’ (a name they were given by the speedster known as The Flash) would later be the first to earn the title of ‘superhero’ when the rogue alien-created A.I. known as “Brainiac” came to Earth on New Years Eve of 2003, seeking the hero of Metropolis known as Superman. The super friends stood up to the invader when no one else seemed capable and with the help of a new ally, the so-called Manhunter of Mars, the super friends pushed the invader back and saved the world.
After this valiant display, the United States government decided that these heroes had earned some reprieve and possessed talents which could benefit the nation as a whole. Thus the first government sanctioned superhero team was born: the Justice League of America.
The JLA was a hit. The heroes were given special authority to uphold the law, in exchange for undertaking the occasional mission for the government, appearing at special events, and being at the disposal of the U.S. President. As part of this arrangement, the JLA was given a lot of freedom as to how they would conduct themselves and were mostly allowed to govern themselves.
Among the first recruits to the Justice League were two representatives of an interplanetary police force known as the Lantern Corps. They were welcomed additions to the team, as were other heroic figures like Captain Marvel, Icon, Aquaman and his queen. The US Military’s own homegrown superhero was even allowed to join, given the name Captain Atom.
Batman’s young proteges, Robin and Batgirl, were not allowed to join the JLA due to their young age, which they did not believe was fair due to their contributions to the ‘super friends’. Instead, the young heroes were given a second option. With private backers, a sort of clubhouse and sort of training academy was built for them and other teenage heroes in the San Francisco Bay, near the relatively quiet town of Jump City. This haven for halfling heroes was a distinctly shaped building dubbed ‘Titans Tower’.
Then, in October of 2006, tragedy stuck the JLA and the Titans. Batman’s apprentice, the second Robin, was kidnapped by the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker.
For five days, Robin was tortured over an internet broadcast which had been set up by the Riddler. No one could track the source and thus were forced to watch in helpless horror as the maniacal clown subjected the boy to cruel acts and vicious beatings before he capped it off with a final vote, leaving the boy’s fate up to the Internet as a whole. Though Batman tried to hack the vote, he could not and was forced to watch as the Joker’s sick personality won out over common sense and in a 51/49 split, Robin’s death triumphed over sanity.
Five days later, on Halloween night of 2006 an unmasked and dead Robin was chained up to the Bat-Signal, signalling the boy’s mentor to claim the body and admit that he had failed.
As Robin was unmasked for the world to see in the course of his murder, Bruce Wayne had to call a number of press conferences to publically denounce the JLA and call for their disbanding. This was both out of grief for his devastating loss, but also a calculated effort to conceal the fact that Batman was in fact Bruce Wayne. After a number of public events that caught the media attention where J’onn J’onnz, Clark Kent, Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, and even Alfred Pennyworth on one occasion stood in for Batman so as to allow the public to see Bruce Wayne and Batman at the same time, the public began to release their suspicions about Bruce Wayne being Batman. Then with Bruce Wayne’s testimony before the US Senate, the JLA was officially disbanded.
This ushered in a dark time. The Justice League of America was no more and while heroes typically kept to their home cities, there was a united effort among the founding members of the JLA to bring the Joker to justice. Codenamed: Operation Thrillkiller, the former members of the JLA changed the colors of their uniforms to black and orange in solidarity to remember what had been done on Halloween, this would be a tradition they continue to this day on Halloween night.
In Gotham, these dark times only got darker (as things tend to do in Gotham) when on the anniversary of Jason Todd’s death, the League of Assassins set off an artificial earthquake in Gotham, timed with explosives on the city’s bridges, and a coordinated unleashing of powerful weaponry to the city’s criminals and a mass escape at both Blackgate Prison and Arkham Asylum. This day and the time that followed as since been coined ‘The Cataclysm of Gotham’.
With Gotham declared a No Man’s Land by the US government, Batman was left to restore order in Gotham. Easier said than done, that was a task made more difficult by the Four Horsemen; a quartet of specially trained assassins trained (and in some cases ‘designed’) to bring batman to his breaking point before destroying him completely, a final reckoning for his previous betrayal of the League of Assassins.
But the second Horseman, the assassin now known as Bane, got carried away and after beating the Dark Knight to within an inch of his life, he strayed from the plan and tried to kill the Batman by throwing him over the side of the GCPD Headquarters. Batman was able to grapnel to safety where he was picked up by his new apprentice Tim Drake and his faithful friend Alfred Pennyworth who managed to get him to safety.
While Bruce was recovering, his first protégé, Dick Grayson stepped in to become the new Batman and help restore order in Gotham.
While Gotham was under siege, Dick’s friend and former Titan, Victor Stone (aka: Cyborg) saw a need for a team of heroes that would handle any crisis that occurred in cities without a dedicated protector or who could investigate other matters of concern without violating the U.S. government ban on the JLA acting in international affairs. So he set up shop inside an old secret training and meeting facility that the ‘super friends’ used to use, in the quiet East Coast town of Happy Harbor. This secret team was never given a name, but Cyborg liked to call it ‘Young Justice’ on account of most of its members being teenagers and young adults.
After the Cataclysm had run its course, Amanda Waller saw an opportunity to establish an international agency dedicated to pusuing global threats and investigating the rise of meta-crime. The result was ARGUS, a United Nations’ sanctioned intelligence operation overseen by Maxwell Lord, with Amanda Waller herself as the deputy director.
Under the umbrella of ARGUS, the JLA founders and original members were invited back to found a new team, an international team simply known as the Justice League. So, in April of 2009, the Justice League returned with a larger roster than ever and through recruiting initiatives known as Justice League International, Justice League United, and Justice League Action, they were given the power to continuously expand their roster.
The new Justice League was also given access to a state-of-the-art orbital satellite and space station known as the Watchtower. Though most of the large facility is manned by ARGUS staff, the Justice League was given control over about a quarter of the space station for their own use and once again were mostly allowed to operate as they saw fit, though they were given an ARGUS handler in Steve Trevor, who brought a team of hand-picked ARGUS agents with him to assist the Justice League’s endeavors.
The Lantern Corps also expanded as the increasing rise of metahuman criminals and aliens interested in Earth concerned the Guardians on Oa, so they approved the commission of a Lantern Taskforce of additional Lanterns to Earth’s system (Sector 2814).
In 2012, the criminal Bane made headlines again, when he orchestrated another mass release of inmates at the Blackgate Prison and then blew it up, leaving Gotham with a surplus of criminals and nowhere to put them. Stryker’s Island took a portion of the burden for a time, but the real relief came when the Wayne Foundation financed an expansion to Arkham Asylum, transforming it from an aging mental health institution into a state of the art prison complex… so state of the art, in fact, that ARGUS itself chose to partner with the institution in 2016 to expand it further to allow the housing of ARGUS’s most wanted offenders.
This sets the stage for Earth-27 and should allow you to dive in to the Oracle Files and other material to find out more. I hope you enjoy your stay in Earth-27 and feel free to check back on this journal as I will continue to add other insights in here as I feel the need.
The Secret Origin of Earth-27 (For Those Interested in the Metaphysical Aspects)
Once upon a time, before Rebirths and reboots, there was once a gathering of the Multiverse’s Monitors: 52 to be exact. At this gathering, plans were discussed, ideas were exchanged, and stories were shared. During this gathering, the 27th Monitor had a revelation, realized where things were heading and though he tried to warn the others, no one took him seriously.
Knowing that his days were numbered, the 27th Monitor returned to the part of the Multiverse he chronicled and tore it asunder, breaking it down to its base components and taking that with him as he fled deep into the dimensional Bleed between the worlds.
Once far from the reaches of the other Monitors and anything else that might seek to stop him, the 27th Monitor created his own barriers or ‘Murums’ of Time, Space, Logic, and Belief. Once the four metaphysical walls were in place, the Monitor began creating the Multiverse to his own liking (a ‘Microverse’ if you will). Much of what was created had been modeled after that which had been done before to create stability, with only minor tweaks as needed to fit within the confines of the Monitor’s vision.
To conserve energy, the Monitor dialed down the powers of many powerful beings, especially those that could rival his own (his own powers declining due to exerting himself to stretch this limited power further, sapping additional power from the Source itself and from unknown variables). Still needing more power, the Monitor also removed time travel from the equation of this new multiverse and only created one realm of reality, not bothering with the creation of parallel Earths. As time went on, the Monitor became curious as to the happenings in the original multiverse and sent scouts to travel through the Bleed and investigate.
While waiting for his scouts to return, the Monitor settled into a quiet life in his favorite city of the Multiverse, Gotham City. To assess the integrity of his creation, the Monitor assumed the appearance and identity of a human and took a job that gave him the means needed to be able to speak with some of the Multiverse’s most iconic beings.
When the scouts finally returned with their report, the Monitor incorporated some of these ideas into his new Multiverse but ignored much of what was reported to him. With the scouts’ purpose complete, the Monitor attempted to dismiss them from existence but found that the energies of the Bleed had changed them, making them partially immune to the Monitor’s whims and thus the Monitor got creative and tweaked the scouts. The scouts that were most successfully reshaped became beings that would not be taken seriously by the rest of the characters within the Multiverse: beings like Ambush Bug, Bat-Mite, and Mr. Mxyzptlk. The other scouts were locked away in the depths of the multiverse for fear of them derailing everything… in hopes that a cure could be found.
Those scouts that were locked away however began to change. Kept in such close proximity for too long, the energies of Bleed began to fuse, pulling them together and reshaping them into a singular being forged by their shared hate of the one who had done this to them. In time, they grew strong enough to break free of their prison and took a name reflective of the eternal nemesis of their captor’s race: the Anti-Monitor!
After hearing of the Anti-Monitor’s escape, the Monitor began formulating a strategy to beat the Anti-Monitor. Knowing that the scouts that had made up the new Anti-Monitor were well-versed in the strengths and weaknesses of the beings that the Monitor had recreated from the old Multiverse, the Monitor put his Harbinger to task with finding the artifacts created through chance and circumstance, beings unique to this new Multiverse: original characters.
These beings would become the Monitor’s secret weapons against the Anti-Monitor, should that abomination ever arrive to threaten the gem at the center the Monitor’s creation: Earth-27.
