The Hypertime was created by the World Forger and is a web of timestreams outside the main Multiverses. It also described as the cosmic flow of timelines and histories that govern reality.
Think of The Source as an ocean and each universe as a river flowing from it. Sometimes the river splits, and that makes a multiverse. There are smaller diversions... streams... branching off the river but quickly returning, without creating a new universe. Hypertime.John Stewart
Hypertime is an interconnected flow of realities, where time diverged at a certain point from the main universe. It is the collection of all the Alternate Timelines and Possible Futures from the many iterations of the Multiverse and represents the Time half of the Divine Continuum.[38]
History
Origin
The Hypertime was created by the World Forger[4] and is a web of timestreams outside the main Multiverses.[5] It also described as the cosmic flow of timelines and histories that govern reality.[4]
Hypertime is composed of an infinite number of realities that continually diverged and converged where they overlapped and circled back to connect to each other. Thus, everything and anything that could be imaged existed.[6] These realities are commonly known as Hypertimelines.[7]
Events in the Central Timeline often create temporal ripples, creating divergent paths of history that exist on their own separate timelines. These timelines occasionally intersect, resulting in changes to history that are usually not even noticed by the inhabitants of a timeline. These changes range from minor (a momentary difference in a person's clothing or costume) to major (a complete rewriting of a person's history). If a being from one Hypertimeline spends too long in another, it can cause ghost-like "echoes" of other worlds to bleed through, as witnessed by Rose D'Angelo and Batman.[8] It is also possible to enter the space between Hypertimelines, where all possible worlds are visible through an endless series of dimensional "windows."
Hypertime was first discovered in the modern era by Rip Hunter of the Linear Men. Fearing that his fellow Linear Men would destroy it in an attempt to preserve the "one true" timeline, Hunter kept his discovery a secret.[7]
Zero Hour
The Kingdom
The villain Gog was believed to be traveling through time to destroy Superman, but was found to be actually traveling through Hypertime as his multiple destructions of Superman through time were discovered to have no effect on reality.
However, when the villain Gog began traveling through Hypertime killing various versions of Superman, his actions brought together the heroes of two Hypertimelines—those of the Central Timeline and a world known as The Kingdom. At the conclusion of this conflict, Hypertime was revealed to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman of the Central Timeline.
Hyper-Tension
Following this revelation, various other heroes had brushes with Hypertime, such as Superboy, the Challengers of the Unknown and The Flash, who was for a time replaced by a Hypertime duplicate called Walter West.
52
A 52-Earth Multiverse parallel to the Central Timeline was brought into existence. Contact with all other timelines and worlds was cut off by the event and few inhabitants of the DC Universe even remember Hypertime. Mister Mind, while using the robotic Skeets as a host, referred to Waverider as "the seer of Hypertime," which indicates that Hypertime may still exist beyond the fringes of the Multiverse. It may also encompass the mysterious "Megaverse" mentioned by Booster Gold.
Post-Flashpoint
Alexander Luthor's creation of the 52 Multiverse was merely creating new Hypertime branches.[9]
The Convergence
Metal Wars
During the fight with the Dark Knights, Cyborg managed to free his Justice League team mates and shunted them into Hypertime to evade Barbatos.[5]
During the Justice/Doom War, Hypertime was dying due to the destruction of the Source Wall.[4] However, it was stabilized by Perpetua who had Hypertime within her grasp, allowing the Legion of Doom to affect the past and future timelines without affecting the present.[10] Brainiac bottled hundreds of alternative futures from Hypertime, with the intent to assimilate and destroy them.[11]
After the battle with the Legion of Doom, Hypertime was left broken according to Rip Hunter,[12] and was eventually erased by The Hands' Cosmic Judgment.[13] However, after the Super-Celestial restored all the Creation, Hypertime was brought back to existence.[13]
Chaos in Hypertime
The Return of the Thirteen
The Legion of Doom's Chronal Siege
Assault on Hypertime
Known Hypertimelines
Points Of Interest
- Timestream
- Dawn of Time
- End of Time
- Liminal Space
- Heart of Chronos[15][16]
- Realm of Time[17]
- Timepoint/"Planet Flash"/"Ickto"
- Linear Bureau's Station
- Palace of Eternity
- Vanishing Point
- The Alephs[18]
- Dark Sectors
- The Netherworld[19]
- Branefold Interior[20]
- Samsara[21]
- The Wardrobe[22][23][24]
- The Confluence[25][26]
- Zone of Colliding Moments[27][28]
- Kingdom of Now[28][15] (Destroyed)
- The Nameless[29]
- Extracted Time[30] (Formerly, erased)
- Paradox's Realm[31] (Formerly, erased)
- "The Place outside Time"[32][33]
- Blood Moon[34] (Formerly, displaced to Earth 2)
Residents
- Time Masters
- Linear Men
- Fuginauts[20]
- Time
- Dominus (Formerly, erased)
- Paradox (Formerly, erased)
- Shesha[35]
- Gashadokuro[36][37] (Formerly, deceased)
Notes
- Hypertime was originally introduced by Mark Waid in The Kingdom #2. However, the concept had technically been present since the Golden Age, through the depiction of Alternate Timelines, Possible Futures, and many Parallel Realities.
- Retroactively, the first appearance of Hypertime–albeit unnamed– can be traced back to Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #62 by Rick Veitch, in which the titular hero is displaced to a plane of existence outside reality. This realm closely resembled the visual and conceptual depiction of Hypertime– later seen in The Kingdom #2– in which alternate universes, different space-times, and future versions of realities can be glimpsed.
- As revealed by Pre-Flashpoint Darkseid, Alephs are so-called Hyperzones[39] from which "all time and space can be observed."[18] Albeit unnamed, Alephs commonly appear within Hypertime.[7][40]
- Out-of-universe, the creation of Hypertime was an early attempt to restore the DC Multiverse that did not take hold with other creators, presenting it as a multitude of alternate realities that somehow diverge from the main continuities in one way or another and sometimes briefly reconnect with them.
- Hyperium is the only mineral native to Hypertime. The tyrant Black Zero and his interdimensional Cadmus organization used this mineral to create objects, including Hyperjackets, and vehicles that allowed them to Hyper-Travel.[39] Black Zero's organization also crafted energy guns from Hyperium.
- Hyperstorms are natural phenomenon occurring within Hypertime.[39]
- The events of The Kingdom #2 first revealed that Earth-C, Earth-40 (the non-canon Earth-Two), Earth-86 (the Atomic Knights' Earth), Earth-96, Earth-97, Earth-124.1, Earth-162, Earth-178, Earth-216 (the original Super-Sons reality), Earth-395, Earth-898, Earth-1099, Earth-1198, Earth-1863, Earth-1889, Earth-1890, Earth-1938, Earth-3839, are all Hypertime universes.
- These realities are eventually named in Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium.
- Several timelines featured in the Zero Hour event are Hypertimelines.[41][42]
- Alternate iterations of Pre-Crisis realities exist within Hypertime.[41][7][43]
- The Flash and Atom of Earth-898 once journeyed to realities similar to Pre-Crisis Earth-Three and Earth-S, hinting that they are alternate versions of those universes, which were previously erased during Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- According to The Multiversity Guidebook, Hypertime influenced the creation of the 52 worlds of the Pre-Flashpoint Multiverse, and its evolution into the Post-Flashpoint Multiverse.
- Most of the Intercompany Crossovers are actually set on Hypertime realities. In these stories, Hypertime is simply referred to as "Multiverse."
Trivia
- Despite the cosmic upheavals caused by The New 52 and the Rebirth, Prime Earth Barry Allen revealed he was still aware of Hypertime.[44][40]
- Something conceptually similar to Hypertime has been used by a handful of people to explain the Real World phenomenon known as Mandela Effect.[45]
- In-universe, the Mandela Effect has been revealed to be a consequence of the many reality changes through Hypertime.[38]
See Also
Links and References
- ↑ Future State: Suicide Squad #2
- ↑ Multiversus: Collision Detected #6
- ↑ DC x Sonic the Hedgehog #1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Justice League (Volume 4) #30
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Justice League (Volume 4) #33
- ↑ Superboy (Volume 4) #60
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 The Kingdom #2
- ↑ The Kingdom: Planet Krypton #1
- ↑ The Multiversity Guidebook #1
- ↑ Justice League (Volume 4) #32
- ↑ Justice League (Volume 4) #34
- ↑ Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #1
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Dark Nights: Death Metal #7
- ↑ The Books of Magic #4
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Justice League Dark #38
- ↑ Justice League Dark #39
- ↑ Sandman: Overture #4
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Swamp Thing (Volume 2) #62
- ↑ Titans #25
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Sideways #5
- ↑ Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1
- ↑ Birds of Prey (Volume 5) #9
- ↑ Birds of Prey (Volume 5) #10
- ↑ Birds of Prey (Volume 5) #11
- ↑ Future State: Justice League #1
- ↑ Aquaman (Volume 9) #2
- ↑ Justice League Dark #36
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Justice League Dark #37
- ↑ Justice League Dark: Futures End #1
- ↑ Generations Shattered #1
- ↑ The Flash Annual (Volume 5) #2
- ↑ The Terrifics #23
- ↑ The Terrifics #24
- ↑ Convergence #1
- ↑ Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #4
- ↑ Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #2
- ↑ Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #3
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 Flashpoint Beyond #5
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 Superboy (Volume 4) #64
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 Justice League (Volume 3) #33
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 Superboy (Volume 4) #8
- ↑ Zero Hour: 30th Anniversary Special #1
- ↑ Superboy (Volume 4) #62
- ↑ The Flash (Volume 5) #22
- ↑ Something STRANGE Is Happening! The Mandela Effect!!!