Superboy: The Hypertime Black Zero Saga

[superfangirl1]

Superboy#60

















Superboy#62

















Superboy#63


















Superboy#64

Comments

[zachbeacon]

I read every single Kingdom tie-in and I'm still fuzzy on how Hypertime is different from the multiverse.

[lordultimus]

I think the idea was that it could also handwave minor continuity gaffs and retcons. Superman's favorite food changed again? Fluctuations in Hypertime.

(Granted, Superboy-Prime punching the walls of reality accomplished the same thing, so whatcha gonna do.)

[zachbeacon]

Minor inconsistencies like that are such a ubiquitous part of comics that Marvel made the No Prize a thing (not sure if there's a DC version) so the kind of fans that are bothered by that kind of thing are encouraged to do the handwaving themselves rather than just nitpicking.

[donnblake]

If DC *didn't* do an equivalent, then that's just a No-No-Prize!

(Wait, that doesn't sound right...)

[laughing_tree]

Well, there is the stuff lordultimus said about how hypertimelines can branch and re-merge, but ultimately it's just a cool term to describe the multiverse.

It sounds weird today that they'd make such a big deal about the simple fact that a multiverse exists, but at the time, DC's official in-continuity position was that it didn't. That Crisis on Infinite Earths really did merge all realities and there is only one version of Batman, Superman, etc. Writers literally could not do stories about the DCU interacting with alternate realities and hadn't been able to since 1985. At the time the Kingdom came out, the company finally reversing course on that *was* a huge deal.

[zachbeacon]

I mean I get it but also it just seems like when they had to come up with convoluted reasons for Supergirl to exist but NOT be from Krypton (don't get me started on Power Girl) because Superman has to be the sole survivor.

Plus the "there is no multiverse" era was also the peak of the Elseworlds era so it just seems like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too.