 Official logo | |
| Parent company | DC Comics |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Predecessor | All Star DC Comics |
| Founded | 2009[1] |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
| Publication types | Graphic novels[1] |
| Fiction genres |
|
Earth One (EO) is animprint ofgraphic novels published byDC Comics, featuring re-imagined and modernized versions of the company'ssuperhero characters from theDC Universe.[1] Those characters includeSuperman,Batman,Wonder Woman,Green Lantern, and theTeen Titans, as well as others whose characteristics and origin stories are revised and altered to suit the 21st century audience. The shared universe, unlike the original DC Universe in comic books, has yet tocross over its common plot elements, settings, and characters. The reality of Earth One is designated asEarth-1 as part of theDC Multiverse.[2]
The imprint was launched in 2010 with the publication ofSuperman: Earth One, followed byBatman: Earth One in 2012. The Earth One universe would expand as more graphic novels are released, includingTeen Titans: Earth One in 2014,Wonder Woman: Earth One in 2016 andGreen Lantern: Earth One in 2018, with other novels currently under development.[3]
In 2009,DC Comics announced the Earth Oneline ofgraphic novels, which were planned to be printed in 2010 with the first issues ofSuperman: Earth One andBatman: Earth One.[1]Superman: Earth One was issued in October 2010,[4] whileBatman: Earth One was held to be released at the same time asThe Dark Knight Rises film in July 2012.[5][6] Volume Two ofSuperman: Earth One was confirmed at that time to be released later that year, in October, with additional volumes ofBatman: Earth One confirmed as well.[7]Wonder Woman: Earth One Volume One was in development in 2013.[8]Teen Titans: Earth One debuted in November 2014.[9] In 2015, Volume Three ofSuperman: Earth One was released in February,[10] three months prior the May publication for Volume Two ofBatman: Earth One (which was announced for release in 2013 before beingpostponed).[11][12] In the same year, two Earth One graphic novels were announced to have yet to come out; those wereAquaman: Earth One by writer/artistFrancis Manapul andThe Flash: Earth One by writerJ. Michael Straczynski,[13][14] who also wrote theSuperman: Earth One series.[15] In 2016, Volume One ofWonder Woman: Earth One and Volume Two ofTeen Titans: Earth One were released in April and August, respectively.[16][17]
The line was revived in July 2017 in which theGreen Lantern (Hal Jordan) would receive his firstEarth One graphic novel,[18] which was released in March 2018,[19] seven months before the launch for Volume Two ofWonder Woman: Earth One in October.[20] After 2012's Volume One and 2015's Volume Two ofBatman: Earth One, Volume Three was originally announced to debut in 2018, but was pushed back for 2021 due to writerGeoff Johns and artistGary Frank's work onDC Rebirth andDoomsday Clock.[21][22] Volume Two ofGreen Lantern: Earth One was scheduled to be published in late July 2020,[23] but was delayed for a release in August.[24] A month later, duringDC FanDome,Jim Lee, DC's current publisher andCCO, revealed in a pre-recorded video for the event that more graphic novels from the Earth One line are in development.[3] In the following months, Volume Three of bothWonder Woman: Earth One andBatman: Earth One were published in March and June 2021, respectively.[25][26][27]
In January 2021, DC officially cancelledAquaman: Earth One, as its writer/artist Manapul was reportedly leaving the company, therefore abandoning the project.[28]
In January 2015,The Multiversity Guidebook No. 1 was launched, aguidebook to theDC Multiverse with detailed entries of all52 existing worlds that make it up; one of the universes present is Earth One (Earth-1), as the guide features this world's versions of the DC heroes along with a brief description of their universe.[2] The issue is considered by many fans as the firstcrossover of the Earth One imprint and its characters,[29] and until then, due to the lack of interaction, it was debated whether the novels even existed in the samecontinuity or not.[29][30] Despite the aforementioned lack of interaction between the graphic novels, the characters from the Earth One universe still appear in some of the company's comic books. For example, Earth One'sBatman makes acameo appearance in the 10th issue ofBatman: Arkham Unhinged.[31]
In an interview withIGN from June 2015,Dan DiDio, DC's co-publisher at the time, was questioned about a crossover between the graphic novels, but he discarded the idea.[32] In April 2021,Grant Morrison, the writer of bothWonder Woman: Earth One andThe Multiversity, expressed their opinion on how an Earth One crossover will happen "eventually".[33]
| Title | Volume | Publication date | Writer | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superman: Earth One[34][35][10] | One | October 27, 2010 | J. Michael Straczynski | Shane Davis |
| Two | October 31, 2012 | |||
| Three | February 4, 2015 | Ardian Syaf | ||
| Batman: Earth One[36][37][38] | One | July 4, 2012 | Geoff Johns | Gary Frank |
| Two | May 6, 2015 | |||
| Three | June 8, 2021 | |||
| Teen Titans: Earth One[39][17] | One | November 19, 2014 | Jeff Lemire | Terry Dodson |
| Two | August 10, 2016 | Andrew T. MacDonald | ||
| Wonder Woman: Earth One[16][40][25] | One | April 6, 2016 | Grant Morrison | Yanick Paquette |
| Two | October 3, 2018 | |||
| Three | March 9, 2021 | |||
| Green Lantern: Earth One[19][24] | One | March 20, 2018 | Gabriel Hardman Corinna Bechko | Gabriel Hardman |
| Two | August 11, 2020 | |||
| Aquaman: Earth One[41] | One | TBD | Francis Manapul | |
| The Flash: Earth One[42] | J. Michael Straczynski | |||
This freshly created Universe is still cooling and as yet unformed. Earth-1's known superbeings –Superman,Batman,Wonder Woman and theTeen Titans – are at the beginning of their careers.Time and space are still pliable, and nothing here is certain.
— The Multiversity Guidebook No. 1[2]
The premise of the Earth Oneimprint is to reimagine the characters ofDC Comics by featuring "their first years and earliest moments retold in a standalone, originalgraphic novel format, on a new Earth with an all-newcontinuity".[43] The intent is toreboot DC's most iconicsuperheroes andsupervillains by presenting new, updated versions with revised origin stories in a modern setting to an audience that hasn't read these characters' comics previously, or hasn't seen them lately.[44] Unlike most of the company's publications, which are comic books released monthly, the output of Earth One consists entirely of graphic novels that are launched at once.[45] The project has been compared to theUltimateline ofMarvel Comics, which was a successful attempt to reintroduce Marvel's most popular characters to a new generation of readers.[46] Another comparison to Earth One was with theAll Star line, an earlier attempt by DC to revamp its characters in a separate continuity, although it failed in its goal mainly due to scheduling problems.[47]
As the series takes place in a new continuity unrelated to any other in DC, the characters presented in the novels remain relatively faithful to their original counterparts from the mainDC Universe, although they still differ from each other in a number of notable aspects and characteristics. For example: Batman, who is usually depicted as a near-perfect crime-fighter, is portrayed in the novels as inexperienced and constantly prone to mistakes;[48][49] the Teen Titans, instead ofsidekick superheroes, are presented as a group of teenagers who developed powers after being subjected to experiments byS.T.A.R. Labs;[17]Lex Luthor is reimagined as a married couple rather than just one man;[50] Harvey Dent, who in the mainstream comics is the supervillainTwo-Face, dies and histwin sister Jessica Dent (an exclusiveBatman: Earth One character) becomes the Earth One version of the villain;[32]Steve Trevor, originally aCaucasian character in the comics, is written as anAfrican American in the novels;[51] andGeneral Zod is the uncle of Superman, unlike his comic book counterpart who is unrelated to the hero.[52] In addition to reinterpreting already established comic book characters, the Earth One series also introduces new characters unique to the graphic novels, such as the serial killer Birthday Boy and the aforementioned Jessica Dent, with both characters debuting in Volume One ofBatman: Earth One.[53][54]
"What I'm trying to do is to dig in to the character and look at him through modern eyes. If you were to create the Superman story today, for the first time, but keep intact all that works, what would it look like?"
Following the announcement of the Earth One imprint,Geoff Johns was attached to write the first Batman graphic novel, withGary Frank as its artist.[47] Gabriel Hardman, co-writer (alongside Corinna Bechko) and artist of theGreen Lantern: Earth One series, explained in an interview toInverse how he intended to differentiate the novel from other interpretations of thetitle character: "It was incredibly obvious it was going to be difficult to tell the story they were trying to tell and make that work. At that point, I ended up thinking about what would make a good Green Lantern story. What would be a good way to approach Green Lantern from the ground up? It's not difficult. You just have to strip away the things that work for a character [that's been] around for fifty years but aren't necessary to telling [a story]. You can take away some of the trappings that aren't absolutely necessary to tell a core Green Lantern story".[45]
A constant criticism from fans regarding the graphic novels has been about their irregular releases.[56]Jim Lee explained the reason behind this: "We are still publishing the Earth One series, they're just not on a super regular schedule, because we reached out to top creators and gave them the time to tell their stories. Whenever they finish their projects, we take them, package them, and publish them".[3] On the subject, DiDio stated: "We're trying to be much more selective when we do original graphic novels. If you look back to when I first got here, and we were producing a lot of prestige format books – we were churning out a lot of them, and they were a higher price point, and they were supposed to have a higher level of quality than what was going on in the regular line. But when you produce too much of that, it all starts to water itself down. Here we want to be very selective, and try to find the right teams for the right characters. That's why we're not rushing these books out – we're actually taking our time, and putting them out when they're ready, because we feel that there's going to be a hunger and interest to the audience for these creators and these characters, so when it does arrive, we're presenting it in the best form possible to reach the widest audience".[44]
ReviewingSuperman: Earth One,Ain't It Cool News complimented the Earth One series for its realism, calling it the future of the comics and the Superman, and also expressed an interest to see more graphic novels published in Earth One line.[57] In July 2012, Andrew Asberry called the Earth One line "edgy" and "exciting", noting how the "drastic" alterations made from the classic continuity of comics to the new continuity of graphic novels could be more attractive to readers. Also, Asberry compared Earth One toMarvel'sUltimate Universe, as, according to him, whereas the Ultimate Universe was more focused on making stories less convoluted so they could be accessible to new readers, Earth One is making them accessible to new readers while reimagining them entirely.[58]
Writing forIGN, Jesse Schedeen comparedTeen Titans: Earth One to the graphic novels of Superman and Batman that came before, as they all offer a streamlined, contemporary take on the characters in a new world free from any previous continuity, while also commenting on howTeen Titans doesn't even seem to be connected to the other Earth One graphic novels.[59] Schedeen later criticized the pace of the Earth One series, saying it's "slowly growing", in addition to pointing out that one of the problems that the Earth One books face is the space limitations imposed by the graphic novel format, where the stories, according to him, "devolve into rudimentarytwo-act tales where the main players are introduced and then the climax immediately unfolds".[60] Despite some criticism, he later gave positive review to some of the titles, like Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, feeling that the creators offered a new approach and reinvention to the characters in Earth One series.[61][62][5]
Matt Santori ofComicosity praised the Earth One line for "establishing the youth and inexperience" of DC characters.[63]
Reviewing Volume Two ofGreen Lantern: Earth One,GamesRadar+'s Pierce Lydon wrote that the Earth One line became a success for DC as it offered writers to take an established characters to a new direction.[64] Ray Goldfield ofGeekDad said the Volume Three ofWonder Woman: Earth One is "by far the most unique and bizarre of the Earth One books".[65]
The 2011 video gameBatman: Arkham City, its 2013 prequelBatman: Arkham Origins and its 2015 sequelBatman: Arkham Knight feature a number of alternative outfits for Batman to wear, including one based on the costume used by the Earth One version of the character.[71][72]
Grayson: Earth One is a fan-made web series, directed and written by Hisonni Johnson, and is available on the YouTube channel P3Series.[73] It follows ahypothetical, alternate universe scenario similar to the premise of the Earth One imprint, in whichRichard Grayson /Nightwing was never adopted by Bruce Wayne / Batman after the murder ofhis parents and, as a result, he did not become his sidekickRobin. The series stars Stephen McCain as Grayson, Kevin Porter as Batman, Jono Cota asJason Todd, Angela Gulner asBarbara Gordon,Rileah Vanderbilt asHelena Bertinelli, Katie Young asCarrie Kelly, Daz Crawford asVictor Friese, and Christian Lawrence Wade asCrispus Allen.[74] Originally planned for a six-episode season, production on the series had to be halted due tobudget problems, which resulted in the release of only the first two episodes: the first, "Anything for Babs", on June 1, 2013, and the second, "The Boy and the Bullet", on March 4, 2015.[75]
| Key People |
|  | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publications | |||||||||||
| Universe | |||||||||||
| Lines and imprints |
| ||||||||||
| Adaptations | |||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||
