The Fringe DC Universe

I watched Fringe when it first came on, and kind of enjoyed it. But then about halfway through the first season, I missed a couple of episodes, realized I didn't really care, and that was that.

But then last week, I heard about a pretty clever gimmick on the show. In the season finale, the characters went to an alternate Earth and encountered their alternate Earth counterparts (who are naturally evil, though sadly, not goateed).

And in one scene, they also encountered alternate versions of several famous comic book covers.

For example, here's the cover of Green Lantern #76:

Here's the same comic from the alternate Earth on Fringe:

Obviously, the new cover is nowhere near as good as the original. Hal Jordan looks like he's on steroids, and I guess Neal Adams didn't exist on the other Earth, which probably contributed to it being so bleak. I also really hate "Red Lantern" as a superhero name. Green Lantern just rolls right off the tongue. Red Lantern? Not so much.

So if we were scoring which Earth has the better version of the comic--and guess what? We are--it would be:

Our Earth's Comics: 1
Alternate Earth's Comics: 0


Here's Superman #75 (the famous "Death of Superman" issue) and its alternate Earth counterpart:

On our Earth, the whole issue is little more than Superman and Doomsday trading blows with each other, and right after finally defeating him, Superman dies in Lois Lane's arms. There's no way of knowing how this storyline played out on the alternate Earth, but if it was Doomsday vs. Batman, that must have been the shortest issue ever, ending with a big red mist where Batman was last standing.

But regardless of how Batman dies, Superman #75 is also a pretty horrible comic; a mindless extended fight scene intentionally drawn with big, one-panel pages to attract all the attention-deficit fanboys who were flocking to Image at the time. So it's hard to imagine the alternate Earth's version being any worse.

Our Earth's Comics: 1
Alternate Earth's Comics: 1

Nowadays, comic book characters die and come back to life like there's a revolving door for superheroes in Heaven. But back in 1985, they mostly tended to stay dead. So when Supergirl was killed off in Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, that was a major "Holy shit!" moment. I was a kid and had just really started reading comics when this issue came out and had no idea what a "Holy shit!" moment was, and even I knew that was a "Holy shit!" moment.

But instead of Supergirl, imagine if DC had killed off Superman. Not like the way "Death of Superman" killed off Superman, where it was clearly temporary, but really killed off Superman. That "Holy shit!" moment would have been 100 times as huge.

Our Earth's Comics: 1
Alternate Earth's Comics: 2

I'm not saying a Justice League with Jonah Hex as a member wouldn't be a blast. But not at the expense of Guy Gardner.

Our Earth's Comics: 2
Alternate Earth's Comics: 2

The Dark Knight Returns is one of the all-time great Batman stories, and as far as I'm concerned, the first issue maybe has the best cover in the history of comics. But let me get this straight: Batman takes Superman's place in Superman #75, and Superman takes Batman's place in Dark Knight Returns? Wow, to say Batman got royally screwed on the alternate Earth is an understatement. To add insult to injury, over there, Christopher Nolan probably directed Superman Begins and The Man of Steel, while Bryan Singer made an ill-advised continuation of the Joel Schumacher Batman films.

Our Earth's Comics: 3
Alternate Earth's Comics: 2

So there you go. The alternate Earth on Fringe may have better technology and 9/11 may have never happened, but people are evil and more importantly, its comics suck.

All of a sudden, this Earth doesn't seem like such a terrible place to live.