Historical Superman/DC Comics Questions?

Question

What is "Pre-Crisis Superman" and "Post-Crisis Superman". What is the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Modern Age. Who is Superman Prime. What is the Multiverse with Earth one, Earth two, Earth three, etc.

In easy to understand terms...if possible.

Answer 1

Golden Age approximately equals pre-1960’s

Silver Age approximately equals post-1960’s.

I think Bronze age is roughly 1988-2000, and modern is after 2000.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was the fifty year ‘reboot’ of the DC universe. The continuity was getting too complicated, and Superman’s powers had grow too great during the past years, to the point where almost nothing could affect him (except Kryptonite, magic and Kryptonian diseases.)

Part of the continuity problems was the multiple Earths. The Golden Age characters and their stories were on Earth 2, the Silver Age and their stories were on Earth 1 There was also Earth 3, Earth X, a bunch of them. They made for interesting crossover stories (usually called Crisis on [or, ‘between] Earth # {and Earth #+1)

So, in 1988, they sarted the DC Multiverse (multiple universes) over again.

Superman was brand new, the defined his powers a little differently, and he was not quite as infinitely powerful as he was before.

Superboy Prime was the Superboy of Earth Prime. He went crazy when his friends were killed by a bad guy and tried to change the universe. The other heroes knew that he was more powerful than all the rest of them put together (he was as powerful, if not more, than the Silver Age Superman that was too powerful to write good stories about.) They managed to trap Superboy prime behind some kind of dimensional barrier, though he keeps trying to break out. (This happened during the story “Infinite Crisis”.) Whenever he tries to break out, things are likely to change without warning, like a hero could die, an old version of a hero could reappear, etc.

Hope this isn’t too complicated. Wikipedia has a good, if lengthy article on Superman and Superboy.

So, ‘Crisis’ is a dividing point in comic book history. Pre- and post-Crisis usually refer to Crisis on Infinite Earths, while references to Superboy Prime refer to the hero-gone-bad during Infinite Crisis, which was a different even in a different story.

Hope this isn’t too confusing.

21 JAN 07, 2108 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

1) Pre-Crisis Superman up to 1986 (publication of DC Comics Maxi Series Crisis on Infinite Earths.
2) Post Crisis Superman after completion of events in Crisis on Infinite Earths (less powerful with a stream line supporting class).
3) Golden Age Superman 1939-(open to debate) late 1950's early 1960's)
4) Silver Age Superman(see above) late 1950's or early 1960's to (open to debate) 1970 or last 12 cent comic.
5) Bronze Age end of silver age to (open to debate1986)
6)Modern Age 1986-present.
7) Superman Prime what the current Superman- is called in the future by his descendants who are all Supermen (and women)
8) Multiverse (Earths 1,2,3, etc.) a plot device to put older characters on one earth in another dimension, other character on another, done to explain what happened to older hero's.

well hope this helps.

Answer 3

Pre/Post Crisis has to to with a massive reboot of the DC Universe in 1986

Superman's back story was reset in a Graphic Novel titled "Man of Steel" in which: Pa Kent was alive again. Lex was a Billionaire. Lana was Clark's best friend, she loved him more, he revealed his powers to her before leaving town, She eventually married Pete Ross. Lois' dad was now a General. Jimmy Olson, who had been mutated( I guess) was reset as simply a photographer. It also redefined Clark: he was not as nerdy, he'd been a football star in High School. Superman's powers and I believe the rainbow of Kryptonite were both scaled back, K was limited to Red and Green, and Superman needed a space suit for sustained space flight(no more spinning around planets) Another notable change was that Kal-el, was some how sent as a fetus inside a birthing matrix, and he wasn't technically 'born' until Ma Kent touched the space ship and it opened up

I'm sure there were other major points as well.

The Crisis in question was the Crisis on Infinite Earths story arc which occured within months of Man of Steel hitting the shelves.

In 2004/2005 a new Reset titled "Superman: Birthright" was released in which Ma and Pa were younger, Martha is also a UFO buff, Lex was a combination of mad-scientist and Billionaire, Lana left town after HS and hadn't been seen. Clark was reset as Dull, shy, and easily ignored.