DC's Earth One: Gone for Good or Poised for a Comeback?

DC’s Earth One graphic novel line of the 2010’s was an enthralling, captivating, and (time-wise) frustrating DC Elseworlds story, and its apparent end has left many comic book readers wondering if it will ever return. DC’s Earth One line kicked off in late 2010 with Superman: Earth One, with Earth One books following for Batman, Wonder Woman, the Teen Titans, and Green Lantern. Set outside of the primary DC Comics continuity, DC Earth One gave comic book readers completely original versions of each hero, with each extended graphic novel encompassing several regular comic book issues worth of material to tell a sprawling story for each character.

The most recently published Earth One book was Batman: Earth One Vol. 3, back in 2021. With no major updates on DC Earth One since, it is probably fair to call the line defunct. That’s a shame, as DC Earth One presented some fantastic comic book stories with DC’s greatest heroes, even amid a less than ideal publication schedule.

DC Earth One Was As Elseworlds As It Gets

DC Earth One did the exact trick that has been the bread and butter of DC Comics since its inception of telling Elseworlds tales concurrently with its mainline continuity. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Teen Titans were each given radically new origin stories that threw comic readers for a loop, from Clark Kent going from drifter to Superman when an alien invasion suddenly arrives to a far more inexperienced Bruce Wayne throwing himself into the deep end as Batman to Hal Jordan going from a test pilot to an astronaut.

The Earth One graphic novels all ran at least two to three volumes each, and drew widespread acclaim from comic book readers and the media for their re-imagining of each DC character. DC Earth One even proved influential enough for their stories to provide the basis for some DC movies. Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel uses Superman: Earth One Vol. 1 as more or less its full story foundation, while Matt Reeves’ The Batman also pulls surprisingly heavily from Batman: Earth One. With an impact like this, one would think that DC Earth One would become one of the company’s main storytelling pillars, but this was not to be.

DC Earth One’s Biggest Issue Was Its Sporadic Schedule

If you followed DC Earth One closely, odds are you shared the same complaint as most other readers amid what was otherwise a highly satisfying DC run – that being the infrequency with which DC’s Earth One books were published. Despite starting off so strong with Superman: Earth One, the Earth One line frequently left readers hanging for years at a time between stories. Batman: Earth One in particular had a whopping six-year gap between volumes two and three, but even on the shorter end, readers could typically expect to find themselves waiting for two to three years from one volume to the next.

This also left DC Earth One felling like it had only just scratched the surface of characters it could tell Elseworlds stories with. At least the Earth One line gave three volumes a piece to DC’s Trinity, but Green Lantern still felt shortchanged at two. Moreover, The Flash and Aquaman’s planned Earth One books have never gotten off the ground, and the undeniably tantalizing idea of Justice League Earth One was never even broached upon, an odd choice given the Teen Titans two Earth One volumes. With DC Earth One now being all but dead, the question is will it ever make a comeback?

Will DC Earth One Ever Return?

The short answer is probably not. Despite being a popular, acclaimed alternative to DC’s main comics continuity, the publishing schedule the Earth One books clearly demonstrates the line-up as being less planned as a sustained side pillar of DC books and more of a series of character Elseworlds one-offs. That also makes it harder to justify an Earth One comeback with what DC currently has in the works.

Additionally, DC’s Absolute Universe, overseen by Scott Snyder, is firing on all cylinders with Elseworlds tales of its own for Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, with The Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern pending release as of this writing, and others to be announced. With DC putting so much energy into the Absolute Universe, and earning as much as acclaim as the Absolute takes on each DC character has, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where a line-up like Earth One is something DC Comics would prioritize for a revival, especially with the original publication schedule itself being so elongated.

While nothing is impossible, it is sad to say that Batman: Earth One Vol. 3 is probably the last of DC’s Earth One graphic novel line-up. While it may have come to a rather unceremonious end, DC Earth One nevertheless told some of the most unforgettable stories with DC’s Trinity, Green Lantern, and the Teen Titans in recent memory. Comic book readers who have yet to take the plunge on DC Earth One should most definitely fix that – for anyone who calls themselves a comic book fan, it would be a true shame indeed to have never read the greatness that is DC Earth One.

2025-03-16 06:51

DC’s Earth One: Gone for Good or Poised for a Comeback?

DC Earth One Was As Elseworlds As It Gets

DC Earth One’s Biggest Issue Was Its Sporadic Schedule

Will DC Earth One Ever Return?

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