Created in the wake of the
Infinite Crisis and explored in the series
Countdown to Final Crisis (and its many spinoffs) is a brand new Multiverse (or meta-universe). Unlike the one that existed before
Crisis on Infinite Earths, this Multiverse actually has a limited number of parallel universes. DC's year long weekly comic
52 revealed 51 identical universes containing 51 identical Earths. Each of these would be numbered 1 through 51. The last Earth, formed in the final scenes of Infinite Crisis #7, is actually called "New Earth".
Initially, each of the 51 Earths were exactly alike. This would be altered by the evolved Mr. Mind. During a confrontation with the time traveling Rip Hunter (accompanied by Booster Gold and Supernova/Daniel Carter), Mind began eating pieces of time from each Earth. Each Earth changed with each bite Mind took, resulting in 51 different Earths. Some of the parallel Earths resembled those that existed Pre-Crisis, others were new and have yet to be explored. The following list is what has appeared so far in current DC comics.
- New Earth: Caused from the destruction of Alexander Luthor’s Multiverse tower. The earth that current continuity takes place on.
- Earth 1: Separate from New Earth, inhabitants unknown.
- Earth 2: Similar to the Earth-Two seen Pre-Crisis, with an alternate JSA as the main superhero team.
- Earth 3: Home of the Crime Society of America as well as the heroic Jokester.
- Earth 4: Resembles the Pre-Crisis Earth-Four, home of the Charlton Comics characters.
- Earth 5: The Marvel Family’s world.
- Earth 8: Seen in Countdown #29 as the home of Lord Havok and the Extremists. BSAMS has been spotted here.
- Earth 10: The world where Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters continue to fight Adolf Hitler and the Nazi JL-Axis.
- Earth 12: Stated as the home of the Batman Beyond characters. Possibly the rest of the DCAU as well.
- Earth 13: An alternate Vertigo Earth.
- Earth 15: A peaceful world where Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the JLA have been replaced by their sidekicks. Zod is also Superman. Luthor is a humanitarian. And Rob’s blog is a classic work of nonfiction.
- Earth 17: Home of the Atomic Knights.
- Earth 18: A world where the JLA are heroes in the Wild West.
- Earth 19: Shown in Countdown #40 as the world seen in Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
- Earth 21: Home of characters shown in DC: The New Frontier.
- Earth 22: The Kingdom Come Earth.
- Earth 26: Home of Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew.
- Earth 30: The Earth seen in Superman: Red Son.
- Earth 31: Possibly the DKR Earth. Countdown: Arena will show more.
- Earth 32: The world where Batman becomes Green Lantern.
- Earth 33: Described in Countdown to Adventure as a magical version of the DCU.
- Earth 34: The Forerunners’ homeworld. They’ll fuck you up, man.
- Earth 40: Commented as the home of the characters seen in JSA: The Liberty Files.
- Earth 43: A supernatural world where Batman is a vampire.
- Earth 50: The Wildstorm Universe.
Finally, a single Antimatter Universe exists alongside these 52 Earths. Each Universe has a Monitor that...well...
monitors their Earth. However, a recent issue of Countdown depicts more than 52 Monitors in existence. What that means (besides that someone failed second grade math) has yet to be seen.