Hypertime
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A fictional concept presented in the 1998 comic book series The Kingdom, hypertime is both a catch-all explanation for any continuity discrepancies in DC Universe stories, and a variation—in fact, a superset—of the Multiverse that existed before Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The basic premise of the idea was summed up by writer Mark Waid as, "It's all true." It presumes that all of the stories ever told about (for example) Superman are equally valid stories. Despite overt contradictions between the versions of the character (and his adventures, supporting characters, and setting) that appeared in the late 1930s and 1940s comics by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, portrayed by George Reeves in the 1950s TV series, depicted in 1960s and 1970s comics drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger or Curt Swan, portrayed by Christopher Reeve in the 1978 movie and its sequels, written and illustrated by John Byrne in the late 1980s, portrayed by Dean Cain in the 1990s TV series Lois and Clark, portrayed by Tom Welling in the 2000s TV series Smallville, or portrayed by Brandon Routh in the 2006 movie, no one of these versions supersedes any other as canon. This was a repudiation of the prevailing approach to continuity in superhero comics, in which only the currently-used version is considered valid, rendering prior stories which are inconsistent with this continuity officially apocryphal.
As it appears within comics stories themselves, Hypertime is a superdimensional construct which—under very limited circumstances (proscribed by editors in the real world, and by various in-story rules within the DC Universe itself)—can allow versions of characters from one continuity to interact with versions from another. For example, in The Kingdom, a version of Superman extrapolated into the future briefly encounters the Siegel/Shuster version.
Basically, Hypertime works like this: the main, or 'official' timeline is like a river, with a nearly infinite number of tributaries - alternate timelines - branching off. Most of the time, these alternate timelines go off on their own and never intersect with the main timeline. On occasion, the branches return, feeding back into the main timeline - sometimes permanently, sometimes temporarily. Thus, history can sometimes change momentarily and then change back (or not).
Some fans dislike the concept of Hypertime, believing that it undermines the storytelling continuity that adds to their enjoyment of stories set in an ongoing shared universe. Other fans like the concept because it saves stories that they enjoyed from being officially discarded following a retcon which renders them inconsistent with the new continuity.
(Hypertime is also used in the movie Clockstoppers, but in reference to a different concept: an artificially-induced highly-accelerated timeframe.)
- See also: Krypto-revisionism
External links:
- Unofficial Hypertime Website (http://www.geocities.com/hypertime2000/index2.html)