Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Michael Keaton’s Batman Exist in the Same Universe, DC Confirms

DC is wrapping up another Crisis event, and as is standard practice with these stories, the DC multiverse has been given a major overhaul. DC has fully abandoned the 52 universes approach popularized by 2011’s New 52 relaunch. Instead, they’re returning to a classic version of the multiverse where thousands of parallel Earths vibrate in cosmic harmony. And that includes a world that serves as home to both Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Michael Keaton’s Batman.

The new tie-in special Dark Crisis: Big Bang acts as a guide to the revamped multiverse, with Barry Allen racing across dozens of worlds as he tries to stop the reborn Anti-Monitor from devouring the multiverse all over again. This issue ends with a detailed list of several dozen of the countless worlds that make up the new DC multiverse:

This new multiverse chart reveals that the aptly named Earth-789 is the setting for both 1978’s Superman and 1989’s Batman. Moreover, it confirms that Superman and Supergirl (presumably referring to Helen Slater’s Supergirl) are the only two super-powered beings on this world.

It makes sense that DC would reserve a place for both of these cinematic superheroes, given that they recently continued the stories of both characters in Superman ’78 (set after the events of Superman II) and Batman ’89 (set after Batman Returns). We can only hope this Easter egg means DC is planning a proper Batman ’89/Superman ’77 crossover.

Similarly, Earth-66 is confirmed to be the home of Adam West’s Batman and Burt Ward’s Robin. Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman isn’t referenced in this chart, though the fact that she crossed paths with an older version of West’s Batman in Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77, we can assume she also dwells on that world.

The rest of this multiverse map features a number of familiar DC Universes. It appears DC is keeping the worlds introduced in Grant Morrison’s Multiversity in play. Earth-1 is still home to the characters from DC’s various Earth One graphic novels, and the New 52 incarnation of the Justice Society of America still exists on Earth-2. Other alternate universes featured here include DCeased, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Kingdom Come, Superman: Red Son, Dark Knights of Steel, Batman & Dracula: Red Rain and at least two worlds inspired by the DC Animated Universe – Earth-12 (Batman Beyond) and Earth-50 (the Justice Lords universe).

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that DC is even acknowledging the existence of 1996’s infamous DC vs. Marvel crossover. Earth-1996 is home to the Amalgam universe, where heroes from both publishers merged to form new characters like Darkclaw and Super-Soldier.

Let us know what you think about Dark Crisis so far and the decision to bring back an infinite DC multiverse. And check back next week as we break down the ending of Dark Crisis #7 and how it sets up the Dawn of DC initiative in 2023.

We’ll finally see Keaton reprise his Batman role in 2023’s The Flash. Though with Warner Bros. Discovery canceling both the Batgirl movie and an unannounced Batman Beyond movie, it remains to be seen if we’ll see Keaton appear elsewhere in the DCEU.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.