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The History of Hypertime

by Cecil Adkins

Hypertime was supposed to change the world.

Well, the world of the DC Universe, anyway. It was envisioned as a grand, never-before-attempted experiment to unite all of DC Comics's myriad worlds, characters, and stories, under one gigantic, cosmic umbrella. Every story that had ever been published was true. Every character that had ever appeared was still out there somewhere. Every world that had been wiped out during Crisis on Infinite Earths, or at least a close facsimile, was still around.

Fan reaction was varied, and much of it, if you believe the countless posts from the Usenet newsgroups and other message boards at the time, was incredibly negative. "This is the end of comics as we know it," one post actually proclaimed. "Hypertime is just an excuse for lazy editing and sloppy storytelling," many more said. "This is no different from the pre-Crisis Multiverse," some people moronically said.

Well, it turned out that none of the above came true. Comics are still around, and even if it looks like the industry is in a slump (which it has been for a while), Hypertime has nothing to do with it. The concept also hasn't been used to justify bad editing or storytelling - at least, not by anyone actually in the industry. And Hypertime is obviously very different from the mere Multiverse, as I've shown elsewhere.

But, just because the bad predictions were shown to be just a bunch of disgruntled fans bellyaching over nothing, that doesn't mean that Hypertime has lived up to the good expectations that a few of us had, either. Other than the Superboy: Hypertension story, there hasn't been a single extended storyline featuring Hypertime. Mark Waid's final Flash story used Hypertime, but you didn't really know it until the very last installment. And other than that, all you have is a couple of lines in scattered issues of the soon-to-be cancelled Hourman series.

Perhaps worst of all, there was supposed to have been a huge revelation this year concerning Hypertime - one which would make the "merging timelines" aspect of the concept seem a minor part of the whole thing. Sadly, that isn't going to happen from the looks of things.

The two creators who are most closely identified with Hypertime - Mark Waid, who introduced the concept in 1998's Kingdom series, and Grant Morrison, who according to some, got the ball rolling in the first place - have pretty much left DC behind. Waid's heading off to bask in the Florida sun with CrossGen Comics, and Morrison's already bolted for a rejuvinated Marvel.

I was really looking forward to a Morrison Hypertime story, since Morrison's description of the concept was so far out.

So, where does Hypertime go from here? With its chief architects fleeing DC's ranks, with Hourman - a series purportedly about the "master of Hypertime" - ending, and with fan discussion dying down, does this mean it's the end of the road for Hypertime?

Maybe, but I doubt it. The concept was always meant to be in the background - if it wasn't, then all of those bad predictions would have come true. I see Hypertime popping up every so often, until a talented, trusted writer comes up with a big Hypertime story that'll blow everyone away.

Any takers?