Comic Book Lessons in Analytics— Crisis on Infinite Earths
A universe reborn. What had been many became one
If you’ve read comics (or watched any movie franchise) in this century, then you are well acquainted with the concept of the ‘reboot’. Lately, both Marvel and DC comics almost completely reset their universes every 5 years or so.
But there was a time when this didn’t happen. We had multiple timelines and universes, but they were usually pretty stable.
The DC multiverse even featured annual team-up crossovers between Earth-1 and Earth-2 heroes, allowing the Justice League and Justice Society to have their annual events while still living apart.
Until the Crisis.
Background
I’ll keep this brief. The Guardians of OA, patrons of the Green Lantern Corps, had few laws at the time, but one was held as absolute: no one can bear witness to the beginning of the universe. They believed such a thing would be catastrophic for all that was or would be.
They were right. What they didn’t realize was that it had already happened.
Creation had been planned as a division between two realities: the “positive” (matter) universe and its mirror, the “negative” (antimatter) universe.
Instead, something caused the nascent positive energy to splinter into an infinite number of universes, each with only a portion of its intended energy.
Each positive matter universe was therefore significantly weaker, on its own, than the single anti-matter universe created on the other side of the balance.
Pariah
Despite the splintering, the multiple universes coexisted for billions of years without incident. Two beings created at the beginning of time, the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor (guess where each was from) were in a battle for dominance that finally rendered each eternally unconscious. Almost.
Life arose in each universe, in the myriad civilizations that long-time readers will recognize. Just to name a few…
- Earth-1 had the Justice League.
- Earth-2 had the much older Justice Society, including a retired Batman.
- Earth-3 had the Crime Syndicate, the evil Justice League doppelgangers.
- Earth-4 had Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, still fighting WW II.
- Earth-5, somewhat more lighthearted, was home to the Marvel family — Captain Marvel (now called Shazam), Mary Marvel, Uncle Marvel…
There were several named Earths and too many unnamed worlds to count. Remember that, while we focus on only a few planets in the comics, most of these splinter universes as big (or bigger) than the one we call home.
One day, on one of the more advanced Earths, a scientist studying new forms of energy pierced the veil between matter and antimatter. This awakened the Anti-Monitor, who was both angry and starving for sustenance.
Somehow, this cosmic anti-matter being realized that he could consume the positive energy in the universe that was suddenly open to him.
I haven’t mentioned the scientist’s name because I don’t know it. I know him only as Pariah. Once he realized what he had done, he expected to die with his world. He was wrong. Very wrong.
Pariah’s sins were threefold.
- He had awakened the dormant Anti-Monitor
- He had made the Anti-Monitor aware of his positive matter universe
- He had also showed him that walls between universes could be breached
Pariah hadn’t doomed only his world. He had doomed all of them. And someone decided that he should bear witness.
When the Anti-Monitor recognized how weak this universe was compared to what he had been expecting, he sought out the other universes to consume. The scientist, Pariah, was cursed to appear on each Earth just before it was erased from existence by a white… wall similar to what you can see above.
I don’t know how long Pariah suffered before he appeared on Earth-3, but we all got to watch Earth-3 destroyed immediately after he showed up.
Earth-1
Naturally, the story quickly led to Earth-1, where Batman was immediately suspicious of the green-robed who suddenly appeared spouting doom.
Still, Batman wasn’t as surprised as you might expect. He was already in the middle of a very strange investigation of an event that had happened a few months earlier. The Flash, Barry Allen, had appeared without warning…
…And proceeded to disintegrate with no explanation beyond, “I’m too early.”
When Batman later found Flash (before the Crisis) to ask for an explanation, Flash had none to give. He had no idea what Batman was talking about.
Come the Crisis
I’m not going to tell the whole story. I don’t have time, and you really should read it. Suffice to say that the Anti-Monitor appeared, having destroyed all but five of the (apparently not infinite but very large) number of positive matter universes that had existed.
Heroes and villains from those five Earths, assembled by the Monitor, fought back. Alex Luther, sole surviving hero of Earth-3, sent his son through the dimensional veil to be saved. Villains betrayed heroes. People died.
Major 30-year-old spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.
Two deaths in particular had a lasting impact on the DC universe/multiverse.
The Anti-Monitor soon learned that the surviving Earths, after colliding quite violently (see above), had devised a way to stop him from absorbing their combined energy. He then designed and built a weapon to channel pure antimatter, capable of destroying all positive manner remaining.
During the expected battle, the Anti-Matter faced down a team of heroes and villains from five Earths.
Sacrifice
Only one managed to slip past the Anti-Monitor and get to the weapon in time to stop it: Barry Allen. The Flash. He wasn’t strong enough to destroy, so he came up with a Plan B: destabilize its antimatter core by running opposite to its rotation
This required Barry to run faster than he had ever run before, faster than he had every considered possible, much left safe. He was half right. Between the speed and the proximity of so much antimatter, it took a toll…
He succeeded. He also ran himself back in time, appearing randomly in other DC comics over the course of the previous three months (see Batman, above).
Barry Allen died saving the universe.
This was no typical comic book death, either. Barry was gone. The original Wally West became the Flash for over 20 years and, for a long time, was the only Flash some readers ever knew. Wally was also the Flash in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoon series.
Barry did eventually return, but that’s part of a future article.
One other hero fell in battle, as well. It might not be as relevant to this article, but I will not fail to acknowledge her.
Supergirl died fighting the Anti-Monitor, saving Superman from his wrath. She almost won the fight but ultimately sacrificed herself to save her cousin.
So How Did It End?
The Anti-Monitor was eventually banished. The remaining heroes, from multiple destroyed worlds, worked with the Spectre’s guidance to guide the recreation of the universe as it should have originally been.
For the first time in… ever, there was only one universe in DC comics. Heroes from all across the multiverse suddenly had to learn to coexist in a world that, for the most part, believed they had always been there.
Not all of them, of course. Some simply vanished when reality caught up to them. A select few hid away in a pocket dimension, watching.
This lasted for many years, until the next Crisis. A story for another time…
And this has what to do with Analytics and Data Science?
One becomes many becomes one. How many times has this happened to you in the course of an analytic project?
- You are given one scenario to start. Stakeholders will state firmly and clearly that the process is fully defined and the requirements are complete.
- That’s rarely true. What should have been one process has become many in practice, because it was left to individual groups to get the job done. And like a Hydra, each one you cut down causes two more to grow in its place.
- We always say that “no one had the time” to design and define and singular process, but that’s not true. They just didn’t take the time.
- This splintering will be reflected in the results, reporting, and analysis that each team (or individual, or manager) has available or has chosen to use.
You can also take some hard-fought advice from this little anecdote:
- Always listen to warnings you are given, especially if your source appears in a flash of lightning. You don’t have to heed them, but always listen.
- You can find success in chaos if you establish a plan, collaborate freely, adjust as necessary, and never trust Lex Luthor (from any dimension).
- The ‘whole’ can and always should be stronger than the sum of its parts.
- Never run full speed around an active antimatter engine unless absolutely necessary.
- If you ever figure out the trick to sending warning back in time a few months to warn me about what I’m going to face, I’d love to learn it.
In conclusion
A few more things before you go…
I’m brushing strongly against the topics of standards and governance here without broaching the topic directly. We’ll get to that. However, you cannot properly discuss the synthesis side of analytics without referencing governance (a.k.a. “best practices”) to some extent.
Curious about what happened next? Don’t worry.
There are plenty more Crises on the way…
