DC Finally Explains How 'Overtime' Shaped Its Deepest Lore

DC's Omniverse and Hypertime can be hard to understand, but Green Lantern John Stewart has an analogy that breaks it down pretty easily.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for John Stewart: Emerald Knight #1

There are many new and confusing parts about DC's hypertime concept, but Green Lantern John Stewart explains it well.

DC Comics' multiverse has always been a controversial topic, as it is constantly changing. This goes back to trying to right the events of DC's complicated classic "Crisis on Infinite Earths" blockbuster. Flashpoint happened again when DC's New 52 era was born. Now, Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths is a direct sequel to the events of the original Crisis, ushering in a whole new status quo for DC Comics. This was evident in the Flashpoint Beyond series, which attempted to differentiate many different aspects of DC reality, such as the Omniverse.

In John Stewart: Geoffrey Thorne and Marco Santucci's The Emerald Knight #1, John Stewart has a new army of Green Lanterns who will be in another part of the DC continuity. One aspect (called hypertime) combats new threats. To explain Hypertime to the other Green Lanterns, John uses the water analogy. He describes the main timeline as the sea. The rivers branching out from this sea are the universes. But every once in a while, A short section of the river is diverted into its own stream. These streams existed on their own before rejoining the river from which they came. These small streams are called Hypertime.

John Stewart Understands Hypertime Better Than Most.

DC Comics is no stranger to intricate layers of reality. They even say that DC stands for "Divine Continuum," and phrases like "Source Wall" and "Dark Multiverse" are recurring parts of DC lore. These phrases and different aspects of being change often and become so intertwined that it can be difficult to understand how it works. This simple analogy by John Stewart breaks it down in a way that's easier to visualize. This means that Hypertime is similar to another dimension, but it is less stable because it is based on possibility. It is both present and non-existent, which makes its inhabitants a very special situation.

While not explicitly stated, it is implied that the recently reborn Flashpoint universe currently exists in one of these Hypertime streams. In fact, it even exists in Snowball. When reading Flashpoint Beyond, it's often difficult to understand how the world can Remains present when previously erased. Flashpoint's Batman Thomas Wayne is trying to figure out the same thing. The continued existence of Flashpoint is easier for readers to understand when Flashpoint is placed in the analogy of a temporary stream branching off from a main river. For that, fans can definitely thank Green Lantern for his explanation.

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