Supergirl in the Multiverse: Earth-57

Earth-57 marks an interesting point in this series because it is the first time we’ve actively skipped a number. Season 1 of Supergirl in the Multiverse covered Earths 0-51 without any skips and January this year featured Earths 52-55. While I did skip around in February and March, those were for specific theming reasons, now that we’re back to going in order (sort of) we come to find that there is not currently a universe in the DC Multiverse with a designation of 56, but we do get an Earth-57. In short, it’s the universe where Superman marries Lois and Lana and Jimmy Olsen marries Supergirl, but it does get a tad more complicated than that.

The universe exists as told in both Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #57 (1961) and Superman’s Girlfriends #57 (1965). The Lois Lane story is the later entry but I want to cover it first for reasons we’ll get into later. Lois Lane #57 takes place on Earth-1 (Pre-Crisis Earth-1), and Lois and Lana are babysitting a Super-Tot who they think is their Superman that has been de-aged. They both hypnotize him (as a toddler) in hopes that he’ll marry them once he reverts to his old self. This does happen, but not the way they expected, the Super-tot they were sitting was actually the de-aged Superman of Earth-57 (it wasn’t named as such at the time, but is the canon designation) and through a viewer in the Fortress Lois and Lana witness Superman of Earth-57 marrying both Lois and Lana and Superman of Earth-1 mentioning that on that universe, bigamy (having 2 wives) is legal.

Jimmy Olsen #57 has a slightly less convoluted plot but there are still some hoops to jump through. Jimmy visits Midvale orphanage to write a story (Linda is there although she has been adopted by the Danvers but this isn’t really relevant). Jimmy unknowingly exposes Linda to red-k which makes her forget that she has superpowers (which k still trying to figure out why she never realized she was wearing a wig) and then the pair fall madly in love and get married. Linda eventually remembers that she has super powers and comes up with a plan to slowly reveal to Jimmy her existence as Supergirl (this story takes place just before her existence is revealed to the world) and then also Linda, as Supergirl, would also confess her love to Jimmy. This puts Jimmy in a pickle and also points to the fact that these 2 Earth-57s cannot exist together at once. Jimmy is conflicted because he is stuck between his wife Linda, and Supergirl who is also confessing her love to him. The conflict being that Jimmy can’t be married to both Supergirl and Linda (which wouldn’t be the case if this universe had legalized bigamy. Of course there is a happy ending with Linda revealing to Jimmy that she’s Supergirl and they continue on with their happy married life.

As with all my Supergirl in the Multiverse posts, this is my own artwork. Supergirl is shown bridal carrying Jimmy Olsen with a wedding finger on her hand. Jimmy is holding a camera and the pair are floating in the air. The background shows a skyline including the Daily Planet and the midground has a suburban home with a mailbox that reads “THE OLSENS”. The top right corner has a motif of Supergirl’s symbol with a 57 on top of it.