Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, DC Comics re-imagined its staple characters and concepts while acquiring comic book properties from rival publishers. These many properties existed in several alternate timelines that composed the infinite "DC Comics Multiverse" full of heroes and villains that fed many DC stories for some time. In 1985, DC chose to simplify its continuity with a crossover story limited series "Crisis on Infinite Earths" during which the Multiverse was combined into a single world with one amalgamated history. Subsequent "crisis" storylines have seen reality threatened and reshaped again; often these storylines are used by writers as a way of adjusting the fictional history and setting of DC's stories. Stories like this include: "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time" (1994); "Infinite Crisis" (2006) which brought back the Multiverse concept with 52 Earths; "Final Crisis" (2008); and "Flashpoint" (2011) which reset the 52-world Multiverse and began the contemporary setting of DC Comics under the branding The New 52. "Convergence" is the next crisis event after "Flashpoint". The Grant Morrison comics series The Multiversity (2014–2015) explored the complete meta-history of the Multiverse in further depth and mapped out a majority of its 52 worlds after "Flashpoint".[citation needed]
In the run-up to "Convergence", DC published two weekly series, Earth 2: Worlds End and The New 52: Futures End, that led directly into the crossover story. Additionally, Futures End Booster Gold (2014), a one-off comic, depicts the classic Superman villain Brainiac assimilating his parallel counterparts from across the Multiverse after extracting the location of Vanishing Point from time traveling hero Booster Gold. Vanishing Point is a moment at the end of the universe from which all of history, including the history prior to each of DC's crises, can be accessed. From there, Brainiac collects various cities on various worlds prior to those worlds' destruction, but is narrowly defeated by that world's combined heroes and imprisoned.[citation needed]
After the events of Earth 2: Worlds End, the heroes of Earth 2—Batman (Thomas Wayne), Superman (Val-Zod), Green Lantern (Alan Scott), and the Flash (Jay Garrick)—find themselves thrust into the desert landscape of planet Telos along with Yolanda Montez who was a former host for the power of the Red (the collective animal life force of Earth 2), and reporter Dick Grayson. They encounter what appears to be Brainiac, whose shape changes from panel to panel to reflect different incarnations of Brainiac; it is later revealed that this character is Telos, an envoy of Brainiac and the living embodiment of the planet who awaits his master's return. Just as their world was about to be destroyed by Darkseid, the Earth 2 heroes, known as the Wonders of the World, were transported to Telos, where Brainiac, who assimilated his incarnations from across the Multiverse, has captured and stored many cities from across the entire history of the Multiverse, spanning various eras of DC Comics' publishing history including many of its popular Elseworlds graphic novels. After skirmishing with the heroes and wondering what purpose his master envisioned for this world, Telos enacts a plan to make the captive heroes and villains of the Multiverse fight each other for supremacy. These battles are shown in various two-part issues during the two-month Convergence series.[citation needed]
While the Earth 2 heroes investigate their setting, Yolanda Montez discovers she has residual animal-like abilities from her time as an avatar of the power of the Red. Batman partners with Dick while investigating the planet and enters a version of Gotham City in search of the Batcave. He enters the pre-Flashpoint Gotham on the former Earth 0 (the primary setting of DC stories prior to its New 52 relaunch) where Thomas Wayne and pre-Flashpoint Batman, Bruce Wayne, have an emotional encounter. Bruce lends Thomas his Batmobile, but they are pursued out of the city by Gotham's villains, causing Thomas Wayne to kill himself and many of the villains with an explosive device. Dick Grayson, realizing from what he has seen that in many worlds he is either Batman himself or closely connected with Batman, picks up one of Thomas's batarangs and decides to follow in his footsteps.[citation needed]
Alan Scott uses his powers as an avatar of the Earth to learn that deep within the planet Telos is the preserved world of Skartaris (the setting of The Warlord comic books) where the heroes encounter Warlord's nemesis Deimos, who promises the heroes he can defeat Telos. The Wonders soon learn that Deimos has systematically captured the Time Masters as well as other powerful time travelers, such as Monarch and Per Degaton. He absorbs their collective power and uses it to summon Brainiac who was imprisoned in a T-sphere during The New 52: Futures End. Deimos banishes Brainiac and then reveals to Telos that he is not the planet incarnate but a mortal who was transformed into a Brainiac-like creature when Brainiac ravaged his homeworld to create a storage world for his captured cities. Telos, in disbelief, vanishes and Deimos declares himself the planet's ruler. Using his near-infinite power, he tells the captives of the planet that he will protect their lives for a price.[citation needed]
As this is happening, planet Telos manifests physically in DC's contemporary main setting of Earth 0, where Superman, Supergirl, Guy Gardner, the Red Lanterns, Green Lantern Jediah Caul, Captain K'rot, the space-faring Justice League United, and the main Justice League all watch in amazement. Even all-powerful beings such as Nix Uotan, the guardian of the Multiverse; the evil god Darkseid; and the cosmic being known as Oracle do not fully fathom the events they are witnessing. Meanwhile, on Telos, the Earth 2 heroes encounter and form a team with several pre-Flashpoint heroes including: Superman, Red Arrow, Batgirl (Stephanie Brown), Donna Troy, and the Flash (Wally West). Superman tells Dick Grayson that he heard his interactions with Telos and that he believes Dick can recruit Telos to assist in challenging Deimos. The two Flashes, Jay and Wally, begin to search Telos for other Flashes; they find the second Flash (Barry Allen) from the Silver Age of comic books and add him to their team. The heroes are soon joined by versions of heroes and villains from comics published in every decade of DC's history and plan to overpower Deimos.[citation needed]
Deimos reveals he has recruited various villains and other misguided DC characters to defend him by giving them their deepest desires. When Yolanda reveals to the villains that they are being used by Deimos who wants them to die to grant him "the magic of death" required to remake the Multiverse in his own image, the two teams unite. Telos, convinced by Dick to fight for the heroes, battles with Deimos and weakens him. Deimos is finally destroyed by the Parallax version of Hal Jordan from the Zero Hour storyline. This inadvertently releases all the energy of the Time Masters into the world which creates an arc of lightning that escapes into space and strikes the omniscient Oracle. As he dies, Oracle explains that the whole of reality is coming apart, as in previous DC crises.[citation needed]
All worlds and timelines now exist. The Earth 2 team are left behind on the planet, but Telos transports the planet into Earth 2's universe. He appears in the sky to tell the Wonders that he has remembered his real name and where his family is and that the planet will be their New Earth 2. Once again able to channel the power of the Green, Alan terraforms the planet and makes contact with the space fleet carrying the displaced Earth 2 refugees leading them to their new home.[citation needed]
