Here's what you need to know about Earth-17 in the DC Multiverse, as well as how a comic and video game disagree on the specifics of the world.

The DC Multiverse is a varied and vast place, with each Earth featuring its own unique interpretation of classic characters. The multiverse has been explored in properties outside the comics, and Infinite Crisis--a (sadly) short-livedMultiplayer Online Battle Arena video game -- featured versions of DC heroes from across the multiverse.

Notably, this included Earth-17 -- where the Earth was irradiated ruins following a global nuclear conflict. But the comics and the video game actuallydifferon the specifics ofthe world, featuring different divergence points and interpretations of classic characters. Here's how Infinite Crisischanged Earth-17.

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The Earth-17 of the current DC Multiverse hasn't been featured much, but may have a secret importance to the future of all creation.In this version of the universe (which was introduced in The Multiversity Guidebook #1), Earth-17 was consumedby nuclear war in 1963. The survivors travel the wastelands in radioactive suits that can protect them from the effects of the environment around them, and this world is protected by the Atomic Knights of Justice.

Led by Captain Adam Strange, the team consists of Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Arrow and Flash. TheAtomic Knights of Justice have foughtfoes like Doctor Light. However, there's another reason Earth-17 is important: Somewherein the wastelands of Novamerika lies the Cosmic Grail. One of the most powerful artifacts in the multiverse, the Cosmic Grail is the only remaining piece of the destroyed Earth-15. If the Atomic Knights could locate the Cosmic Grail, it might just give them enough power to contend with the coming of their world's Darkseid.

The only member of the team who has received any real focus is Batman, andthatwasn't even on his own world. During The Multiversity Guidebook, the Earth-17 Batmansearches for the Cosmic Grail inside the Dark Tower of Luthex. But stepping through an interdimensional door, he ends up on Earth-42 -- a version of the DC Universe populated by chibi versions of the Justice League that are secretly sleeper agents for the Empty Hand) He hints at his past (a survivor of the East-Gotham Rad Pits, he worked with his world's Dick Grayson untilthat hero was killed in the line of duty) and eventually ends up joining with Justice Incarnate as one of their multiversal protectors. But this version of Earth-17 is actually surprisingly different from the one inInfinite Crisis.

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The Earth-17 ofInfinite Crisis was heavily based on the Earth-17 of the Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint DC Multiverse, which was re-established after the events of 52. The world hadn't been fully explored save for being established as an atomic wasteland in the aftermath of a worldwide war. Infinite Crisis and its tie-in comic expanded on that idea, revealing that the divergence point came when Kal-El's rocket crashed into Earth. This event occurred far later in the timeline than usual, with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, for example, already operating as established heroes. Kal-El's rocket blasting towards Smallville set off an international incident. With the Cold War very much still in progress, America assumes the rocket is a missile and unleashes its nuclear arsenal -- prompting the rest of the world to do the same.

From the ruins of the world, only a handful of survivors are able to make their way through the world in a desperate attempt to save what remains of the planet. Wonder Woman fights to rebuild society, using a staff with two chainsaws attached to the ends as her primary weapon. Having lost his arm during the conflict, Hal Jordan awakens to find his Green Lantern ring embedded in his chest and now powered by a dangerous radioactive isotope. Poison Ivy was mutated by the fallout and became a new fearsome avatar of the Green.The Joker -- having been recruited by the US army for his ability to conceive of unique battle scenarios -- was reduced to a head in a jar that was protected by a conditioned survivor.

TheInfinite Crisis Earth-17 presented an interesting tweak on a number of established characters, setting up a dark incarnation of the DC Universe where the hope of life lives on even if the world around them falls apart. It would have made for an interesting setting to further explore. Interestingly enough, there's not a formal explanation for why this worldchanged into the Earth-17 that exists within the current DC multiverse. Unless there was some unseenFlashpointevent on this world that rewrote history, there's no obvious explanation of how the timeline could have changed so drastically.

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