Warning: spoilers for the series “Superman and Lois”, season 2, episode 15.
Although Clark is still played by Tyler Hacklin, the world depicted in Superman and Lois is very different from Earth-Prime. At this point, it’s becoming clear that all three DC CW shows take place in different versions of Earth. Superman, Stargirl, and Flash occupy their own realities in the DC CW multiverse.
Initially, it was assumed that instead of all three shows being completely separate, two were on the same planet. In particular, it was believed that Superman, Lois and Flash were on Earth-Prime. After all, that’s what the finale of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” implied. The crisis marked the beginning of Clark and Lois’ story in the series when Oliver Queen rebooted the multiverse and inadvertently gave them two sons instead of one. Arrowverse then built this discovery by launching “Superman and Lois”. An additional advantage of the crisis is that the existence of Earth-Prime enabled characters such as Superman and Supergirl to live in the same world as Flash and Legends, which created the potential for crossovers. However, it has since become apparent that Superman and Lois refused to install the Arrowverse.
Sam Lane’s speech in the finale of the second season of “Superman and Lois” confirmed that, despite everything that happened during the crisis, the show is not actually taking place on Earth-Prime. Moving in this direction, the series finally gave a reason why the series continues to ignore other Arrowverse superheroes. It seems that most of them have no place in the Land of Superman and Lois, which has some key differences from the House of Flash, Black Lightning, Legends and all the rest. Here is everything that has been said so far about the world of Superman and Lois and how it differs from Earth-Prime from Arrowverse.
Clark is Superman, and Lois is the only hero with superpowers
Assuring Jonathan and Jordan that the Earth is in the safe hands of Superman, Lane mentioned the “legions” of superheroes everywhere in the universe, but stated that only Clark protects this planet. This line, which eventually confirmed the rift between Superman and Lois and Earth-Prime, was later developed by showrunner Todd Helbing. Helbing has said in several interviews that Clark is the only hero with superpowers. This means that meta-humans like Flash, Killer Frost, Black Lightning, Elongated Man and Firestorm have never existed. However, this does not exclude the presence of vigilantes without power plants.
Superman and Tal-Ro are the only surviving Kryptonians
The idea that Superman alone protects the Earth makes him one of two survivors of the destruction of Krypton, not three. Presumably, Supergirl either never escaped and did not come to Earth, or she simply never existed. In any case, the decision to retcon Melissa Benoist’s character from the Arrow universe from the Superman story has a number of important consequences. In addition to the fact that the Superman-Supergirl team is unlikely (if not impossible) in the future, this erases any influence that her show had on his corner of the Arrow Universe. Since her story didn’t happen in the Superman and Lois canon, this allows the series to reimagine all the Superman characters her show used.
Superman had adventures in the multiverse (but not in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”)
Through his meetings with Steele and the series’ exploration of John Henry Irons’ origin story, the first season of Superman and Lois recognized the multiverse and demonstrated that Clark and Lois really know about it. Obviously, the first one was struggling with threats from the multiverse, although not with those hinted at by the first season. If Clark is a doppelganger of the hero who fought alongside Green Arrow and The Flash as a Paragon of Truth, then he did not take part in the battle with the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis and did not cross universes to help the heroes. against John Deegan in “Other Worlds”. At the moment, what Superman’s experience with the multiverse was like before meeting Steele remains ambiguous, but can be discussed in detail later.
Oliver Queen became the Green Arrow, but never met The Flash
As noted above, the new rules established for Superman and Lois exclude only metahuman heroes from his continuity. At the same time, the series did not violate its own canon. In the first season of Superman and Lois, John Diggle, played by David Ramsey, referred to Oliver Queen. Since Oliver didn’t have the strength, it makes sense that he was able to find a place on the Land of Superman and Lois. As Helbing confirmed, the version of Oliver in the series became a Green Arrow, like his colleague from Earth-Prime, and became friends with Diggle [via Looper].
