The DC Multiverse is extremely vast with countless choices being made, resulting in countless Earths. Some of these Earths are not so different from others, like Earth-0 and Earth-1, where the heroes are just at the start of their careers. However, some of these worlds are complete opposites of each other.
Earth-3 is where evil triumphs all things good. Here, crime is considered normal and even encouraged. The Crime Syndicate are the ultimate rulers of this world; they are the villainous counterparts of the Justice League of Prime Earth or Earth-0, the “main” earth on which the other continuities are based on.
The Crime Syndicate is composed of Ultraman, Superwoman, Owlman, Johnny Quick, Power Ring, Sea King, Grid, Deathstorm, and Atomica. They are the counterparts of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Cyborg, Firestorm, and Atom, respectively.
These villains are not only opposite in their morals, but also in their strengths and weaknesses. Superman is known to have a weakness to kryptonite; however, Ultraman uses kryptonite to fuel his strong powers. Superman also gets his energy from absorbing yellow sun radiation, while Ultraman’s abilities dramatically deplete with increased exposure to yellow sun radiation.
DC Comics relaunched all of their titles in 2011 as “The New 52”, the Crime Syndicate made their first appearance in the Forever Evil storyline. This storyline describes the ruthless Crime Syndicate entering Earth-0 through a portal from Earth-3. We find out that they were able to infiltrate Earth-0 because Atomica had been a spy for the Crime Syndicate, and resided in the Justice League’s world to provide information to the corrupt. They quickly “kill” the Justice League (no one ever dies in comics without magically returning), and rally the villains of Prime Earth to fight for their cause of bringing chaos to their world.
Luckily, some villains decided to join the cause for good. The Justice League begrudgingly teams up with villains they have fought numerous times beforehand and come up with a plan to ultimately defeat the immoral Crime Syndicate.
If you are interested in a movie adaptation of this wicked team, watch – Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths available on Amazon Prime Video.
Check out Arris Quinones from Variant Comics on YouTube discussing the Crime Syndicate here!
Benny from Comicstorian on Youtube also explained the history of the Crime Syndicate here!
