| DARK MULTIVERSE | ATLAS |
| Created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo |
 |
INFORMATION
Official Name: Dark Multiverse
First Appearance: Dark Nights: Metal #1 (October 2017)
Creators: Scott Snyder; Greg Capullo
HISTORY
When Perpetua created her Multiverse it was split in three realms made out of the three basic forms of matter. Dark Matter, Positive Matter and Anti-Matter. Dark Matter rich with potential was used to create the Dark Multiverse, which would be monitored by Alpheus, one of her three sons.
At the center of the Dark Multiverse would be the World Forge. From here Alpheus would hammer out universes from the hopes and fears of all living beings. The most stable of these universes would arise into the Orrery of Worlds in the Positive Matter Multiverse.
At some point the great dragon Barbatos whom Alpheus had created to destroy unstable and twisted worlds and return their enegies to the forge, would kill its master and itself take control of the forge. This resulted in a darkening of the World Forge as Barbatos knew only destruction and only worlds fed by fear would arise. Due to its nature the Dark Multiverse is not limited to a few worlds but counts thousands of worlds built from Batman's fears alone.
Most of these worlds of nightmare would be fragile and in constant decay and should have been returned to the forge, but were allowed to remain and decay on their own.
Barbatos would eventually seek to bring the worlds of the Positive Multiverse back into the dark. Enlisting the help of Batman Who Laughs of Earth -22 of the Dark Multiverse, who himself would himself seek out other "Dark Knights" to join the fight, they attempted to bring down Earth of the Prime Universe so that the realities of the Dark Multiverse might survive.
They were stopped by Earth's heroes and Barbatos would be returned to the Dark Multiverse in chains. Despite the heroes efforts the bright spark of the Dark Multiverse has yet to fully be ignited and most worlds are still is a shadowed reflection of the fears originating from the worlds above.
The Worlds of the Dark Multiverse
Of the many worlds of the Dark Multiverse only a small handful have been cataloged. These twisted versions of reality have mainly been represented by short-lived universes focusing on Earth showing the hidden nightmares of Batman.
The worlds of the Dark Multiverse have been designated with a minus sign, unlike those of the Positive Matter Universe. So far each of the designated worlds have had some twisted resemblance to their positive matter counterpart.
EARTHS OF THE DARK MULTIVERSE
An incomplete listing of parallel Earths in the Dark Multiverse: