What Earths Did ‘The Flash’ Get Their Council of Wells From?

Tonight on The Flash‘s latest episode, “When Harry Met Harry,” Harrison Wells puts together a team to track down The Thinker, and populates it with some of the greatest minds in the multiverse — his own.

The team brought together the Earth-2 Wells with his counterparts from Earth-12, Earth-22 and Earth-47 (with a cameo by the Wells from a Gandalf-inspired Wells).

So, within the context of DC’s multiverse, what are the worlds that these Wellses come from?

Earth-12

This one — the world that gave us German scientist Harrison Wolfgang Wells — is actually the home of Batman Beyond.

Rotating on a slightly different frequency than other worlds in the Multiverse, Earth-12 is set in a timeline slightly ahead of Earth-0—it’s that Earth’s future realized.

On Earth-12, Batman’s successor, Terry McGinnis, is a tough kid shaped by the mean streets of Neo-Gotham. Under a now elderly Bruce Wayne’s guidance, Terry has been joined by Green Lantern, Superman, Warhawk, Aquagirl, Big Barda, Micron and others to form a team known as Justice League Beyond. Together this team, like the Justice League that preceded it, battles the evil that threatens this world.

Earth-12 serves as a reminder that the future is often a sad reminder that problems and shortcomings may never be solved, and in fact sometimes worsen. However, it can also be a source of comfort and hope—an advanced world where heroes like Terry and the Justice League Beyond continue our quest for truth, justice and a better tomorrow. In short, a future that, while imperfect, is still looking bright!

Earth-22

Earth-22 was the setting for the beloved Elseworlds story Kingdom Come.

Here, the second generation of super humans went too far. They put aside moral codes and ethics, using lethal force to eliminate evildoers whenever they deemed it necessary. Seeing that the deadly acts removed psychopaths and dangerous malcontents from the streets permanently, Earth-22 inhabitants didn’t protest these “heroic” new methods. Disheartened by the surge of violence and society’s tolerance of it, and suffering from a personal tragedy, Superman stepped down and retreated to his Fortress of Solitude.

Every action comes with a price though—even inaction. Magog and his Justice Battalion launched an attack against a foe using excessive force, and the incident led to the destruction of Kansas. The tragedy shocked Superman out of retirement, and now he and the Justice Society of America strive to be a positive example to Earth-22’s heroes.

Considering that this version of Wells seemingly hailed from a post-apocalyptic Mad Max-style scenario, it could be that the CWverse’s multiverse has little resemblance to the DC Comics version — or it could be that he simply comes from Kansas and it is not the whole world, but only the part destroyed by Magog, that is affected.

Earth-47

This world gives fans their introduction to Harrison Lothario Wells, a Hugh Hefner-inspired version of Wells that comes to us by way of Jeff Bridges’ The Dude. Where does he come from? Well, someplace pretty appropriate actually.

Earth-47 is a stone groove, man. In this happening psychedelic scene, the flower power of the 1960s lives on forever. And even though eternally youthful Prez Rickard oversees a nation dedicated to turning on, tuning in and dropping out, there is still occasionally the need for super heroic feats of strength, endurance and detection.

Enter the Love Syndicate of Dreamworld, some far out cats led into battle by the afro-sporting Sunshine Superman. Their ranks also include the Dark Knight avenger known as Shooting Star, the green-tinted Magic Lantern and the wily Speed Freak. Plus, they are sometimes assisted by a tailor’s mannequin brought to life after being struck by lightning, known as Brother Power, the Geek. Yeah, we know it all sounds a bit far out, but maybe this thought will help—if you can remember Earth-47, you probably were never there.

…Gemworld? Middle Earth?

Wells the Grey, an obvious reference to Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, did not get an official Earth designation.

One could draw the obvious conclusion that he comes from Middle Earth, but an equally likely (perhaps more likely?) option is Gemworld, DC’s fantasy-driven home to Amethyst. There are a number of Tolkien-inspired elements to it, including an early issue that’s literally titled “There and Back Again”

The Flash airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.