The First Use of Multiverse in Comics?

Notes on "The Multiverse, Part1"

Parallel worlds, counter-Earths, and alternate dimensions have been with us in the comic books almost from the outset. In the world of DC Comics, Wonder Woman encountered a parallel world as far back as 1953 in "Wonder Woman's Invisible Twin" (WW #59), and The Flash famously introduced the concept of Earth-2 and jump-started the DC multiverse with "The Flash of Two Worlds" in 1961 (Flash #123). But when did the phrase "multiverse" first get applied to the infinite number of parallel worlds inhabited by the superhero characters of Marvel and DC?

I imagined the first use of multiverse in the comics would have happened in one of the many Justice League/Justice Society team-ups that took place every year in the pages of The Justice League of America comic book, but reading through these "Crisis" stories didn't turn up any citations. Ditto for any 1960s Superman stories, so chock-full of imaginary tales, doppelgangers, and parallel worlds.

It seems The Multiverse wasn't really popularized until Michael Moorcock started using it in his Elric stories in the 60s and 70s and it took awhile to filter into comic books. The first DC use I can find is Claw the Unconquered #7 (cover-dated May-June 1976), "The People of the Maelstrom", written by David Michelinie and drawn by Ernie Chan. 

Claw #7

Over at Marvel, I couldn't find a reference until What If #10. "What If ... Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor?", written by Don Glut with art by  Rick Hoburg. The Watcher opines, "But there are infinite parallel worlds in the multiverse ... countless Earths existing in the same space, but in different dimensions."

What If #10

Don't Your Shoulder Blades Itch? by Vladimir Mayakovsky

 DON’T YOUR SHOULDER BLADES ITCH? 

Whenever a rainbow hangs down its bow 

or the sky 

shines blue 

without patch or stitch, 

tell me, 

don’t your shoulder blades — 

both 

begin to itch? 

Don’t you wish 

that from under your jersey 

where a drudge-born hump 

used to hide, 

throwing off 

the shirt’s dull burden, 

a pair of wings 

would go winging wide/ 

Or when night 

with its nightliest stairs 

lolls along 

and the Bears — 

Great and Little — 

prowl and growl, 

don’t you feel restless? 

Don’t you long. . .? 

Oh yes, you do, 

and how! 

We’re cramped. 

And the sky 

has no bounds, 

no border. 

Oh, 

to fly up 

to God’s apartments 

and show 

old Savaoh 

an eviction order 

from the Moscow Soviet’s 

Housing Department! 

Kaluga, 

dug in 

among meadow 

and grove, 

dozing 

down 

in your earthly pit! 

Now then, Kaluga, 

come on, Tambov! 

Skyward 

like sparrows 

flit! 

Isn’t it fline, 

with marriage on your mind, 

swish! — 

to wing off 

over land and sea, 

to pluck out 

an ostrich’s feather 

from behind 

and back 

with a present 

for your fiance? 

Saratov! 

On what 

have you fixed an eye? 

Charmed? 

By a birdie’s dot? 

Up- 

soar swallow-like 

into the sky; 

it’s time you grew wings, 

That’s what! 

Here’s a good thing to do — 

no deed more audacious; 

choose a night 

and dash through it, 

devil-me-dare, 

to Rome; 

give a thrashing 

to a Roman fascist 

then back 

in an hour 

Or else — 

to your samovar in Tver. 

the dawn’s opened up 

and go racing: 

you see

who's faster — 

it or me? 

Buf. . . . 

all this is nothing 

but imagination. 

People 

so far 

are a wingless nation. 

People 

are created on a lousy plan: 

a back 

good for nothing but pains. 

So to buy an aeroplane each, 

if you can, 

is really 

all that remains. 

Like a bird then with tail, 

two wings 

and feathers 

you’ll whet your nose 

all records to beat. 

Tear off the ground! 

Fly, planes, through the heavens! 

Russia, 

soar up 

In a sky-bound fleet! 

Quicker! 

Why, 

stretching up like a pole, 

admire from earth 

the heavenly hole? 

Come, 

show your bravery, 

avio! 

1923