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Earth-388 was an alternate dimension in the Pre-Crisis Multiverse that had no Earth. It had the Sun and the other eight planets and even the Moon, but no Earth.

History

In the Earth-One dimension, Professor Farlow Nurd used his "World Duplicator" to make a copy of the planet Earth (including copies of all the people on it). He meant for the duplicate Earth to appear away from the real Earth, so it could follow the Earth in the same orbital path. However, the duplicate Earth appeared occupying the same space as the real Earth, which displaced the real Earth into the Earth-388 dimension, while the duplicate Earth took its place in the Earth-One dimension.

The inhabitants of the duplicate Earth were not exact duplicates of the original Earth inhabitants. For example, the duplicate Superman had no vulnerability to Kryptonite but could be harmed by chocolate syrup, and the duplicate Lex Luthor had a head of luxurious hair that grew whenever he was excited. All of these small differences added up to their society appearing like a nonsensical parody of the original Earth (although it made sense to them). Also, the duplicate Earth had different physical properties -- from space, the oceans appeared white and each continent had its own bright color.

With help from the real Superman (who was off-planet at the time of the switch), Professor Nurd was able to reverse the dimensional shift, bringing the real Earth back to the Earth-One dimension and sending the duplicate Earth to the Earth-388 dimension where it could exist in peace, its occupants unaware that they were duplicates or that they had imperiled the real Earth.

This universe was presumably destroyed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, and then (presumably) retroactively saved from destruction during the Convergence event.

List of Discrepancies Between Earth-388 and Earth-One

  • Superman revealed his secret identity as Clark Kent to the world. He also wore his glasses while in-costume and a red glove with yellow lightning-bolt trim, reminiscent of those worn by the Earth-One Flash, on his left hand.
  • Lois Lane became betrothed to Superman, and the couple's names were signed in large-script upon a giant marriage certificate
  • Perry White had a direct phone line to Batman from the Daily Planet.
  • Jimmy Olsen was the Earth's Green Lantern, and the sleeve for the left arm of his costume was colored yellow. He also created a blow-dart gun for Lois Lane which shot a ray capable of making people vanish for one hour.
  • Bizarro had perfectly sane and ordinary thought processes, although retaining his hideous appearance and "Bizarro #1" necklace. Superman helped the Frito Bandito clean out his pantry on Htrae. Bizarro offered Superman a bag containing 100,000 Brussels sprout seeds, with the accompanying message "Do not open till Groundhog Day," as a wedding gift.
  • The Earth's oceans were colored white, and its continents each appeared a different bright color from space, giving a "tutti-frutti" appearance.
  • The planet Uranus was overcome by an alien mold, forcing Superman to head into space to eat it.
  • Mr. Mxyzptlk wore a suit resembling his Earth-Two counterpart's and spoke in a broken and child-like lexicon approximating the Earth-One Bizarro's.
  • Lex Luthor dressed very casually, and his hair grew every time he became overexcited.
  • Brainiac wore a costume resembling the Earth-One Mr. Mxyzptlk's.
  • Lex Luthor and Brainiac reformed years ago and were given presidential pardons. Both ex-villains gave the Earth-One Superman their engineered version of the "perfect pet" (the Gnorgog) as a wedding gift (believing him to be their own world's Superman), but were rebuffed when the Gnorgog knocked over the Eiffel Tower.
  • Supergirl wore a Green Kryptonite bracelet at all times, presumably as a fashion statement.
  • Green K had no effect on Superman or Supergirl (and neither presumably could red-sun radiation, Q-energy, or magic), but chocolate, Brussels sprouts, and 5-day-old garbage were lethal.
  • Aquaman had the face of Alfred E. Neuman
  • A species of cement-eating termites existed. Nothing was seen as being wrong with the idea of smashing a gaping hole into the side of a building to exterminate them.
  • Lois Lane was notoriously incompetent and stupid, knew how to play the violin, could float to the ground from the top of a skyscraper with a parasol, and had seemingly permanently unkempt hair which needed "feeding" once a week that she was constantly trying to straighten out with various combs. She also owned a mirror which reflected her appearance back to her as Batgirl.
  • Jor-El and Lara were still alive and sent Superman a Green K bust of the left side of Jor-El's face as a wedding present.
  • The Legion of Super-Heroes traveled in a cube-shaped Time Bubble and tried to ruin Superman's marriage for their own entertainment. They also held a "Legionnaire Cookie Drive" which Lois Lane decided not to donate to any longer. Saturn Girl wore a crescent-moon emblem on her chest, Lightning Lad wore a lightning-bolt emblem similar to that of the Flash of Earth-One, and Cosmic Boy wore a glove on his left hand similar to those of the Earth-One Colossal Boy.
  • The Pacific theatre of World War II was being fought at least up until 1970, and it was common practice for ceasefires to be declared by "time-out." The Japanese used silver ammunition against the Allies, and the Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between Napoleon Bonaparte and Ulysses S. Grant. Napoleon was the victor of the battle. The Enemy Ace also flew his biplane in this anachronistic time and place, and Continental Army soldiers from the American Revolution fought on the side of the Japanese against their own country.
  • Sergeant Frank Rock of Easy Company had a grudge against Superman for his engagement to Lois Lane, who was previously Rock's girlfriend. Sgt. Rock attempted to kill the Earth-One Superman during his brief presence on Earth-388, to no avail. He also flew an invisible Robot-Plane instead of Wonder Woman and activated it by saying, "Hola."
  • Perry White wore a bowtie to work, while Jimmy Olsen wore a regular tie.
  • Krypto had the coloring of Streaky and disassembled a dinosaur fossil to make a nicknack as a wedding gift for Superman and Lois Lane.
  • Batman wore an atom-symbol on his chest (reminiscent of the Earth-One Atom) instead of a bat-insignia, in addition to wearing it on his cowl, had a direct line to a major in the U.S. Army, and carried a pin saying, "Joker for President."
  • The Flash had two lightning-bolt emblems on his costume (reminiscent of the Earth-One Lightning Lad) in addition to overly exaggerated wings over his temples (reminiscent of those on the helmet of the Earth-One Hawkman).
  • Wonder Woman never had a period where she lost her Amazon powers and became a plainclothes vigilante.
  • The Justice League of America apparently owned a tiny pink elephant.
  • The Batmobile was colored red instead of dark-blue.
  • Clark Kent may have been the President of the United States on the evidence of a poster with the message "Your President loves to point," accompanied by an image of Clark Kent pointing into the foreground while standing in front of the presidential seal. Luthor and Brainiac indicated that Superman and the President were two different people when they mentioned their presidential pardons, but it is possible that they were pardoned during the term of the previous man to hold the office.
  • Ordinary people on surfboards, children on tricycles, and four-limbed watermelons with scuba-diving flippers could fly under their own power.
  • It was common practice for people to throw uncooked spaghetti at newlyweds.
  • The lettering adorning the globe atop the Daily Planet building was in all lower-case, and a firepole (reminiscent of the one used in the 1966 Batman TV series) was used to get from one floor to another in lieu of elevators.
  • Perry White smoked his pipe upside-down in addition to rightside-up.
  • Space shuttles were launched directly into the Earth instead of into space. This accomplished nothing but driving a rocket-propelled needlepoint tip against the ground until it broke up.
  • Couples played on seesaws on top of tall buildings.

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