This article contains spoilers for Flashpoint Beyond #5The world of DC Comics is expanding with terms such as multiverse, omniverse, hypertime, and more. It's a difficult and confusing concept that DC Comics is doubling down on recently.
Currently, the entire DC Universe is facing a Dark Crisis with the Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths event. The Justice League was seemingly killed by an army controlled by Pariah, the villain in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. In actuality, Pariah put all of the Justice League members in separate dream worlds, using the energy from these worlds to create a new multiverse. DC's younger legacy heroes have had to step up in the Justice League's absence and be the heroes Earth Prime needs right now.
Meanwhile, in Flashpoint Beyond #5 by Geoff Johns, Tim Sheridan, Jeremy Adams, Xermanico and Mikel Janín, another alternate reality threat is taking place, tying into Dark Crisis. The Flashpoint universe has returned somehow and its universe's Batman, Thomas Wayne, is trying to eradicate his own false reality. But in the opening pages of the issue, the entire Divine Continuum is explained by Mr. Terrific. He talks about how the omniverse is different than the multiverse and how space and time splits into two different fabrics of reality. It's even possible to create what he calls hypertime.
DC's Multiverse Terminology Continues To Be Confusing.
All of these multiversal storylines play out alongside a very dramatic editorial situation at DC Comics. They were planning a reboot of sorts called 5G, which was eventually canceled. In earlier issues of Flashpoint Beyond, this reboot cancelation is mentioned on a chalkboard written by Batman with the words "5G averted." Those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of comic news might be completely confused by that reference, and it doesn't help that DC's Crisis events are constantly introducing new terms and areas of existence such as the Source Wall and the Dark Multiverse.
Flashpoint Beyond tries to explain all of this in its opening pages with a very big monologue that defines all of these terms, but it's still confusing, especially for first time readers. It makes jumping into the DC Universe and its big Crisis events very difficult. However, none of this happened overnight. It was built up over time with each event compounding on top of the already confusing storyline. DC Comics could choose to try and clean up this convoluted mythology, but as seen in the opening pages of this book, they decided to double down on it instead.
Flashpoint Beyond #5 is now available from DC Comics.