Knew deep down the moment I lay eyes on it that I'd end up making a key to this cover and laying out who's who, ostensibly for anyone who doesn't know all these folks but really to satisfy my own mania - shame I never went into clickbait, love making me a good list. All of these are either obvious or confirmed by Doc on Twitter or Tumblr:
1. Superman. You know, that guy!
2. Superman as he'll soon be in the current comics in the wake of Superman & The Authority.
3. Steel aka Natasha Irons - the niece of the original, she took up the mantle alongside him.
4. Savior, the 'Superman' of Earth 34 and also a riff on Samaritan from Astro City, born in the 'super-civilization' of MU and sent to the future to escape its collapse.
5. Steel aka John Henry Irons, a technologist saved by Superman who inspired to make the most of his life designed a suit of armor to become a hero himself.
6. Lois Lane. You know, that gal!
7. Jon Kent, Lois and Clark's son, in the suit he'll be wearing when he takes on his dad's title in Superman: Son of Kal-El.
8. Earth 23's Superman who serves as President of the United States in his secret identity as Calvin Ellis, while also acting as leader of the team Justice Incarnate which works to stop problems threatening multiple universes.
9. Bizarro, I guess right now of Earth 29 aka Htrae but really all that matters across his disparate incarnations he's Superman but a clone who looks like Frankenstein and he talks backwards, guy's great.
10. Captain Adam aka Allen Adam of Earth 4, a riff on Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan (who was himself a riff on the original version of Captain Atom, with some bits of Superman iconography bolted on too), he's a USAF pilot who was exposed to an isotope that gave him godlike quantum powers that leave him permanently disoriented in our world due to his higher-dimensional senses.
11. Superwoman of Gaea aka Earth 11, a world where genders are 'reversed' and Themyscira has long led the world openly.
12. Superman of Earth 12, better known as the 'DCAU' shared universe of cartoons from 1992 through 2006.
13. Superman in the t-shirt and jeans he wore in his early career during the New 52 reboot, an evocation of his 1930s roots fighting cops and corporations alongside alien invasions; he briefly returned to this look a few times prior to being rebooted away, and a 'purified' version of this incarnation still rocking this look was saved and left wandering the multiverse to find new ways to help in Sideways Annual #1.
14. Superman right after his resurrection from Death of Superman, in his dubiously iconic black uniform and indisputably iconic mullet.
15. Superman Blue, from a time when Superman was changed into an energy being for a year and had to relearn how to use his new electric powers.
16. The New 52 Superman in his standard 'Kryptonian armor' outfit, after assorted shenanigans that saw him dead and replaced by the pre-reboot version they basically did a cosmic fusion dance and now some of his adventures were folded back into the 'regular' Superman, which means we all just have to accept Clark completely lost his fashion sense for a minute there.
17. Superman II aka Val-Zod of Earth 2, another Kryptonian survivor who was adopted into the El family before being rocketed to Earth and took up the Superman title after the death of the original.
18. Krypto the Superdog, he was the El family pet back on Krypton and was sent out on a test flight of a prototype of the rocket that would save Superman, knocked off-course instead of returning but eventually landing on Earth and getting powers of his own, which somehow wound up adorable instead of terrifying.
19. Beppo the Super-Monkey, another test animal of Jor-El's who actually stowed away on the rocket to Earth and just immediately ran away upon landing to hang out in the jungle for a few decades until he ran into Superman and got the standard-issue cape.
20. Streaky the Supercat, this time an ordinary Earth cat and pet of Supergirl's who was exposed to X Kryptonite (which just made its live-action debut on Superman & Lois) which grants him sporadic superpowers. The least plausible of the super-pets in terms of not resulting in global devastation.
21. Comet the Super-Horse, who has NOTHING to do with Krypton or Kryptonite or the like but instead is an ancient centaur who was accidentally turned into a regular 'ol horse by Circe and given superpowers by her to make up for it, eventually becoming Supergirl's pet who privately loves her and unbeknownst to her dates her as 'Bill Starr' during the rare times he becomes human when a certain comet passes by. Dude's a real creep!
22. Superman Red, created when Superman Blue from earlier split into two different beings shortly before recombining back into regular Superman.
23. Super-Man aka Kong Kenan, he was given Superman's powers in an experiment by the Ministry of Self-Reliance, but due to those powers being connected to Superman's own life energy Super-Man had to embrace the spirit behind his counterpart's actions in order to master them.
24. Power Girl aka Kara Zor-L, the elder Earth 2 counterpart of Supergirl who took her cousin's place alongside Val-Zod.
25. Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers, you know her deal, she's on TV (at least for one more season).
26. Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Pal.
27. The Superman of the 1940s Fleischer cartoon shorts, the first big-screen version of the character.
28. Superboy aka Conner Kent/Kon-El, a clone of Superman and Lex Luthor created by Cadmus to replace the former in the event of his death or corruption who was woken up before fully maturing and decided to instead become a 90s kid with major 'dirtbag with a heart of gold' vibes; he also has the extra superpower of tactile telekinesis that lets him telekinetically manipulate whatever he's in direct physical contact with.
29. Just barely poking his arm in is Sunshine Superman, champion of the psychedelic, transcendentally groovy Earth 47.
30. The older version of the DCAU Superman from the future of Batman Beyond.
31. Optiman of Earth 36, all that's really known about him is he fell in battle with a rogue Superman from another universe but happily he seems to be alive and well here; he was also designed by Doc for his appearance in Multiversity.
32. Superdemon of Earth 13, the demon Etrigan sent from the doomed planet Kamelot to Earth where he bonded to Jason Blood to fight evil in Merlin's name.
33. Superman aka Kal Kent, the 853rd century descendant of the original who continues the never ending battle, empowered far beyond his predecessors by the light of the Super Sun where the now all-powerful original resides in that time.
34. Apollo aka Andrew Pulaski; originally created as a Superman-type for the Wildstorm line of comics but eventually incorporated into DC, he has sunlight-fueled powers due to alien experimentation as a teenager and fights the bastards of the world alongside his boyfriend Midnighter. They'll be working with Apollo's inspiration in Superman & The Authority.
35. The Superman of Kingdom Come, officially set on Earth 22.
36. The Superman of All-Star Superman.
* Knew I'd miss labeling one of them and it turned out to be Lana Lang from during her brief stint as Superwoman, you can see her arm sticking out just underneath the Steels.
* I'd mistakenly assumed the little Superman between 11 and 15 looked distinctive enough that it was supposed to be a specific preexisting character, when asking he confirmed that wasn't the case but tossed out that that's instead SuperDoc of Earth-85. As the creator of the piece and DC talent this constitutes canon in lieu of further statements on the subject by Detective Comics Comics.
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