Maddie
Acclaimed
The issues involved for the clash is Infinite Crisis #5, Superman Vol. 2 #224, Action Comics #836, and Adventures of Superman #224
I will also will be responding to this (sigh) Comcvine Thread
comicvine.gamespot.com
I will be giving my all here. I don't want this topic to go on any further because to be clear, I do not believe this feat is valid. No, it is not an outlier, rather this is a context heavy feat that could only happen due to the context of the situation.
For context about who is fighting who, New Earth Superman (Who exists from 1986 to 2011, with a short reprisal from 2016-2017 before merging to be Rebirth Superman) is fighting “Golden Age” Superman Kal-L of Earth-2, the Superman seen from 1938 to about 1956. This Superman has on a few rare occasions fought on relative decent footing with “Silver Age” (Later on “Bronze Age" from 1971-1985) Superman Kal-El of Earth-1 who was seen from about 1956 to 1985.
Golden Age Superman went to “Heaven,” a pocket dimension separate from reality, alongside Lois Lane, Superboy Prime, and Alexander Luthor to live in a sort of idyllic exile after the Infinite Crisis. I think it would be safe to assume, having aged over the years after the Crisis on Infinite Earths without a Sun in the Paradise Dimension to empower him, that he is effectively past his prime and far weaker than his heights seen before the Crisis. Even he acknowledges this. While in context this seems more like he feels weaker, the mere fact there is no sun makes it believable he really has grown weaker. However that didn’t stifle his power too greatly, as he was able to break the barrier of this dimension and reach the universe of New Earth in Infinite Crisis #1. However, reading the issue it is found that Superman is taking what he perceives as hours trying to punch out the barrier and his fist was getting crushed and injured doing this, so it was with a great amount of effort over time that he even succeeded in this feat.
It should be noted that Infinite Crisis is written to serve as a commentary on the difference in themes and plotlines in Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis. New Earth Superman is supposed to represent the Post-Crisis themes of moral ambiguity, maturity, and the shades of gray between good and evil. Earth-2 Superman represents the perceived morally absolutist ideal of Superman and the non-gradient duality between black and white in Pre-Crisis. Superboy Prime represents those accustomed to the Silver and Bronze Age's absurdities who zealously defend its purported ideals. Alexander Luthor, heralding from the Pre-Crisis Earth-3, believes he can recreate all of reality and with Superboy Prime. He ropes along Earth-2 Superman by telling him he can save Golden Age Lois Lane by bringing back Earth 2. However this fails and she still dies, causing him to blame her death on New Earth Superman. This initiates their clash. People believe this clash is universal to low multiversal, potentially infinite multiversal due to the scan showing various permutations of Superman clashing.
The official website page for Infinite Crisis #5 states the following:
However, this should not be taken literally. This wasn't stated in the actual story, this is from the official website. It also doesn't say universe or multiverse or something. It specifically says DCU, which is a term never used for the in-verse cosmology. DCU means the general shared storylines in DC, not the physical space-time continuum itself, ergo the fight is shaking the DCU as in it’s further causing mayhem and chaos plotwise. If this was to be literal, it would be an outerversal feat because DCU means the entire franchise. It makes more sense if the DCU shaking is just a stock phrase no different from "The world shook when Hitler invaded Poland" or anything similar. That requires less assumptions.
The main crux of the argument is from Adventures of Superman #224, where it’s stated that the clash between New Earth and Earth-2 Superman have shattered the boundaries of space and time, which alongside the statement above gives the notion they physically shook the space-time continuum which is thus universal space-time manipulation. This is combined with the fact that they are stated on several occasions to have shattered/broken “The world” and that they seemingly are reliving entire timelines before shattering.
I could be wrong here, but for one thing it seems that everyone has assumed this was spoken by a narrator, which isn’t the case. If one looks at the emblems at the top corners and reads the issue, they will see it is both New Earth and Earth-2 Superman thinking this. Why is this important? Well neither were in the greatest mindset at the time of the fight; Golden Age Superman is angry, bloodlusted, and focused on killing New Earth Superman meanwhile New Earth Superman is mostly focused on just surviving and keeping up with Golden Age Superman. So they aren’t in a lucid enough mindset to really analyze or know the scope of their clash I would believe. I will prove this later on, but I first need to go to the first quote on the matter:
So right off the bat, this wasn't stated by an unbiased omniscient narrator. Notice how these text bubbles have two different emblems of superman and a different color gradient. Black text = Post Crisis Superman and Red text = Golden Age Superman. That is because this is not a narrator describing the events, but the two Supermen thinking the same thoughts.
As I mentioned, these two were angry, confused, and in a mentally unwell state at the moment and wouldn't be sufficiently reliable narrators aware of their surroundings. However the comicvine thread asserts that this isn't the case. It is an overstatement to question Superman's mentality here. Except it is not.
First I must prove they don't mean that they think they are directly destroying the universe. What it is, in fact, is the two Supermen concurrently believing the other to be chiefly, but still indirectly, responsible for the crisis at hand.
New Earth Superman has faced crises before; he has seen the Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it was just on a lesser scale. There is reason to believe he still saw the red sky and the universe nearly die, much like Infinite Crisis. He sees Earth-Two Superman as the perpretrator in this crisis; he doesn't fully know about Superboy Prime or Alexander Luthor. All he knows is another universal crisis is at hand and here is Earth-Two Superman trying to kill him, so he lays the blame on him. Kal-El is wrong in his assumption here, but he wasn't delusional, he just was too focused on the issue in front of him to understand the full context. He sees a crisis which can destroy the universe and pins the blame on the first obvious variable involved. It turns out he is wrong because it is all Alexander Luthor's machinations.
Earth-Two Superman believes the universe is entropically dying. Through a viewport, he was able to see the Death of Superman, Knightfall, Emerald Twilight, Identity Crisis, etc and has been convinced by Alexander Luthor that this was a case of a dying universe. At first he blames New Earth Superman for the universe dying. He specifically pins Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday as the beginning of the end and everything that follows is a result of Post Crisis Superman not being as forceful as himself. However this doesn't suggest that he thinks Post Crisis Superman is physically destroying the universe, rather Post Crisis Superman is allowing entropy in the universe to seep in. However as he lives through the memories of Post Crisis he changes his mind on the idea that Superman is allowing this entropy to happen. He survives the onslaught with Doomsday, creates a more forceful and decisive Justice League, sends supervillains to the Phantom Zone, but the universe still seems to be growing ever darker. Eventually, he changes his mind and doesn't blame Post Crisis Superman for "bringing the universe to its death throes," he now believes the Kal-El was not giving his all but the universe was fundamentally entropic and it was always going to die by its corrupted nature. So by the end of the fight, Kal-L doesn't actually think Kal-L was destroying the universe, just he was just a victim of circumstance in an inherently moribund existence. Simply put, Kal-L later would be thinking "This universe has always been it's death throes." However the reality is that the universe was not dying, things were getting darker and darker by the end because of Alexander Luthor's machinations. He was behind almost all the events of Infinite Crisis. So Kal-L was in the wrong here.
And going back to the state of mind, Kal-L was delusional or at least grievously manipulated. When Lois Lane dies, he pins the blame on Kal-El. Kal-L is claiming Kal-El has killed both the universe and his wife. This is clearly wrong. His mind is completely twisted and believes the universe is rapidly decaying when in reality he's been fed lies by Alexander Luthor about the state of reality and has let it get to him. Kal-El wasn't necessarily going through any delusions, but he was so focused on this fight he missed the forest for the trees and just assumed Earth-Two Superman was destroying the universe.
This statement is simply not a viable argument to justify either being universal. One of the characters outright change their mind and shift the blame to the universe itself naturally dying.
Now let’s go back to the main quote, the second one. This one is a better argument:
Alternate Superman have fought before and never before has something like this happened. I will deal with the whys later, I just will assert that something paranormal did happen and it is unique amongst any previous confrontation between two Supermen. One argument is that the energies they produced created damage or energy shattering space-time and thus this is a universal feat. First I need to clarify they say the boundaries of space-time are shattered, not space-time itself. This is different. If you shatter space and time, that implies the totality of space-time are significantly affected. Shattering the boundaries of space and time suggest the outer rim of space-time are significantly effected.
So the question is: does significantly affecting the boundaries of space-time universal or not? The answer depends on the range.
Shattering the boundaries of space and time will not necessary amount to a universal rating unless the actual range of the boundaries being shattered is universal. However, the actual physical fight between the two Supermen wasn't actually destroying much. We see quick glimpses of the scope of destruction of their fight and it spans only Metropolis.
For the next part regarding the range, I will acknowledge what the comicvine post said:
I admit I misunderstood the story a bit here, however my argument still stands in a way that won't have an appeal to argumentum ad ignorentiam. I will just make it clear, the actual visible and tangible damage from the fight only spanned Metropolis and nobody noticed any collateral damage any further than Metropolis. That doesn't change even if any further elaboration is argumentum ad ignorentiam.
The only people who seemingly are affected, if at all, are Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson. Anyone surrounding them don't notice any effects, it seems implied that to their perspective Jimmy Olson is just tripping. So this clash, the boundaries of space and time are perhaps being shattered from their perspective too. However that only further compounds against the idea of a universal range. If 500 people say they felt an Earthquake, that's one thing, but if two people say they felt an earthquake, and nobody else felt it. Did the Earthquake happen?
Furthermore, why would it only be Lois and Jimmy? Lois Lane was one of the first characters to appear alongside Superman all the way back in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), while Jimmy appeared in Action Comics #6 (November 1938). The reader would have seen them before any other major character in Superman's life aside for his parents. This includes Batman (Superman wouldn't team up with Batman until Superman #76 in May 1952), Wonder Woman (The Brave and the Bold #28 in March 1960), Lana Lang (Superboy #10 in October 1950), Perry White (Superman #7 in December 1940), and Lex Luthor (Action Comics #23 in March 1940). Jimmy Olsen is Superman's best friend and Lois Lane is Superman's lover. They are fundamentally important characters to who he is. They're just as linked to him as Supermen from other universes. This is why Kal-L even says that Lois Lane is always the same Lois Lane he knows regardless of the Earth he's on. They're the only two that seem to notice anything happening as a result of this fight, meanwhile Wonder Woman was totally unaware and had to be told by her Earth-Two counterpart it is happening and it needs to be stopped.
Most shockingly, Alexander Luthor of Earth 3 does not take note of the clash or any supposed spatio-temporal phenomena
which would be a big deal given his project at hand. He would be one of the most important characters to comment on such a supposed feat if it happened, as it is in his best interests to be aware of any cosmic phenomena occuring when he is himself doing a cosmic scaled project. Yet he doesn't.
The only loose thread left is this scan
So simply put, nobody physically noticed noticed this clash except the only two who have a connection with Superman that reaches meta-narrative levels. They are fundamental to the story of Superman. The fact that the clash was so selective it only was noticed by people fundamentally connected to Superman should be more proof it wasn't a universal but a localized incident.
And the reason nobody but those fundamental to the story of Superman notice this? It's because their worlds, their own subjective realities, their minds and memories were what was breaking, not the physical universe itself. The boundaries of space and time that are being shattered are not universal boundaries, but the boundaries between their minds, to show they really are no different. Superman realized Lois Lane was no different regardless of universe, likewise we see the fate of both Supermen was utter defeat in the face of the Anti-Monitor due to their flawed methods.
The fight was chiefly about the themes of the more cynical jaded Post Crisis vs the more idealistic naive Golden Age. Noone else except those inextricably linked to the story of Superman would feel the universe shaking because it wasn't the universe, like the physical space-time continuum, it was their universe, Kal-El and Kal-L's own spatio-temporal subjective realities and memories. They are experiencing this space-time manipulation in their minds, which can be seen how they are monologuing of these events as they fight. So they were shattering the boundaries of space and time, but only on a selective and localized level within one's mind. This wasn't some physical space-time shattering you would see ala Superboy Prime in the same comic. It was their minds itself being transferred across space and time to see how really similar eachother are.
This is the third statement to look over and it's more explicit in some ways, less in others::
If this was the only line alone, I might buy it. However with all the context already given, I can argue that, regardless of what Post Crisis Superman thinks, all that's being shattered is the boundaries of spacetime within the range of their own minds. This isn't happening to the environment, this scan clarifies that:
The effects of the boundaries of space and time supposedly shattering only happen when they make contact, not at any other point in the fight. Otherwise, the only damage really happening physically is the cityscape being further ravaged. With all the previous context, I feel comfortable to assert these strikes are only affecting localized space-time. The burden of proof is not on me. There is not enough to prove this is universally scoped even with this quote.
And lastly, likely the most famous scan in this fight, here they claim their blows are shattering the world
If this was the scan alone, again it might be convincing, but I have shown again and again that this isn't the case. The world isn't being shattered physically. The Earth is still there, the city is on fire but still is a city not a plane of oblivion. The only thing being shattered is their worldview. Their world may be shattered, because they are seeing how much characters such as Lois and Jimmy, and their personality itself, are a constant in the world. However there is absolutely no proof of physical shattering going on beyond shattered concrete and shattered glass.
However, the question now is why? It cannot because they were strong enough to induce it, no prior fight between Supermen ever caused this and "They shattered the boundaries of spacetime because they are obviously strong enough to shatter the boundaries of spacetime" is a circular argument unless there is a statement proving that. However in this story we see quite the opposite; it takes hours and a bloody hand for Golden Age Superman to break spatiotemporal boundaries, only Superboy Prime who is supposed to be a Silver Age Kryptonian at the peak of his power was able to do such a thing.
The multiverse at the time was inherently unstable and is only capable of holding one Earth, that being the New Earth of Post Crisis. However, through Alexander Luthor’s machinations, Earth-Two is spawned which would inherently disrupt the already tenuous balance of the current paradigm, and the Multiverse was already very likely unstable and already breaking down as the fight would actually commence. The cosmology would grow incomprehensibly unstable with infinite universes, but the balance was already shaking with just two.
Furthermore, Superman is the key. For a reason even Alexander Luthor cannot understand, cosmic events just happen around Superman for some incomprehensible reason. This isn't a matter of physical strength. It's a matter that irregardless of physical differences or appearances, Superman is still a recognizable figure. So when two Supermen fought eachother in a time when space and time were already breaking down, their minds broke their physical boundaries experienced eachothers lives (This is why the story is called "This is Your Life"). This doesn't mean their fists can break the boundaries of space-time easily however.
As a summary:
1. There is little reason to scale New Earth Superman to the peak of Earth-One Superman on the basis of this fight. While the Sandman Saga has Superman lose a third of his powers, this is contradicted by all other writers aside for Denny O'niel who wrote the saga, where they show Earth-One Superman continuously gettign stronger. By the end of Pre-Crisis, E1 Superman could beat foes E2 could not. Also E2 Superman was weaker by this point.
2. When it says the DCU is being shaken, we shouldn't take it literally. The DCU is different from the actual universe. The DCU is the editorial name for the franchise at large, while specific universes would be known as "the Universe" or "Earth-Zero" or "Earth-One" or "New Earth." So this is just figurative language.
3. Neither were correct to believe Superman was destroying the universe, nor did they even believe they were directly responsible per se. Post Crisis Superman believed Golden Age Superman had indirectly caused a crisis which may risk the whole universe. Golden Age Superman believed Superman was responsible for Lois Lane's death and the darkness in the universe before he eventually changes his mind and believes the universe itself is fundamentally corrupt.
4. The range of them "shattering the boundaries of space and time" was personal, selective, and mental. It was not universal. It only affected those most fundamental to the story of Superman (Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen) while everyone else was ignorant and the physical damage of their fight amounted to a ruined city. Because the range of this spatio-temporal shattering was peripheral and personal, it would not be universal tier. There is no proof it was universal or it would be something the minds of the whole universe experienced.
5. This happened because the universe was already destabilized and Superman is the key to the story and the two facing eachother in this tenuous situation allowed for their minds to transcend their physical boundaries and experience eachothers lives (and for the reader to see just how similar the two are), how no matter the story, Lois Lane will always be Lois Lane, how Jimmy Olsen will always be Jimmy Olsen, etc.
So the last question is can this be replicated. If the universe wasn't destabilized into a crisis, and the two Supermen clashed like this, would any spatio-temporal fuckery happen? The answer would be no. We have had some occasions where two Supermen meet, and never has it caused any spatio-temporal damage like this. It's something that only could happen because the story allowed it to happen, which is exactly what would happen when a crisis is underway as the Bleed breeches into realspace and existence is truly at the mercy of the plot, which Superman is the key and center of. So in a normal circumstance, no such phenomena would occur.
I will also will be responding to this (sigh) Comcvine Thread
DC Comics - The Legendary DC Heralds Upgrade - Battles - Comic Vine
How else to start the new year then unleashing hell itself?Any derailing will be deleted. You have been warned.Massive thanks to @Ehnkr2beboh, @LordTr
comicvine.gamespot.com I will be giving my all here. I don't want this topic to go on any further because to be clear, I do not believe this feat is valid. No, it is not an outlier, rather this is a context heavy feat that could only happen due to the context of the situation.
For context about who is fighting who, New Earth Superman (Who exists from 1986 to 2011, with a short reprisal from 2016-2017 before merging to be Rebirth Superman) is fighting “Golden Age” Superman Kal-L of Earth-2, the Superman seen from 1938 to about 1956. This Superman has on a few rare occasions fought on relative decent footing with “Silver Age” (Later on “Bronze Age" from 1971-1985) Superman Kal-El of Earth-1 who was seen from about 1956 to 1985.
Golden Age Superman went to “Heaven,” a pocket dimension separate from reality, alongside Lois Lane, Superboy Prime, and Alexander Luthor to live in a sort of idyllic exile after the Infinite Crisis. I think it would be safe to assume, having aged over the years after the Crisis on Infinite Earths without a Sun in the Paradise Dimension to empower him, that he is effectively past his prime and far weaker than his heights seen before the Crisis. Even he acknowledges this. While in context this seems more like he feels weaker, the mere fact there is no sun makes it believable he really has grown weaker. However that didn’t stifle his power too greatly, as he was able to break the barrier of this dimension and reach the universe of New Earth in Infinite Crisis #1. However, reading the issue it is found that Superman is taking what he perceives as hours trying to punch out the barrier and his fist was getting crushed and injured doing this, so it was with a great amount of effort over time that he even succeeded in this feat.
It should be noted that Infinite Crisis is written to serve as a commentary on the difference in themes and plotlines in Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis. New Earth Superman is supposed to represent the Post-Crisis themes of moral ambiguity, maturity, and the shades of gray between good and evil. Earth-2 Superman represents the perceived morally absolutist ideal of Superman and the non-gradient duality between black and white in Pre-Crisis. Superboy Prime represents those accustomed to the Silver and Bronze Age's absurdities who zealously defend its purported ideals. Alexander Luthor, heralding from the Pre-Crisis Earth-3, believes he can recreate all of reality and with Superboy Prime. He ropes along Earth-2 Superman by telling him he can save Golden Age Lois Lane by bringing back Earth 2. However this fails and she still dies, causing him to blame her death on New Earth Superman. This initiates their clash. People believe this clash is universal to low multiversal, potentially infinite multiversal due to the scan showing various permutations of Superman clashing.
The official website page for Infinite Crisis #5 states the following:
However, this should not be taken literally. This wasn't stated in the actual story, this is from the official website. It also doesn't say universe or multiverse or something. It specifically says DCU, which is a term never used for the in-verse cosmology. DCU means the general shared storylines in DC, not the physical space-time continuum itself, ergo the fight is shaking the DCU as in it’s further causing mayhem and chaos plotwise. If this was to be literal, it would be an outerversal feat because DCU means the entire franchise. It makes more sense if the DCU shaking is just a stock phrase no different from "The world shook when Hitler invaded Poland" or anything similar. That requires less assumptions.
The main crux of the argument is from Adventures of Superman #224, where it’s stated that the clash between New Earth and Earth-2 Superman have shattered the boundaries of space and time, which alongside the statement above gives the notion they physically shook the space-time continuum which is thus universal space-time manipulation. This is combined with the fact that they are stated on several occasions to have shattered/broken “The world” and that they seemingly are reliving entire timelines before shattering.
I could be wrong here, but for one thing it seems that everyone has assumed this was spoken by a narrator, which isn’t the case. If one looks at the emblems at the top corners and reads the issue, they will see it is both New Earth and Earth-2 Superman thinking this. Why is this important? Well neither were in the greatest mindset at the time of the fight; Golden Age Superman is angry, bloodlusted, and focused on killing New Earth Superman meanwhile New Earth Superman is mostly focused on just surviving and keeping up with Golden Age Superman. So they aren’t in a lucid enough mindset to really analyze or know the scope of their clash I would believe. I will prove this later on, but I first need to go to the first quote on the matter:
So right off the bat, this wasn't stated by an unbiased omniscient narrator. Notice how these text bubbles have two different emblems of superman and a different color gradient. Black text = Post Crisis Superman and Red text = Golden Age Superman. That is because this is not a narrator describing the events, but the two Supermen thinking the same thoughts.
As I mentioned, these two were angry, confused, and in a mentally unwell state at the moment and wouldn't be sufficiently reliable narrators aware of their surroundings. However the comicvine thread asserts that this isn't the case. It is an overstatement to question Superman's mentality here. Except it is not.
First I must prove they don't mean that they think they are directly destroying the universe. What it is, in fact, is the two Supermen concurrently believing the other to be chiefly, but still indirectly, responsible for the crisis at hand.
New Earth Superman has faced crises before; he has seen the Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it was just on a lesser scale. There is reason to believe he still saw the red sky and the universe nearly die, much like Infinite Crisis. He sees Earth-Two Superman as the perpretrator in this crisis; he doesn't fully know about Superboy Prime or Alexander Luthor. All he knows is another universal crisis is at hand and here is Earth-Two Superman trying to kill him, so he lays the blame on him. Kal-El is wrong in his assumption here, but he wasn't delusional, he just was too focused on the issue in front of him to understand the full context. He sees a crisis which can destroy the universe and pins the blame on the first obvious variable involved. It turns out he is wrong because it is all Alexander Luthor's machinations.
Earth-Two Superman believes the universe is entropically dying. Through a viewport, he was able to see the Death of Superman, Knightfall, Emerald Twilight, Identity Crisis, etc and has been convinced by Alexander Luthor that this was a case of a dying universe. At first he blames New Earth Superman for the universe dying. He specifically pins Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday as the beginning of the end and everything that follows is a result of Post Crisis Superman not being as forceful as himself. However this doesn't suggest that he thinks Post Crisis Superman is physically destroying the universe, rather Post Crisis Superman is allowing entropy in the universe to seep in. However as he lives through the memories of Post Crisis he changes his mind on the idea that Superman is allowing this entropy to happen. He survives the onslaught with Doomsday, creates a more forceful and decisive Justice League, sends supervillains to the Phantom Zone, but the universe still seems to be growing ever darker. Eventually, he changes his mind and doesn't blame Post Crisis Superman for "bringing the universe to its death throes," he now believes the Kal-El was not giving his all but the universe was fundamentally entropic and it was always going to die by its corrupted nature. So by the end of the fight, Kal-L doesn't actually think Kal-L was destroying the universe, just he was just a victim of circumstance in an inherently moribund existence. Simply put, Kal-L later would be thinking "This universe has always been it's death throes." However the reality is that the universe was not dying, things were getting darker and darker by the end because of Alexander Luthor's machinations. He was behind almost all the events of Infinite Crisis. So Kal-L was in the wrong here.
And going back to the state of mind, Kal-L was delusional or at least grievously manipulated. When Lois Lane dies, he pins the blame on Kal-El. Kal-L is claiming Kal-El has killed both the universe and his wife. This is clearly wrong. His mind is completely twisted and believes the universe is rapidly decaying when in reality he's been fed lies by Alexander Luthor about the state of reality and has let it get to him. Kal-El wasn't necessarily going through any delusions, but he was so focused on this fight he missed the forest for the trees and just assumed Earth-Two Superman was destroying the universe.
This statement is simply not a viable argument to justify either being universal. One of the characters outright change their mind and shift the blame to the universe itself naturally dying.
Now let’s go back to the main quote, the second one. This one is a better argument:
Alternate Superman have fought before and never before has something like this happened. I will deal with the whys later, I just will assert that something paranormal did happen and it is unique amongst any previous confrontation between two Supermen. One argument is that the energies they produced created damage or energy shattering space-time and thus this is a universal feat. First I need to clarify they say the boundaries of space-time are shattered, not space-time itself. This is different. If you shatter space and time, that implies the totality of space-time are significantly affected. Shattering the boundaries of space and time suggest the outer rim of space-time are significantly effected.
So the question is: does significantly affecting the boundaries of space-time universal or not? The answer depends on the range.
Shattering the boundaries of space and time will not necessary amount to a universal rating unless the actual range of the boundaries being shattered is universal. However, the actual physical fight between the two Supermen wasn't actually destroying much. We see quick glimpses of the scope of destruction of their fight and it spans only Metropolis.
For the next part regarding the range, I will acknowledge what the comicvine post said:
I admit I misunderstood the story a bit here, however my argument still stands in a way that won't have an appeal to argumentum ad ignorentiam. I will just make it clear, the actual visible and tangible damage from the fight only spanned Metropolis and nobody noticed any collateral damage any further than Metropolis. That doesn't change even if any further elaboration is argumentum ad ignorentiam.
The only people who seemingly are affected, if at all, are Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson. Anyone surrounding them don't notice any effects, it seems implied that to their perspective Jimmy Olson is just tripping. So this clash, the boundaries of space and time are perhaps being shattered from their perspective too. However that only further compounds against the idea of a universal range. If 500 people say they felt an Earthquake, that's one thing, but if two people say they felt an earthquake, and nobody else felt it. Did the Earthquake happen?
Furthermore, why would it only be Lois and Jimmy? Lois Lane was one of the first characters to appear alongside Superman all the way back in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), while Jimmy appeared in Action Comics #6 (November 1938). The reader would have seen them before any other major character in Superman's life aside for his parents. This includes Batman (Superman wouldn't team up with Batman until Superman #76 in May 1952), Wonder Woman (The Brave and the Bold #28 in March 1960), Lana Lang (Superboy #10 in October 1950), Perry White (Superman #7 in December 1940), and Lex Luthor (Action Comics #23 in March 1940). Jimmy Olsen is Superman's best friend and Lois Lane is Superman's lover. They are fundamentally important characters to who he is. They're just as linked to him as Supermen from other universes. This is why Kal-L even says that Lois Lane is always the same Lois Lane he knows regardless of the Earth he's on. They're the only two that seem to notice anything happening as a result of this fight, meanwhile Wonder Woman was totally unaware and had to be told by her Earth-Two counterpart it is happening and it needs to be stopped.
Most shockingly, Alexander Luthor of Earth 3 does not take note of the clash or any supposed spatio-temporal phenomena
which would be a big deal given his project at hand. He would be one of the most important characters to comment on such a supposed feat if it happened, as it is in his best interests to be aware of any cosmic phenomena occuring when he is himself doing a cosmic scaled project. Yet he doesn't.
The only loose thread left is this scan
So simply put, nobody physically noticed noticed this clash except the only two who have a connection with Superman that reaches meta-narrative levels. They are fundamental to the story of Superman. The fact that the clash was so selective it only was noticed by people fundamentally connected to Superman should be more proof it wasn't a universal but a localized incident.
And the reason nobody but those fundamental to the story of Superman notice this? It's because their worlds, their own subjective realities, their minds and memories were what was breaking, not the physical universe itself. The boundaries of space and time that are being shattered are not universal boundaries, but the boundaries between their minds, to show they really are no different. Superman realized Lois Lane was no different regardless of universe, likewise we see the fate of both Supermen was utter defeat in the face of the Anti-Monitor due to their flawed methods.
The fight was chiefly about the themes of the more cynical jaded Post Crisis vs the more idealistic naive Golden Age. Noone else except those inextricably linked to the story of Superman would feel the universe shaking because it wasn't the universe, like the physical space-time continuum, it was their universe, Kal-El and Kal-L's own spatio-temporal subjective realities and memories. They are experiencing this space-time manipulation in their minds, which can be seen how they are monologuing of these events as they fight. So they were shattering the boundaries of space and time, but only on a selective and localized level within one's mind. This wasn't some physical space-time shattering you would see ala Superboy Prime in the same comic. It was their minds itself being transferred across space and time to see how really similar eachother are.
This is the third statement to look over and it's more explicit in some ways, less in others::
If this was the only line alone, I might buy it. However with all the context already given, I can argue that, regardless of what Post Crisis Superman thinks, all that's being shattered is the boundaries of spacetime within the range of their own minds. This isn't happening to the environment, this scan clarifies that:
The effects of the boundaries of space and time supposedly shattering only happen when they make contact, not at any other point in the fight. Otherwise, the only damage really happening physically is the cityscape being further ravaged. With all the previous context, I feel comfortable to assert these strikes are only affecting localized space-time. The burden of proof is not on me. There is not enough to prove this is universally scoped even with this quote.
And lastly, likely the most famous scan in this fight, here they claim their blows are shattering the world
If this was the scan alone, again it might be convincing, but I have shown again and again that this isn't the case. The world isn't being shattered physically. The Earth is still there, the city is on fire but still is a city not a plane of oblivion. The only thing being shattered is their worldview. Their world may be shattered, because they are seeing how much characters such as Lois and Jimmy, and their personality itself, are a constant in the world. However there is absolutely no proof of physical shattering going on beyond shattered concrete and shattered glass.
However, the question now is why? It cannot because they were strong enough to induce it, no prior fight between Supermen ever caused this and "They shattered the boundaries of spacetime because they are obviously strong enough to shatter the boundaries of spacetime" is a circular argument unless there is a statement proving that. However in this story we see quite the opposite; it takes hours and a bloody hand for Golden Age Superman to break spatiotemporal boundaries, only Superboy Prime who is supposed to be a Silver Age Kryptonian at the peak of his power was able to do such a thing.
The multiverse at the time was inherently unstable and is only capable of holding one Earth, that being the New Earth of Post Crisis. However, through Alexander Luthor’s machinations, Earth-Two is spawned which would inherently disrupt the already tenuous balance of the current paradigm, and the Multiverse was already very likely unstable and already breaking down as the fight would actually commence. The cosmology would grow incomprehensibly unstable with infinite universes, but the balance was already shaking with just two.
Furthermore, Superman is the key. For a reason even Alexander Luthor cannot understand, cosmic events just happen around Superman for some incomprehensible reason. This isn't a matter of physical strength. It's a matter that irregardless of physical differences or appearances, Superman is still a recognizable figure. So when two Supermen fought eachother in a time when space and time were already breaking down, their minds broke their physical boundaries experienced eachothers lives (This is why the story is called "This is Your Life"). This doesn't mean their fists can break the boundaries of space-time easily however.
As a summary:
1. There is little reason to scale New Earth Superman to the peak of Earth-One Superman on the basis of this fight. While the Sandman Saga has Superman lose a third of his powers, this is contradicted by all other writers aside for Denny O'niel who wrote the saga, where they show Earth-One Superman continuously gettign stronger. By the end of Pre-Crisis, E1 Superman could beat foes E2 could not. Also E2 Superman was weaker by this point.
2. When it says the DCU is being shaken, we shouldn't take it literally. The DCU is different from the actual universe. The DCU is the editorial name for the franchise at large, while specific universes would be known as "the Universe" or "Earth-Zero" or "Earth-One" or "New Earth." So this is just figurative language.
3. Neither were correct to believe Superman was destroying the universe, nor did they even believe they were directly responsible per se. Post Crisis Superman believed Golden Age Superman had indirectly caused a crisis which may risk the whole universe. Golden Age Superman believed Superman was responsible for Lois Lane's death and the darkness in the universe before he eventually changes his mind and believes the universe itself is fundamentally corrupt.
4. The range of them "shattering the boundaries of space and time" was personal, selective, and mental. It was not universal. It only affected those most fundamental to the story of Superman (Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen) while everyone else was ignorant and the physical damage of their fight amounted to a ruined city. Because the range of this spatio-temporal shattering was peripheral and personal, it would not be universal tier. There is no proof it was universal or it would be something the minds of the whole universe experienced.
5. This happened because the universe was already destabilized and Superman is the key to the story and the two facing eachother in this tenuous situation allowed for their minds to transcend their physical boundaries and experience eachothers lives (and for the reader to see just how similar the two are), how no matter the story, Lois Lane will always be Lois Lane, how Jimmy Olsen will always be Jimmy Olsen, etc.
So the last question is can this be replicated. If the universe wasn't destabilized into a crisis, and the two Supermen clashed like this, would any spatio-temporal fuckery happen? The answer would be no. We have had some occasions where two Supermen meet, and never has it caused any spatio-temporal damage like this. It's something that only could happen because the story allowed it to happen, which is exactly what would happen when a crisis is underway as the Bleed breeches into realspace and existence is truly at the mercy of the plot, which Superman is the key and center of. So in a normal circumstance, no such phenomena would occur.
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