Non-Comics I Read in 2023

As per my annual tradition, here is my list of non-comics that I read in 2023. It’s a light list, as it was a very busy year. Nevertheless, I really feel that the non-comic books I read each year have a strong impact on how I engage with comics (and subsequently how I approach many facets of the Batman Chronology Project process). And at the very least, it’s always a lasting snapshot of where I’ve been and a nice window into my mind, if ya’ll are interested. Without further adieu, here’s the list (in order of most liked to least liked).

  1. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
  2. Luster by Raven Leilani
  3. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
  4. The Ethical Slut by Janet Hardy & Dossie Easton
  5. Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
  6. The Three Impostors by Arthur Machen
  7. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  8. Billy Budd by Herman Melville
  9. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
  10. Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges
  11. Tough Guys Don’t Dance by Norman Mailer
  12. Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
  13. Batman and Psychology by Travis Langley
  14. The Grifters by Jim Thompson
  15. Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
  16. Get Out of Your Mind and into Your Life by Dr. Steven Hayes & Spencer Smith

    ______________________________________________________________


Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Zdarsky’s Mindbomb: Three Jokers Replacement or Resurrection?

Chip Zdarsky canonized Geoff John’s Three Jokers in his recent “Bat-Man of Gotham” arc. And then, he made another clearcut reference to Three Jokers in Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War – Scorched Earth #1. In today’s Batman Vol. 3 #139 (Batman #904), the start of his new “Mindbomb” arc, Zdarsky once again references Three Jokers directly, except there’s a problem.

Like Nicholas J Levi above, I was a bit confused too. After all, two of the three Jokers were killed in Three Jokers. However, upon closer look, all of Zdarsky’s references haven’t actually been references to Three Jokers the story-arc. They’ve been references to the concept of three Jokers, which was first introduced by Johns in Justice League Vol. 2 #50 (“Darkseid War”).

All of Zdarsky’s references to three Jokers (emphasis on lowercase three), if you examine them closely, speak merely to the existence of the three Jokers—not necessarily to the canonicity of the Three Jokers series. Zdarsky even gives the origin of the three Jokers in “Bat-Man of Gotham”—the whole Halliday thing—but even with that, he has yet to actually mention anything about the Three Jokers series itself. And the recent nods have Riddler and Batman saying that the three Jokers are still around. What does this mean?

It could mean that Zdarsky is treating Three Jokers the series as non-canon (as others have wanted to do), or that he’s retconning Three Jokers the series to make it so that the two killed Jokers weren’t killed, survived, or were revived. It’s also possible that Death Metal/Infinite Frontier brought them back from the dead. Or more likely, when Halliday was reviving all dead Jokers across the multiverse in “Bat-Man of Gotham”, the two dead Jokers from Three Jokers might have been among those resurrected.

In the case that Zdarsky is simply ignoring Three Jokers the series as non-canon while regarding the existence of the three Jokers as introduced in Justice League Vol. 2 #50 as canon, this is possible too. However, it would be very strange. Johns introduced the idea in Justice League Vol. 2 #50, and he continued it in other stories that culminated in Three Jokers the series. And when Zdarsky referenced three Jokers in “Bat-Man of Gotham,” he was referencing the whole shebang, not anything piecemeal. (At least, with that reference, Zdarsky wasn’t being specific, so it could only be read as a reference to/canonization of all things pertaining to three Jokers, up to and including the Three Jokers series itself.)

Some that will say that this proves Johns’ Three Jokers series is non-canon while the existence of the three Jokers (as introduced and referenced by Johns in other titles) is canon. That sounds insane to me. Seriously, read that line back, and contemplate it. It’s bizarre to do a story about Johns’ three Jokers concept while completely ignoring Johns’ Three Jokers series. Zdarsky is doing something either very deliberate here or very odd. Either way, it’s strange. And even if it is deliberate (could Zdarsky be replacing the Three Jokers series with his own version in “Mindbomb”?), I think it’ll be open to interpretation when the dust settles. However, I believe the explanation of Halliday’s resurrected Jokers is the key to solving any potential continuity issues. Moving forward, I’ll be keeping a close eye on Zdarsky’s run. Unless I see any undeniable contradictions/cancellations of the Three Jokers series, then the latter surely must remain canon.

_________________________________________________________________

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Introduction: A Novelization of the Modern Age

Hello! I’m Batman Chronology Project site contributor Anthony Fallone. Over the last few months, I have been working on a personal passion project of mine that involves adapting the entire modern age/post-crisis story of Batman from its comic form into written prose. Obviously, this is a massive undertaking, but Collin’s modern age Batman timelines, as well as the work of fellow site contributors, Martín Lel and Jack James, have helped me immensely. My vision is to create a series of “books,” each centered around a different year in Bruce’s journey as Batman, commencing with “Batman: Year One.” Below is a sample chapter from my novelization of Year One, focusing on Bruce’s initial encounter with Basil Karlo/Clayface, aptly titled “The Terror.” This project is undoubtedly long-term and will likely take years to complete, but I feel as long as I have other people’s support and investment, I will have the motivation to continue. Please take a look and leave comments below. Thanks in advance!

_________________________________________________________________



_________________________________________________________________

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

History of the DC Universe: Overvoid to Dark Crisis

The following “History of the DC Universe: Overvoid to Dark Crisis” expands upon details from within Collin Colsher’s Batman Chronology Project while focusing on other things—namely, the web of manipulations from The Great Darkness, The Source, Perpetua, and Barbatos. Notably, a big chunk of the following History comes from revelations revealed in Jim Starlin’s Death of the New Gods, which some consider to be non-canon.

In the Beginning

In the beginning, all that existed was the empty nothingness of the Overvoid, aka Overmonitor, an omnipotent living void of endless size. Although nothing yet existed in the various dimensions of the omniverse, the Overvoid acted as a potential incubator for future life. Within the Overvoid was first born The Great Darkness, aka Hand of the Great Darkness. Then the second Great Hand, The Presence/Hand of the Light, was born, thanks to the collective dreams of humanity (Lucifer), altering reality from the future, atemporarly (Sandman). The Light was imperceptible in comparison to the Great Darkness. However, the Light expanded to become everything. In protest, the Great Darkness cried out, creating a flaw in the immaculate perfection of the Light, beginning the birth of the Omniverse (Justice League Incarnate).

As “the Voice,” the Light created the word and the Omniverse. His first living creation was the First of the Fallen, aka Satan, created to be his companion and the embodiment of his consciousness. His next creations and first great ideas were the Demiurgic Archangels (Lucifer) and the Djinn (Adam Glass’ Teen Titans). He married a being of unknown provenance called the Mother Entity, source of the Mother Boxes (Bug: The Adventurers of Forager).

He then created the race of The Hands, which He sent into the Great Void, where He tasked them with creating new multiversal systems using the Seven Forces of the Universe (These 7 are subdivided into Anti-Crisis and Direct-Crisis Forces. Doctor Manhattan is composed of the Anti-Crisis ones, also called Connective Energy. Some of these 7 forces are the Flash’s Speed Force, the Emotional Spectrum of the Lantern Corps, which manifest in Emotional Entities such as Nekron, for death, and the Life Entity for life; the Sphere of the Gods, which creates magic, Angels, Demons, gods and New Gods, the Dimensional Superstructure, which creates the Monitors, the Life Force which created Aquaman, the Collective Unconscious and Faithfulness.) After the creation of their Multiverse, each member of The Hands was to die and allow their energies to return to the Source of All Things. The true goal of each Multiverse was the achievement of perfect harmony between each being of the infinite realities that make up its Multiverse. The Presence also created the Chronicler, an observer of the Omniverse who records the histories of the dying Multiverses in his “Codex Omniversa”. For countless eons, he saw trillions of dying Multiverses, recording their entire history. However, one of The Hands, Perpetua, refused to die and wanted to create an immortal, predatory and vicious multiverse designed for its inhabitants to become Apex Predators to rebel against the other Hands; for this, she combined humans with Martians to create metahumans. Her multiverse was locked in an endless cycle of crisis and rebirth. (Tynion) However, her children Monitor, Anti-Monitor and World Forger (Barbatos’ father) betrayed her and called in the Judges of the Presence, the Cosmic Raptors, who created the Source Wall from the Apex Predators to imprison Perpetua; the Predators became known as Promethean Giants. The Source Wall became the new boundary between the Multiverse and the Greater Omniverse, rendering the Antimatter Universe obsolete and causing a rift between the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. The flawed and predatory Multiverse had to be rebooted, but what emerged in its place was unique: the Chronicler observed that it was unlike all other multiverses, and that its residents were “eternal.” The Chronicler did not know that this was because Earth Prime is not a universe but a metaverse that causes the multiverse to change in reaction to changes within it (Doomsday Clock).

In the new multiverse, many things happened, but first and foremost we must emphasize that one of the beings that were born along with the multiverse was the woman called Pandora, an incarnation of the Seven Sins of Humanity, who began a cycle that always ends with one of her Sins victorious and causing the collapse and reboot of the multiverse (Trinity of Sin: Pandora).

Another being that caused countless reboots was Imperiex, an incarnation of entropy contained in humanoid armor. Since the dawn of time, he repeatedly destroyed the universe to create a new one from the ashes of the old one (Our Worlds At War).

Multiverse-2

After countless reboots, Krona went back in time to observe the moment when the multiverse was reborn. His actions caused the multiverse to fragment into an infinite number of universes (implying it was a finite multiverse before? See Dark Crisis’ implications that an universe can be “even more infinite”). The Anti-Monitor was born like in every cycle and Perpetua began to poison his mind by whispering to him in order to free herself from the Source Wall. Mobius, the Anti Monitor, built the Chair of Mobius to learn the secrets of creation. When he laid eyes on the dark secret of the core of the Anti-Monitor universe, the Anti Life Equation, a piece of the Presence that separated from Him, Mobius was cursed forever, turned into a destroyer of universes. Some time later, he met the New God Metron, to whom he willingly gave up his Mobius Chair to travel the universes (Darkseid War). Eventually, the Crisis On Infinite Earths of the 1980s caused the latest reboot (without giving Pandora or Imperiex time to do their thing). The Pre-Crisis multiverse continued to exist as ruins in a separate place called Multiverse-2, though several beings removed from their timelines (Superman and Hal Jordan from Pre-Flashpoint, and Barry Allen and Supergirl from Pre-Crisis) traveled back in time and avoided the Crisis, so the Pre-Crisis Multiverse co-exists with its ruins, perhaps as Multiverse-3 (Convergence).

Multiverse-1

After the last reboot, this is the current history, with many events that occur in each cycle: The Presence began to make Himself seen as The Source 19 billion years ago (Byrne). One of His creations, a being named Sila, seeded each planet with potential for life by raining meteorites in them containing Green, Red, etc. (Swamp Thing). There were already several living beings from previous cycles, such as Pandora, Imperiex or Pariah, who, in the ruins of the previous multiverse, made psychic contact with a portion of the Great Darkness. The Darkness did not intend to undo the cosmos, it simply wished to interact with the light from above, to participate in and observe the great stories of the multiverse. Its flickering was the only light it received. However, Pariah corrupted the fragment he touched, and it began to influence beings with the selfish desire to cause conflict with the light, even as it slept (Williamson).

Meanwhile, in an alternate future, Odin, Jove and Zeus came to fear the power of the Source and allied to destroy it: their attack caught the Source off guard, sending it into the past, where it presumably merged into its past self, but its yin was separated from its yang (Countdown to Final Crisis). The Great Darkness interceded so that the yang became the Anti-Life, (Williamson) which fell into the Center of the Antimatter Universe. The Light counteracted by creating its opposite, the Life Entity of the White Lanterns, at the center of the Positive universe, which is planet Earth (Darkseid War).

Another race that existed before creation itself came from the dimension called Darkworld; they were the Lords of Order and Chaos, incorporeal magical beings. When the universe properly began, the Lords were the first intelligent race along with the Guardians of the Universe. The Lords would create Doctor Fate, Blue Beetle, Amethyst, Atlantis, Hawk and Dove and the “Parliaments of Life” that spawned the natural forces of the world: The Green, The Red, The Grey, The Divided and The Rot (Justice League Dark).

The Lords, and the magic they and all magical beings use, is a manifestation of one of the 7 Primordial Anti-Crisis Forces that create multiverses; specifically, the one called the Sphere of the Gods. More specifically, magic is something called “scraps of creation”, described as the random errors in a computer code (Doomsday Clock).

The First World

When the Presence created the First World, GodWorld (aka Asgard, aka Urgrund), Sila seeded humanoid life into it. Fifteen billion years ago, its humanoid inhabitants attained godhood, thus becoming the Old Gods, and Urgrund became known as the Second World. These beings reached a pinnacle of immense power and ushered in a golden age of cultural and scientific advancement (Byrne).

The first of the Old Gods was Olgrun. Olgrun was immensely powerful, creating many worlds and bestowing wonders upon them. He was also wrathful, and in his anger killed his own beloved daughter. In time, the other Old Gods rose up against him and waged war against him for an age. Unable to truly kill him, they divided him into seven divine aspects, which they hid throughout the multiverse in devices meant to protect them from being claimed by the wrathful and unworthy. Among these devices was the artificial planetoid that would one day be known as Warworld Prime, which contained within it the aspect known as The Fire of Olgrun (Phillip Kennedy Johnson).

Five billion years ago, Urgrund went to war. At the center of this conflict was Lokee, god of mischief and bastard son of the prime god Wotan, who became the first god of evil (Mark Evanier). At that point, the Source finished recovering and punished the Gods for their future treachery by causing Ragnarok, splitting Urgrund in two in a great explosion in which nearly all the gods perished (Kirby). One of the Old Gods who managed to survive was Gog (JSA), who was corrupted by The Great Darkness. (Williamson)

Some 4.8 billion years ago, the remnants of GodWorld ended up creating two separate planets: Apokolips and Galactica, the world that would become New Genesis (Green Lanterns Rebirth).

When Sila planted seeds in the Solar System, they took root on three different planets: Earth, Jupiter and another one that was destroyed. On that last doomed planet evolved a collective fungal consciousness that thrived on the frequency of the Grey. The Source created Adam and Lilith in the Garden of Eden, which was also home to the first Parliament of Trees. When Lilith refused to obey men, God replaced her with Eve (Sandman). Lucifer betrayed God (Alan Moore) and corrupted humans, so God cast them out. After this, a war between The Green and The Gray destroyed Eden and froze it in what is now known as Antarctica (Swamp Thing). But that was what the Presence wanted, as now humans were mortal and had free will, being able to forge their own destinies, choosing virtue or sin, good or evil. With rebellion and sin, the concept of justice was also born, and celestial beings, first Eclipso (God’s Wrath, which caused the Flood of Noah) and then the Spectre (God’s Revenge, which caused the Plagues of Moses). Eons later, faithful angels like Zauriel, redeemed demons like Etrigan and corrupted demons like Neron played their roles and contributed to the great project.

Forty thousand years ago, the Great Darkness and Perpetua corrupted Barbatos, who murdered his father. Upon seeing Bruce Wayne in his Omega Sanction (Return of Bruce Wayne), he became obsessed with Batman, and decided to manipulate Bruce Wayne’s life in order to create Batman (Batman Lost).

The energy unleashed by Urgrund’s explosion spread throughout the universe, spawning the Godwave, which seeded worlds with the potential to give rise to their own gods. One such world was Earth, which produced its first gods 35,000 years ago. This was the beginning of the “Third World” (Byrne). Eventually, the main Hebrew, Greek, Egyptian, and Aboriginal gods formed the Circle of Eternity (Trinity War).

Thirty thousand years ago, the inhabitants of Apokolips and New Genesis gained divinity and traits similar to those of the Old Gods, but became divided in terms of moral alignment. The “Fourth World” began when these New Gods attained godhood and repeated the history of the Old Gods by going to war. Since the source was now split in half, it could only influence the New Gods minimally, like a hand writing with fire (Countdown to Final Crisis).

The Presence also created Jesus of Nazareth, who with his teachings started the religion of Christianity. When Jesus was born, Spectre was cast into Limbo because Vengeance and Forgiveness could not be on earth at the same time. After Jesus’ death on the cross, Spectre exploded from Limbo and swept the earth with his wrath to punish mankind until the Archangel Michael stopped him (John Ostrander). After betraying Jesus, Judas attempted suicide, but was transported to the Circle of Eternity, who forced him to wander Earth forever as the Phantom Stranger (Dan DiDio). 4000 years ago, Black Adam killed most of the Circle of Eternity except for the Wizard (Priest). The Wizard proceeded to form the Quintessence along with Guardians of the Universe, Greek gods, New Gods, the Spectre and Phantom Stranger (Kingdom Come; Scott Snyder).

Noting that the New Gods of New Genesis were committing genocide in their war against Apokolips and other unacceptable behavior for gods, the Source decided to combine with the Anti-Life to create a Fifth World. The Source wanted all gods to combine into beings like Infinity Man, but the individuality of gods like Darkseid made this impossible.

Originally, Mars was inhabited by the Burning Martians, a violent race that lived on fire. To prevent them from spreading throughout the universe, the Guardians of the Universe programmed them with a phobia of fire, and, over time, the Martians evolved into the Green and White races (Joe Kelly’s JLA). Three hundred years ago, Darkseid visited Mars. When he learned that the Green Martian philosophy was based on the “Equation of Life,” he postulated that its opposite must exist and began searching for the Anti-Life Equation (Ostrander’s Martian Manhunter).

Things that happened: Wonder Woman debuted in the 20th Century; the JSA existed; Clark Kent was Superboy; the Legion of Superheroes existed; Clark’s parents never died. (I’m listing these events because people will be made to forget about them in a few years.)

In 2002, Barbatos broke through Bruce Wayne’s window in the shape of a bat and convinced him to become Batman (Batman Lost).

Then, the Justice League had its classic debut; Wally West existed; the Teen Titans existed; Barry Allen got married; the rape of Sue Dibny and the mind-wiping of various heroes and villains occurred.

Crisis Era

Crisis on Infinite Earths (Crisis I)

In 2009 of the current timeline, Perpetua began fighting to free herself from the Source Wall, causing the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It occurred because the Anti-Monitor became evil when the Source Wall took away his Antimatter Universe’s job of being the border between the Multiverse and the Greater Omniverse. Without a job, the Anti-Monitor felt resentment towards his brother. For millions of years, Perpetua whispered to the Anti-Monitor to attack, but he was also influenced by the Great Darkness, who made him find the Anti-Life equation it created, driving him mad and compelling him to fight the champion of the light, the Monitor. The Darkness was defeated thanks to the efforts of the immune system of the Multiverse, superheroes. Barry Allen died. However, the contraction of the Multiverse into a single universe weakened the Light, causing the Darkness to attack in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. This ended with a truce between Darkness and Light. (Since in the current timeline the multiverse never contracted, we haven’t been given an explanation as to how Alan Moore’s “American Gothic” happened yet.) The Crisis created a crack in the Source Wall, so Perpetua could corrupt beings more easily, resulting in the Crises happening more and more often.

Zero Hour (Crisis II)

One of the Crises caused by Perpetua was the Crisis in Time, Zero Hour; In 2011, Perpetua manipulated Parallax while the Great Darkness manipulated Extant, and both villains tried to cause a new big bang separately. The Crisis shook reality, creating a new crack in the Source Wall.

Bart Allen existed, Kon-El existed, Young Justice existed; Wally married and had children; Yz, Max Mercury, and Jesse Quick existed and were the Flash Family; Cassandra Cain was Batgirl; Stephanie Brown was Robin; Connor Hawke existed.

Infinite Crisis (Crisis III)

The compressed multiverse created a barrier that prevented the Source from combining with Anti-Life. To correct this, in 2013 the Source manipulated Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime into creating a new multiverse. Alexander Luthor was separately manipulated by Perpetua, while the Great Darkness corrupted Superboy-Prime. Luthor collapsed the multiverse back into a New Earth, but it was too small to contain the energy it held, so it ended up replicating into 52 identical universes. Another crack appeared in the Source Wall.

With the new multiverse, the Darkness managed to break its truce with the Light. The Monitors were created by the Source to delay the awakening of the Darkness. Mister Mind, manipulated by the Great Darkness, evolved and required the energy of the Multiverse to sustain himself. His feeding ate up years and events of each universe’s history, altering the Earths with each flap of his wings. This caused the Earths to change, becoming different from New Earth. The Source manipulated Booster Gold and the Monitors to stop him, but not to wage war on the Darkness, but so that the new Multiverse would be conducive to merge with the Anti-Life and create the Fifth World.

Final Crisis (Crisis IV)

In 2014, Darkseid was one of the few beings aware of the Darkness, and refused to go along with its plans, although he was manipulated by Perpetua despite of this. Darkseid manipulated “prophecy and destiny” to cause the Final Crisis and control Darkness. It’s possible that this involved manipulating quantum probabilities so that the future that created Anti-Life took place. In any case, the Crisis ended up creating a Fifth World, and Darkseid attracted the Darkness in the form of Mandrakk, albeit at the cost of his own life, as his Godhead was broken. To stop Mandrakk, the Monitors activated the multiverse’s immune system: the superheroes. Another crack appeared in the Wall Source.

Stephanie Brown became Batgirl.

Flashpoint Crisis (Crisis V)

When Barry Allen caused Flashpoint in 2015, Jon Osterman entered Earth Prime because he realized that the DC Universe was full of hope in humanity and traveled there to find a place among those people and start a new life. His visions showed him that, in four years, an arms race between metahumans was going to spark World War III, which was going to bring Manhattan into a confrontation with Superman, and then he saw nothing. After Mandrakk’s defeat, The Great Darkness understood that superheroes were his real enemy, so he corrupted Jon so that his reaction to his future visions was to modify the timeline and take years off the heroes, although Jon believed he was doing this to fix the rifts caused by the various Crises in the Multiverse.

Manhattan did the following:

-Tricked Pandora into convincing Barry to merge three separate timelines. The merger allowed him to erase ten years of the reversed universe.

-Manipulated Mr. Twister so that, in order to defeat him, the Teen Titans would have to mindwipe the entire world and everyone would forget that any incarnation of the Titans ever existed.

-Used Abra Kadabra to trap Wally West and his children inside the Speed Force, which caused them to be forgotten even by their family; Jon also revived Reverse-Flash to trap Jay Garrick, Yz, Max Mercury, and Jesse Quick in the Speed Force; Jon erased the memories of Barry’s marriage to Iris; Jon manipulated Dark Opal to erase all memory of Young Justice and have Bart Allen exiled into the Speed Force. The entire Flash Family was erased.

-(Probably) Manipulated Dr. Glory of Star Labs to exile Superboy on Gemworld, making everyone forget about him (Young Justice).

-Erased Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain’s memories of being Robin/Batgirls.

-Made Connor Hawke disappear and erased all memories of him.

-Erased memories of the Justice League’s classic debut; the rape of Sue Dibny and the mind-washing of several heroes and villains; and the death of Barry Allen during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

-To study how changing Superman’s history altered the metaverse, he prevented Wonder Woman from debuting in the 20th Century and murdered Alan Scott. With no heroes before Superman’s arrival, Superman didn’t become Superboy, so the Legion of Super-Heroes was never founded. Manhattan also murdered Clark’s parents, who taught him to be optimistic, and replaced them with Jor-El, whom he saved from Krypton’s demise and conditioned by showing him the worst of humanity.

-(Probably) manipulated Mister Mxyzptlk to split Superman into red and blue halves.

-Revived Batman’s father (and probably manipulated him to accept Bane’s plan to tempt Bruce to stop being Batman).

That same year, Barbatos, corrupted by Perpetua and the Darkness, began orchestrating events seemingly unrelated to Batman, such as his Court of Owls kidnapping Batman and putting him in a maze that forces him to drink water from a magical fountain. This was just the first step in a grand ritual for his body to become a portal to the Dark Multiverse.

Two years later, in 2017, Wally West escaped from the Speed Force, warning everyone of Manhattan’s threat. Doctor Manhattan killed Owlman and Metron after they tried to access the secrets of the universe, killed Pandora when she realized he was responsible for all the sins she had been blamed for, and dropped a button in the Batcave for Batman to track down and meet his father with the goal of succumbing his heroism, due to the influence of Darkness.

Convergence (Crisis VI)

Brainiac of New Earth managed to escape Manhattan’s manipulations because his quest for knowledge had caused him to surpass the Source Wall just before Flashpoint. From there, Brainiac studied the previous versions of the Multiverse, and seeing the various crises caused him to evolve into an amalgamation of different incarnations of himself from extinct universes and timelines. Using his powers, he sent Pre-Flashpoint’s Superman and Hal Jordan, and Pre-Crisis’ Barry Allen and Supergirl, back in time, causing them to avoid the Crisis on Infinite Earths and revive a copy of the Pre-Crisis Multiverse. (But nobody cares.) 

Metal (Crisis VII)

Meanwhile, the right hand of the Great Darkness, the one that had made a truce with the Light in American Gothic, became the Empty Hand, and it transformed the pre-Crisis Multiverse’s carcass into an army of Gentry (Multiversity).

That same year, Barbatos completed the ritual to turn Batman into a portal to the Dark Multiverse, and attacked. Although Barbatos was defeated, it had the consequence of breaking the Source Wall and freeing Perpetua.

Doomsday Clock

In 2019, the events Manhattan saw took place, but Clark refused to hit Jon, which filled him with a wave of hope. Jon understood that the force driving the metaverse was hope, represented and spearheaded by Superman. Using his Connective Energy powers, Jon reversed all of his changes so that the JSA, the Legion, Superboy, and Clark’s parents would always be alive. In the new timeline, people simply could not remember them until this date.

Death Metal (Anti-Crisis)

In 2021, Perpetua attacked, but was defeated. After reversing her damage by combining Manhattan’s Connective Energy with Crisis Energies, Darkseid gained enough power to once again attempt to steal Darkness’ power, but ended up controlled by Darkness and became his Left Hand. 

Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths

In 2022, the Darkness corrupted by Pariah was purified when Pariah was sent to a paradise world where he can live in his native reality that was destroyed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It would have been easier for him to go to the Multiverse-3 created by Convergence and we would have been spared all this.

Road to Dark Crisis w/ Pariah Reading Comics

_________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

The Brave, the Bold, and the Unknown

In the recent issue of Batman: The Brave and the Bold Vol. 2 #2 Part 4, writer/artist Joëlle Jones packed in over forty flashbacks/references in a mere three pages, most of which were generic images that could be linked to any number of places in Batman’s past. However, some were to very specific items—Bane breaking Batman’s spine, Joker’s “Endgame,” and Batman vs Predator. There were a couple of items that were very specific but I had trouble ascertaining what they were exactly. Anyone have any ideas?

First off, I added this bird to a Penguin flashback, but could this be something more specific?


Second, we have a dragon/dinosaur-like creature. I’ve guessed this is one of DC’s more famous dragons, Drakul Karfang. But is it something else?


Third, we have a top hat-wearing villain with an ornate jacket. It looks like Tally Man, right? Or could it be someone else?


Fourth is this image, of which I can make no guess whatsoever. Thoughts?


And last but not least, this image of a female character with diamonds over her eyes. (I had to rotate and stretch this image to make it out at all.) I don’t know who this is. Do you?

_________________________________________________________________

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

DCU Trade Paperback Timeline & Reading Order (2011-present)


I was recently inspired by the Batman Chronology Project to make some DCU collected edition (trade paperback) timelines.

The Post Crisis TPB timeline, which was built by cross referencing the Batman Chronology Project with a few other chronology sites, focuses on Batman but goes far beyond just that single character. I’ve kept it as up-to-date and accurate as possible, although the haphazard and sporadic nature of DC’s collected edition department doesn’t always make it easy.

The Post Flashpoint (New 52, Rebirth, and Infinite Frontier) TPB timeline is based off of the Batman Chronology Project, with the change of separating the Rebirth trade dress (but pre “Superman Reborn”) books from the New 52 books, instead placing the former into their spots in the Rebirth section. This was done more so for simplicity’s sake as opposed to reading order. The Infinite Frontier portion of the timeline includes every release since the start of the Infinite Frontier Era, and so far I’ve placed 122 out of 137 Infinite Frontier era collected edition titles released thus far. (If anyone happens to know where the remaining titles fit, your insight would actually be greatly appreciated.)

Post Crisis TPB timeline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k7JbxxvrU2BM2eGnMKEXDUcz2W8XSqT7t-By8ILHpy8/edit?usp=share_link 

New 52/Rebirth/Infinite Frontier TPB timeline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aOntgrSaKI_nLDFjQnmrYy8ezZWUkYRcWqTDFKxMEik/edit?usp=share_link 

_________________________________________________________________

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Science Fact Meets Science Fiction: Physics of the Future

Our future in reality obviously differs from the fictional future of a serialized multi-authored superhero comic book universe. However, real world physics and the real world nature of time strongly affect fictional futures and how we view them. By contrasting and comparing the physics of time between reality and fiction, we can better understand the continuity of the latter.

HOW TIME WORKS IN THE REAL WORLD

In reality, sequence of cause-and-effect, patterns of structure, and conscious experience/perspective all emerge in the forward flow of information in our brains. Our awareness of the universe rides the ever-forward moving wave of “the present.” To us, a past and future don’t exist since we only experience this “present.” However, despite this perception of a forward progression of information patterns, the physics of eternalism suggest that the past, present, and future co-exist eternally. This is Nietschze’s “time as a flat circle of recurrence” or Newton’s “deterministic universe,” in which we can predict the future because it is already set in stone. Under the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, this suggests a deterministic multiverse where everything is predestined. The inevitability of deterministic quantum physics dictates that there’s nothing that can happen now “in the present” (or that could have happened in the past) that won’t jibe (or couldn’t have jibed) with the future. There is a zero probability of something that I do now contradicting what happens in the future.

time and physics in realityNot all versions of Quantum Mechanics are deterministic and eternalist. (The opposite of deterministic eternalism is presentism, which posits that only the present exists, the past happens only to get erased, and the future doesn’t yet exist.) Nevertheless, all scientists agree on the extremely important fact that time is a dimension of space. A timeline represents the whole entirety of a universe’s spacetime (as defined by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity). Visually, a timeline can be described as a 4D chunk of “block time.” Observed from the outside (with a god’s eye point of view), the whole thing exists, fully-defined. If you step back and look at a complete timeline, you wouldn’t see the Big Bang up to present day, you’d see the Big Bang up to Universal Heat Death. In fact, for time travel to work (in either the real world or fiction), the future must already be written, for without the future, there can be no past (or present, for that matter). But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

If we lean into Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, it’s ludicrous to think that only the past and present exist while the future doesn’t (or in comic book terms, that only the past and present are canon while the future is not). There’s no way to clearly define “the present” so there’s no way to really separate it from the past or the future. As detailed above, the entire “block time universe” meaningfully exists all at once. By this logic, if you don’t believe the future exists then you must deny the present and past beyond your own immediate experience. Nothing outside of your present and past can be ascribed a definite reality until it is interacted with. Even though Einstein proved that this can’t be true in the real world, this solipsism is what a lot of people think! If you are interested in learning more about the real world concepts above, check out PBS’ Space Time show on YouTube, hosted by the brilliant Matt O’Dowd, who was a huge influence on this article.


HOW TIME WORKS IN SUPERHERO COMICS

How do real world physics apply to the fiction of multi-authored serialized superhero comics? As a reader, we have a god’s eye point of view, from which we can see the whole 4D timeline—past, present, and future—alongside alternate timelines that branch off of it (or rather, co-exist alongside it). This (along with Quantum Mechanics, the Many Worlds Theory, and Einstein-ian physics) proves that superhero comic universes are deterministic and eternalist, meaning that every timeline is already fleshed-out, defined, finalized, and concretized, even into the future. Just like in reality, there can only be one through-line.

time travel in comicsOf course, reality isn’t fiction. As stated earlier, in reality, there is a zero probability of something that I do now contradicting what happens in the future. This is another fundamental difference between reality and fiction. Whatever higher power, cosmic force, or simulation controller is governing our reality, it essentially has one story to tell from one ultimate source. In serialized multi-authored fiction, we get a heaping pile of contradiction and error. A writer sets the future in stone. Then another writer pens something that just won’t jibe with that future. (Although, I’d say this is even an impossibility because, for example, if someone has a future story with Alfred in it, but someone else kills off Alfred in the present day, this simply means that Alfred must come back to life at some point in order to fulfill the sanctity of the timeline.) When multiple authors step on each other’s toes and write things that simply cannot co-exist (i.e. two different writers writing two supposedly canonical futures, like Batman Beyond versus Helena Wayne’s timeline from New Golden Age), only one can remain in the end. This is the same as a retcon. The chronologist’s goal is to find a way to fanwank them both into fitting, but if they cannot, one must take precedence over the other!

Even though equal weight should clearly be placed upon past, present, and future, because of the nature of serialized authorship and publishing, writers and editors have different (often contradictory) visions of what the future looks like while having greater consensus in regard to the past and present. Since creators can retcon or alter canon with their ongoing works, this means more recently-published works tend to hold more weight than others. And since ongoing continuity is released in real time, adding to the ongoing über-narrative week by week, a greater weight is placed upon the present day as well. This leads to creators being more wishy-washy and all over the place with future continuity as compared to present or past continuity. In fact, authors change things on the fly (and contradict one another) so much that it becomes nearly impossible to know when a timeline becomes concretized or finalized. Many posit that a timeline isn’t concretized until a new continuity supplants it. Holding this opinion, we could assume that the fictive future does hold less weight, but only because it’s so much easier to retcon compared to the past or present. And if a future (especially one that interacts with or engages with the past or present via time travel) winds up being retconned out, it’s not banished to limbo; it merely gets retconned out of primary existence. This means the characters featured in said future go from having come into existence through the normal forward flow of sequence to having arrived from beyond the Bleed (i.e. interdimensional barrier) from a wholly separate alternate timeline.

Alternate timelines being able to cross over with one another is a huge difference between the real world and fiction. One could assume that when an observer sees or interacts with someone from the future (or past, for that matter), that person could be from an alternate timeline. In which case, it’s entirely possible that certain futures could be alternate, even those that seemingly directly connect with prior history.

Batman #700 carter nicholsWhat exactly happens when canonical comics have a character come back through time from the future? Many arcs have had characters come from the future to warn of a dark future that must be avoided. It is clear in these tales that the future can change (or rather be changed), but it’s also clear, at the end of these stories, what the future holds in store (more or less). Furthermore, it’s clear, at the end of these stories, who/what gets relegated to alt-timelines. Grant Morrison’s Batman #700 is a time-travel story that revolves around the link between past, present, and future. In this example, past, present, and future are literally connected and equal, and each is incredibly important to the other. Losing one destroys the fabric of the narrative entirely. Specifically, Carter Nichols goes back and kills his younger self, effectively committing suicide in a very unique way. What happens if we regard the future Nichols as from an alternate/possible future? It doesn’t make sense for Nichols to go onto an alternate timeline to kill an alternate version of himself if the plan is suicide. And making sense is paramount when building timelines.


BUILDING TIMELINES OF THE FUTURE

When ascertaining (i.e. making sense of) the fictional future canon of superhero comics, it’s necessary to have a set of precise rules to follow. But because reality is different from fiction, the latter’s chronology-building process can have different rules and different means of visual communication. Specifically, determinism in fictional timelines can be shown as being either delayed or immediate.

DELAYED DETERMINISM: DON’T FORGET TO ZIP UP

hypertimeA delayed deterministic timeline shows all possible futures, potentially as equals. Futures only get erased when they become apparently non-canon or impossible (either by some in-story revelation, time travel action, or by the present day catching up to future narrative and not matching it). Even if we never actually get there, the conceptual idea here is that enough futures will get erased to bring us to just one remaining “truth.” Batman Chronology Project site contributor Batfan breaks down this approach in layman’s terms, saying, “There’s no definitive future for the mainstream Batman, so we cannot put stock in any of them. They’re all possible futures that end up getting cancelled out as the comics go on and make room for new possible futures. It’s even likely that none of them will actually happen.” In other words, delayed determinism is non-committal (while recognizing that there must be some solidification at some juncture, albeit one that we may never reach).

Describing the delayed deterministic approach, site contributor Dylan Robinson says, “The present is a point moving across time. On one end, in front of the present, there are infinite possible futures (i.e. Hypertime). Some are more likely than others, and many share aspects. As the present pulls across time like a zipper, it collapses the possible futures it crosses into a linear history. As an example, there are many different versions of the Legion of Super-heroes in the future, and there will be, until the present moment crosses the year 3000. Until the present moment passes over them, Justice League 3001, Reboot Legion, Five Years Later Legion, Zero Hour Legion, Retroboot Legion, Bendis Legion, etc, are all possible futures and thus are also equally capable of co-existing and interacting with the ‘present’ via time travel. Once the present moment hits, those possibilities remain in the sea of Hypertime, but are no longer directly connected to the timeline, so to speak. All of the future Legions are canon until they are made conclusively impossible by something occurring in the present. In essence, there is no ‘primary’ future, only possible futures. There may even be some more evidence for this concept soon, given that Geoff Johns’ new Justice Society of America book is going to deal with the Legion, and in Johns’ Flashpoint Beyond, Rip Hunter’s board mentioned Legions of Four Worlds.” As we can see, the delayed deterministic timeline eventually has to choose its distinct future as time wears on (or zips together into one single thread). Of course, we’ll never reach the year 3000 in our lifetime, so the delayed deterministic timeline never really gets to that point of closure for narrative set way far ahead, thus leaving things perpetually open-ended. For chronology-builders that want expeditious closure, this is a frustrating conundrum.

Interestingly, while there can be dueling contradictory narratives in the future, nothing in present day narrative can really contradict with the future simply because anything can happen in-between to make it canon. This harkens back to our earlier example of Alfred getting killed off in the present day, but then another writer shows him alive in a future story. Again, this simply means that Alfred must come back to life at some point in order to fulfill the prophetic “truth” of the timeline.


IMMEDIATE DETERMINISM: I’M LIVING IN THE FUTURE, SO THE PRESENT IS MY PAST (I miss the old Kanye)

An immediate deterministic timeline shows the one “true” future that makes the most sense (based upon all published material to date). Any other futures exist only as asterisks or footnotes. The singular future may change depending on what is written or retconned, but there is only ever one future shown from the get-go. In other words, immediate determinism aptly searches for commitment with more immediacy.

The Death of Bruce WayneWe can’t talk about determinism (any kind) without talking about perspective. One character’s present is another’s past, one character’s past is someone else’s future, etc. As stated above, a reader’s perspective is that of an omniscient god lifting a veil to see beyond just the present. There’s very little doubt that the main Batman comics are gospel. Yet what happens when the main Batman comic shows the future? For years, Tom King wrote the main Batman comic, in which he showed a future where Batman and Catwoman were married and had baby Helena. This future weaved back into the past and present, and things that happened in his run in the present had direct connections to his future (as of course it did because that’s how story works—why include something from the future if it’s not your story’s future?). Late in his run, King was shunted off the main Batman comic to finish his story in the out-of-continuity Batman/Catwoman series. What is canon and what isn’t with King’s run? Likewise, we’ve been shown several versions of Batman’s death in the Infinite Frontier Era. Which one is canon? The one from the main Batman title (King’s version)? The one from The New Golden Age? The one from Batman Beyond? Are they all merely possible futures, and the most recent one is canon until something else replaces it? For quite some time, Batman Beyond has been the canonical future of Batman. But Johns (in New Golden Age / Justice Society of America) shows a different future, one where there’s really no room for Batman Beyond. Why is it that if a writer does a flashback in their present day story, it’s automatically canon? Yet essentially doing a flash-forward (i.e. a future story) is a toss up. This concept seems a bit arbitrary and weird, and it certainly doesn’t take perspective into account. Again, one character’s present is another’s past!


PROCESS & APPLICATION: THE GOLDEN RULE MEETS THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

No matter what, determinism of any kind inevitably comes to the same conclusion—that there must be one true path that holds more weight than others. Therefore, the rule is that “everything should be considered in terms of canonicity until disproved.” I suggest the immediate deterministic route for both procedural and aesthetic reasons. After all, there can only be one in the end, so be bold and make a choice!

new JSALet’s apply our rule/process to the chief inspiration for this very article—Johns’ New Golden Age / Justice Society of America, a multigenerational time travel story, comprising an interweaving narrative throughout the past, present, and future. While we should keep in mind that the story has just begun and lack of hindsight leaves us at a disadvantage, there is still curiously very little consensus on how this story (especially its future part) fits into canon. Some recent articles demonstrate this discord. Robert Wood (Screen Rant) brashly offers the clickbait-ish headline “New Golden Age Will Permanently Change Official Continuity, DC Announces,” although DC never actually officially said that. Michael Doran (GamesRadar/Newsarama) implies all of New Golden Age and Justice Society of America‘s future parts are canon, but he doesn’t fully commit to the idea. Samantha Puc (GamesRadar/Newsarama) says outright that Johns’ future parts are non canon! Wisely, Puc says, “It becomes obvious that The New Golden Age #1 takes place in a possible future timeline that doesn’t connect to DCU continuity. Since Helena is Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne’s daughter, the pair are currently broken up, and there’s been no mention of Selina being pregnant in the ongoing Catwoman solo series, it’s safe to say Helena won’t be born amidst Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths or the upcoming Dawn of the DCU. However, she does exist in the Batman/Catwoman series, which takes place in a timeline where Selina and Bruce go through with their wedding and have their daughter.” Maybe Helena is actually Valmont’s daughter… I kid, I kid. The DC Comics Database wikia page refers to the future of New Golden Age and Justice Society of America as “Helena’s Future,” implying it is an alternate future entirely. The DC Comics Database site also reminds us that, in Doomsday Clock #12, Dr. Manhattan previously mentioned that Bruce had a daughter in a timeline arising from the erased future known as Earth-5G. Does this mean the New Golden Age future is a repurposed Earth-5G? Again, all this is tricky, especially since the past and present parts of New Golden Age and Justice Society of America seem to definitively connect to canon. Of course, to refer back to Puc’s quote, all of King’s run was canon up to a point—until it wasn’t.

EXCEPTION TO THE RULE?

dawn of the dcuBatman Beyond and King’s future both connect to a ton of continuity whereas Johns’ New Golden Age / Justice Society of America does not (not so far anyway). Upon close examination, John’s new run (again, only three issues in) really only directly connects to other Johns material. Johns’ New Golden Age and Justice Society of America (again, thus far) has ostensibly already violated the unified golden rule of determinism we’ve set forth above. (If it hasn’t already, it may be about to, anyway.) Johns’ future occurs “next year,” starting with Selina giving birth to Helena. As Puc correctly states, Catwoman ain’t pregnant in the comics now, and it’s hard to imagine DC making her pregnant soon. If the delay in delayed determinism occurs once the future narrative’s Jonbar/hinge point (Helena being conceived and born) meets present day (current main-continuity comic book releases), then we’ve basically already crossed that moment or we are dangerously close to hitting it. Of course, if Selina gets pregnant in the next few months in primary ongoing Batman comics, then Johns’ new run will probably be definitively canon, but until that happens, it simply cannot be. Unless of course it’s a major retcon! (Johns is also saying that Batman only debuted thirteen or fourteen years ago, which in and of itself would be a major retcon.)[1]

In conclusion (or rather inconclusively), it’s a “new dawn” at DC, so we’ll see what happens with Johns and Mark Waid seemingly at the helm. King seems to be permanently in his own alternate universe and Batman Beyond’s ongoing series has stopped. The future ostensibly belongs to Johns and Waid. Despite looking very different from status quo, they are apparently sculpting the path ahead. Do I have the answer yet? No, which is why I’m waiting for Johns current series to end in a year’s time before making any big moves on my site. However, I (and other smart internauts) think we may have a soft reboot in the works. Again, we shall see. There’s always more to come in the endlessly recurring forward flow of time.

____________________________________________________________________

 

  1. [1]Johns’ new timeline (as per JSA #1-2 / New Golden Age):

    —1982 – Bruce born (not that far off from what we currently have) (JSA #1)
    —1991 – Waynes killed (Bruce is 8?) JSA says “31 years ago” (JSA #1)
    Johns’ implication is that Bruce trains from age 18 until 25, which would mean that the bulk of the current first 10 years would become training, and we’d have mega compression.
    —2009 – “Thirteen years ago”; Batman debuts (Bruce 25-26 just like Frank Miller) (JSA #1-2)
    —2014 – “Eight years ago”; JSA vs Extant; Zero Hour implied (JSA #2)
    —2021 – “One year ago”; Khalid Nassour becomes Dr. Fate; Convergence implied (JSA #2)
    —2023 – “One year from now”; Helena born (JSA #1)
    —Nov 2032 – Helena 9yo; Selina forces Bruce to retire (New Golden Age #1)
    All of Batman Beyond would have to go between 2032 and 2040, if indeed Batman is actually killed and stays dead in 2040
    —2040 – Bruce (in Batman costume) seemingly killed (New Golden Age #1)
    —2048 – “Twenty-six-years from now”; Selina killed (JSA #2)

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Things I Read in 2022

Happy holidays, everyone! Not including hundreds of single issues, here is my annual list of everything that I read in 2022 (in order of most liked to least liked).

  1. The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem
  2. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
  3. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
  4. No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
  5. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
  6. Burning Chrome by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
  7. Impossible Vacation by Spalding Gray
  8. The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing
  9. A Murder of Quality by John Le Carré
  10. Sapiens: A Graphic History, Vol. 1: The Birth of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen, & Daniel Casanave
  11. Sapiens: A Graphic History, Vol. 2: The Pillars of Civilization by Yuval Noah Harari, David Vandermeulen, & Daniel Casanave
  12. The Grey Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
  13. Dune by Frank Herbert
  14. Heaven No Hell by Michael DeForge
  15. East into Upper East by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
  16. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
  17. The Trial by Franz Kafka
  18. Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love by Dr. Amir Levine & Rachel SF Heller
  19. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  20. Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry
  21. The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
  22. Raffles by E W Hornung
  23. Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party by Graham Greene
  24. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
  25. Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
  26. Modes of Belonging: Debating School Demographics in Gentrifying New York by Alexandra Freidus 
  27. Dead Cities by Mike Davis
  28. Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex by Indigenous Action Media
  29. Identity by Milan Kundera
  30. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
  31. Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It… and Why the Rest Don’t by Verne Harnish
  32. Self-Coaching by Dr. Joseph Luciani
  33. How to Analyze & Review Comics (ed. by Forrest Helvie)
  34. Healing the Shame That Binds You by John Bradshaw
  35. The Illuminati Conspiracy: The Sapiens System by Dr. Donald Holmes 

_________________________________________________________________

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Geoff Johns’ New Golden Timeline

For the past several years, we had a DCU timeline that really seemed to work. It made sense. And it made sense in a lot of ways that previous timelines didn’t. Go on Reddit or the Comic Book Resources message boards and you’d see a general consensus that the JSA debuted in the late 1930s or early 1940s, Batman and Superman debuted about twenty to twenty-one years ago, and the JLA formed at some point shortly thereafter. This agreement spoke to a publishing line that was taking great care to make sure things tracked. This was continuity functioning as it should.

Then along came Geoff Johns to throw a big fat monkey wrench into the stinkin’ works.

JSA #1 (2023) – “Year One” is only “13 Years Ago”.


According to The New Golden Age and JSA #1, Batman debuts a mere thirteen years ago, while Helena is born around 2023. When Helena is in elementary school (around age nine), she discovers her dad is Batman, at which time Selina forces Bruce to retire. In roughly 2040, Batman is seemingly killed. This will all be followed up in the twelve-issue JSA series, so a lot of answers could be given, and we shouldn’t take anything at face value until it ends. But with such specificity of dates and times, Johns seems to be doing… something specific.

Let’s start with Johns’ supposed future. Does it leave any place at all for Terry McGinnis? If so, all of Batman Beyond would have to go between 2032 and 2040, if indeed Batman is actually killed and stays dead in 2040. There are a lot of ways to view the future when it comes to comic books. For instance, is this future even set in canon? For that matter, are any futures? We’ll get into that in a soon-to-come follow-up blog post, but for now, I’ll leave the conversation with the fact that Johns posits a world where Helena is born “one year from now.” Are other comic book writers going to be committing to this scenario in a mere year’s time?

But let’s move on from the future and focus on what’s more important—the idea of Batman debuting thirteen years ago. It means that Bruce is born in 1982, which is not far off from what we already currently have, so that’s fine. If the Waynes are killed when Bruce is eight-years-old, that places the tragedy in 1991, which is indeed “31 years ago” as JSA #1 tells us. Johns’ implication is that Bruce trains from age eighteen until twenty-five (mirroring Frank Miller’s “Year One”). And then “13 years ago” is 2009, meaning Batman debuts at age twenty-five/twenty-six (again mirroring Frank Miller’s “Year One”).

Here’s where things get complicated and messy. For Johns’ “13 years ago” timeline to work, this means that Year One must include a lot of stuff, some of which is quite anachronistic. He must come face-to-face with the League of Assassins, during which Damian must be conceived. Damian must also be born in Year One as well. Dick would likely have to become Robin in Year One too—putting us right back into a New 52 Robin-as-internship situation. And Jonathan Kent must be conceived and born as well. Would that mean that Doomsday’s murder or Superman comes early too (as in basically immediately after he debuts)? That’s particularly messy—and likely impossible—for various reasons. Not to mention, we’ve already gotten numerous references and flashbacks to Doomsday that involve a later JLA lineup and which are based upon 1993 story material.

No matter how you spin it, a thirteen-to-fourteen-yearlong timeline requires a lot of compression, which is difficult when Johns himself restored so much continuity with Doomsday Clock (and Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson opened up everything with “everything matters”). Where would we even compress? The early years? The middle? Surely Johns, who adores the Silver Age, isn’t suggesting that decades’ worth of that precious material get crammed into a three or four year span? The New 52 ended over five years ago. If we keep five years of story, even compressing it down a wee bit, you still aren’t left with much breathing room for eight decades of stories. And if we compress more recent stories in order to make things work, is that technically a reboot? Is it a soft reboot? Is it an official time-slide? What is it?

Let’s not forget though, not only has New Golden Age/JSA just begun, but it’s also a story heavily revolving around time-travel. With all the chronal shenanigans pertaining to the New Golden Age/JSA narrative, it’s possible that we could be dealing with alternate timelines and alternate Earths—and subsequent time-chicanery that could undo itself by arc’s end. But that remains to be seen. This is precisely why I’ve decided not to place any New Golden Age or JSA stuff on my chronology until the arc fully wraps.

Until then, and I hate to do it, I’ll delve into some conspiracy theorization. After all, I have sneaking suspicions about what’s going on, and it might have to do with fallout from the end of the Dan DiDio regime. Johns’ original intention with Doomsday Clock had been to fully reboot the DCU, going straight into Flashpoint Beyond and New Golden Age/JSA. This is precisely why he had the JSA return (with reboot) at the end of Doomsday Clock in the first place. Of course, Johns’ reboot (and DiDio’s 5G reboot) were both blocked/rejected in favor of Snyder/Williamson’s “anti-reboot” with Death Metal and Infinite Frontier. Now that Johns is back in the leadership saddle, he appears to be continuing with his original plans, despite having had a couple years of Snyder-influenced Williamson “anti-reboot” continuity. 

Doomsday Clock #12 (2020) – Is a reboot “better late than never”?

In any case, as I said above, I want to see the forest for the trees—step back once Johns is done with JSA to see if I can better understand his rationale. Either it’s an out-and-out reboot, a soft reboot with sliding-time (i.e. compression), or something else entirely. But again, Johns had a hard-on for a reboot a few years ago and didn’t get his way. I wouldn’t put it past him to be rebooting without fanfare, now that he’s got the power. Though, could we also see a reboot-ish type thing at the end of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths? A new “dawn” is coming, after all. Keep an eye on that one too. Always more to come…

New Golden Age #1 (2023) – Blame it on Corky.





Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Batman Chronology Infographic

I’ve put together an infographic of Batman’s life and times, which can also be found at https://imgur.com/SzFMerS. As one should always mention (although not mentioned in the infographic), credit for Batman’s co-creation goes out to the legendary Bill Finger. Also, “A Death in the Family” and The Killing Joke have been clumped together, as have “Officer Down” and “Tower of Babel.” “Under the Hood” has been omitted but shouldn’t be overlooked.

___________________________________________________________________

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment