New 52 Year Seven (Part 2)

(July 2014 to December 2014)

_______________________________

–Batman Eternal #11-13
In Brazil, Batgirl goes after the vain hunky Gonzolo Dominguez only to run into Scorpiana. After fighting off Scorpiana temporarily, Batgirl questions Dominguez about his link to her jailed dad. Dominguez explains that, because he owed money to the Club of Villains, they “copied” his face and implanted it onto another man, who was present at the train accident. When Scorpiana strikes again, Batgirl is assisted by Red Hood, Starfire, and Gaucho. Meanwhile, back in Gotham, tensions are high between Alfred and Julia. Alfred earns a little of her respect by stitching up her wound. Alfred, with Bruce’s gracious permission, offers a Julia permanent residency at Wayne Manor. Across town at the library, Stephanie Brown researches her dad’s criminal past and is sickened and embarrassed by what she finds. In the process, Steph unblocks a repressed memory of Batman busting her father in their home from years ago. At Gotham Cemetery, Selina visits the grave of Lola MacIntire only to find a letter left there addressed to her from her father, Rex Calabrese. Batman shows up to check on Selina. She tells him to beat it. Batman, posing as a prison guard, then speaks with Jim Gordon en route to his trial. At Gotham General Hostpital, Harper Row sits by her brother Cullen, who is still comatose after having been attacked an infested by a nanite swarm. From his bedside, Harper tracks the movements of Red Robin, who is in the process of interrogating Professor Pyg in his jail cell. When Red Robin realizes that Harper is hacking into his computer system, he shuts her out and decides to visit Wayne Manor to ask about her. At Wayne Manor, Tim barges in on Alfred chatting with his daughter Julia. Alfred pulls him aside and they secretly descend into the Batcave where Alfred tells Tim all about Harper Row. Across town, Gordon’s trial starts with a media frenzy attached to it. Vicki Vale, Joey Day, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and a disguised Batman are all in attendance for opening statements. Lieutenant Bard tells Vicki that he’s leading a secret plan to stop the gang war. That night, Harvey Bullock calls Batman’s old contact number and Batman meets him and Bard on the roof of the Beacon Tower. Bard tells Batman his big plan, which involves the Dark Knight letting the GCPD “capture” him. In Blackgate, James Junior pays off a crooked guard and visits his father. James Junior plays head games with Jim and reveals that a guard has been bribed to open an exit door for his pop to escape through (if he wants) in a day’s time. Downtown, Lieutenant Bard fools Commissioner Forbes by telling him he has strategized an assault on a suspected Bat-Bunker, which is actually a Falcone safe house. Meanwhile, Stephanie Brown keeps posting about her dad’s sinister plot, but no one is listening, except for Internet trolls and Joey Day. But Vicki Vale can’t be bothered with Cluemaster news from her sidekick Joey. Vicki goes on a ride-along with Bard, Bullock, Sawyer, and the GCPD as they “go after Batman.” With the Dark Knight monitoring from the shadows, Bard and his unit bust into a warehouse and arrest all of Falcone’s top men, citing falsely that they are in league with Batman, so as to make the charges stick. At police HQ, Forbes is furious, but cannot release Falcone’s men since Vicki is present and reporting all of the pertinent details. Forbes immediately calls Falcone for instructions, but Vicki and Lieutenant Bard have tapped his phone, exposing him as being in league with the mobster. Across town, Harper Row spies on Red Robin at one of his Robin’s Nest bunkers. Red Robin is able to connect the recent nanite swarms to Batman’s old mentor, Sergei Alexandrov, who currently resides in Tokyo. In the ‘burbs, Stephanie’s troubles continue as a Cluemaster-delivered bomb (left in a package addressed to Stephanie) detonates, killing her best friend.

–Batman Eternal #14-16
Lieutenant Bard shakes-down Mayor Hady, who is forced to disconnect all ties to Falcone lest he expose himself to the long arm of the law. Bard also exposes Commissioner Forbes as a criminal and puts in an anonymous phone call to Penguin, telling him exactly where Falcone is. Penguin goes straight to Falcone’s hideout and kills nearly a dozen of his bodyguards before Bard (along with Vicki Vale) bursts in and arrests both men. In Blackgate, Gordon’s cellmate, Leo, being the only nice dude in Blackgate, gives him a pep talk. At 2:46 AM, Gordon walks toward the open exit door provided to him by his son only to find Batman waiting. Gordon tells him that he was going to re-lock the door. They have a small chat about Bard and about the fall of Rex “The Lion” Calabrese, who was Gotham’s top dog before Falcone. Batman then pays Bard a visit and disapprovingly tells him that his phone call tip-off to Penguin cost the lives of a dozen men. Bard exclaims that Batman needs to update his methods, but Batman disappears into the night without responding. Meanwhile, Red Robin deals with a stowaway Harper Row aboard his jet. In Arkham, Joker’s Daughter captures Scarecrow. I should mention that it has been four days since Jim Corrigan and Batwing were scouting the outside of Arkham and planning on entering its walls (in Batman Eternal #6). What have they been doing all this time? Who knows. Corrigan can sense that something horrendously powerfully evil is lurking underneath Arkham, so maybe he has been prepping this whole time. This SCREAMS continuity error and I’m calling bullshit, but oh well. It’s minor compared to some of the chronic errors this series will contain moving forward. So finally, Corrigan and Batwing enter Arkham and find that the inmates are in control when they see a zombie Magpie (Margaret Pye) manning the secretary desk. After a creepy encounter with The Ten-Eyed Man (Philip Reardon), Corrigan and Batwing find a pillar of blood dripping upward from the floor of Scarecrow’s cell and a floating Scarecrow not far away. A host of zombies swarm the duo and drag Batwing 150 feet below the building, delivering him to Joker’s Daughter. (Note that Batman now becomes aware of the zombies—as referenced in Batman Eternal #17 and Batman Eternal #19although because Batwing never actually radios him about the encounter, we must assume that Batman is monitoring a video feed from Batwing’s suit.) On the other side of the globe in Tokyo, Red Robin reluctantly teams with an intransigent Harper Row, who wears a blue Grifter-like mask. Back in Gotham, Lieutenant Bard continues rounding up Falcone’s men. Batman meets with Bard again and they decide to be friends after all, shaking hands in approval of each other. In Rio de Janeiro, Batgirl and Red Robin go after the man that surgically altered a criminal to look like Gonzolo Dominguez, Dr. Mangaravite. However, Batwoman, on a case of her own, is already at Mangaravite’s office beating him up. Back at Arkham, zombies drag a captured Corrigan to their master, the weird Mr. Bygone. Bygone claims he works for an even more sinister power that feeds off of the sorrow in Arkham. Meanwhile, Joker’s Daughter uses a beaten-up Batwing’s communication system to send a false message to Batman, telling him that things are fine at Arkham. She then drags Batwing deeper underground where his communication device becomes non-functional. Across town, Batman watches as Lieutenant Bard cleans up more of Falcone’s men. Bard also gets up close and personal with Vicki Vale—they start a sexual relationship. Back in Arkham, possessed Arkham staffer Dr. Achilles Milo serves up Professor Pyg to the sorrow-sucking Tulpas that have infested the catacombs beneath the building. Batwing breaks free of Joker’s Daughter and fights a zombie-like Maxie Zeus, who has his arm back and seems invigorated with evil verve. After Batwing defeats Maxie Zeus, the Tulpas take his unconscious body to be used as the vessel for their master. Batwing then stumbles across Dr. Simon Ecks (also spelled “Simon Echs”), who explains that the evil force actually secretly took over Arkham months ago. Batwing is rejoined by Corrigan and they learn that the demonic spirit master of Arkham is Deacon Blackfire, who is trying to come back from Hell via a Hellmouth underneath Arkham. In Tokyo, Red Robin and Harper Row meet up with Sergei Alexandrov. (Batman Eternal #25 tells us that Red Robin begins combat-training Harper at this point.)

–NOTE: In Batman Eternal #17. Batman isn’t actually in this issue as he is only shown via flashback. Jim Corrigan and Batwing have been trapped underneath Arkham for over twenty-four hours now with no way of communicating with the outside world, fighting an ever morphing maze-like terrain while fighting Deacon Blackfire’s demon hordes. Thanks to a false message sent by Joker’s Daughter, Batman thinks that Arkham is just fine and dandy. Corrgian and Batwing are finally outstripped and dragged into a black mire. Meanwhile, at Wayne Manor, Julia squabbles with her dad. Across town, Batwing’s roommate Rory worries since Luke hasn’t checked in with him or the Fox family for a week.

–Batman Eternal #18-20
In Rio, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Batwoman follow the Club of Villains trail to a sweatshop where child laborers are forced to assemble superhero toys. The trio beats up a bunch of armed guards, but Batgirl is mind-controlled by the leader of the factory, Dr. Falsario. In Gotham, Julia Pennyworth goes to a punk show while Alfred Pennyworth guides Batman and Jason Bard into the sewers beneath the Narrows, where a series of horrific cannibal murders have occurred. Batman has a hunch these murders are linked to the recent evilness going on beneath Arkham, which he thinks has ended thanks to Joker’s Daughter’s recent false report. After a nasty run-in with Killer Croc in the sewers, Batman calms the savage beast, who then joins the Dark Knight and Bard in a search for the real cannibal killer. In Blackgate, Jim Gordon chats with a friendly guard, Officer Leonard, and with his friendly cellmate Leo. Penguin and Carmine Falcone (along with all of their men) are now in Blackgate, which is bad news because the gang war has simply moved into jail. In the prison yard, some of Falcone’s men execute Fishnet Face, one of Penguin’s top men, inciting a huge full-scale riot. Jim Gordon takes charge and beats-up a bunch of Blackgaters, including Penguin henchman Volt. In Rio, Red Hood helps Batgirl regain her senses and the trio of heroes defeats Dr. Falsario, who is confirmed as the man that set up Jim Gordon (using false telepathic image projection). Underneath Gotham’s sewers, Killer Croc shows Batman and Bard a bunch of re-animated corpses that he has caught and caged. Batman, Bard, and Killer Croc descend upon the Underground where they come across the Ten-Eyed Man about to sacrifice Jade McKillen. (Jade is the youngest daughter from the merger of two wealthy mafia families—the McKillens and the Ibanescus. The Ibanescus run the notorious Ibanescu Mob. Jade previously had run away from home and befriended both Killer Croc and Catwoman in the Underground.) Batman, Killer Croc, and Bard rescue Jade from being tossed into an interdimensional portal. Doing so causes the portal to implode. Bard then tries to arrest Killer Croc for a cop murder he committed in Batman and… #23.4, but the cavern collapses and everybody bails. In Blackgate, the riot continues and Gordon is captured by some inmates. Leo returns to his old Rex “The Lion” Calabrese gimmick, popping in lion fangs and rescuing Gordon by literally chewing out the inmates’ throats. The SWAT team rushes in and quells the riot. Gordon is labeled a hero and earns the respect of Warden Zorbatos. In Brazil, Batgirl chases Dr. Falsario into the jungle only to find him executed by a mystery assassin’s Asian knife. Batgirl regroups with Red Hood and Batwoman, who have collected a bunch of evidence that will hopefully exonerate Gordon. Elsewhere, Stephanie Brown debuts as the costumed vigilante known as The Spoiler!

[1]

–REFERENCE: In Batman Eternal #21. Batgirl and Red Hood report on their findings in Brazil and deliver files (and the Asian knife) that might be able to supposedly exonerate Jim Gordon of wrongdoing. However, the evidence is ignored because Hush and his secret boss have total control of Gotham’s judicial system. Thus, Gordon’s trial continues quite poorly for the defendant.

–Batgirl Vol. 4 #33 Conclusion[2])
Batman makes a brief final page appearance in this issue, receiving a call from Batgirl asking for help to fight Knightfall (Charise Carnes), who is planning a coordinated midnight strike to rid her Cherry Hill neighborhood of all “criminals” (i.e. anyone who opposes her views) via an army of mercenaries and metahumans. Here’s what led up to this: Jim Gordon tried in vain (via phone) to warn his daughter that James Junior is still alive. Presumably Gordon tried to contact Babs several times since James Junior’s surprise reappearance, but Batgirl was busy in Brazil and, upon returning to the States, has been busy teaming with Huntress and Black Canary against agents of Knightfall, notably Bleak Michael (Michael Drucker). After learning about Knightfall’s planned midnight attack, Batgirl now calls a few people for help—Detective Melody McKenna, secret agent Obscura (Munira Khairuddin), Katharsis (Kulap Vilaysack), and Batman. Batman will be way too busy with the events of Batman Eternal to personally assist, but he does loan her the Batboat. A bunch of DC’s best female heroes will come help Batgirl shut down Knightfall once and for all (as seen in Batgirl Vol. 4 #34).

–REFERENCE: In Grayson #1. July. It’s been nearly two months since Dick’s false funeral. He has now fully imbedded himself within the ranks of Spyral as “Agent 37.” Using the codename “Birdwatcher,” Dick makes secret contact with Batman, who uses the codename “Mr. Malone.” Dick reports that he has been given special surgical implants called hypnos, which all Spyral agents are equipped with to help them carry out espionage missions. Dick further reports on the nature of Spyral’s missions, giving info about new top agent Mr. Minos and his aide Dr. Elisabeth Netz (Otto Netz’s daughter/Kathy Kane’s sister). A day later, Dick contacts Batman again, but is interrupted by his fellow agent Helena Bertinelli, which forces him to end the conversation early.

–Grayson #2
While Batman fights the masked motorcycle gang known as The Cycles of Violence, Dick contacts him in secret from St. Hadrian’s, continuing the interrupted conversation that they were having from one night prior. Dick reports that one of Spyral’s current objectives is to retrieve the scattered body parts and internal organs of a deceased cyborg named Paragon (unrelated to the super-villain named Paragon). Afterward, Dick and Helena are sent to the English countryside to retrieve Paragon’s cyborg stomach, which is now implanted inside a rogue metahuman THEY agent, Dr. Poppy Ashemoore. (The Hood had been tasked with the mission but failed miserably.) In Leicester, Dick is attacked Dr. Ashemoore, who has super-speed and has cannibalistically eaten several spies that have attempted to bring her in before. When Dick doesn’t follow orders, Helena shows him that she has the ability to render him instantly unconscious at any time via his hypnos. Back at St. Hadrian’s, Otto Netz’s daughter removes the cyborg stomach from Dr. Ashemoore’s body. Dick then has another secret meeting with Batman. Elsewhere, Midnighter, somehow involved in the Paragon affair and having recently fought Dick, plans for a rematch. Meanwhile, Poppy Ashemoore is brought into the fold and made a Spyral agent. (SPOILER: As revealed in Batman & Robin Eternal #1 and Batman & Robin Eternal #3, Poppy Ashemoore actually works for “Mother” and has been sent to infiltrate Spyral. Mission successful.)

–Teen Titans Vol. 4 Annual #3 Epilogue
The Teen Titans have recently disbanded (as shown in the main non-Batman related action of this Annual). The scene important for our chronology is a single splash that shows Batman and Red Robin happily patrolling Gotham with the Dark Knight just like old times. Red Robin will immediately reform the Teen Titans after this.

–REFERENCE: In Gotham Academy Annual #1. While not explicit, the implication in this issue is that Bruce offers a Gotham Academy scholarship to young Warren McGinnis, who will begin school there in the fall. The McGinnis family has long been close friends with the Wayne family. SPOILER: Warren will eventually grow up to father Terry McGinnis i.e. Batman from Batman Beyond!

SUPERMAN: DOOMED – INFECTED[3]
————————–Superman: Doomed #1
————————–Action Comics Vol. 2 #31
————————–Superman/Wonder Woman #8
————————–Batman/Superman #11
————————–Superman Vol. 3 #31
In the Bahamas, Doomsday appears in a metamorphosed form, bigger and deadlier. In fact, Doomsday is so deadly now that literally everything within a certain radius of him instantly dies from a fatal virus that he emits. After the deaths of over 3200 people, Superman is pissed. After pep talks from Dr. Shay Veritas and his old boss Perry White, Clark prepares for war. Meanwhile, Lois Lane and Lana Lang investigate a bizarre occurrence in the now quarantined Smallville where 539 people recently spontaneously dropped into comas. Doomsday turns up next in Botswana, killing millions of animals. John Henry Irons postpones his Zambian vacation with his niece Natasha Irons to suit up as Steel and take on the monster. Wonder Woman and Superman arrive to assist Steel, causing Doomsday to retreat into a teleportation portal. The Justice League calls an emergency meeting. In the emergency bunker in DC, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg gather. Lex Luthor and Green Lantern attend via hologram. They discuss how Doomsday is hopping all over the planet destroying everything and what must be done. Before leaving to fight Doomsday, Superman gives Batman the key to the Fortress of Solitude. Superman briefly fights Doomsday in Mumbai before flying him to Venus where he fries the creature with heat vision. Thinking Doomsday has been defeated, Superman returns to Earth badly infected with the Doomsday virus. (SPOILER: The gargantuan absolute/über version of Brainiac is responsible for infecting Superman with the Doomsday Virus.)[4] In Smallville, Doomsday reappears, forcing Superman to tear him in half, killing him instantly. The badly infected Superman is immediately escorted into quarantine by several heroes (and Luthor). Batman takes a sample of Superman’s blood, which reveals that the virus is literally turning him into a new Doomsday monster. Superman flies away to be in solitude in Alaska (although he is joined by Krypto). Meanwhile, at Steel’s Virginia metahuman prison known as STEEL, Steel purges himself of any lingering Doomsday virus by bathing-in and becoming physically bonded to liquid steel. Recently elected senator Sam Lane warns Steel that Superman is a threat to global security. Days pass and Superman remains incommunicado with the world. Wonder Woman (as Diana Prince) solicits information about the missing Clark from Cat Grant and Lois Lane, revealing to both of them that she is dating Clark. Wonder Woman then meets briefly with Batman, who tells her to check his Metropolis apartment. At the apartment, Wonder Woman confronts Clark, who has already turned partly into a hideous rock-skinned monster with the effrontery to match. Batman arrives, but Wonder Woman sends him away. This spat is between lovers. Wonder Woman yells at Clark and tells him to snap out of it. Clark lets out a primordial scream and the virus dies down, becoming inert, but still remaining deep within his system. The prelude to Batman/Superman #11 tells us that Clark is only able to control himself for a moment before attacking Wonder Woman and Batman. When Clark regains control again, he turns himself into the authorities. Batman, Wonder Woman, and Steel visit the Fortress of Solitude. There, a Doomsday virus-infected Krypto guides Batman and Wonder Woman into the Phantom Zone to find out how Doomsday got out. In the cold tesseract space, our heroes, along with Ghost Soldier, fight Mongul and Kryptonian super-criminal Non. Afterward, Ghost Soldier explains that he has just betrayed his employers, the evil organization known as The Tower, a group that has been trying to kill Superman for some time. The first Kryptonian ever imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, Dr. Xa-Du (The Phantom King), then shows up and explains that the leader of the Tower, the vicious villainess Harrow, used her teleportation powers to enter the Phantom Zone to recruit him in the mission to kill Superman. Xa-Du released Doomsday from a Forbidden Corner, a protective “zone within the zone” for the most dangerous criminals. Once out of the Forbidden Corner, Doomsday easily smashed out of the regular Phantom Zone, causing intense energy rifts that now serve as deadly unstable tears in the reality walls of the space. These tears are amplified by machines placed by Xa-Du. Batman, Wonder Woman, Ghost Soldier, and Krypto chase Non and Xa-Du out of the Phantom Zone and into the Fortress of Solitude where Steel helps the heroes capture the baddies. (Note, as referenced in Batman Vol. 3 #17, that Batman scopes-out and learns about a lot of the Fortress of Solitude’s Kryptonian devices, including healing chambers, during this little adventure in the frozen HQ.) Shortly thereafter, at the former Utah prison that once held Lex Luthor, Luthor, Batman, Cyborg, Ray Palmer, and Shay Veritas (via hologram) study a restrained Superman, who has begun to morph into a new Doomsday. Wonder Woman stands guard outside. Lois Lane arrives, per Superman’s request, and meets with him privately. (If you didn’t know, Lois discovered Superman’s secret ID a few months ago in Superman Vol. 3 #24.) Unknown to everybody, Brainiac has secretly implanted himself within Lois’s mind. (He’s been hiding in there for five years!) Brainiac takes control of Lois long enough to upset Superman, who breaks his binds and flies away angrily to St. Louis. There, the recently reformed Teen Titans (current lineup—Red Robin, Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, Beast Boy, and Raven) are engaged in a losing battle with Detritus. Superman shows up, destroys Detritus, and the flies away. Cyborg tracks Superman from the JLA Space Bunker Satellite (which was recently donated to the team by Luthor).

SUPERMAN: DOOMED – ENEMY OF THE STATE
————————–Action Comics Vol. 2 #32
Superman is quickly morphing into a new Doomsday. Out of control, he burns through hundreds of acres of woodland, forcing the US Air Force to bomb him. Meanwhile, Lana Lang tells Wonder Woman that origins of the recent mass coma in Smallville has been traced to outer space. Elsewhere, at a government facility, Senator Sam Lane and Lois Lane (still being controlled by Brainiac) revive Metal-Zero (aka Metallo). At STEEL, they revive Atomic Skull (Joseph Martin). The US Army then sends Metallo and Atomic Skull (with a multiple megaton payload blast of aerosol Kryptonite) to bring down Superman, whose mere presence has begun to kill everything within a few dozen meters of wherever he goes. The Army’s plan is for all three men to kill each other. Both Steel and Lex Luthor realize and disapprove of what the Army is up to, so Steel begins fighting-off Metallo and Atomic Skull. Superman tries to help Steel, but winds up detonating the aerosol Kryptonite bomb. The massive green cloud envelops Superman and causes him to morph further into a mindless Doomsday monster.

SUPERMAN: DOOMED – SUPERDOOM[5]
————————–Action Comics Vol. 2 Annual #3
————————–Superman/Wonder Woman Annual #1
Superman has turned into Doomsday in a cape—”SuperDoom.” Despite having morphed into a monster, Superman still retains a heart of decency, but an internal battle that will determine whether he pulls out of the darkness or succumbs to it goes on within his mind. Meanwhile, Brainiac has reared his evil head and begun an all-out war against Earth. After fully taking control of Lois Lane’s mind and body, Brainiac leads Metallo, Cyborg Superman, and an army of War of the Worlds-like “nodes” into battle. Taking down Earth’s planetary defenses within minutes, Lois-Brainiac’s node army decimates Metropolis and several other large cities. When Cyborg Superman leads a flotilla of Brainiac-controlled space vessels en route to attack Earth, SuperDoom goes to fight him just outside of Mars. Aboard the JL Satellite, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Batman (via holographic satellite from the Fortress of Solitude) detect and discuss the incoming threat Brainiac’s invasion fleet. The “coma zones,” originally just in Smallville, but now also in Metropolis, are directly linked to Brainiac’s invasion. Cyborg tries to fire off a pre-emptive strike via a combined laser grid from all of Earth’s satellites, but Brainiac destroys the entire grid. Steel and Lana Lang contact the JL and explain that they can shut down Brainiac’s stranglehold over the planet by destroying a mere 36% of his nodes. In the Fortress of Solitude, Batman assembles Ghost Soldier, Harrow, Krypto, Lex Luthor (via hologram), and Dr. Shay Veritas (via hologram). This think-tank determines that Brainiac has manipulated everything that has occurred—Brainiac secretly manipulated Harrow’s recent release of Doomsday from the Phantom Zone knowing that Doomsday would infect Superman. Concerned about Red Hood and his “Outlaws” (Arsenal and Starfire) in Gotham, Batman radios his former Robin and tells him to get outta town. SuperDoom returns to Earth to help them fight off some nodes. However, with the Earth’s atmosphere still permeated with Kryptonite radiation, Superman begins to lose even more control of himself and begins to emit more poison from his body. Back in the Fortress, Batman declares that they must get rid of that damn Kryptonite. Luthor says that it is impossible, but Batman says that the captured Dr. Xa-Du can do it. But Xa-Du is a super-villain, so it will take some convincing (aka forcing). While Batman, Luthor, Harrow, and Doc Veritas try to steal and use Xa-Du’s metapower “to turn things unsubstantial” on the Kryptonite, Martian Manhunter is able to use his telepathic/telekinetic powers to temporarily purge the Doomsday virus from Superman in Sao Paolo. While Superman is heroic for a few minutes, Ghost Soldier and Baka join the Man of Steel and Martian Manhunter to defeat a bunch of nodes. Before long, however, Superman reverts back into beast-mode. In Cambodia, Hawkman and Simon Baz are having trouble with a node until SuperDoom arrives and smashes it up. Wonder Woman then checks in on Batman to make sure his plan is still working (a scene that is shown in both Superman/Wonder Woman Annual #1 and Action Comics Vol. 2 Annual #3). Across the globe, the JL, Swamp Thing, the Teen Titans, Heat Wave, Weather Wizard, and members of the Red Lantern Corps (Guy Gardner, Bleez, and Zilius Zox) fight the good fight. (The Red Lantern Corps has recently taken over the Green Lantern Corps’ responsibility as protector of Sector 2814, which includes Earth.) In Metropolis, SuperDoom and Baka destroy a ton of Brainiac’s robots and sever Brainiac’s control over Lois and Metallo. Lois, still with flight ability and telepathy, joins Metallo to continue fighting against Brainiac’s army. In outer space, Steel and Lana Lang fight Cyborg Superman. Eventually, SuperDoom loses complete control of himself and winds up fighting Wonder Woman. Thankfully, Harrow is able to steal Xa-Du’s powers and she eliminates all of the Kryptonite from the atmosphere. Superman is fully restored in an instant and the Doomsday virus disappears! (Xa-Du, as a Kryptonian, gains his full strength back as well, which allows him to easily escape and flee.) Nearly all of Brainiac’s army is defeated, but it doesn’t matter. The real invasion force bursts through an interdimensional stargate—a colossal Brainiac mothership that is larger than the planet Earth itself.

SUPERMAN: DOOMED – LAST SUN
————————–Action Comics Vol. 2 #34
————————–Superman/Wonder Woman #11
————————–Superman: Doomed #2
Brainiac’s mothership has entered Earth’s atmosphere. Batman, from the Fortress of Solitude, detects that Brainiac is about to send out a mind-control pulse, so he tries to warn Red Hood, Starfire, and Arsenal in Gotham. But it’s too late. Millions of people (regular folks and metahumans) immediately succumb to Brainiac’s immense power, all flatlining and turning into mindless zombies. Shortly thereafter the remaining heroes—only Superman, Lois Lane (still with metapowers), Martian Manhunter, Krypto, Metallo, Harrow, Ghost Soldier, Batman, Cyborg, Steel, Lana Lang, Dr. Shay Veritas, and Wonder Woman—regroup on the JL satellite. Using her power to summon and command the dead, Harrow raises up history’s greatest deceased warriors. While Brainiac’s “daughtership” robots are distracted by the army of the dead, Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman attack his mothership. After a calculated strike, the heroes in the Fortress of Solitude (Batman, Lois Lane, Wonder Woman, and Dr. Veritas) combine their tech with the heroes aboard the JL satellite (Lana Lang, Cyborg, and Steel) in an attempt to suck both Brainiac’s mothership and the entire planet Earth into the Phantom Zone! But their plan fails miserably as Brainiac assimilates the ghost army and blows up the JL satellite. Brainiac’s mothership then tries to smash into the much smaller Earth but the combined brute strength of Superman and Martian Manhunter is enough to push the giant vessel back. Superman and Martian Manhunter then destroy a bunch of Brainiac’s elite Collector robots before rescuing Lana Lang and Steel. While they retreat to the Fortress of Solitude, Cyborg is assimilated by the Collectors. In the Fortress of Solitude, the heroes rejoin Batman, Wonder Woman, and Lois Lane and learn that those assimilated by Brainiac eventually die. With no other options left, Wonder Woman recruits Mongul and Non to help the good guys in exchange for Warworld and freedom. Superman taps deep into his unconscious mind, released the Doomsday virus shackled in his psyche, and once again becomes the monster Super Doom. Traveling at near light speed, Super Doom crashes into Brainiac’s mothership. There, Brainiac enters Super Doom’s mind and tells Clark to back down, claiming that he is simply trying to collect enough minds to reshape the universe into a perfect utopia. Brainiac also tells Clark that if his (Brainiac’s) body is destroyed, all of the assimilated people of Earth and other planets will perish. And Brainiac also reveals that Cyborg Superman is Supergirl’s father (and Clark’s uncle) Zor-El. Speaking of Cyborg Superman, Supergirl takes him down inside the Fortress of Solitude. Brainiac, however, manages to assimilate all of the heroes, including Batman. Brainiac then shows Clark visions of a false future 25 years later where Metropolis is safe and Bruce has retired and turned the Batcave into a restaurant. Inside the mothership, Super Doom battles his way to the inner core and meets the man behind Brainiac, an alien scientist formerly known as Vril Dox, who has done every evil act up to this point in an attempt to recreate the universe to bring back his dead family. Super Doom, with Lois Lane’s telepathic help and energy from a Wonder Woman controlled WarWorld, causes Brainiac to release his hold over his captives. Lois immediately loses her powers, but everyone on Earth is A-ok. Clark then saves the day by dragging the mothership, Brainiac’s Vril Dox body, and the remnants of the Doomsday infection into a black hole. From within the dark recesses of the unknown, Brainiac (in his Vril Dox body) is pulled to safely out of the black hole, through the Bleed, and into a realm outside of time and space. He winds up on the “Blood Moon” AKA the sentient planet Telos, home to the gargantuan other über version of Brainiac. (Telos is a transformed pre-Flashpoint Arak Red-Hand, Son of Thunder.) Vril Dox Brainiac looks in awe through various crystal windows that show images of previously deleted continuities from the DC Multiverse of yesteryear! Towering above the Vril Dox Brainiac stands the architect and collector of the crystalline worlds, the absolute über version of Brainiac himself. (See the above footnote about the über Brainiac for details.) Meanwhile, Superman is also spit-out onto Telos before eventually being ejected back through a black hole with his memory of the visit completely erased (as seen in Convergence #0). It will take him sixty days to return to Earth (as we learn in Action Comics Vol. 2 #35).

–REFERENCE: In Action Comics Vol. 2 #35. With Superman missing following the events of Doomed, Bruce sets up a WayneTech satellite in Earth’s orbit to send an alert should Superman return. Along with the alert, the satellite with set off a small Kryptonite discharge that will test Superman to make sure he is completely rid of the Doomsday Virus. Bruce also covers for Superman’s secret ID, making a public announcement that the Wayne Foundation has hired Clark Kent on an indefinite overseas assignment.

–REFERENCE: In Batman/Superman #20. In light of Superman’s Doomsday episode, Batman asks Martian Manhunter to collect a drop from the core of former Krypton’s red sun, which the Caped Crusader uses to build a red sun generator, a handheld device that can briefly suppress Kryptonian superpowers.

–Red Lanterns Annual #1
Atrocitus, former leader of the Red Lanterns, has formed a splinter group of evil Red Lanterns (Skallox, Klarn, Dex-Starr, One-Heart, Nayk, Barg, Votun, The Judge, and Sarp) in order to wage war against Guy Gardner’s Red Lantern Corps. Atrocitus’ group now attacks Earth, destroying Baltimore, Paris, the Grand Canyon, Giza, Las Vegas, Shanghai, and Seville. Atrocitus then turns hundreds of humans into violent Red Lanterns that serve his bidding. In Gotham, the mindless new Red Lanterns start tearing apart the city. Batman fights them off while Guy Gadner shows up to explain what is happening. Bleez uses a Kormoraki “pacifying ray” to temporarily subdue the evil Red Lantern army. Meanwhile, across the galaxy on the planet Styge Prime, Zilius Zox gets mortally wounded by a possessed Rankorr. In his final act, Zilius Zox sacrifices his own life to destroy Atrocitus’ ring-making factory. In Earth’s orbit, Guy Gardner, Supergirl, and Bleez fight Atrocitus and Dex-Starr. Bleez uses her telepathic power to attempt to steal the reawakening new Red Lantern army onto Guy Gardner’s side, but she manages to only convert a mere seven soldiers, whereas Atrocitus uses his own much-stronger telepathic power to wrestle control of the remaining hundreds. (Guy and his pals defeat Atrocitus in the follow-up Red Lanterns #34. Also note that, per Action Comics Vol. 2 #35, the Pyramids of Giza must be rebuilt after Red Lanterns Annual #1 as well.)

KINGDOM
————————–Green Arrow Vol. 5 #35
————————–Green Arrow Vol. 5 #39-40
Green Arrow kicks-ass in Star City, but takes a bullet in the arm, prompting his partner John Diggle to take him to Glades Memorial Hospital. The next day, Oliver Queen returns to work as head of the Queen Foundation, a multimillion dollar science and tech company. Shockingly, Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne are waiting for him when he arrives. The unlikely business partners ask Oliver to join their group and merge the Queen Foundation with LexCorp and WayneTech. Oliver refuses. That night, Oliver’s business assistant and new love interest, Zehra Darvish, chastises him for turning down a lucrative offer. After dinner, Ollie suits-up as Green Arrow and goes to apprehend a computer hacker, who turns out to be the debuting (and friendly) Felicity Smoak. A few days later, millionaire philanthropist John King, father of Speedy (Mia Dearden) and actually secretly a sadistic super-villain who knows Green Arrow’s secret ID, has put a huge bounty on Green Arrow’s head and turned the entire city of Seattle, including the police, against him. Not only that, King has gotten to Zehra and used her to bankrupt Ollie’s company overnight. King has also caused Felicity’s arrest and detainment in a metahuman prison—with Cheetah as her cellmate no less. A pissed-off Ollie confronts and dumps Zehra. That night, with some inside help, Green Arrow breaks Felicity out of the Supermax. A night later, Green Arrow assembles an army to take back Seattle. Green Arrow meets with John Diggle, Felicity, Batman, Arsenal, Lex Luthor, Katana, Naomi Singh, Cupid (Carrie Cutter), and Ollie’s half-sister Emiko Queen. While Green Arrow’s team storms King’s headquarters, Batman pays a visit to the corrupt district attorney and pressures him into pressing criminal charges against King. Green Arrow and Felicity get evidence of criminal wrongdoing on King’s part, but they have to stall releasing it to the district attorney when King threatens to kill Mia. Green Arrow meets King face-to-face and the duke it out in a noir-soaked rain scene. Mia helps Green Arrow take down King, who is exposed and jailed.

–REFERENCE: In Batman: Rebirth #1. Child abuser and former henchman of the Squid, Julian Day, returns as the garish super-villain, Calendar Man. Having shaved and tattooed his head and genetically altered his body so that he literally ages each year until he dies and molts, birthing into a new body every winter, Day brings a seasonal obsession angle to his brand of super-crime. Batman defeats Calendar Man and jails him. Unseen on our timeline, but definitely occurring moving forward, Batman will continuously monitor Calendar Man and communicate with his prison handlers, eventually learning about the villain’s bizarre genetic alteration and condition.

–REFERENCE: In Legends of Tomorrow #4 Part 3—originally told in Batman #312. Every day for a week, an escaped Calendar Man dresses in a unique varicolored costume, each representing a different day of the week. In these ridiculous get-ups—which include gaudy spandex togs that allow him to play the roles of Odin, the moon, Tiw, Thor, Frigga, and Saturn—Calendar Man defeats Batman six days in a row. Not until he dons his classic goofy red-and-white calendar threads, on the seventh day, is Calendar Man defeated and re-jailed. All of Calendar Man’s goofy costumes will eventually wind up at the Metahuman Museum of Oddities in Atlanta.

–REFERENCE: In Superman Vol. 4 #5. Batman begins his most ambitious project to date (and possibly his most ambitious project ever). With the assistance of an unspecified selection of engineers and meta-powered super-folk, Batman starts building a new unheard-of kind of Batcave—a Batcave hidden in a crater on the dark side of the moon. He will use this base to conduct experiments and tinker with inventions that are far too dangerous to do on Earth. Batman immediately sets up security Bat-drones—likely adapted from the bat camera drones he already uses—that will swarm any unwanted visitors should they infiltrate the bunker. This epic moon-base project will continue in secrecy for the next couple years. We won’t visibly see Batman working on the moon-base on our timeline, but we can imagine him rocketing up there every chance he can to work on its construction in-between listed items, moving forward. (Obviously, certain events, such as Bruce losing his wealth and getting post-death-and-resurrection amnesia, will put the construction of the moon-base on hiatus several times in the upcoming year-plus.)

–Batman Eternal #21-23
Jack Forbes is officially stripped of his commissionership and sent to Blackgate. Mayor Hady appoints Jason Bard as the new Commissioner of Police. Shortly thereafter, Gordon is found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced accordingly with a life term. Meanwhile, Falcone’s lawyers work-up an extradition for him to return to Hong Kong, where he will basically go free. Before Falcone leaves, Batman, having finally discovered that the knife used to execute Dr. Falsario belongs to Falcone, roughs him up and demands answers.[6] Falcone says that he merely had been taking advantage of the situation in Gotham and that a secret villainous mastermind is really behind all that has occurred. Batman then visits Bard, gives him a flash drive with the evidence needed to exonerate Gordon, but tells Bard that he doesn’t trust the new commish. At Wayne Manor, a security alarm goes off as Alfred and Julia are having a chat. Alfred locks Julia in a panic room and goes to intercept the intruder. The intruder, Hush, reveals himself as the mastermind behind everything and injects Fear Toxin into Alfred. By the time Julia gets to her father’s side, he is convulsing in agony, but manages to give her the secret code to get into the Batcave. Across town, Commissioner Bard goes to Blackgate, but instead of releasing Gordon, he releases The Architect (Zachary Gate) on the orders of Hush. Bard has been working for Hush since the beginning. After Alfred is safely in the hospital, Julia returns to Wayne Manor 24 hours later. There, she descends into the Batcave and learns Bruce’s secret. Batman vid-phones into the Batcave and gets the scoop from Julia before heading to the Beacon Tower to take on the Architect, who has taken hostage the workers that are reconstructing the building as a part of the Wayne Enterprises Gentrification Project. With Julia guiding him from the Batcave (using the call-name “Penny-Two”), Batman rescues the helpless victims and sends the lead architect, Andrew Trondsen, zip-lining across to the safety of a nearby skyscraper. Unfortunately for Trondsen, Hush is waiting and quietly executes him. Batman realizes that the Architect is working for the very man responsible for Gordon’s downfall and Alfred’s hospitalization: his old foe Hush. While Batman fights the Architect, Catwoman gets in the middle of a new gang war for Gotham’s top crime dog—Tiger Shark versus the Ibanescu family (led by paterfamilias Dragos Ibanescu)—to fill the void left by Penguin and Falcone. Afterward, Catwoman is escorted by Jade, via a secret underground tunnel, inside Blackgate. There she reluctantly chats with her estranged father, Rex Calabrese, who asks her to become leader of the Calabrese Mob and unite all of Gotham’s underworld in order to save lives. Catwoman accepts before leaving to drop Jade off into the care of Leslie Thompkins. At the Beacon Tower, before escaping, the Architect reveals his true part in Hush’s plan, to use the tower as a giant resonator that starts a small but powerful earthquake. that destroys a portion of the city surrounding the Beacon, although the Beacon itself remains standing above the wreckage. Commissioner Bard visits Mayor Hady and tells him it is time to call in the National Guard and declare martial law in Gotham, citing that the new gang war has erupted, Arkham is “haunted,” a nanobot virus is now spreading in the Narrows, and a villain-caused earthquake has leveled a chunk of the downtown area.

–Batman Eternal #24
August—roughly two weeks have passed since Batman Eternal #23. Spoiler secretly listens-in on her dad Cluemaster as he meets with his mystery partner (SPOILER: It’s the money man, Lincoln March). Cluemaster reveals that his team is subtly causing mass chaos all over Gotham: Signalman is causing traffic gridlock; RatCatcher is causing piping problems and is leaking deadly pathogens into the water supply; The Prankster (Oswald Hubert Loomis) is causing blackouts; and Lock-Up is working with GCPD moles to ready a new “Big Brother” security blanket.[7] The mystery partner (SPOILER: It’s Lincoln March) tells Cluemaster to end any communications with Lock-Up but continue with the rest as usual. Meanwhile, at the Gotham Gallery of Modern Art, Batman fights what appears to be a ghost that has some connection to Arkham’s Dr. Simon Ecks. Batman defeats the ghost, but then is unable to contact Batwing. On the outskirts of Gotham, Cluemaster chases after Spoiler, who leads him out of the city limits and right into the hands of an untainted group of state troopers, who immediately arrest the villain.

[8]

–Aquaman Vol. 7 #32
Batman goes on an unspecified mission with Aquaman and escorts him (in the Batplane) home to Atlantis. Aquaman is shocked to discover that Batman knows the secret location of his undersea kingdom.

–Detective Comics Vol. 2 #27 Part 5
Early September. On the anniversary of his parents’ deaths, Batman is given an It’s a Wonderful Life treatment by the Phantom Stranger, who shows him what the world would have been like had his parents survived that fateful night. Bruce would have happily married Natalya Trusevich (!) and had a son. Unfortunately, Scarecrow-inspired and Joker-inspired gangs would have taken over the city and paralyzed Commissioner Gordon. Likewise, Dick would have been in jail, wrongfully accused of killing his parents. See, Bruce needed to become Batman.

–Catwoman Vol. 4 Annual #2 Part 1
Batman battles Catwoman atop a roof, but then they join forces to quell a raging gang fight against the dangerous Sons of Forster Lane gang. Eiko Hasigawa, heiress to the throne of the powerful Yakuza-linked Hasigawa Mob, spies on Catwoman from afar with keen interest.

–Grayson #3
September 8–first day of school in Geneva, Switzerland. Batman only appears for a brief few minutes in this issue, but here is the lead up. Mr. Minos tasked Dick, Helena, and two other agents to retrieve Paragon’s eyes, which were in the hands of The Old Gun, an assassin that, following the brutal murders of his kids, underwent surgery to make it so that he literally sees through a pair of pistols. Dick, Alia (Agent 8), Helena, and The Tiger King of Kandahar (Agent 1) faced-off against the Old Gun in Kuala Lumpur. Once again, Dick refused to use lethal force, which allowed the Old Gun to escape. Cut to the present. After getting chewed-out, Dick secretly contacts Batman and confirms that Mr. Minos basically knows every superhero’s secret ID, including his. Dick asks Batman to search the Bat Computer for any info regarding the Old Gun. A quick search shows that the Old Gun has another son that is set to begin pre-school in Geneva. Thus ends Batman’s involvement in this issue as he immediately returns to the events of Batman Eternal. The next day, Dick will build rapport with the Old Gun, who will hand over Paragon’s eyes only to get shot by a spying Agent 8. The Old Gun will retaliate by gunning her down with his final breath. Back at Spyral HQ, Mr. Minos will order Helena to find out who has been sending secret transmissions.

–Batman Eternal #25-26
September 8-9. At the Gotham Gazette building, Commissioner Bard strong-arms Vicki Vale into publishing a news story stating that the city government under Mayor Hady has failed and that terrorist attacks are imminent. Within 24 hours, chaos reigns over Gotham as its citizens go into a panic. Julia Pennyworth hacks into Blackgate security, revealing that Commissioner Bard was responsible for releasing the Architect, prompting Batman to visit Bard at his home. Meanwhile, Red Robin (now finished training Harper Row and returned from Japan) and Red Hood visit a comatose Alfred at the hospital. Concurrently, Gordon finally gets to speak with Babs on the phone. They have a strained conversation and refer frustratedly to the fact that despite the evidence needed to exonerate him having been found, his release has still inexplicably been denied. Batman crashes into Bard’s apartment only to find a Hush holographic video feed. Hush berates Batman and then detonates a bomb from long range, completely demolishing the building. Red Robin, Red Hood, and Batgirl rescue Batman. Across town, Commissioner Bard convinces Mayor Hady to declare martial law and call in the National Guard. As Julia patches up an injured Batman in the Batcave, Batman addresses Red Hood, Red Robin, and Batgirl. Red Robin mentions that “Death of the Family” happened “months ago.” Since it happened SIXTEEN MONTHS AGO, this is a mega huge continuity error (or the genius Tim is really bad at math). After sending his Bat-Family to deal with the riots in the streets, Batman and Julia visit Alfred at the hospital. There, Batman tells Julia all about Hush. Meanwhile, Spoiler breaks into Kane County Correctional Facility to gloat in front of her incarcerated dad and give him a much-deserved punch in the head. But Cluemaster shows that he has a few tricks up his sleeve even from behind bars. Spoiler tries to upload Hush’s secret plans to the internet, but Cluemaster’s associates block her post and put up a $100,000,000 bounty on her head instead. Only two hours after Batman and Julia visit Alfred, Hush (as Dr. Tommy Elliot—and with his face fully restored) has Alfred transferred to Arkham Asylum into the direct care of Joker’s Daughter.

–Batman Eternal #27-28
September 9-10. Batgirl kidnaps, shakes-down, and interrogates the corrupt Commissioner Bard. Meanwhile, Jade McKillen is returned into the custody of her uncle, Dragos Ibanescu. Underneath the Narrows in Gotham’s Underground, Killer Croc wails on some of Deacon Blackfire’s soldiers (Arkham inmates that have turned into infectious demon zombies). Killer Croc then crashes into Leslie Thompkins’ Child Services office in search of Jade. Across town, Batman and Catwoman team-up to fight Ibanescu’s henchmen, the Whisper Gang, and the Ferrymen. Afterward, Catwoman argues with Batman and they part ways on bad terms. Ibanescu forces Jade to lead Louis “Bone” Ferryman (leader of the Ferrymen) to the apartment of his arch-rival Catwoman. Batman then runs across Eduardo Flamingo and easily takes him out. Pinned to Flamingo’s costume is a note from Spoiler telling him about a Twitter feed, used by fans and criminals alike, that tracks his every movement. Later at Noonan’s Sleazy Bar (!), Red Hood beats up some random goons before leaving to meet up with Batgirl. Meanwhile, Bone has taken a beaten-up and restrained Catwoman to the Moffat Building where he plans on publicly executing her in front of a bunch of sickos, including Ibanescu and Tiger Shark. Batman lets Flamingo go in order to follow him to Hush’s “rat’s nest,” which leads him to the Moffat Building just in time to witness Killer Croc tearing the place apart looking for Jade. In a chaotic scene, Ibanescu accidentally shoots Jade dead. Across town, Batgirl continues torturing/interrogating Commissioner Bard, but Red Hood stops her from doing something too brash (by doing something brash himself). As the sun comes up, Red Hood says goodbye to Batgirl and rejoins Starfire and Arsenal to travel into outer space. Meanwhile, a dejected Catwoman rebuffs Batman’s offer of a shoulder to lean on, instead breaking into Blackgate and accepting her dad’s offer to become the new “queenpin of crime.”

–Gotham Academy #1
September 10—first day of school in Gotham. Bruce only appears for an hour tops in this issue, but here is the lead in. It has been a busy day at the prestigious Gotham Academy for both teachers (like Professor Achilles Milo, who is shown) and students alike. Freshman Mia “Maps” Mizoguchi missed her first day orientation, after which hard-ass Headmaster Hammer appointed her a special chaperone in her best friend sophomore Olive Silverlock, the kinda sorta girlfriend of Maps’ older brother Kyle Mizoguchi. Cut to now. The first day of school ends and Maps and Olive skip an assembly featuring Bruce Wayne (who very briefly attended Gotham Academy) as keynote speaker. After examining a closed-off supposedly haunted wing of the building, Maps nearly falls to her death but is rescued by Olive—an episode that is witnessed by the entire student body, including Bruce. Shortly thereafter, Bruce and teacher Isla MacPherson make sure Olive is okay before returning to important events in Batman Eternal. Olive immediately hunkers-down with her dorm roommate Lucy Hunt, who swears she has just seen a ghost. A glowing evil eye peeks-in on the girls through a crack in the wall. SPOILER: This is Killer Croc, who has found a cozy hiding place. As we will see in Gotham Academy #4, Croc appears wearing broken chains on his legs and an Arkham jumpsuit. Why he’d be wearing chains and an Arkham suit makes little sense at this point on our timeline unless we assume that Croc was very recently arrested and then immediately escaped from Arkham’s provisional stadium housing. Also note that the Bat-Signal is shown in the night sky and the Academy kids even make mention of it. The Bat-Signal would not be in use at the moment, so this is either a continuity error or someone else is lighting up a makeshift Bat-Signal (as Selina Kyle will later do).

–Batman Eternal #29-31
September 10. At Arkham Asylum, Deacon Blackfire’s demon army (which includes many transformed Arkham inmates) tortures the still-captured Batwing and Jim Corrigan. At her hideout, Joker’s Daughter receives a mysterious purple letter telling her to continue to do Hush’s bidding. Clearly a fake Joker letter, an angered Joker’s Daughter decides it is high time she betrayed Blackfire and broke out on her own. Batwing finally gets communications working for the first time in TWO MONTHS (ever since Joker’s Daughter sent Batman a false message from him) and immediately radios Batman. (Again, the whole pacing and timing of Batwing and Corrigan’s Arkham mission in direct relation to everything else that happens in Batman Eternal seems to be one giant continuity error.) Batwing reports that Blackfire is using Arkham for sinister purposes and also delivers a coded message that Riddler had scrawled onto his cell wall. While Julia decodes Riddler’s riddle, Batman takes on a GCPD riot squad. Batwing then attempts to save Corrigan’s life from Blackfire, which causes Arkham to erupt in a towering green blast of Hellish energy, decimating the entire building. A beam of pure evil energy blasts from Arkham Asylum straight up into the Earth’s atmosphere, knocking a plane out of the sky in the process. While Batman assists in the plane’s safe landing, Deacon Blackfire, still controlling Maxie Zeus’ body, declares premature victory. Corrigan turns into the Spectre and vanquishes Blackfire and his demon hordes with a relative snap of his fingers. Arkham then sinks over a hundred feet into the crumbling caverns beneath it, swallowing hundreds of inmates and staff (including Corrigan, Batwing, and Alfred), and injuring and killing an unknown number of people. Despite all of this, the GCPD still attempts to arrest Batman, who swings down into the crater where Arkham used to be. Down below, Joker’s Daughter attacks Batman atop a heap of rubble. While Batman defeats Joker’s Daughter, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Victor Zsasz, and Imperceptible Man crawl out of the Arkham crater and attack a bunch of cops. This prompts Batman to ascend back to the top and defeat the villains. Meanwhile, Julia hacks Arkham’s computer system and learns that her dad was committed by Hush the day prior. Downtown, crooked cops pursue Spoiler right into the waiting arms of Hush. While Batman races downtown himself, Alfred teams-up with Bane (!) to fight a swarm of demons as the duo treks through the disaster site and into the adjoining sewer tunnels. Alfred leads Bane right to one of Batman’s substations/weapons caches, activating a defense mechanism that knocks-out Bane with sleeping gas. Alfred logs back online and cheerfully greets both his daughter and Batman via radio.

–Batman Eternal #32
September 10. Batman saves Spoiler’s life from Hush and the latter two flee in opposite directions. Batman then saves Batwing, pulling him out of the Arkham crater. Alfred tearfully reunites with Julia in the Batcave before checking himself into the care of Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Batman discovers that Hush has accessed his secret McGregor Files, which list the exact locations of each of his Bat-Bunkers, weapons caches, and safe houses across Gotham. Meanwhile, Hush meets with Commissioner Bard and gives him new directives. Bard hands the McGregor Files over to Vicki Vale, exposing the Wayne Enterprises-built weapons caches to the public via the Gotham Gazette. Hush, using Alfred’s DNA and a sliced-off fingerprint, then enters one of the Bat-Bunkers and detonates the entire stockpile of explosives right below a strategically placed National Guard/GCPD SWAT squadron, killing a bunch of soldiers and cops. Curfew falls over the city.

–Batman Eternal #33 Part 1
September 11. It is the morning after Batman’s weapons cache disaster. Gotham’s public is venomous towards Wayne Enterprises for having put secret dangerous weapons depots all over their city. Batman and Julia depart to secure all seventeen of the depots. While entering the first, they are interrupted by a new GCPD SWAT super-soldier, but only briefly as Batman easily takes him down. Batman and Julia then split up to cover more ground. I’ve split up Batman Eternal #33 into two parts to accommodate Batman’s check-in call with Dick from Grayson #4, which takes place a full day after Grayson #3 and mentions specifically that Julia is out-and-about securing the weapons caches.

–Grayson #4
September 11. Since Batman is only in this issue for a few minutes, let’s get caught up to speed. Two days after the Old Gun affair (from Grayson #3), Dick substituted a lollypop for a CSI swab, collecting microscopic evidence off the floor at Spyral HQ—with plans to send said evidence back home to Batman in the States. Then, after stealing a Paragon hard-drive from Checkmate, Dick and Helena returned to St. Hadrian’s, but not before Dick filled-in Batman on the details and overnight-mailed the lolly-swab to him in Gotham. Cut to now. While Julia Pennyworth is out securing the Dark Knight’s secret downtown weapons caches (as seen in Batman Eternal #33), Batman receives Dick’s package and returns to the Batcave to conduct tests on the lolly. Batman discovers tiny microscopic nanite machines designed to clean-up any traces of DNA or fabric that come off of Mr. Minos. These micro-machines apparently are swarming all over Spyral, both cleaning-up and collecting info. Dick then has another encrypted radio chat with Batman before the latter returns to events in Batman Eternal #33. The rest of Grayson #4 does not involve Batman, but it is interesting enough to continue a synopsis. Dick will play tag with St. Hadrian’s students Bryce Nussbaum, Janni Amireh, Paris Pantoja, and Lotti Duff (aka the old-school Batwoman-costume-wearing “Skullgirls“). These horny co-eds simply want a parietal piece of the sexy side of man-beef that is Dick Grayson. After a jovial run around campus, Headmistress Helena will put a stop to the shenanigans. After getting chewed-out by Mr. Minos, Dick is punished by being forced to teach a gymnastics class while appearing, thanks to hypnos-tech and Fraulein Netz’s imagination, as both physically unremarkable and homosexual in the eyes of the young ladies of St. Hadrian’s. Later that night, Helena will play some sexy catch-me-if-you-can games with Dick too.

–Batman Eternal #33 Part 2
September 11. While securing more weapons caches, Bruce takes a phone call from a disappointed Lucius Fox, who tells him that his secrets will bring a devastating backlash against Wayne Enterprises. Meanwhile, Julia enters another weapons cache and runs straight into Hush, who is inside.

–Batman Eternal #34
September 11. Picking up right where Batman Eternal #33 Part 2 ended, Hush fights Julia Pennyworth, nearly killing her and detonating another of Batman’s weapons caches. Batman rushes to the scene and saves Julia’s life. Meanwhile, Mayor Hady and Commissioner Bard react to the second explosion by bringing the hammer down on Lucius Fox. With Julia unconscious but safe in the Batcave, night falls over Gotham. Batman confronts Hush at another weapons cache beneath Martha Wayne Foundation Hospital. Batman beats-up a Batman-helmet-wearing Hush in an epic slug-fest. However, the victory is soured when Alfred patches in a live news feed. Lucius announces that the federal government has seized control of Wayne Enterprises. All of the company’s foreign and domestic holdings are also seized. Bruce has just lost his company. Batman takes an invitation card, the same one given to Carmine Falcone, out of Hush’s pocket. The card is from Hush’s boss (meaning there is another real Big Bad of this arc).

–REFERENCE: In Batman Eternal #35. September 11. Batman puts Hush into a holding cell inside the Batcave.

–REFERENCE: In the second feature to All-Star Batman #6. September. Batman prepares for Riddler to attack the city on the anniversary of his Zero Year attack. Sure enough, as he does every year (whether he is in prison or not), Riddler initiates a new pre-planned puzzle-themed strike on Gotham in commemoration of Zero Year. Since the reference to the anniversary attacks in the second feature to All-Star Batman #6 is vague and does not give specifics, we don’t know what this attack entails. Nor are we told whether or not Batman is able to stop Riddler’s plot.

–REFERENCE: In Arkham Manor #1 and Batman Eternal #35. Bruce has already lost control of his company. Now, the unthinkable happens as well. Bruce also loses his ancestral home in the worst way possible. Ever since Arkham Asylum’s recent destruction, all of Arkham’s inmates have been temporarily housed in a stadium downtown. Mayor Hady uses the power of eminent domain to turn the now government-owned Wayne Manor into “Arkham Manor,” the new permanent home for Gotham’s super-villains. Bruce is given the legal option of allowing contractors to turn his house into a prison or to allow bulldozers to raze the place and build a new facility. Bruce takes the first option. He then puts his remaining valuables into storage, except for a painting of his parents, which goes down into the secret Batcave below. Batman, putting a positive spin on things, cites that an emotional attachment to the house was making him weak anyhow. Plus, Batman will be able to keep closer tabs on the bad guys locked up in Arkham. For security, Batman and Julia Pennyworth being cementing-up all connections between the Batcave and the manor. Note that Bruce has lost his home, but won’t actually physically move out Wayne Manor for over a month.

–REFERENCE: In Gotham Academy #4. Bruce visits Gotham Academy to check up on Olive Silverlock, but winds up having an undisclosed “moment” with teacher Isla MacPherson. (Bruce is simply checking-up on Olive.)

–Gotham Academy #4-6[9]
The abandoned and supposedly haunted North Hall of Gotham Academy gets sealed-off by Headmaster Hammer and Achilles Milo after Olive Silverlock, Maps Mizoguchi, Pomeline Fritch, and Colton Rivera break into it the night prior. In the morning, Olive overhears a visiting Bruce Wayne awkwardly chatting with Isla MacPherson. Olive then slips on some wet leaves and literally falls into the arms of the mysterious Tristan Grey (secretly a man-bat that has been following her around). After interrogating a boy named Eric Jørgensen, who drew the weird North Hall symbol on a notebook, Olive learns that the symbol is hidden all over campus. That night, Olive discovers that a ghost pertaining to a string of recent sightings has actually been a fake, made up by Pomeline’s boyfriend Heathcliff Ray to make Pomeline feel better—(Pomeline has been frustratedly trying to summon the ghost of Millie Jean Cobblepot and has been failing to do so for a long time). Later, Maps discovers a hidden room behind Olive’s dorm wall. Olive goes behind the wall to discover Killer Croc, who has escaped from custody and has been living there for the past few days. Killer Croc explains that he promised Olive’s mom that he’d check up on her (before Arkham collapsed and put Olive’s mom into a coma). Olive surmises that Croc must have been living in the Academy’s walls ever since the collapse of Arkham Asylum, but based upon Croc’s other appearances in Batman Eternal after the collapse of Arkham, this obviously cannot be true. Croc runs off. The next day, Olive, Maps, Pomeline, and Colton make a map of the underground tunnels that run between campus buildings and formulate a plan to find Croc. The next day, the foursome ditches both a school dance and Kyle Mizoguchi thanks to some help from Warren McGinnis (who will later father Terry McGinnis years down the road, in case you forgot). After gathering weapons, they head toward North Hall. Olive is startled by a man-bat and shoots it with a crossbow, revealing Tristan, who explains his Langstrom Virus condition. Tristan also tells Olive that he witnessed her, in the summer, sleepwalk into North Hall and accidentally set it ablaze with her latent pyrokinetic ability, a genetic gift from mom. Tristan flies off when Maps jumps out of the bushes. Olive, Maps, Pomeline, and Colton then enter North Hall and deliver food to a happy and grateful Killer Croc. Then Batman crashes into the building and begins fighting Killer Croc. Olive starts a fire to save Croc, who returns the favor by saving her. They talk about Olive’s mom before Croc departs. Later, Batman confronts Olive and asks for the missing diary of Millie Jane Cobblepot, but Olive denies having it. The next day, Lucy tells Olive that she will be transferring to a school in Metropolis. At lunch, Olive, Maps, Kyle, Colton, and Pomeline discover the arcane symbol they’ve seen everywhere is an old Arkham Asylum monograph. They decide to form a “detective club” to delve deeper into the hidden connections between Arkham and Gotham Academy. Meanwhile, Damian Wayne (!) steals the diary of Millie Jean and returns it to his dad, who has just finished enrolling him as a new student at Gotham Academy!

–Action Comics Vol. 2 #35
Early October. Sixty days have passed since the end of Superman: Doomed. Superman, after traveling through several Black Holes and across the vast expanse of the universe, finally returns to Earth where he gets immediately zapped with Kryptonite and scanned for traces of the Doomsday Virus by Bruce’s WayneTech satellite. Supergirl greets Superman and fills him in on the details of the battle against Brainiac. Superman begins the reconstruction sequence for the Fortress of Solitude, which will take forty days to complete. In Smallville, Lana Lang (now dating John Henry Irons) tells Clark that her parents died during Brainiac’s invasion. After that, Clark visits Bruce at Wayne Manor. Bruce deduces that Superman’s powers are temporarily weakened from his journey and tells Clark to take a vacation. That night, a gutted but coy Clark writes a biting blog article dissing Superman. In the morning, Lois Lane (having now lost her memories of Superman’s secret ID thanks to Brainiac) bursts through the door and scolds Clark for writing the piece. Just as Clark had planned, Lois writes a pro-Superman article (for a readership that is much, much greater than Clark’s, boosting the Man of Steel’s approval rating back upward. Meanwhile, in Smallville, Lana’s parents terrifyingly rise from their graves courtesy of Ultra-Humanite.

–Deathstroke Vol. 3 #4-5[10]
Recently, Deathstroke was made young again thanks to the magick of I-Ching. Now, he’s involved in a convoluted plot featuring the “Dead Bastards,” a secret hit squad that works for the CIA and Interpol. One of the Bastards, Red Fury (Kendal James), having already captured and drugged Deathstroke’s pal Bronze Tiger, introduces her teammates—The Spanish Inquisitor (Victor Ruiz), Angelica, and I-Ching—who fill Deathstroke in on the latest spook scoop. The CIA and Interpol want Deathstroke to help the Bastards eliminate his evil and powerful father Odysseus (Charles Henry Wilson) and capture his dangerous son Jericho (Joseph Wilson), who is in Gotham, hiding out with his deadly half-sister Ravager (Rose Wilson). Knowing that Odysseus has partnered with the Lady Shiva-led League of Assassins, the Bastards send a brainwashed Bronze Tiger—complete with false information about having murdered Deathstroke—back to the roost. Odysseus and Lady Shiva make plans to depart for Gotham. Meanwhile, Deathstroke arrives in Gotham and asks Harley Quinn (also visiting Gotham) to help locate his kids. Harley double-crosses Deathstroke and leads him straight into the waiting fists of Batman. Deathstroke and Batman fight until Harley levels the building with a stack of bombs. Harley tells Deathstroke that his daughter Ravager works for Penguin (who is currently in prison). This prompts Deathstroke to ride off with Harley on a Vespa. Batman crawls out from the rubble in time to see them depart. Across town, Ravager and Jericho are confronted by Odysseus, Shiva, and Bronze Tiger.

WAR-TORN[11]
————————–Wonder Woman Vol. 4 #36
————————–Wonder Woman Vol. 4 #38-40
On Paradise Island, an Amazonian political council argues about the effectiveness of Wonder Woman’s reign as queen, questioning her loyalties and her radicalism. (Wonder Woman has recently allowed the Amazonian males to return to Themyscira, a very unpopular move.) Clyemne and Wonder Woman’s own aunt Derinoe call for a change in leadership while Wonder Woman’s friend Dessa defends her. Meanwhile, after mysterious unnatural disasters level villages in various parts of the world, the Justice League assembles. Shazam, Captain Cold, and Luthor are not present and Flash notes how nice it is with Luthor not being around. Each Justice Leaguer pairs-off and visits the disaster sites. We don’t see where Batman goes (possibly Ecuador), but we do see Wonder Woman and Aquaman have a brief altercation with Swamp Thing in Thailand. Wonder Woman and Aquaman then have a heart-to-heart. She mentions that Clark has “only just finished overcoming Doomsday.” Wonder Woman returns to Paradise Island to learn that her mom, Hippolyta, has died—her magick clay statue form has melted and crumbled. Later in London, Wonder Woman has a horrible nightmare featuring the death of many of her fellow Amazons. Wonder Woman’s half-sister Strife (the Greco-Roman Goddess of Discord also known as Eris) secretly watches her dream. Diana has a chat with her bestie Hessia before rejoining the JLA when another village is leveled in Peru. In Peru, Batman, who has finally learned that Wonder Woman is the new God of War, questions whether that is a good thing or not. At the base of a volcano, Superman comes across a bizarre cavern filled with deadly insects. Meanwhile, on Paradise Island, the council votes to dethrone Wonder Woman as their queen. Derinoe introduces the new queen, a brainwashed Donna Troy! Donna Troy, the original Wonder Girl who has been missing for the past several years, has now just been conjured forth from an occult ritual performed by Derinoe. (As revealed in Titans Vol. 3 Annual #1, Donna was originally shaped from magick clay to be a weapon used against Wonder Woman, but the Amazons turned her good and gave her false memories of being born and raised as an Amazonian gal.)[12] Back at the bug cavern, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman come across all the missing villagers, all dead and gooey and strung-up like an HR Giger art-piece. Wonder Woman sword duels and angrily stabs the culprit, a weird bug man. (This fight is also shown via flashback from Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1.) With the bug man in custody aboard the JL satellite, Batman scolds Wonder Woman for striking first without asking questions. Later, after chatting with the spirit of her mother and the male Amazons, Wonder Woman meets and fights Donna Troy in a very public confrontation. The fight is curtailed and Dernioe gives Wonder Woman two days to prepare for a final rematch. After long conversations with Dessa and Superman, Wonder Woman rejoins the JLA to enter the cave home of the queen hive of the bug-people. There the skeletal leader of the bug-people reveals that their long dormant alien race (which crash landed on Earth millions of years ago and went into stasis) was revived when Wonder Woman herself recently killed and buried the evil First Born (Zeus and Hera’s first child). Meanwhile on Themyscira, Donna Troy and a small band of followers brutally slaughter a bunch of defenseless Amazonian males.

–FLASHBACK: From Batman & Robin Eternal #22. Batman and Robin train in the Batcave and the Boy Wonder nearly falls over a cliff, forcing the Dark Knight to save his life. An embarrassed and self-deprecating Robin compares himself to the other previous Robins, but instead of dissing himself, disses his father’s training methods. Batman removes his mask and calmly addresses his son, telling him the value and differences of each prior Robin. He tells Damian that it’s not his job to train perfect soldiers. Batman says that even he too makes mistakes and that he only wants to protect and offer support to his boys in hopes they will each find their own path.

–REFERENCE: In flashback from Robin: Son of Batman #1. Robin trains in the Batcave and receives a message from Batman telling him to take the night off while the Dark Knight patrols Gotham solo. Alfred makes Damian an ice cream sundae, but Damian feeds it to Titus. Ravi, caretaker of al Ghul Island, calls Damian and tells him that his giant man-bat monster Goliath has escaped. Damian goes to al Ghul Island, collects his pet, and decides that he will go on a yearlong globetrotting adventure quest—a year of atonement for all the sins he committed while being raised by the League of Assassins. (In reality, Robin’s quest will take around eight months to complete, ending on the very day of the public announcement of Batman’s “death,” two weeks after “Endgame.” Robin will return to Gotham two months after that, making his full time abroad add up to about ten months.) Meanwhile, in Gotham, Nobody’s daughter (Maya Ducard) takes up his mantle to become Nobody II and vows revenge on her father’s killer: Robin.

–REFERENCE: In Batman Eternal #35 and Arkham Manor #1. Two days before Batman Eternal #35. Bruce hands the keys to Wayne Manor over to Jeremiah Arkham. Contractors immediately begin morphing the house into a prison. Due to his state of immiseration, Bruce moves into a city apartment owned by Alfred.

–REFERENCE: In Infinity Man & The Forever People #4. Bruce moves Bat-Cow to her new home at a Wayne Enterprises dairy farm in Ventura, California.

–Detective Comics Vol. 2 #35-36 (“TERMINAL”)
October—this arc occurs in specifically in autumn. As far as our timeline is concerned, this story functions as the last time Bruce spends a bit of his personal wealth before losing it entirely. Alfred encourages Bruce to take a vacation here, citing that one is long overdue. Alfred also probably senses that there is nothing they can do to stop the banks from freezing his accounts in the very near future. Thus, the mini vacation acts as one final reprieve/hurrah before the moolah goes away. Onto the synopsis. Unluckily for Alfred, but luckily for Bruce, a plane crashes at the airport just as they are about to depart for vacation. Batman cancels his plans and checks out the plane, which is filled with mummified and skeletal corpses, victims of a weird chemical weapon that causes rapid aging. Batman, who complains of nagging injuries (suffered during Batman Eternal), orchestrates a quarantine with the Port Authority. An international terrorist named Magnus Magnuson appears on a live TV feed and takes credit for the attack, citing that he wants all US troops out of the Middle East or millions will die. Batman contacts Dick Grayson, who is in the middle of assisting in a Spyral torture session in Belarus, and tells him to drop everything to focus on Magnuson. A rapidly aging Batman then gets info on the attacked plane, learning that the source of the outbreak came from a corpse being transferred in the hold. In Minsk, Dick visits a criminogenic nightclub and confronts Magnuson’s S&M girlfriend. After some making-out and some kinky spy dialogue, Dick learns that Magnuson is at the Gotham Airport and that the antidote is flowing through his bloodstream. Back in Gotham, Batman punches out some asshole CDC guy in a hazmat suit and calms dying airport security man, Chief Ed Boar. After a quick chat with Dick, Batman finds Magnuson, shocks him with a taser, collects his blood, and cures everyone. Bruce and Alfred then take a very short but much-needed out-of-the-country tropical vacation. Bruce leaves behind a one-way ticket to Hawaii for Chief Boar.

–Batman Eternal #35-36
An editorial note tells us that two weeks have passed since the fall of Hush in Batman Eternal #34. This is an out-and-out error. A full SIX WEEKS has to have passed if Batman Eternal is to truly take us to mid January by Batman Eternal #47 (which gives us the specific date in that issue). Bruce meets with Lucius Fox to discuss the details of the collapse of Wayne Enterprises. Things are as dire as they seem. Lucius, having just met with Bruce’s lawyers, glumly reports the bad news. Since the majority of Bruce’s assets were tied to Wayne Enterprises, Bruce has now officially lost his personal wealth and family fortune and his bank accounts have been frozen. Lucius also notes the government has denuded and shut down the entire R&D Division, including anything Batman Incorporated related. He also tells Bruce that he will fully cooperate with Commissioner Bard. Julia then checks-in with Bruce from the Batcave, citing that Arkham construction is going on above her in the mansion and that Alfred is resting, still feeling weak ever since his stay at the asylum. Three hours after his meeting with Lucius, Batman purposefully drives into a Bard-designed trap, hoping to confront him one-on-one. However, Batman underestimates the trap. While sad Bullock and sad Sawyer stand idly by, Lucius, using Batman Inc tech, helps Commissioner Bard remote-control the Batmobile, which Batman is behind the wheel of. The Batmobile rockets into the top of Wayne Tower, crashing through the building before plummeting down from forty stories and exploding on the sidewalk below. Across town in one of Red Robin’s Nests, Harper Row tends to her comatose brother, who must have been moved to the Nest at some point. He has been in a coma for about three months now! Red Robin interrupts to alert her about Batman’s situation. Meanwhile, in Detroit, Vicki Vale and Joey Day dig up some dirt on Jason Bard in his hometown, learning about his troubled past from a bartender named Frank. Frank explains that Bard’s partner got killed on duty thanks to a Batman-copycat, causing Bard to vow revenge on the real Batman. The very night of his partner’s death, Bard (still covered in his partner’s blood for dramatic effect) was recruited by a pre-Hush Tommy Elliot to set into motion the plan that would ultimately unfurl itself as the nefarious plot against Batman and Gordon in Batman Eternal—meaning that Elliot and whoever he was working with set up Bard to become susceptible to wanting to join them then and there. If it seems like I’m having trouble explaining this in a succinct fashion, this is because all of Batman Eternal is a conglomeration of nonsensical dross. Seriously, why does Bard immediately blame Batman for a Batman-copycat that wasn’t even really responsible for his partner’s death? And how does Elliot (even assuming this is all a setup to snare Bard) know that Bard will be on board with his evil plan, especially mere HOURS after the death? Have they been scoping for a psychological profile of a person that will undoubtedly be willing to move across the country to engage in a highly illegal, convoluted plan to discredit and possibly murder two people he barely even knows? And since this would have had to been before Elliot scarred his face and became Hush, so if a long-game plan was in motion, why did he become Hush and jump the gun? Because he was antsy? Or maybe just plain reckless? This entire piss poor narrative makes my brain hurt. Moving on. After hearing the sordid tale, Vicki accepts a phone call from Commissioner Bard, who gloats about having taken down Batman. Vicki dumps him. Batman, having escaped the fiery wreckage of the Batmobile unscathed, arrives to punch Bard in the face. Batman, Red Robin, Red Hood, and Batgirl (in her brand new hipster Burnside costume) then threaten Bard and tell him to right all the wrongs that he’s done—or else. Back in the Batcave, Batman briefs his Bat-Family and tells them to start figuring out who Falcone and Hush were working for. Elsewhere, Riddler chuckles to himself and claims that he knows the answer.

–Batman Vol. 2 #34
In a Newsarama interview in July 2014, Scott Snyder said Batman #34 takes place after Eternal‘s end right around the time of “Endgame,” but this can’t be right at all. Here are a few things to consider. Batman #34 has to take place before Arkham Manor‘s “A Home For the Criminally Insane” since the Meek appears in that arc. In turn, “A Home For the Criminally Insane” must occur before Hush escapes his imprisonment in the Batcave, which happens in Batman Eternal #47. Here’s what else Batman #34 shows us. Jim Gordon is still in prison, Selina Kyle is a “kingpin,” and the GCPD is still gunning for Batman. One error to note: A single panel (with no text) shows an out-of-prison Penguin. He won’t get out of Blackgate until Batman Eternal #50. Okay, onto a synopsis. Dr. Leslie Thompkins alerts Batman that someone has been kidnapped from her free-clinic. After a cursory investigation, Batman unearths that many under Leslie’s care have been abducted and murdered over the past few months. After tracking down the serial killer, who calls himself The Meek, and setting a lure, Batman poses as Leslie (using his digital face-altering tech) and gets the jump on the bad guy in Leslie’s home. With the assistance of orderly Eric Border (SPOILER: Border is Joker in disguise), Batman sticks the Meek into an empty Arkham Manor cell, which just happens to be the cell reserved for Joker. (The single shot of Arkham from the outside clearly resembles the old Arkham Asylum, which is a continuity error since Arkham should be in Wayne Manor at this point.) The next day, Harvey Bullock lets Batman examine the “potter’s field” on the outskirts of Gotham where the serial killer has dumped dozens of corpses.

–Arkham Manor #1-3 (“A HOME FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE”)
November. Gotham is facing an early snowfall and we are told specifically that it isn’t yet Thanksgiving, making is likely a few days before the holiday. This series also takes place specifically before Hush, who is shown in captivity in Arkham Manor #4, escapes in Batman Eternal #47. Here we go. Batman broods in the Batcave before violently taking his frustrations out on an unnamed petty thug. Afterward, Bruce shrugs-off the advances of a high-handed unnamed paparazzo and then shares a whisky drink with Alfred. Later, Batman visits Arkham Manor to help Harvey Bullock investigate the double murder of two inmates, but they find no leads. Batman and Alfred then erase the police records database of a recent deceased crook. Batman takes the dead man’s identity and goes undercover as Arkham Manor’s newest inmate: Jack Shaw. Within hours, “Jack” attends his first group therapy meeting along with Scarecrow, Amygdala (recently transferred from Blackgate), Seth Wickham, Mr. Freeze, and the Meek. Eric Border (secretly Joker in disguise) interrupts to announce that Victor Zsasz has gone missing. Later that night, a wheelchair-using John Doe is admitted to Arkham. Batman thinks he is suspicious. After hours, Batman—still as “Jack”—checks in on comatose metahuman inmate Calamity (Olive Silverlock’s mother Sybil). Then, Batman (as Batman) tells Border to keep an eye on the wheelchair man, who he has deduced is a burnt-out Clayface (actually a lost living fragment of Clayface). Returning to his Jack persona, Batman witnesses the near-murder of Wickham from afar. He runs into Wickham’s room to corner the tenebrous assailant, but an orderly clunks him on the head. (SPOILER: The agile mystery man is the debuting Spider.) Border runs in, but the killer has hidden himself away. Later, Batman disguises himself as an orderly and sneaks about his former home searching for the killer. Outside, Wickham, while being transported to a hospital, falls into a sinkhole, prompting Border to rescue him (and likely dose him with Joker Venom). Back inside, Batman fights the spidery mystery villain but the latter escapes again. Batman then finds Zsasz, barely alive, having been tortured by the mystery man. Across town, Wickham kills the EMTs and runs away. At Arkham, Border doses the wheelchair-using Clayface fragment with Joker Venom and turns him into Clownface. Border muses aloud to himself that Joker is ready to return, citing that he will be coming back in a few days, an insinuation that he’s going to start his “Endgame” attack on Batman in Batman #36. However, that timeline seems way off. Maybe Joker holds off because Eternal ramps-up and he wants Batman’s undivided attention?

–Arkham Manor #4-6
Clownface runs amok at Wayne Manor, causing Sybil Silverlock to awake from her coma and escape. Batman, still posing as “Jack Shaw,” recruits Mr. Freeze to help him take on Clownface. Batman then rescues the injured petty thug that he violently beat up a day ago and Jeremiah Arkham. Mr. Freeze freezes Clownface to defeat him. Batman knocks-out Jeremiah Arkham and runs outside. Mr. Freeze opts not to escape, citing that he’s got nowhere else to go. Back in the Batcave, Batman puts his Batman costume on while being heckled by Hush from his cell. Batman re-enters the asylum (this time as Batman) and tells Jeremiah Arkham that he now knows who the mystery killer is. The spidery villain scuttles through the walls as Batman tells Jeremiah to lock down the building. The Meek finds Joker’s calling card in his cell, left there by Joker himself, but no one will listen when he tries to tell them. Batman finds the weird villain and beats the crap out of him in front of the whole Arkham populace. The villain refuses to speak, instead biting off his own tongue and spitting it at Batman. Once “Spider,” as Batman calls him, is locked up, Jeremiah Arkham looks him over and realizes that he is one of the day-laborers that helped adapt Wayne Manor into Arkham Manor. Batman then goes after Seth Wickham at his family’s apartment only to find them murdered. While Batman trails Wickham, Alfred radios-in and tells the Dark Knight that there is a way to legally get back possession of Wayne Manor. But Batman can’t chat about that at the moment as he recaptures Wickham. Batman then, at the urging of Dr. Arkham himself, bugs every cell in Arkham Manor in order to keep tabs on the inmates. He also links to every security camera in the building. A few days later, after Bruce calls in a favor with the Wayne Foundation, Jack Shaw’s corpse (the real Jack Shaw whose name Batman had borrowed to go undercover) gets an official military burial. Dr. Arkham, meanwhile, allows for the opportunity for Batman to use Jack Shaw’s identity in the future by lying and saying to Harvey Bullock that Shaw has been contacting him via phone. After Shaw’s funeral, Bruce tells-off the same paparazzo from the other day and then decides not to sign the challenge-of-seizure paperwork that would return legal possession of his home, citing that Gotham is safer with Wayne Manor as Arkham’s permanent residence. Clownface is taken to STAR Labs for holding. Back to business as usual, Batman spies on the Arkham inmates.

–Batman Eternal #37
Roughly six weeks have passed since Batman Eternal #36. (We need this huge passage of time, which seemingly should be a much shorter ellipsis than it is, in order for things to be reconcilable later on i.e. take us into January 2015 by the end of Batman Eternal as the narrative states outright.) At Selina’s hidden underground Egyptian Nightclub casino, which was set up about two weeks ago, a Ghost Dragon attempts to kill Selina, but she easily disposes of him. Meanwhile, Luke Fox and Rory discover that their apartment is now haunted (thanks to some bad Arkham juju/Corrigan magick being stuck inside the Batwing armor). Batman, hoping to locate escaped Arkham inmates, gets some info from Noonan’s Sleazy Bar leading him to a known human-trafficker. But the lead is a dead end and Batman departs after a chat with both the human-trafficker and Killer Croc. Selina appears afterward (the last time she wears her Catwoman costume) to recruit Croc. On the other side of town, Bane, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, and Joker’s Daughter hideout in an abandoned restaurant and form a team. Catwoman uses a kitten with a camera-collar to spy on them. Downtown, Commissioner Bard tries to apologize to Bullock and Sawyer, but they won’t hear a word of it. Later, Selina lights up a makeshift Bat-Signal and Batman comes calling. She tells him that she knows how to round-up all of the Arkham escapees.

–Grayson Annual #1
Batman isn’t shown in this issue, but he does appear off-panel. Dick contacts Batman and briefs him on an upcoming Spyral mission to retrieve Paragon’s skin in Ireland from some mobsters connected to the super-villain St. Francis and an old criminal contact that knows Matches Malone from back in the day. Dick tells Batman to vouch for him (as Malone) should the Irish mob vixen call him. I won’t get into the nitty gritty details of Dick and Helena’s successful dupe of the Irish mobsters, but during the affair, the phone call is made to Malone, who vouches for Dick’s alter-ego of Rob “Rock” McGinn.

–Grayson #7
Dick has been kidnapped by Midnighter and imprisoned aboard the cloaked “Godgarden” satellite in Earth’s orbit. There, an seemingly cosmic-powered old lady called The Gardener watches over Dick. (Paragon, whose body parts Spyral has been collecting these past months, was originally created to destroy the Gardener.) The Gardener tells Dick that, within the hour, the Fist of Cain plans on killing thousands at a rock concert in Tel-Aviv, an act she has personally orchestrated in order to scare the world into ending the proliferating “super-human arms race.” Grayson reasons with the benevolent Gardener, reminding her that even a good cause isn’t worth the cost of thousands of lives. Gardner sees the light and sends both Dick and Midnighter to stop the massacre. At the Silence By Sin concert, the heroes join Helena Bertinelli and Mr. Minos to prevent the band (who, despite being one of the most famous bands in the world, are Fist of Cain cultists) from using Paragon’s brain to kill everyone. Dick takes the brain into Spyral custody. Later, Dick has a secret phone call with Batman and fills him in on the details of the case. Both Dick and Helena’s memories of Mr. Minos having been present are erased. It is revealed (to the reader) that there are multiple identical doppelgänger Minoses running about in order to hide and protect the real deal. Meanwhile, Midnighter leaves the employ of the Gardener. Note that Dick and Helena will eventually expose Minos for the evil he is, ousting him from power.

–Batman Eternal #38-40
A couple days have passed since Batman Eternal #37. In Blackgate, Rex Calabrese tells Jim Gordon that he should break jail, especially since everybody knows he is innocent. Gordon says he won’t. He respects the law too much! Meanwhile, Batman glides into Willowwood Hospital where the Arkham villain team is holed up. There Bane, who has fallen under Poison Ivy’s spell, is led into a trap by Ivy. Killer Croc ambushes Bane and defeats him in combat! Batman easily captures Joker’s Daughter, Mr. Freeze, Scarecrow, and Clayface. Back at the abandoned restaurant hideout, Ivy meets with Selina Kyle and collects a briefcase of cash, her prize for selling-out the Arkham baddies. Concurrently, down-and-out Commissioner Bard realizes that everything he has done has been wrong—(this guy flip-flops more than politicians during re-election campaigns). Bard visits Gordon at Blackgate and says that he will try to help make things right again. At the Egyptian Nightclub, Selina celebrates her victory over the Arkham villains with her new bodyguard, Killer Croc. Later, Batman gives Riddler code (given to him by Batwing three weeks ago) to Red Robin for deciphering. Red Robin successfully deciphers the code as a riddle that says Riddler knows who the Big Bad is. Julia reminds Bruce that he’s lost everything, except for a few properties that were purchased off-the-books. Batman then realizes that Riddler is holed up at Bruce’s Bullseye Casino Resort in the snowy Pineskills. Batman flies up to Miller Mountain and engages Riddler in a game that involves more riddles and following a series of packages lining a mountainside. Meanwhile, back in Gotham, the Arkham escapees are en route to Blackgate when their prison transport is ambushed and the guards are killed. In a parking garage, the escapees are joined by Firefly, Lock-Up, a freed Cluemaster, Signalman, and RatCatcher. Selina Kyle is also present, having been invited by the mystery Big Bad. ED-209-style Bat-mechs enter the room and a fleet of Bat-vehicles and weapons are unveiled. Over a loudspeaker, the Big Bad tells the villains that all of Batman’s arsenal is at their disposal. On the slope of Miller Mountain, Batman roughs-up Riddler, who says he hates the mystery Big Bad and wants to help Batman, but refuses to say who it is. Riddler’s packages explode, sending an avalanche pouring over both he and Batman. At the Gotham Gazette home office, Warren White and Vicki Vale begin to put together some of the pieces of the mystery themselves, but an intern named Patrick enters, shoots Warren, and tries to shoot Vicki. But Vicki is a badass and knocks the assassin out. Cut back to the villain meeting—an obstreperous Selina refuses to join up with the merry band of psychos, which results in Firefly blowing up her limo and leaving her for dead. But Selina is a badass and easily escapes, reuniting with Killer Croc and getting details about the huge hundred mil bounty on Spoiler’s head from another of her henchmen. Selina departs to nab Spoiler. Meanwhile, Jim Corrigan finally escapes from the tunnels underneath Arkham Ground Zero, crawling out of a sewer drain with an unconscious Maxie Zeus in tow. Corrigan can’t be too sure, but he states that he thinks it has been about two weeks since Arkham collapsed. For all of his magick genius, he’s way off. It’s been over FIVE WEEKS! Corrigan looks up at the Gotham skyline to see multiple explosions. The villains have begun bombing the city using Batman’s old vehicles. Meanwhile, a bunch of teens with glowing eyes wander the streets like scary zombies, influenced by the nanovirus outbreak.

–Batman Eternal #42
In downtown Gotham, Mad Hatter (working on behalf of the mystery Big Bad) has constructed a large tower machine that controls the nanovirus outbreak. With Red Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl, Cullen Row, and dozens of teenagers under his spell, Harper Row is Gotham’s only hope. Harper becomes Bluebird, donning a cool costume and anti-nano barrier. As Bluebird heads toward Mad Hatter’s location, Stephanie is captured by Killshot and delivered to her mom Crystal, who takes her back in and claims that she wants nothing but the safety of her child (which is a lie). Downtown, Bluebird successfully defeats Mad Hatter, undoes his spell over everyone, and destroys the tower machine. Batman, having just returned from the Pineskills, swoops in and finishes off Mad Hatter. Later, Harper chats with an impressed Red Robin. At the Brown household, Selina breaks-in, ties up momma Brown, and kidnaps Stephanie.

[13]

–REFERENCE: In Batman Eternal #48. Batman, who already has the remote ability to tap into Batwing’s costume via the Bat-computer, adds a similar fail-safe to Bluebird’s costume (possibly without her knowing). Batman adds a similar fail-safe to Red Robin’s costume as well (almost definitely without him knowing)—although it is possible that Red Robin’s fail-safe override has been secretly installed for a while already.

–Detective Comics #37-40 (“ANARKY”)
December 24-29—specifically starts on Christmas Eve and also specifically takes place “a few months” after Detective Comics #34 (around six months to be exact). Anarky returns and executes corrupt business exec Jeb Lester at Wayne Tower. Meanwhile, Batman apprehends an escaped Mad Hatter, Tweedledum, and Tweedledee and then finds several skulls belonging to children, which he takes back to the Batcave for analysis. There, Batman discovers that they have been decomposing for around six years, meaning that Jervis Tetch had been secretly killing kids even before his debut as Mad Hatter. Bruce, Alfred, and Titus then hike through the snowy forest on the outskirts of Gotham and Alfred delivers his Xmas present—Wayne Manor lit up with holiday lights. (Don’t forget that this is Arkham Manor, so this either a huge continuity error or Alfred has gotten permission to dress up the mansion in spite of its current prison status simply to give Bruce a moment of joy.) At police HQ, Harvey Bullock and Nancy Yip talk about how shitty Gotham is. Yip chastises Bullock for obsessively mapping out anarchy symbol graffiti for the past few months. Bullock, Yip, and Batman then investigate the scene of Lester’s murder with Lucius Fox guiding them when, all of a sudden, the building’s computer systems lock-down and a bomb goes off, scorching a giant anarchy symbol into the façade of the structure. On Christmas morning, Anarky announces that he has erased the digital footprint of everyone in Gotham, making it so all police records, bank records, and credit debt are completely erased. Blank masks have also been sent to nearly every household, including what appears to be Wayne Manor (where Alfred receives one). Again, shady continuity here since this should be Arkham Manor at this point. Anarky tells Gotham that social revolution has begun, and all should decorate their masks and fight oppression. The next morning, Sam Young pledges support to Anarky, claiming there is sound reasoning behind his antics, especially compared to the right wing Mayor Hady. Bullock exclaims his support for Young, but then asks about his connection to Lester, which results in the brush-off. Batman goes in disguise as Matches Malone and visits the strip club where Greta Mitchell works. Behind the building, Matches interrogates Lonnie Machin (aka Moneyspider), citing that only he could have helped someone gain access and control of Wayne Tower. Machin admits to the hack job, but says he gave the info to Lester, not Anarky. Batman then visits Mad Hatter in Arkham and questions him about the dead kids he found under ice. Later, at the Gotham National Bank, several hoodlums don their decorated masks and pull off a bloody robbery. Batman crashes into the middle of a shootout between cops and robbers. Innocent bystander Machin gets shot by Yip, causing the onlooking crowd to immediately blame both Batman and the cops for what has happened. A comatose Lonnie is rushed to the hospital and stabilized. Bruce and Alfred visit him there. The next day, Internal Affairs tells Yip to blame Batman for Lonnie’s shooting or it’ll be her badge. Atop the GCPD HQ building, while standing next to the still-trashed Bat-Signal, Yip tells Bullock the news and he’s not happy about it. A day later, Batman meets with Bullock and tells him that Jeb Lester’s murder is linked to Mad Hatter’s six-year-old child killings via Sam Young. The investigation takes the duo to an abandoned boarding house in the mountains north of Gotham. There, Batman and Bullock fight some of Anarky’s masked citizens, revealing that his blank mask Christmas presents are infused with Mad Hatter tech. The riots are being caused by mind-control. With a knife in his shoulder, Bullock points Batman to a portrait on the wall, revealing that Jervis Tetch was a groundskeeper that terrorized and killed the kids at the boarding house, including a young Anarky. Anarky and his army break Mad Hatter out of prison with vengeance in mind, bringing him back to the blue house. While Batman saves Mad Hatter from execution and fights Anarky, Alfred remotely guides the injured Bullock to sever the mask signal that is emanating from a top hat within the house. Alfred tries his best to quell the city riots with a vaguely conservative speech (through a commandeered mask signal) directed at the rioters, but it fails. As Batman punches off Anarky’s mask, revealing Sam Young behind it, Bullock puts on the chapeau and switches off the citywide Mad Hatter brain-signal. Young, defeated, explains that, years ago, Lester sold off kids to Tetch at the blue house, including his sister, who became Tetch’s first “Alice” victim. The next morning, Bullock recovers in the hospital and Lonnie, alive and well, checks-out of the hospital. Alfred chats with Bruce atop Arkham Manor, as they take down the Xmas lights. When night falls, Batman is back on patrol.

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<<< Year Seven Part 1 <<< | >>> Year Eight Part 1 >>>

  1. [1]COLLIN COLSHER: As per info gleaned from Batman Eternal #21, there must be a month-long gap in-between Batman Eternal #20 and Batman Eternal #21. Why? In Batman Eternal #21 several things are specifically mentioned regarding the extended passage of off-panel time from the previous issue. First, Julia Pennyworth will say that it has been “weeks” since she ensconced herself in Wayne Manor. Likewise, Carmine Falcone will say that he should have been extradited to Hong Kong “weeks ago.” And last and most importantly, Bullock will say that Gordon and Forbes both went to jail within a span of “some months.” The addition of the month-long gap makes Julia, Carmine, and Bullock’s statements all valid. Several items fill up a good part of the gap below: a Batman Eternal #21 note, Batgirl Vol. 4 #33, Grayson #1-2, a Teen Titans Annual note, the Superman: Doomed saga, Red Lanterns Annual #1, Green Arrow Vol. 5 #35, Batman: Rebirth #1 note, a Calendar Man note, and a note about Batman’s moon-base project.
  2. [2]COLLIN COLSHER: Here we go again with another Batgirl continuity error. Batgirl #33 specifically takes place after James Junior meets with dad in Blackgate in Batman Eternal #13 AND specifically during a period where Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and Jim Gordon are in prison and Jack Forbes has been charged with corruption. However, Batgirl #33 also takes place right after Batgirl #32, which is a constraining factor. The problem here is that Gail Simone tells us the linked Batgirl #32-33 occurs roughly TEN DAYS after Batgirl #24, in which Jim Gordon shoots Ricky Gutierrez. This is impossible. Batgirl #24 is a part of the “Wanted Arc” that is linked to Batgirl #23, which occurs at the latest NINE MONTHS AGO. This means Batgirl #32-33 must be at minimum AROUND EIGHT-AND-A-HALF MONTHS after Ricky gets shot—not TEN DAYS.

    BATFAN REBORN: The “ten days ago” comment is ludicrous. That sentence can only be read to fit correctly if we take it to mean that the lawsuit was raised ten days ago. As mentioned before, Marguerite Bennett wrote Batgirl #30, which moved the Batgirl timeline ahead by a significant amount of time. I’ve theorized that Simone ignored this time-jump (as she had ignored Guy Fawkes’ time-jumps earlier in the series), thus causing the confusion we see here. If we ignore Bennett’s Batgirl #30 (and Forever Evil too) then and only then could we conceivably have a ten day period between Batgirl #24 and Batgirl #33. In further regard to the “ten day” comment in Batgirl #33, it’s likely that Simone hoodwinked editor Mark Doyle, sneaking this past the new guy on the job! For one thing, the “Wanted” arc has a tie-in with the Nightwing Annual, which means Dick is indeed months away from his “death” in Forever Evil, a fact acknowledged in Batgirl #30 by Bennett. (That acknowledgment surely won’t be in the Omnibus.

  3. [3]COLLIN COLSHER: Dialogue in Superman: Doomed tells us that Brainiac’s last assault on Earth (from Action Comics Vol. 2) was five years ago. It was actually much closer to six years ago.
  4. [4]COLLIN COLSHER: The Superman villain Brainiac (Vril Dox) with whom we are familiar in the New 52 is merely an emanation (unknowingly so) of the real Brainiac, a towering Galactus-esque cosmic being that exists outside of time and space on a sentient planet called Telos (aka “The Blood Moon,” a transformed Arak Red-Hand aka pre-Crisis Son of Thunder). (The über Brainiac is actually the original pre-Crisis Brainiac, who has survived through multiple reboots. He is somehow also able to travel to prior defunct—i.e. erased—timelines, an act that goes beyond mere time-traveling and ventures into navigation through the “metaverse” i.e. the actual fictional history of DC Comics.) This ubiquitous über Brainiac’s main purpose is to travel through the cosmos, collecting artifacts (including whole cities) from timelines shortly before they become extinct or altered due to chronal-spacetime anomalies. From the reader’s perspective, these anomalies are major retcon events like the original Crisis, Zero Hour, or Flashpoint! The über Brainiac has seemingly been collecting since the dawn of creation—watching, waiting, and striking as the DC multiverses shift and reset over and over. Every incarnation of Brainiac (from the New 52 Vril Dox to the 1990s Batman The Animated Series Brainiac to the Silver Age Brainiac from the 1960s) has been a mere emanation of the one true Telos-residing über Brainiac. Think of über Brainiac as the herald for the impending erasure of all superhero universe timelines. Pretty cool concept. It should come as no surprise that this awesome idea came from a pitch Grant Morrison made to Dan DiDio and Jeff King in 2014. Morrison first used the concept in The Multiversity with specific regard to the pre-Flashpoint New Gods. Inspired, King would follow with modified version of the concept (for worse) in Convergence. The ridiculous notion of Brainiac being able to navigate backward through the fictional history of DC Comics is solely a Convergence idea. Yes, in Doomsday Clock, Dr. Manhattan clearly also traverses the fictional metaverse as well, but only to view it up close. His meddling only affects contemporary continuity.
  5. [5]COLLIN COLSHER: Action Comics Vol. Annual #3 and Superman/Wonder Woman Annual #1 literally overlap each other completely from beginning to end, simply showing different parts of the story and different perspectives. Both issues share a common scene featuring Batman in the middle of their narratives and both issues end on the exact same cliffhanger.
  6. [6]COLLIN COLSHER: Continuity error here. Batman says that Red Hood and Batgirl “just found” the knife. This is not true. They found the knife almost SIX weeks ago.
  7. [7]COLLIN COLSHER: Cluemaster makes a reference that Labor Day is approaching. This is actually dead on the money. My calculations put Batman Eternal #24 in August, less than a week before Labor Day!
  8. [8]COLLIN COLSHER: As per info taken from Gotham Academy #3, there is a roughly two week gap in-between Batman Eternal #24 and Batman Eternal #25. This gap exists because Gotham Academy #3 tells us specifically that Arkham Asylum gets destroyed in the summertime (aka early September/summer break before school starts). Thus, the last possible place that event (shown in Batman Eternal #29-31) can go is in very early September. Also Detective Comics #35-36 take place before Bruce has lost his personal money, so we need a gap to accommodate that Autumn tale. I’ve put several items that seem to fit well in this gap.
  9. [9]COLLIN COLSHER: These issues take place during a time when Achilles Milo is still working at Gotham Academy, so they must appear prior to his outing as a criminal in Batman Eternal #44.
  10. [10]COLLIN COLSHER: This item takes place months after Ra’s al Ghul’s disappearance in “Robin Rises.” Lady Shiva has since become leader of the League of Assassins. Ra’s al Ghul will soon return to reclaim his throne (as referenced in Batman Eternal #46).
  11. [11]COLLIN COLSHER: “War-Torn” takes place after “The Hunt for Robin”/Robin Rises Saga, which depicts Wonder Woman’s mother.
  12. [12]COLLIN COLSHER: Technically, Titans Vol. 3 Annual #1 is non-canon on the New 52 timeline since it occurs definitively after “Superman Reborn.” However, the answer to the longstanding New 52 mystery surrounding Donna’s true origin is still the same answer, so that bit should remain a fact in New 52 continuity.
  13. [13]NICK SMILES: There has to be a gap between Batman Eternal #42 and Batman #28/Batman Eternal #43. Selina seems to keep Stephanie sedated for some time—she wasn’t so much interrogating her as keeping her on ice for Batman—and she has enough time to obtain and change Steph into her Spoiler costume—(Steph is captured in track pants and a top)—and then set her up in the Egyptian Club. Furthermore, in Batman #28 Harper mentions having received what surely must be additional training from Batman’s sidekicks, which could only have occured since Batman Eternal #42. Also, I can’t imagine Bats taking her on a mission without at least some additional basic training.

    COLLIN COLSHER: We can’t assume an Arkham Manor gap between Batman Eternal #42 and Batman #28/Batman Eternal #43 without dabbling in two things I execrate: conjecture and unsubstantial evidence. Unfortunately, with Batman Eternal‘s nonsensical time-flow (i.e. its obstinate insistence in slowing down narrative while paradoxically stating that large amounts have time have transpired PLUS the fact that we are supposedly in mid January by issue #47) we’ve got to make as many LENGTHY gaps and ellipses as we can, even if it feels wrong. The Eternal writing team sure didn’t leave any room for any other stories or logic when it comes to passage of time in its own narrative. We already knew that Harper Row trained with Red Robin (and possibly Sergei Alexandrov) in Tokyo—as mentioned earlier in the pages of Batman Eternal. But if we are talking semantics here, the plural sideKICKS, does imply that Red Robin or Batgirl had a hand in the training as well, leaving prospective room for an immediate gap prior to her first mission. In order to fully accommodate passage of time, however, this gap must span around ONE MONTH, which means that Selina keeps Stephanie Brown captive although well taken-care-of all while not allowing Steph see who her captor is or to know where she is being held. Seems a bit improbable, but then again, the entire Eternal narrative has been improbable since Day One. The gap must exist, so therefore it does.

46 Responses to New 52 Year Seven (Part 2)

  1. Singh says:

    Okay, don’t worry, I got your Superman/Wonder Woman solution and it all lies in one thing: ignore the editors note. We’re going to have to take the JLA training as exactly what Trevor puts it as, just the different heroes somehow randomly meeting over the Sahara fighting Zod. I hope this helps, but, honestly, it appears most of all that it’s that editor’s note that is screwing you over, so ignore it. Also, what’s happening to year seven?

  2. Singh says:

    I’m back, and before you have a problem, I’ll solve it. While I’m sure you’ve probably already figured this out yourself, but when Future’s End ties in directly with the main New 52 universe, I personally suggest you contain what happens in that future in a note. It’s not the future you have written about and it’s not going to BE that future. It is in place of that future right now, but the events of the weekly series will do what a mutable timeline does, overwrite that future and bring in the one you have written about. A more complicated way to handle this, I feel, would be to create another New Age section and include the the three timeline anomalies: Rotworld, that Superboy one and Future’s End. Again, I say handle it with a note.

    • Thanks for the input as usual, Singh. The alternate future of Futures End will definitely be highlighted in some way, shape, or form via notation.

      Once the new Superboy makes an appearance on our chronology, I will undoubtedly mention the alternate future from whence he comes as well.

      As far as Rotworld goes, that dark vision of the future was permanently erased, no? I only read brief snippets of Snyder’s arc when it came out, so I’m not sure. Does Rotworld even really warrant a mention if it has no real bearing on our chronology in its current state?

      ALSO, in an unrelated note, a question for someone who contributes to the site so regularly. How would you feel if I did a major overhaul of the Modern Age timeline switching the year markers from the April-March format to a simpler, cleaner January-December format? There would still be the same information and same 23 year length, but I’m thinking it might be a bit easier to read and compare to the rest of the happenings in the DCU. I’m digging how the January-December (normal calendar) format is working for our New 52 timeline and thinking it might be a good juncture to apply said format to the other timelines on the site. A penny for your thoughts, Singh. Thanks!

  3. Singh says:

    Yeah, Rotworld was erased. I don’t actually read the Modern Age a lot and it is because of how divided it is, I’m pretty sure that if you did revamp it as such, I would be reading that a lot more. I think it’s a wonderful idea.

  4. Singh says:

    Honestly, it was from Charles Soule. The man who caused the biggest continuity screw up in your timeline. Trust interviews, don’t trust his.

  5. Singh says:

    Hey Collin, just dropping by to ask, what do you think of Futures End? I’m personally really enjoying it so far, I get how people are saying that it’s been a bit boring so far, because it sort of has been, but I don’t mind the exposition because it seems starting at least two weeks from now, things are going to get pretty fast paced. I mean, I really like the characterization of Batman Beyond in it, given that he’s been one of my favorite characters so far, but I also like the implication of it, affecting all of the alternate futures that we’ve seen so far (Damian-Bats, evil Superboy, Rotworld, JL3000 and FE’s own future) and creating something entirely new. It may be because this is how I’d imagine if Marvel ever created something like the New 52 (which simply because of history in their stories, I feel they need) they’d treat Days of Future Past (even though I was negative years when that came out I still like the story). I don’t know, like I’ve said, you’re one of the people on the Internet I actually respect so I guess I’d like to know what you think of this weekly.

    • Man, so many reviewers got so angry about the gratuitous limb-severing violence and death of the first two issues (#0 and #1). I agree that there’s way too much “grim N gritty” in comics these days for the simple sake of being ultra-violent and shocking, but what strikes me more is how there were so many people writing about their distaste for these first two issues of Futures End. A far more gratuitously violent series is Original Sin, which has already shown an eyeless dead bloody Watcher and Bucky sawing-off Nick Fury’s head while holding onto the Watcher’s gouged-out eyeball—and all in a mere three issues. Sometimes I think that DC gets more of a hard time and is scrutinized so much more than Marvel because more serious fans of the superhero genre are DC fans and couldn’t give two shits about Marvel (for better or worse AND even if Marvel has some better quality books at the moment). We hold DC to a higher standard, which is frustrating because DC so often fails to meet our expectations.

      But I digress. To answer your question. I’m intrigued by any DC weekly that might head towards something multiverse-shattering in a year’s time. What bothers me about Futures End, however, is that we’ve already started off by showing a future that can never come to be. This is one of those stories where alternate versions of characters show up from an alternate future in the present and make it so that that horrible future doesn’t happen—AT THE EXPENSE of their very own existence. I love the idea of finally fleshing-out the primary DCU’s Terry McGinnis, but is this REALLY him? If he comes from a future that we KNOW will never come to be, where does this leave him? Will he be the “Waverider” of today, making this the Armageddon 2014 or Armageddon 2019 or whatever? Maybe that reference doesn’t even make sense. Maybe a better reference is: Will this turn out to be a yearlong Age of Ultron? I hope not because Age of Ultron was utter garbage.

      Basically, what I’m saying is that this series has a TON of potential, but it remains to see how that potential will be used. I have a lot of faith in the creative team and have been reading each issue each week with optimism. Five issues in (plus #0) and I’m still on board. Ask me in a few weeks and I’ll have a more detailed response.

      • Singh says:

        Sure thing, but just want to say, I completely agree with you, there should be some sort of effect that that an alternate future should have on the present. Given Dan Jurgens’ experience with timetravel, I wouldn’t put it past him to try something different. I really hope this doesn’t end up like Age of Ultron, but I would rather it be that than Battle of the Atom (which I utterly detested). I completely agree with your point on hardcore DC fans as well, we do take things too seriously and I do get it, whenever I read a lighthearted DC book I feel it should be darker whereas I have none of these qualms for Marvel. I guess you must’ve noticed as well, but a lot of people are already comparing Futures End to Eternal, which has a month’s issues on End. I guess we’ll see how things shape up in the coming weeks.

  6. Nick Smiles says:

    Hi Collin – just a quick note to say i think you’ve got year six nailed – great work – that was a tough one…! Cheers, Nick..

  7. Robert Fuller says:

    Re: Robin’s comment about “growing” in Batman and Robin #13

    That’s just him making a joke about spending so much time in the sewer, a joke that gets interrupted by the arrival of the frog assassin guy, so we don’t get the punchline. Presumably it’s something like, “Another couple months, and I’ll start growing a tail,” or something (since he’s talking to a rat).

  8. I think that it really doesn’t fit anywhere honestly. I’m going to wait and see what the next few issues look like before adding it in. My feeling is that it probably has to go after “Endgame”? But then it will contain upwards of a dozen CRITICAL continuity errors. Not pretty.

    • Singh says:

      That’s what it seems like, since each title seems to be falling either it’s own continuity or Snyder’s. Anyways, I’d say that it might take place before Eternal 35 and right after he comes back, Bruce gives the keys to Jeremiah and we just assume Damian goes off to London or something, or before 38. Anyways, I think that with the assumption that Arkham Manor starts right after the completion of renovations, we can associate Bruce spending time in the manor after handing the keys off to building planners and architects wondering how to renovate the building to make it an asylum. That might be the loop we need to fit this into continuity because they might as well go through hundreds of discarded designs until one fits for the Manor and they force Bruce out.

  9. Nick Smiles says:

    Greetings again from the wilds of Western Australia – thought i’d add my two penneth worth in on the Robin Rises saga.. i think we’re going to have to wait until all of the issues are out, but at this time i’m still for placing Robin Rises in the long gap after Eternal #20 – it at least seems to minimise the continuity errors and seems to read well when placed between Eternal #20 and the Superman Doomed Saga.. i shall however bow to your final judgement.. DisContinuity Comics strikes again..

  10. Singh says:

    Just a theory about Batman & Robin.

    Since there isn’t a defined date for Batman & Aquman and Batman & Wonder Woman, couldn’t B&A take place between Eternal 24&25. It would make sense for Bruce to start the hunt for Ra’s after meeting the Phantom Stranger (although Tomasi probably wouldn’t even consider that given the nature of that comic). Then, given that B&WW and beyond can all be said to happen within days of each other, couldn’t they not happen in the eleven days that Bruce is still staying at Wayne Manor after Eternal 34?

    • I’ve been working on a position for “Hunt for Robin”/Robin Rises with a few other experts in the timeline-building field. We’ve reached an ultimate conclusion that the entire saga, based upon numerous things, has to actually occur before Batman Eternal even begins! This means, Tomasi will need to offer up a definitive reason or show in the upcoming issues exactly why Damian is not around, nor even mentioned in Eternal. Check out the site page prior to Batman Eternal #1. The footnote attached to Damian’s return saga contains a laundry list of reasons for placing it there.

  11. tiptupjr94 says:

    Hey: In Batman Eternal #47, Stephanie is looking at some sort of webpage with Vicki Vale on it (presumably an article Vicki wrote?) but anyway, it has the date of Jan. 22, 2015 next to Vicki’s name. Looks like the Eternal finale *might* be taking place after Detective Comics’ Anarky arc? I haven’t been extensively reading either book so I’m not sure.

    Also, I’m wondering if you could help me out with something: in Eternal #47, Harper mentions “one of the flood-damaged neighborhoods from the Dr. Dolphin or whatever attack.” Do you have any idea what she’s referencing? Who the hell is Dr. Dolphin? Google’s not helping me at all.

    • Harper is primarily concerned with the Bat-line, no? Her reference to “Dr. Dolphin or whatever” shows her disdain for some sort of aquatic villain that she doesn’t even bother to name correctly i.e. someone who ain’t a major Bat-rogue and therefore worthy of her full attention or respect. The only floods I can think of in the New 52 are Riddler’s flooding of Gotham in the Zero Year, a tiny reference to a flood in Batgirl #0, and Orm Marius’ flooding of every major East Coast city (including Gotham) in “Throne of Atlantis.” I really think this could be a cute nod to/diss on Ocean Master. Doctor Dolphin = Ocean Master?

      And if we really are nearing late January already then there are some SERIOUS hidden ellipses in Eternal‘s narrative. I keep repeating it and I hate to beat the dead horse, but Jesus Christ if you are going to move your story along months and months then actually DO IT! Don’t write 12 issues in a row that clearly take place over the course of a week and then all of a sudden act like 3 months have magically passed. This is Eternal in a nutshell.

      I’ll take a look at my calendar that I’ve been working up and see if and where I can insert long ellipses in the narrative that aren’t to glaring or weird or jarring. I currently have Eternal #47 somewhere in October, which means that I’ll have to add in nearly three months of ellipses to accommodate if I do wind up going that route! (Grayson #3 occurs in early September, as does Gotham Academy #1. Gotham Academy #3 mentions that Arkham blows up in “summer,” which I’ve taken to mean early September as well i.e. the latest possible time one can slide it and still technically have it in summertime. Both Grayson #1-4 and Gotham Academy #1-5 sporadically feature Batman/Bruce Wayne and have subtle nods to Eternal‘s chronology, thus linking Batman Eternal #29-32, which features the crumbling of Arkham, to early September. This means that, besides the two week editorially-stated ellipsis in-between Eternal #34 and Eternal #35, there must be TWELVE to FOURTEEN additional weeks of ellipses in-between Eternal #36 through Eternal #47!!!)

      Also, I’m not sure if you noticed, but Arkham Manor has a line that specifically places it before Thanksgiving, yet also has stuff that seems to put it right before “Endgame”. Now, I know Arkham Manor hasn’t wrapped yet, but it’ll be interesting to see how (or IF) it’ll fit anywhere neatly.

      • tiptupjr94 says:

        You’re probably right, I think it is a reference to Ocean Master. Heh, is that the ONLY reference to Throne of Atlantis in ANY Batman comic? Gotta love it.

        And, yeah… good lord. There is an UNPRECEDENTED amount of f*ckery going on with the timeline of Eternal and all the related Bat-books. Later tonight I’m gonna start a read-through of Eternal so I can get a better grasp of this, but here’s what’s currently getting me…

        In Gotham Academy #5, they show that Killer Croc has been hiding out in Gotham Academy. He still has his tattered Arkham uniform. They confirm Arkham’s destruction took place in summer and Croc ALSO says that the Academy was the first place he found once he escaped. So, whenever Croc first appears in Batman Eternal following Arkham’s destruction, this Gotham Academy storyline has to be taking place BEFORE that. And of course Batman appears at the end of Academy #5.

        Now, in Arkham Manor it’s been snowing outside, and Sybil Silverlock escapes. Obviously, she’s going to show up in Gotham Academy at some point. In Gotham Academy #5 the trees are barren but there’s no snow on the ground. Even if we ignore the weather, what I’m getting at is… Depending on how the passage of time is handled in upcoming issues of Gotham Academy, we could have a pretty big mess on our hands, with Arkham Manor possibly having already taken place at some point in Eternal’s narrative, HOWEVER, we know that cannot be the case because in Eternal right now, Clayface and Mr. Freeze have not been incarcerated since Arkham’s destruction, whereas they appear in Arkham Manor.

        Kinda like how, I was saying, it’s been confirmed that Damian’s return will be dealt with in a future issue of Grayson. But hopefully they know to present that scene as a flashback and explain why it hasn’t been mentioned in the series up to this point because certain issues of Grayson have been running concurrently to Eternal.

        And don’t even get me started on all this crap that has been happening in Detective Comics, with Wayne Manor appearing and all these incorrect or problematic dates being referenced… but like I said with Eternal, I need to do another read-through so I can jump-start my memory a bit, but either way there’s gonna be irreconcilable continuity errors when this is all said and done.

        It’s pretty astounding how much of a mess this is. Maybe this will teach everyone involved a lesson and Eternal Season 2 won’t be such an atrocious wreck. But, who am I kidding.

        • Total clusterfuck. I’ve already made the assumption that Croc gets nabbed and escapes OFF-PANEL for his appearance in Gotham Academy to work properly. Does this mean that the same stupid thing has to happen to Freeze as well? Arkham Manor implies that the Clayface in its story might actually just be a rogue sliver of his body. I’m recalling that great episode of Batman the Animated Series where Tim Drake falls in love with a homeless girl only to watch in horror as she gets swallowed-up into Clayface’s body—his missing chunk that had gained its own confused sentience. So good. Quite the opposite of Clownface.

          Also, starting a RE-READ THROUGH of Eternal? You are a masochist, sir.

          • tiptupjr94 says:

            Ha. “Quite the opposite of anything good” – they should put this on the Eternal trades.

            Okay, um… geez… maybe we could also assume that Croc uses Gotham Academy as a place to call home, but is still simultaneously working for Catwoman? Maybe that could work. And maybe he put his old uniform on because he was cold?

            And IF it turns out that Arkham Manor *is* post-Eternal, that would mean Eternal ends before Thanksgiving? But then there’s this January 22nd date. And the upcoming Detective Comics Endgame tie-in looks to definitely take place after Detective Comics’ Anarky story. And in Endgame, Wayne Manor is still Arkham Manor, correct?

            So, yeah, looks like a good-ol’-fashioned error on Detective’s part with the Wayne Manor thing. And ALSO looks like we’ll have to wait until ALL of this is completely said and done before we even remotely begin to speculate where ANYTHING is taking place in relation to ANYTHING ELSE, which we’ve DEFINITELY never had to do when reading DC comics before!

            *cries*

          • tiptupjr94 says:

            EDIT: just saw the re-read through comment; yeahhh, I’m not looking forward to it and am having second thoughts… we’ll see what happens.

  12. Nick Smiles says:

    Hi Collin – everything looks great – placing Robin Rises before Eternal seems to work.. one tiny observation – Hush is still in custody in the Bat-Cave during Arkham Asylum, but has escaped custody by Eternal #47 – therefore Asylum must take place at some prior to Eternal #46-47 – i think Arkham Asylum 1-5 should go in the narrative gap between Batman Eternal #42 and Batman #28/Batman Eternal #43… Cheers, Nick..

    on a personal aside – what the heck has happened to Batgirl – having once been one of the great strategists, she seems to have regressed to a 16 year old and taken to wearing purple pyjamas – which seems kind of off considering she was previously shot by the king of purple – Joker..

    • Batgirl has a new target demographic and a whole new feel. Has she regressed from a master strategist to a teen blunder? Maybe in the loathsome pages of Eternal. But in her own title, she’s good old genius Babs methinks. Purple may not be her best color, but ANYTHING is better than her New 52 design prior.

      But good eye on the Hush thing. I really, really wish Arkham Manor wasn’t a thing. It’s only a so-so idea and one that absolutely needed a home run hit out of the park to succeed. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gotten that. I’m assuming that when the mini ends, Arkham City will be built or something like it to reflect the popular video games?

      I don’t see any room for any gap between Eternal #42 and Batman #28/Eternal #43, though. Arkham Manor has taken at least 2 full days off the calendar (and isn’t even finished yet). Do you really think that Selina waits 3 days to interrogate Stephanie? The first place prior to Eternal #46-47 that I see is between Eternal #36 and Eternal #37.

  13. Nick Smiles says:

    Hi Collin – placing Arkham Manor (got it right that time) between Eternal #36 & #37 could work..

    It “felt” like there was a gap between Eternal #42 & Batman #28/Eternal #43 as i was reading them – Selina could have kept Stephanie sedated for some time, she wasn’t so much interrogating her as keeping her on ice for Batman, and she has enough time to obtain and change Steph into her Spoiler costume (Steph is captured in track pants and top)…

    In Batman #28 Harper mentions having received some training from Batman’s sidekicks, which could only have occured since Eternal #42, and i can’t imagine Bats taking her on a mission without at least basic training…?

    Cheers, Nick..

    • Lots of conjecture and unsubstantial evidence there, but with Batman Eternal, you’ve got to make as many gaps and ellipses as you can, even if it feels wrong. Snyder and company sure didn’t leave any room for any other stories. We already knew that Harper trained with Red Robin (and possibly Sergei Alexandrov) in Tokyo—as mentioned earlier in the pages of Batman Eternal. I took the comment in Batman #28 to mean exactly that. However, if we are talking semantics here, and I do still think it’s a stretch, the plural sideKICKS, does imply that Red Robin or Batgirl had a hand in the training as well, leaving prospective room for a gap. It’d still have to be a few days, which means that Selina has been keeping Steph chained up, although taken care of all while not allowing Steph to have seen her or know where she is being held. Seems a bit improbable, but then again, the entire Eternal narrative has been improbable since Day One.

      That all being said, and it sure was a lot to say, I will seriously consider creating a gap (with a weighty footnote attached, of course) in-between Eternal #42 and Batman #28/Eternal #43.

      Cheers as well!

  14. Singh says:

    I’ve been thinking and it seems the reason why Batman Eternal doesn’t work is not because the story is bad, but because the execution is sloppy. I mean on paper, it sounds good: The fall of Jim Gordon and the return of Hush have Batman wondering who is targeting his reign over the city. That sounds like a fine story, but there is honestly no synergy between authors.

    Like, even Earth 2: World’s End doesn’t have this problem (except, I’d say the only strong parts of that series is when Daniel H. Wilson is writing). The thing is that each writer of Eternal writes one issue mostly by themselves. Look at Futures End’s recent interaction between Tim and Terry. Tim was written by Jurgens but Terry was written by Azzarello, and to make that work, they clearly had to work with each other, hence the well established timeline. In Eternal, however, if there is more than one writer per issue, it seems Snyder just hands them a plot summary and tells them to do it all separately. Like ever since #38, people have been awaiting the reveal of the main villain, but it seems that won’t happen until #50.

    If there was that synergy between writers, the issues in between should not have been as bothersome but since there’s a clear lack of communication, we have continuity errors, different personalities and some characters that look different and Jason Bard with a crutch, then without and then not in the book to being back in it. It’s so clear, I mean, Layman randomly leaves throughout and Higgins & Seeley randomly join. Snyder is plotting, but not actually scripting, so that means the de facto leader is Tynion who really hasn’t proved himself well outside of backups.

    I really feel that this series shouldn’t get a year two, because making it bi-weekly is not going to improve quality. If anything, I’m hoping on another weekly set five years later or by the Futures End team.

  15. Singh says:

    I think you might need to create an alternate futures section, because apparently the new Batman Beyond book is going to be the definitive future, at least for this period in DC Comics. I’m just wondering, what do you think about that? I mean, Futures End has three issues left and that’s like what, sixty pages? Sixty pages to get Terry back to the future and get Amethyst and Grifter to Batman and Brother Eye to deactivate. Honestly, Futures End is progressing so smoothly right now I’m just hoping we get another weekly set in the world of five years from now. But what do you think at this announcement of a Batman Beyond book that combines elements from OMAC and Kamandi?

    • I had always planned for the inevitable erasure of Futures End from the primary timeline. As far as building alternate future timelines, that is an endeavor that I’m less inclined to do, especially since there is much work to be done elsewhere on this site. However, the unique complexity of the Futures End timeline does warrant at least some further introspection and archiving of its timeline, so we’ll see what happens.

      I haven’t been following all the announcements TOO closely, but I’m all for any title that marks a definitive future for the primary timeline. I like the snippets of Earth-51 that we’ve seen in The Multiversity so far, but I’m not quite so sure how OMAC and Kamandi will gel with Batman Beyond. Kamandi is a part of Justice League 3000‘s Earth-history as well, so I guess no matter which Earth it may be, the Great Disaster is always looming on the horizon.

      Futures End has been one of my favorite DC titles. I’ll be sad when it ends, but I’m looking forward to how it wraps.

  16. Singh says:

    Honestly, I don’t know whether or not to be excited or disappointed by this issue of Futures End. I mean, 5 Years Later, which I guess we should call the Eye Future as opposed to 35 years later, which is the End Future. It got wiped out, but now we have a definitive future. It’s confusing, but what do you make of it, and I think maybe you should make an alternate futures section for the New Age to include all the info you’ve stored up on the Eye Future, End Future and 666 Future.

    • Yes, it seems that events at the end of Futures End #47 align the “5 Years Later” future with the “35 Year Later” future, where Brother Eye controls the world. And that entire future (both “5yrs later” and “35yrs later” and everything in-between and beyond) seems to have been erased. Solicitations are pointing at wherever Tim and ALFRED have wound up as being THE definitive future of the DCU. Thanks to the shenanigans of the self-destructing Brother Eye, Tim and ALFRED are spared. But what about the Earth-2 War? Brother Eye’s change of plan thanks to Tim’s intervention cancels out the fallout seen in the “5 years later” timeline. No refugees will come to Earth-0 now. Furthermore, doesn’t Booster Gold have a part to play in all of this yet? He’s the one who disappeared and reappeared way, way before any of this started and just as Brother Eye warned Batman he was eventually “coming” with his new Brainiac programmer (in the prelude to Futures End: the JLI Annual from ages ago). I’m very intrigued to say the least.

      And yes, the lack of Terry on the main timeline is quite confusing. Terry will still be born, no? Hell, his dad just debuted in Gotham Academy! Not to mention, this concept: An alternate timeline Tim as Batman-of-the-future wearing the costume of that future’s Batman who died WHILE presumably the original Tim is still around, right!?

      • Singh says:

        I’m just wondering, though, because that effectively cancels out most of the storylines we saw in 5 Years Later.

        No Earth 2 War means Brother Eye never captures the E2 Wonders. That means that King Faraday never captures them so he has no motivation to build Cadmus Island. It also means he never hires Slade Wilson or makes Fifty Sue, so that storyline is kaput. The only things we can salvage are the OMAC Security System, maybe the DNA vault and Command D.

        It also means Amethyst never leaves Gemworld and Frankenstein never leaves SHADE. As a result, when Brainiac destroys the Carrier, a similar quest occurs, but likely doesn’t end up involving Black Adam or Amethyst (maybe this is where Convergence starts, with the events freeing the Brainiac God?)

        It seems pretty clear, though, that we may be seeing the entire Futures End cast again in the Batman Beyond book. But I’m just curious are you going to cover that book and what are you going to do with the 666 Future, Eye Future and End Future recorded dates now that they’ve officially been averted?

        • Oh yeah. What is HUGE clearly is that Brainiac God was DEFEATED by the heroes of “Five Year Later.” But Brother Eye’s destruction and erasure of that timeline means that Brainiac God’s defeat is cancelled out as well, which means in turn that Brainiac God will be free to CONVERGENCE attack.

          I will cover any time that is a definitive part of the primary Earth-0 chronology, meaning I will be covering Tim’s adventures in the future as Batman Beyond 2.0. I clearly have invested a lot of work in summarizing and ordering and footnoting the 666 Future and the Futures End future (which I think can still remain all one and the same, no?), so I will def be keeping an archive of them on the site somewhere.

          In further retrospect, what is happening in Futures End right now is essentially a FULL REBOOT for DC’s main future. Basically everything and anything linked to Terry McGinnis is now erased. If you think about it, 666, all of Futures End, and even the stuff from Detective Comics #27 are all tangentially but definitively linked to Terry’s future. Therefore, my entire FUTURE section of the New 52 chronology will basically become the archived “alternate future,” paving the way for a completely blank slate future.

          It’s a bummer of a loss, but in another perspective, it makes way more sense narratively-speaking. The future shouldn’t be a confusing mish-mash of possibilities stitched together from mostly Modern Age “What If” stories. It should be blank, fresh, truly NEW. I think I’ll be glad to see nothing but the whiteness of the overvoid waiting to be filled with story.

          • tiptupjr94 says:

            I haven’t been reading Futures End, but… From discussions and previews I’ve read, I thought that Terry’s time as Batman Beyond in the future is still going to be canon, but Tim simply takes his place in the timeline after that? Or is that now impossible? Hopefully the Futures End finale in Convergence #0 give us some answers…

            I think it’s kind of cool that the Bat-future is melded together from a bunch of different stories and ideas from multiple people. In my mind, Damian and Terry’s careers as Batman are very well canon no matter what anyone says, and in addition to that I think there’s a place for ALL the future Batmans who have been presented as canonical at some point in the past 75 years – One Million, Brane and Brane Taylor, Batman of the Far Future, etc.

            Obviously, futures like The Dark Knight Returns are very story-specific, but maybe there’s a way to incorporate that too.

            • Pick it up in trade if you get the chance. Futures End has been one of the most consistent books of the entire DC line. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.

              I also think the mashed-up future is cool. And it totally works too! BUT, it basically didn’t leave any room for any changes, unless you go way far out into the future. Also, while the different parts of the future could indeed be all put onto a single timeline, there was only very tangential referencing that actually connected them. I’m surprisingly content with the idea of a blank slate, which provides so many fresh ways to take things. The beauty of the blank slate is that there IS still a place for Damian, Terry, and other future Batmen we’ve grown to love. But now, there’s even more room to breathe AND maybe things will be more smooth and interconnected. Furthermore, there have still been numerous canonical references and hints to Terry existing at some point—the Batman Beyond prototype has been shown in Batman, Batwing, and other series. And even Terry’s dad has shown up in Gotham Academy! So, odds are, he will still exist. I think? However, what is for certain (as per Futures End #47) is that the world in which Terry became Batman—one that featured a decades-long hot/cold war against Brother Eye and his zombie-cyborg army—doesn’t exist. So, basically, Terry’s history has yet to be (re)written—even if it winds up being pretty much the same or if we choose to think of it that way.

              In regard to Damian, I’m glad that the 666 Future is basically swept away. I love it, love it, but there’s just no way it can exist as something that looms so relatively close in the future. It was PERFECT for the Modern Age, though. Hell, I still think of Morrison wrapping up the Modern Age with Batman Inc as truly inspired and inspiring stuff. Too bad they forced it into the New 52 as well where it was awwwwkward (to say the least).

              Not sure if Dark Knight Returns can fit into the current future of DC’s primary Earth timeline. It certainly DID in the Modern Age—at least some version of it—thanks to a bit of finagling by Brad Meltzer and later by Morrison too.

              We’ll have to wait and see as the next few months unveil a lot of new shit. The future is up in the air and I’m excited about it.

              • Well issue #48 came out and I’m quite surprised. While the future has definitely changed, what shocks me is how much has remained exactly the same! Definitely a lot to unpack. Time travel is starting to make my brain hurt.

                Brother Eye apparently didn’t die…which means that the entirety of The New 52: Futures End can (and should) be canon still? The story just continues on, 35 years later, with Tim replacing Terry in the fight against Brother Eye. I think?

                The idea of “5 years later” remaining canon at this point seems crazy (and impossible). Time travel is REALLY starting to make my brain hurt.

    • SWERVE. The alternate/reformatted future is EXACTLY the same evil Brother Eye future (as per The New 52: Futures End #48), right? Only Tim replaces the deceased Terry. Right? This means all of The New 52: Futures End is still canon after all!?!? Actually, it means that “Five Years Later” is not canon, but “35 Years Later” is canon?

      • Singh says:

        I’m actually very surprised and confused. It seems a lot of people are angry at the issue, but I think that we can decipher what is still canon from the hologram statuettes at the beginning. What is confusing me, though, is Tim. The Tim we’re following is from the Eye Future, he’s the only one who remembers the E2 War BUT WHAT happens to the other Tim. No E2 War his story would’ve diverged right (he lives in New York so it’s not a surprise he meets Madison). That is the only element that confuses me, and how Atom knew to wait for him. However, given that Futures End has done what every other comic usually dares not do (making the future definitive) makes me give it props. It’s a character driven story and even though the last issue left me shocked, I still think that it has been one of DC’s best series to date.

        Also, Eternal is finished now… I think you have my email if you want to set up that review/look back we talked about.

        • Yeah, Eternal went out with a whimper, although I presume most folks enjoyed it on account of the neat wrap-up and happy ending. Wow ’em in the end and you’ve got yourself a winner, eh? It’s a damn shame about Futures End, that such a solid awesome series goes out the way it does, if only for the fact that people might likely forget how great the ride mostly was. And a commenter on Martin Gray’s site said it nicely about the end of Futures End: “Suddenly every story counts, but none satisfy.” I loved New 52: Futures End, but I really wish it didn’t end in a way that made the entire series a huge zero issue for a Batman Beyond reboot. Brother Eye wins in the end? Tim changes the timeline, but nothing really changes except for a few superficial things?

          As far as chronology goes, I think that Tim’s actions alter the Futures End timeline that spans from 2015 to “five years later” where the main action occurs (2020). Thus, you basically have a re-written version of Futures End that omits all of the stuff that can’t possibly have occurred (a few of which you listed in your previous comment). So, Tim from 2020 goes back to 2015 and convinces Brother Eye to “die” (of course, he actually survives). Tim then is immediately whisked to 2050 where he learns that the timeline has changed in a bunch of ways, but not in the ONE WAY he had hoped or intended. Brother Eye still wins, and he still wins roughly the same way he did before, only things are slightly different. The primary Tim still goes through his normal motions from 2015 until 2020 where he then takes Terry’s mantle and goes back to 2015 and then shoots to 2050. There is a paradoxical endless moebius loop going on here.

          Similarly, a weird thing happens with Terry. It’s similar to what happened with Goldstar in the late 80s. A hero from the future travels back in time and winds up dying in the past. Thus, Terry technically dies while traveling in the year 2020, but technically his correct year should be 2050. A philosophical paradox: Does Terry’s tombstone end with the year 2020 or the year 2050? I’m being a bit silly here, but you get the point. I think?

          But back to your comment. The Atom and Madison maybe didn’t KNOW exactly to wait for Tim, but the last thing they knew is that he went back in time to stop Brother Eye. When nothing positive happened as a result, they probably would have assumed failure and even possibly assumed Tim’s death. Maybe waiting for him to return is more of a “Madison always knew in her heart that you’d survived and would return to her at some point somehow.” This is a very strange issue any way you spin it. I really hope that there wasn’t too much editorial pressure that affected the outcome of the finale.

          And last but certainly not least, YES, we will set up a nice round-table review of Eternal.

  17. Singh says:

    All right, just contact me at cutlock@gmail.com when you want to get this big review going. But back to the subject of Futures End (which based on our comments, I’d say you could create a review chronicling our opinions just based off of what we’ve written for the past year). It really reminds of a recent PS4 video game, The Order: 1886. It has the greatest graphics for any game, the most heartfelt story, relateable characters and wonderful gameplay. The problem? It was too short according to most reviewers. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that it ended before the main conflict could be resolved and so the story felt short and gamers felt shortchanged. Now a game, which, had it included one more mission that resolved the story, would have been critically acclaimed, is being bashed.

  18. tiptupjr94 says:

    So, what’s your full rationale on the placement of Arkham Manor and Batman #34? Personally, I place Batman #34 between Batman Eternal #28 and 29. It’s awkward, yes, but the appearance of Arkham Asylum seems pretty damning. Luckily, there’s no immediate plot threads connecting 28 and 29, so we can assume there is a bit of a time gap to accommodate Selina’s becoming a kingpin so quickly – but, I welcome your thoughts.

    And Eternal #35 references Bruce giving the keys to Jeremiah Arkham and the Manor being under construction… But are there any concrete indicators of the main Arkham Manor series taking place in the midst of Eternal? Also, I just skimmed through the issues and it seems as though Scarecrow and the villains crew go straight from Arkham’s destruction to hiding out in that Tartarus Restaurant. But, at one point he also mentions that he helped facilitate their “escape” from Arkham… but then Mr. Freeze mentions the supernatural stuff implying they escaped in the destruction… so, yeah. Basically, is there any proof that those specific villains were shipped to Arkham Manor and then escaped prior to Eternal #37?

    And then, Croc’s appearance in Gotham Academy has to take place before… Eternal #37? Just trying to get a grasp on this. Looks like that was a hell of a two weeks (just going by the text) between Eternal #34 and 35…

    Sidenote, Scarecrow’s henchmen in #37 have the same hats they did in Throne of Atlantis… between being the first recruit in the Secret Society of Super-Villains, Arkham War, his role in Eternal, his being the bridge between Eternal and Endgame, and the odd reference in various other comics, I get this feeling they’re trying to give Scarecrow this weird through line throughout the entirety of the New 52, like they’ve randomly positioned him as one of THE main villains, and it kind of feels like it’s building toward something? Or maybe it’s just to synergize with Arkham Knight? Hmm. Anyway, I thought I’d comment on it.

    • I don’t think there is a gap between Eternal #28 and Eternal #29. Eternal #29 tells us that Alfred was checked into Arkham “yesterday.” We see Alfred checked into Arkham in Eternal #26. This means that Eternal #26 through Eternal #29 is less than two days (and this includes Bruce’s—still rich—appearance as guest speaker on the first day of school at Gotham Academy). Since Batman #34 spans two days, there really isn’t room for it between Eternal #28 and Eternal #29.

      Further regarding Batman #34, the other big error besides the showing of old Arkham is showing an out-of-prison Penguin. He doesn’t get out of Blackgate until Batman Eternal #50. Basically, the idea of writing Batman #34 to fit into continuity months prior to a point in what would be an extremely muddled continuity was a terrible idea.

      We know obviously that Batman #34 takes place before Arkham Manor, and here’s what we know about that worthless series: Hush is shown in captivity in the Batcave! This means Arkham Manor must occur before Hush escapes his imprisonment in the Batcave (which doesn’t happen until Batman Eternal #47). Dialogue in Arkham Manor also tells us that there is a snowstorm but it’s “not yet even Thanksgiving,” which hints at a November setting.

      BTW, literally NONE of the time ellipses given to us by editorial notation can be taken for what they are worth. I have a personally-retconned six week gap between Eternal #34 and Eternal #35 instead of a two week gap simply because the entire story clearly begins in summer 2014 and ends in late January 2015. We need as many ellipses as we can for anything to function properly. I place Gotham Academy #2-6 between Batman Eternal #34 and Eternal #35.

      The New 52 certainly has built Scarecrow up and I’ve noticed it too. The problem with building up villains by putting a spotlight on them is that they get used willy-nilly by just about everyone. A spotlight on something that didn’t used to have one will expose all the flaws. About six months into the New 52, folks asked me questions about how Croc, Scarecrow, and Freeze could possibly have been in and out of Arkham as many times as they were being shown. The simple answer is that it was impossible.

      I’m compiling a pretty detailed calendar list of Eternal. When it’s done, I’ll send it your way for notes.

      I’ve been reading Batman comics my whole life and I’ve read just about everything from 1939 to 2015 (minus a few gaps in the late 60s and 70s). And contrary to what some people may think, I don’t hate the New 52. I actually quite like most of it. That being said, I honestly believe that Batman Eternal has been the worst Batman arc in 75 years of Batman. Seems hyperbolic, no? I couldn’t be more deadly serious.

      • tiptupjr94 says:

        Oh, I missed the “yesterday” comment in Eternal #29; yeah, okay, not as much wiggle room as I thought. Also, the panel that shows the Penguin in Batman #34 is really weird… are those supposed to be Batman’s thoughts? Since they don’t actually mention what the Penguin is up to, I normally wouldn’t say it constitutes a definite error, but yeah, I guess it can’t take place between #28 and 29 at any rate.

        You’re right, it was just a bad idea to write and publish these issues so far out of a sequence without a gameplan (or at least, a gameplan that didn’t change with the wind.)

        I can see how Batman Eternal can be viewed as the worst Batman arc ever. Personally, my worst Batman STORY is Death of the Family… But yeah, I go back and forth over whether Eternal fails greater than that. There are some issues that are legitimately exciting and somewhat well-written, but the leaps in logic and expectations of what the reader is supposed to infer are just too much. For example…

        Batman #700 says there are like, sixteen sublevels in the Batcave, right? So there is really NO BETTER PLACE they could’ve put Hush than in a giant see-through tube in the middle of the Batcave, that’s not sound-proof, directly in front of the Bat-computer? ARGGHHH!

        Also, WHY didn’t Bruce at least foresee the possibility that Lincoln March and/or the Court of Owls could have been involved to some degree? And what’s this bullshit of him barely remembering who the Cluemaster is? It’s just utter nonsense. I don’t care if it’s a new continuity, they can’t just tell people “Ohh, forget this guy ever existed, forget how much of a big (relatively speaking) deal he was for multiple decades.” If they REALLY wanted to dig into the well of obscure villains, there were much better options that would’ve suited the story infinitely better. How about Johnny Witts? Monarch of Menace? Iron-Hat Ferris? Yeah, people have never heard of them, and Eternal wants us to believe that CLUEMASTER is on the same level as THEM!!! RACHELLLL

        Also, it’s possible that Hush goes back into the tube after Alfred bitch-slaps him into submission in the penultimate (I think?) issue. The last time we see him, he’s tied up behind Alfred. Anyway, yeah, whatever, such a cluster. I’ll try to brush up on things and send some notes your way too. Well, bye. B)

  19. tiptupjr94 says:

    I think Damian’s leaving in Robin: Son of Batman #1 takes place before Batman Eternal #21. In Son of Batman, Bruce leaves a note referring to the sundae as “Alfred’s sundae,” implying that Alfred made it. Damian is also in Wayne Manor at the time and Patrick Gleason on Twitter has stated that Damian “flew the coop before Endgame.” So, yeah, I think this is before Hush breaks into Wayne Manor and attacks Alfred. In my head-canon, Bruce is going off to face Professor Pyg in Eternal #1 and doesn’t want Damian getting in harm’s way, making things nice and simple for us and thematically resonant. But hopefully we’ll get some more answers in the coming months.

    Also, this means Damian’s appearance in Gotham Academy definitively postdates Son of Batman #1… we’ll see how that plays out!

    Robin: Son of Batman is so good, in my opinion. Finally we’re getting a break from the chronic retardation of the Snyder universe. (I don’t use that word lightly; I know, it’s offensive.) My favorite DC book and the only DC You book I actually like (well, I’m gonna give Prez a shot, and I don’t like that they saddled Martian Manhunter with the tired “I was born to be a weapon” cliche… Still, one week left!)

    I hope there was no chocolate in that sundae Damian gave Titus…

    • That is a possibility, but I like the idea of having Robin’s departure take place definitively after the Gotham Academy stuff (even if it means that Damian is only there for a few weeks or a month). Since Bruce physically moves out of his home two days before Batman Eternal #35, I’ve put Robin’s departure immediately prior to Batman Eternal #35. (Bruce, at this point, has technically lost everything, but hasn’t physically moved yet. Damian would be living at school, but I wouldn’t put it past him to travel back and forth from Wayne Manor to Gotham Academy and vice versa—like on weekends or something—especially being the cheeky Boy Wonder that he is.) Alfred is doing well and is in the Batcave at that juncture, so that works too.

      The neat and clean idea of Damian departing for the entirety of Batman Eternal makes a lot of sense (especially since we neither see nor hear about him at all during the whole series). However, it would be giving the creators of Eternal (and Tomasi) way too much credit. IMO, I doubt they planned for that to be the case.

      But we’ll see! If thinks shake out differently, I’ll take your idea into serious consideration.

  20. tiptupjr94 says:

    Hey, I noticed something about Gotham Academy #6 recently. The single issue shows Damian returning Millie Jean’s diary with the cover open, and we see a note from M.W. to B.W. But in the collected edition, not only has Damian’s face and hair been redrawn, but the diary is CLOSED and we don’t see the note inside! Interesting. You think someone at DC changed their minds about who had been writing in the diary?

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