DC New 52 Timeline So Far

DC co-publisher Dan DiDio gave us these sparkling remarks via Facebook, "Brace yourself, but after further review, there have been no Crisis events in the New DCU." This prompted a day long fanboy suicidal spree that probably robbed the world of the last known comic fans over the age of thirty. Luckily, DiDio came back from his day of feasting on tears to clarify in the next update:

"For those in crisis over Crisis, let me clarify. The topic of Crisis was much discussed among the editors and talent working on the New 52. With so many characters and histories restarting, major events like Crisis are harder to place when they work for some and not for others. (That was one of the problems coming out of the original Crisis)."    

The "too long, didn't read" take away here is that all of the Crisis-es, which we basically said was required for the time line to make sense, is Audi 5000. This leads us to more uncertainty when it comes to piecing everything together over the last "five" years in the universe. But some things are still canon, which paves the way for the following concepts.

Animal Man gave us the blink-and-you-missed-it remark about Superman as he goes to confront Buddy Baker and check up on the whole "mysterious return to life" thing. So sometime between Action Comics and Superman, he does die in some variation prior to the "modern" time. We still aren't sure where the genetic material for Superboy came from, but we can guess The Death of Superman is too iconic to completely ignore - you know, like a Crisis of some sort on multitudes of planets. 

Still, the exact time Supes bit the bullet--whether it was Doomsday or some other Big Heavy--remains to be seen. It wouldn't shock us if the end of Justice League's first arc was his death or even a massive beating that could lead into a retelling of Reign of Supermen.     

Confirmed canon thanks to the one-two punch of Nightwing and Batman and Robin, we know for sure that Dick Grayson was Batman for exactly one year while Bruce was off doing "something." With the removal of Final Crisis, we know it can't be going through time! The interesting thing this brings up is that we've yet to see Bane at all. Maybe he's never existed, or maybe that's what took Bruce out of commission and inspired him to incorporate the whole Batman thing.

At least that's the theory for titles like Mr. Terrific/Birds of Prey, Batman/Nightwing and Teen Titans/Superboy/Kid Flash/Static Shock. It's pretty cut and dry here that everything seems to be happening "at once" in these chain titles. The problem, though, is that sitting down to figure out what's still canon, what isn't and when it isn't is starting to feel like it'll be at the beck and whim of each title's chopping block fate.

The DC definition of "Crisis" seems to be up for debate since the effects of Zero Hour linger like an 800-lb green gorilla.

This means Hal Jordan went bonkers after the destruction behind Coast City to some degree and he eventually went all Spectre-y. At least, he could have, but so far there's been no sign of the DC Universe's infamous spirit of vengeance, which is funny considering how much the magical side is getting a rich history with Demon Knights and Justice League Dark. Add to that the current vampire rebellion in I, Vampire that sees a reboot rather than a continuation from a Vertigo (from Stories of Magic) and it seems like we're trading our Cosmic DC in for the start of the New 52.    

Officially, here's what we can confirm: Action Comics is five years behind all the other #1s, except for Demon Knights, which is a few hundred years into the past. This undoubtedly is to whet our appetite for Etrigan, Vandal Savage and dragons exploding through roofs. The backstory on Action is for Grant Morrison to explain how Superman became the newly armored Man of Steel, while acting a bit more morally grey than he has in the last few years.

Or to take it another way, what happens when Superman grows up on nature compared to the nurture?    

So, Batman has gone through four Robins, went "lost" for a year, had a son, repeatedly fought with the Joker, is founding the Justice League, works in conjunction down the line with the European Union for Justice League International and still runs Batman Incorporated while rebuilding Gotham for the future. Deep breaths, ok? Now, just how old is Batman?

If anything, Batman represents the biggest problem with our timeline construction. Not because of Grant Morrison casting his time magic, but logistically we're struggling with how this all pans out. So, how we take it: Detective is a mixture of Batman in his early days (since logic dictates he's been doing this roughly ten years and in his time could train Dick Grayson and Jason Todd) while the other books focus on him and the Bat-Family "currently."  This leaves a wide open trench for the different books to establish their niches and go into the history they want to (seriously, what is Batman: The Dark Knight even about?).    

So Justice League occurs at the "five years ago" mark and Superman already has his armor in the first issue. Under the great timeline, we can only put on our Einstein wigs and postulate, "Time in Action Comics is in fact earlier and slower than time in Justice League." Or, to use the layman terms: Superman is brought into the world of actual costumes far slower in Action, but required to be more powerful by the time he enters Justice League, thus making Justice League the third earliest book. Look closer at Justice League. Batman could be still on his second Robin by the time this starts, or having just lost Jason, he sees the need for other heavy hitters to help him over a young kid in feathered green speedos. Going by this and the establishment of what we all need, this means Justice League Dark has to be one of the more current titles, since magic is going to be at the forefront of these titles.     

The Wildstorm contingent (a.k.a. "The Edge," or "Let's Remind Jim Lee About The 90s") is a fascinating look at how these newly established characters fit into an established timeline while not making any sense whatsoever. For example, in Suicide Squad it gets hinted that the Joker really isn't around as much anymore, making Harley a bit more violent to get his attention; Men of War features a red and blue blur taking action into his own hands and killing Joseph Rock's commanding officer. Deathstroke features Deathstroke being the living embodiment of ownage when faced with being partnered up with kids.

Still, they are tied into the other #1's: Stormwatch is given a spare panel in Superman #1 and without a doubt Voodoo and Grifter will come together at some point. We're still unsure where the rest of these crews fall in the main timeline, but when vampires and moon-sized monsters are running around we're confident the aliens will have to make an appearance in another book; maybe say, the one about the green space cops and their red vengeance seeking cousins?    

We're thinking the next time a true timeline can be reconfigured will be after the sixth issues when initial arcs are plotted out, Superman learns to blog and we finally figure out what happened to the Joker's Nic Cage impression. That said, the quick and dirty that we're standing behind:

10 Years Prior to New 52 #1: Detective Comics*   

5 Years Prior to New 52 #1: Action Comics which sets the way for Justice League.   

Modern Day to New 52 #1: All The Rest**   

Slightly In The Future to the New 52 #1: Justice League Dark   

*See, we think this is going to keep jumping around so it's going to be as annoying as checking to see if Batman's wearing a red bowtie, blue bowtie or fez to keep up with the time skips. 

**...we say that for now as a number of the books are playing their chronological order close to the chest; this is being done probably to keep their plots moving forward, but more than likely because everyone is waiting to see what sticks.