Timeline Overview | Years 0-2 | Years 3-5 | Years 6-8 | Years 9-11
When fans start talking about how confusing continuity has become in the DC Universe, they’re more likely than not to be talking about what has become of the Silver Age… a huge body of stories that are essential background for today’s still-active characters, yet which, in the aftermath of Crisis and Zero Hour, seem hardly ever to have happened as we remember from the original publications. Some of these tales (surprisingly many, in fact) have been retold in the new continuity… but the result is still a convoluted patchwork, at best. It is at once the most tortured period of DCU history, and the most crucial one for understanding its present.
Accordingly, it makes sense to focus some rigorous analysis here… as a result of which, this also stands revealed as the period where this Chronology differs most significantly from DC’s version. While I find DC’s treatment of this period inadequate, however, I do use it as a reference point, and I don’t want to be accused of casually dismissing it.
Let us consider, then, the nature of DC’s “official” Timeline(s). They don't match, and each is laden with blatant coincidences, distortions, and problems of compression. They essentially count backward from their own present moment, with the original in Zero Hour #0 tracking back through 11 years to Superman’s debut (at first glance it of course appears to be a total of ten years, but an actual count reveals it as eleven: if “Today” comprises the most recent year’s worth of events, preceded by “One Year Ago” and so on through “Ten Years Ago,” Superman’s debut for all practical purposes falls eleven years before ZH); this has been extended only slightly to 12 (through “No Man’s Land”) by the latest and most comprehensive update, in Guide to the DCU 2000 Secret Files #1. It’s all unavoidably arbitrary, and can't be taken at face value… but it does at least help to establish a touchstone to which other things can be compared.
With that as a point of departure, let’s delve into a closer analysis.
The most prominent reliable evidence regarding Silver Age history involves the Batman, and various characters connected with him. As ever, the stories are our primary sources.
(A preliminary note is called for regarding Legends of the Dark Knight, which has always had a frank editorial policy of telling stories that aren’t necessarily “in continuity.” I’ve only included those stories that are both relevant (e.g., the introduction of “venom,” the first appearance of Lucius Fox) and not incompatible with other known data (e.g., Bruce Wayne disappearing for six months). Frankly, between LODK and an endless stream of mini-series and specials, Batman’s early years have now been chronicled to such absurd excess, by so many creative teams, that “consistency” is best viewed as a limit condition approached only asymptotically. There are many fine LODK stories that may or may not have “happened,” but fortunately (perhaps), many of these tales simply aren’t relevant in a larger sense, and can be safely disregarded. It’s beyond the scope of this project to assign priorities and placements to all of them, absent specific compelling evidence.)
The most comprehensive and authoritative version of Batman’s current origin, for our purposes, is Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One [Batman #404-407 <2-5.87>]. We know from it, to begin with, that the Batman debuted in costume on April 9 of what we’ll call “Year One” (hereafter “Y1” ), one of the most concrete dates in current DCU history.
Batman was without a partner during his first and second years of activity, but we know that Dick Grayson’s parents were murdered during Y2, and that he publicly debuted as Robin in Y3 [Batman (Year Three) #436-439 <8-10.89>], in the spring [Robin Annual #4 <1995>]. ZH actually concurs with this much, placing Robin’s debut “8 Years Ago” versus Batman’s “10 Years Ago” (later 10 and 12, as of DCU2KSF).
(It’s not precisely clear how old Dick was at the time of his parent’s death; various accounts [Secret Origins #13 <4.87>, Batman #436, Ms. Tree Quarterly #1 <Sum.90>, Robin #0 <10.94>, Robin Annual #4, the Nightwing mini-series <9-12.95>, etc.] differ on that and other details (such as the time of year of the murders, the date of his birthday, etc.). Most accounts agree he was around ten, though, give or take a little.)
Here’s where it gets interesting: we also know that when Batman severed their partnership, after Robin’s shooting [Batman #408 <6.87>], they had been working together for six years [Batman #416 <2.88>]—i.e., it was Y9. This occurred just before Dick started college (staying just one semester) [Secret Origins #13, Action Weekly #613 <9.88>]. Shortly after that (thus early in Y10) the New Titans started, and the Crisis happened the year after that [New Titans #14 <11.85>, Secret Origins Annual #3 <89>, etc.—the ZH Timeline even concurs on that part]. Thus, the Crisis falls in Y11, not Y7 as DC’s Timeline(s) would have it.
We know, for further corroboration, that Dick turned 20 during the year of the Crisis [New Titans #18 <3.86>/Secret Origins #13] (although his birthday has since been revised to earlier in the year [Robin Annual #4]). Accordingly, we see he was 18 when he finished high school, two years earlier; 12 the year he became Robin, and 11 when his parents were killed. It all fits the current accounts of his history fairly neatly. (In contrast, DC’s Timeline would reduce his time as Batman’s partner to a mere two or three years and make him much older at his origin than has ever been depicted, as implied by the timeline in Nightwing Secret Files <10.99>—or alternately a high school graduate at 15 or younger, a degree of precocity for which we have no evidence).
Barbara Gordon’s history also corroborates all this. We know [thanks to Secret Origins #20 <11.87>] that she moved in with her uncle James at age 13, and this cannot have been before Y1, when Jim Gordon moved to Gotham. She was somewhat precocious; she started college at 16 (i.e. Y4) [same source], and was elected to Congress the year she was 20 (i.e. Y8), with a Master’s degree under her belt [same source]. She had already finished her term of office before the Crisis—a two-year term which would have started in January of Y9 and ended in January of Y11, leaving us in the same year as above when the Crisis arrives. (While it’s noteworthy that her term in Congress is still canonical in post-Crisis history, the special (fictitious) legislative loophole used to have her elected at 20 is a perfect example of the sort of tortuous convolutions necessary to keep characters artificially young.)
From Dick Grayson’s history it’s a natural transition to that of the Teen Titans, which leads to similar conclusions. It’s established that the original Teen Titans formed when the charter members were “barely teenagers” [New Titans #0 <10.94>]. For Dick, given the timescale above, this would have been in Y4 (just after the events recounted in Robin: Year One <1-4.01>). The best overall recounting of the Titans’ history remains the Pérez-written Secret Origins Annual #3 <89>, which establishes that the original team was active for three years before disbanding (thus, Y7); that the brief second team (including Titans West) was formed and dissolved two years later, around the time most members were finishing high school (thus, Y9); and that the New Titans formed the next year (Y10), the year before the Crisis—leaving us again with Y11.
All of this dovetails neatly with Dick’s personal history: the team’s second incarnation falls during the same year (two years before the Crisis) as the end of the Batman/Robin partnership and Dick’s departure for college (which, let us note in passing, now occurred later in Titans history than it had in pre-Crisis continuity).
The ZH Timeline nonsensically has the original Teen Titans forming a mere three years before the Crisis (and after the deaths of the original Doom Patrol, no less, thereby totally obliterating Gar Logan’s personal history); DCU2KSF shifts that slightly to four, but both have the New Teen Titans forming only two years after that, and no mention of the disbanding or the brief second incarnation of the team. (The existence of this interim team has been reaffirmed in numerous places, such as Teen Titans v2 #12 <9.97>; most recently TitansSF <3.99> also clarified this and much other material as still canonical, although regrettably its dates are totally unrelated to any other source.)
Further corroboration: we know that Wally (Flash) West turned 20 shortly after the events of the Legends crossover [Flash #1 <6.87>], and 21 during the Invasion [Flash #21 <Hol.88>]; allowing for proportionate time compression we may conclude that he was 19 during the Crisis. We also know that he gained his powers during the summer he was ten [Secret Origins Annual #2 <88>, Flash #62-65 <5-8.92>], which (counting back from Y11) would be summer Y2, the year after the Flash’s own debut—just as we know it should be [Life Story of the Flash GN <97>]. Forward and back, the character’s history matches cleanly with our expanded timescale.
The Titans, interestingly enough, let us segue directly to the history of the Justice League. We know Gar (Changeling) Logan witnessed the Flash rescue Jay Garrick and Keystone City from suspended animation [Secret Origins #50 <8.90>] during the summer he was eight years old. (This is also the last plausible year Gar could have been present prior to his own acquisition of powers and the subsequent turmoil in his life, according to his established personal history.) We also know Gar was 16 when the Crisis happened [New Titans #14 <8.85>] (admittedly a slightly pre-Crisis source, but it’s never been contradicted, and fits later events in his biography). Thus, working backwards from a Y11 Crisis, as determined above, the two Flashes met eight years earlier, in Y3… quite a reasonable fit. (DC’s Timeline cannot accommodate this span at all!)
(We can interpolate other events, as well: Gar was only 11 when adopted by Steve Dayton and Rita Farr near the end of the Doom Patrol’s existence [Tales of the NTT mini-series #3 <8.82>]—already an early retcon of his original appearances [Doom Patrol #110 <3.67>, etc.], which described him as a teen—which, between the dates above, would suggest placing that team’s demise in Y6.)
We know the Justice League was already in existence when the Flashes met, and that the Justice Society formally regrouped soon after [JLA Secret Files <10.97>, etc.]. Still, the question remains: how long had the JLA been in existence at that point, and (correspondingly) how early did it form? One might still suppose it possible to trim a year or so off the beginning of this timeline if those answers allow.
In fact, the answers are obtainable, and they support the overall framework described thus far—but the route is roundabout. To wit…
We know that after Superman’s debut [Man of Steel mini-series #1-2 <10.86>], about eight months passed before his first meeting with the Batman [Man of Steel #3 <11.86>], and about 18 months total before his first encounter with Luthor, who had been overseas until that point [Man of Steel #4 <11.86>]. We can deduce that the first eight-month “window” must contain the Batman’s debut, in April of Y1, as described above [Batman (Year One) #405 <3.87>], and that the subsequent ten-month window must contain Black Canary’s debut, and Superman’s first meetings with Green Lantern and the Flash, set in August [all as depicted in Superman: Man of Steel Annual #4 <95>]. These limits leave us with provisional date ranges: meeting with Batman = April-August Y1; counting back, Superman’s debut = August-December of Year Zero (YØ); counting forward, meeting with Luthor = February-June Y2.
We also know that the JLA’s founding must occur within a year of the August Y1 events above, as Black Canary was 19 when she debuted [Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey #1 <3.96> [text page]], and still 19 when the JLA began [JLA: Year One #1 <1.98>]. That limits how late it might be; is there a limit to how early?
Yes. We know of two significant delays that must precede JLA:Y1 #1: Hal Jordan spent 90 days in jail immediately after receiving his power ring [Emerald Dawn II <6-11.91>]; and then shortly after first meeting Hal, Oliver Queen spent three months overseas in Minglia [Legends of the DCU #7-9 <8-10.98>]. Even if we sandwich Superman’s August meeting with Hal between these two events, we end up very near the end of Y1.
Corroboratively, the first encounter between J’onn J’onzz and the Batman [Martian Manhunter #22 <9.00>], which necessarily precedes the JLA’s founding, involves Jim Gordon as a police captain—a position he attained only circa December of Y1 [Batman (Year One) #407 <5.87>].
Moreover—Superman and Batman’s annual teamings, as shown in World’s Finest [’99 mini-series], also provide evidence. The first of these, the Harrison Grey case, must follow Luthor’s “debut” in Y2, as Luthor mixes with Clark and Bruce in the story [WF #1 <4.99>]… and in the second issue, set a year later, Batman makes clear that he has not yet joined the JLA. (As other sources [JLA Secret Files #1 <9.97>] stated Batman had joined by the end of the JLA’s first year, for some time I thought it decisively followed that the League must have formed after the events of WF #1. This is no longer dispositive, as JLA: Incarnations #2 <8.00> now shows Batman joining slightly later than supposed—after Hawkman and Hawkgirl, during the team’s second year. Still, it remains relevant (if circumstantial) that the JLA is not even mentioned until WF #2 (in Y3).)
In addition, the events of WF #2 apparently must precede Robin’s costumed debut that same spring (see above), or at least widespread awareness of it, since Superman didn’t express knowledge of the Boy Wonder until the following year, Y4 [WF #3 <6.99>]. Tracking back, this constrains Luthor’s debut to no later than March Y2, and related earlier events can be dated accordingly. (For example, Superman’s debut thus must fall in August or September of YØ. I prefer the later month, as it better allows for Clark’s post-collegiate summer abroad [Adventures of Superman #0 <10.94>, etc.]—and the weather as depicted is certainly cool enough for fall jackets, although admittedly weather in comics is often a very unreliable clue).
Putting it all together, we can derive the following basic framework (with additional noteworthy events inserted parenthetically; see details within):
Year Ø • Sept Year 1 • April • May • August • December Year 2 • March • Spring-Summer • (Autumn: Two-Face debuts) Year 3 • March • Spring • Summer • (Autumn: First JLA/JSA team-up) |
…and as for the events of subsequent years… Year 4 (Batman joins JLA) Year 5
(Luthor creates first Bizarro) Year 6 Doom Patrol dies Year 7 Teen Titans disband Year 8 (Arthur Curry Jr. killed) Year 9 Power Girl debuts; joins JSA Year 10 New Titans form Year 11(Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing) |
Note that this corresponds roughly, in both sequence and proportion, to DC’s history as we remember actually reading it, both pre- and post-Crisis. From this framework it becomes a fairly straightforward matter to fill in the remaining details.
At this point some factors can lead one to suppose that yet another year might be called for early in this framework. For example, there are those indications that Dick Grayson was ten, not 11, when his parents died. We also know that the JLA and JSA held regular gatherings, just as in pre-Crisis history (reaffirmed in numerous places). Of course, of the 22 chronicled gatherings, some simply cannot have happened in current continuity; the plots depended on parallel earths, or characters who now never existed as portrayed. However—there are several JLA/JSA meetings which we can confidently state did happen in post-Crisis continuity (albeit not exactly as originally depicted). A total of ten, in fact… even though there are only eight available years (Y3 through Y10) in which they could take place. In sequence, the gatherings are:
the two teams’ first joint effort, vs. the Crime Champions [JLA v1 #21-22 <1963>], confirmed by reference in Secret Origins #50 <8.90>, JLASF #1 <10.97>, and JLA: Incarnations #4 <10.01>.
the battle with Wotan, after which Hawkman and Hawkgirl joined as JSA liaisons—confirmed in JLASF #1, and depicted in JLA: Incarnations #1 <7.01>. (This replaces the original second team-up, vs. the Crime Syndicate [JLA #29-30 <’64>, just before Hawkman’s induction in #31]; the Syndicate had been retconned back in post-Crisis as inhabitants of Qward rather than Earth-3, as recalled by Hal Jordan in JL Quarterly #8 <Aut.92>, but this is now apparently superseded post-ZH in light of the “new” version of the Syndicate, first seen in the Earth 2 GN <99>.)
the first encounter with the Red Tornado [JLA #64-65 <’68>], confirmed in JLASF #1.
the battle with Aquarius, after which the original Black Canary retired [JLA #73-74 <’69>]. (Whether Larry Lance died here or years earlier remains unclear (sources conflict), but nothing conflicts with this being established as the source of Dinah Drake Lance’s later cancer, per Secret Origins #50).
the battle with Solomon Grundy [JLA #91-92 <’71>], recapped in Infinity, Inc. #39 <6.87> and Starman v2 #17 <3.96>.
the rescue of the time-lost Seven Soldiers of Victory [JLA #100-102 <’72>], confirmed as of JLASF #1.
the encounter with Sandy-as-silicon-monster [JLA #113 <’74>], confirmed as of JSASF #1 <8.99>.
the death of Mr. Terrific [JLA #171-172 <’79>], recapped in Spectre v3 #54 <6.97>.
the battle with Darkseid [JLA #183-185 <’80>], recapped in Action #650 <2.90>, and again in JLASF #1.
…and the battle with the Ultra-Humanite’s Secret Society of Super-Villains [JLA #195-197 <’81>], confirmed once again in JLASF #1.
However, it is my considered opinion that making major structural changes to accommodate this apparent ten-into-eight discrepancy would introduce more complications than it would resolve. The framework described thus far fits together remarkably well; rather than extend it, it is reasonable to accept that Dick was 11 at his parents’ deaths, and to allow for other plausible JLA/JSA team-ups to be provisionally canonical, sufficient to make the meetings semi-annual, rather than annual. (For details on the placement of specific team-ups, see the Chronology itself. Meanwhile, suffice it to say that DC’s versions of the Timeline have crowded them furiously into the earliest years of the JLA’s history, heedless even of consistency with their own placement of other related events.)
The possibility might also be raised of reducing the length of this period, getting this Chronology closer to the timespan indicated in DC’s version(s). It’s arguably possible to condense an extra year or two out of the middle of the Silver Age (reducing Y5-Y10 from six years to perhaps four, and thus the whole period to nine) by slightly retconning the ages and career lengths of several characters, and boiling away all but the essential JSA stories. However, I strongly disagree with that option. It’s a more rather than less complicated approach that raises definite problems of its own, and does no justice to the characters or their stories; all one would accomplish would be to trivialize and literally diminish a much-loved period of comics history, when it fits far more comfortably and convincingly into the framework laid out thus far. (As for DC’s seven-year version? In my opinion you just can’t plausibly distort everything into that ruthlessly compressed allotted span (although even if it could be done, DC still badly botches the attempt).) What would be the point? There’s simply no need for further compression.
Eleven years from Superman to the Crisis: the stories speak for themselves.
The logic applied above works whatever the specific years may be, but I’ve continued to use real calendar dates, as before, synchronized with the “Year X” framework plotted out above. That’s more controversial for this period than for others, because of the ubiquitous controversies over character aging and the effectiveness of real time in comics. Events in this part of the Chronology are still compressed, unavoidably, as discussed… but not beyond the bounds of logic. Relative “X Years Ago” dating as in DC’s Timeline(s) seems to me just a way of obfuscating what could as easily be clear. (For example: does “10 years ago” mean from exactly ten years ago to ten years, 11 months, and 29 days ago? Or does it mean from nine years and one day to a full ten years ago? Or the calendar year bracketing a moment exactly ten years ago? The writers of DC’s various Secret Files Timelines evidently interpreted such things in differing ways.)
Subsequent events may yet be occurring on a more realistic scale (see Section VI, “The Modern Age,” for further discussion), or (more likely) future concerns may dictate that the timeline slide still further forward on the calendar, a possibility which one may or may not choose to find aggravating. But a shift to acknowledging real time, in some manner, becomes more urgent with every passing year… lest we see the origins of a generation of heroes slip out of the 20th century entirely… further and further from their roots, from their forebears, and from any sense of a reason for being.
Years 0-2 | Years 3-5 | Years 6-8 | Years 9-11
Home | Introduction | Section I: In the Beginning | Section II: The Golden Age | Section III: The Quiet Years | Section IV: The Silver Age | Section V: The Modern Age | Section VI: The Future | Section VII: You Say It’s Your Birthday | Section VIII: Title Key, Acknowledgements, and Links | Contact Me | SmartMemes.com Home Page
Last updated 12/17/2005.