DC Chronology

It’s 20 years since the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Do you know where your continuity is?

• What’s new? —Site updates in the works! (Please read!)

People have been enjoying characters and stories published by DC Comics for generations, and the fictional reality many of those characters inhabit, the “DC Universe,” has a rich and complex continuity. Embodied by an interlocking web of publications stretching back twenty years and more, this continuity is an ongoing source of discussion and debate among fans (at least a certain subset of us)... so quite a few people have tried their hands at compiling a chronological overview of it all, in one form or another. It’s no surprise that many of these timelines can be found out there on the Web. (Far fewer for Marvel Comics, oddly, even though it’s had an integrated continuity for much longer.)

This just such a timeline. No disrespect to the efforts of any fellow fans (we’re obviously kindred spirits!)...

...but I think this one stands out from the crowd.

Why? Here’s why:

It’s complete. It covers the entire span of DCU history, from the beginning of time to the end of the universe—not just one isolated time period.

It’s comprehensive. It covers the entire spectrum of the DCU, not just a single character or title.

It’s canonical. Everything included represents DC’s current, post-Crisis, post-Zero Hour history, as well as it can be determined.
It’s cross-referenced and fully sourced. Every entry cites the source(s) used—actual published stories set in the current continuity, whenever possible, including issue numbers and dates. And when an entry relates to something set in another time period, it establishes that connection, rather than just leaving events floating out of context.
It’s original. It’s all my own work, not merely an erratic compilation of DC’s own “official” but contradiction-strewn “Secret Files” timelines.

It’s annotated. I carefully explain all my reasoning, especially noting those cases where authoritative sources are scarce and conflicting evidence or speculation is involved.

Through it all, I try my best to make the site a useful and interesting resource for every visitor, even people who don't necessarily agree with all my interpretations of DC history. (And for those of you drawn back to DC after some time away by the provocative events of last year’s Identity Crisis and the current Infinite Crisis, it makes a great refresher course!)

Whole worlds of imagination are contained herein. Go on and explore!

You are visitor number since this site went live on Jan. 27, 2003.

What’s New? (Site history)

As of January 31, 2008—first of all, my apologies to any visitors who found the site in acessible between Saturday January 26 and Tuesday January 29. It was an unforeseen but unavoidable result of the process of transferring my site hosting away from iPower (as I discussed a few months back, below) to HostGator. Suffice it to say that iPower tech support, and especially the domain registrar they use (OnlineNIC), have not made the process easy. (If you run into any performance glitches from here on, please let me know.)

Nevertheless, I'm still here and (in response to a few inquiries) I'm not going away! I admit, I've delayed a lot longer than I'd planned before putting any new material online. There are a number of reasons for this. Part of it is just life stuff: I've been preoccupied with various non-comics-related matters for the last several months. Part of it is that DC itself has been dragging its feet on revealing the changes in “New Earth” continuity, so furstratingly enough, not all the information I'd like to include is actually available yet. Part of it is the realization that these changes will require a pretty significant overhaul of the site, and I admit I'm reluctant to put in that level of effort when there's still so much doubt as to whether DC will be rebooting continuity again next year in Final Crisis.

However, I have been tracking new developments (from 52, to the “OYL” titles, to Countdown) in my own notes “offline,” and there is certainly a fair amount of new material I can and should include sooner rather than later. I plan to get that material online as soon as I have the opportunity. I'll send out e-mail alerts when appropriate, and I hope everyone's patience will be rewarded when I get the updates done!

My sincere apologies to any and all visitors who found this site down between May 10 and May 17, 2007. (At least one person contacted me concerned that I was retiring the site—emphatically not so!) The problem resulted from an unannounced migration of my account from one of my host’s servers to another, which (as the customer service reps frankly admitted) “didn’t go seamlessly.” Then, even after the domain was restored, it took several days more to get the visit counters working correctly again. I’ve been hosting with iPowerWeb for four years, but I am, to say the least, not best pleased with them at this point... and since they’ve recently been acquired by a larger company (EIG) and many employees pink-slipped, I suspect this sort of thing will become more common rather than less. I also suspect I’ll be switching to a new hosting company soon. But my complaints are less dire than some clients’; at least this is just a hobby site, not a business site on which my livelihood depends.

For the record, though, this site is still a live and ongoing project, and I am hard at work right now on an update to reflect OYL continuity and backstory changes (not that DC's being particularly helpful with figuring those out). New stuff will be up soon!

After nearly four years online, the spam spiders have put this site’s old e-mail address on too many lists. In an effort to cut the junk mail back down to a reasonable level, I've changed the address (on the Contact Me link) as of 10/30/06.

As of 05/24/2006—Minor tweaks and navigational aids added throughout, along with a special bonus day-by-day timeline of Infinite Crisis.

As of now this Chronology should be considered version 4.2. It is up-to-date and substantially complete for all DCU events through the end of Infinite Crisis (notwithstanding the possibility of surprises in Seven Soldiers #1)—the entirety of post-Crisis reality.
The state of continuity on the post-IC “New Earth” remains decidedly ambiguous, however. (Apparently DC’s editorial decision-makers have forgotten the old aphorism about not trying to fix what ain’t broken.) Several retcons have been announced or alluded to, but so far the quantity of online debate over the implications far exceeds the actual evidence that’s been published. At this point one can do little but wait for new details to be revealed in various “One Year Later” series, as well as 52 and the “History of the DCU” backup therein.
Accordingly, I’ve decided to hold off on any substantial updates to this site for at least the next year, until those details have seen print and the ambiguities have (one hopes) been resolved. I’ll be tracking developments as they happen, but to do shorter-term updates I’d have to keep trying to try to figure out on the fly how to fit things together based on an incomplete and fast-changing set of puzzle pieces, which is frankly more trouble than it’s worth. Once those pieces are in place, I’ll return to the table, and I may consider a wholesale revamping of the structure and content of this site (if circumstances warrant); on the other hand, it may be possible to move forward from that point with no more than minor edits and a new section added for post-IC story developments. Time will tell.
(In the meantime, though, please don’t think I’m not open to feedback and suggestions from visitors! Both support and constructive criticism are always welcome.)

As of 04/23/2006—notable additions to Sections I, II, III, V, and VII, including:

Full coverage of Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers project, including new historical information on the Sheeda, Vigilante I, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Newsboy Army, plus current events
New historical details about Lady Blackhawk, Wildcat, and the resurrected Jason Todd
The latest updates from Infinite Crisis, including a revised interpretation of its dating
The character list in Section VII has been updated to reflect recent deaths
And the ever-popular Much More! (Once Seven Soldiers and Infinite Crisis both wrap up, I plan to do a final polish on these details—and then set out to make sense of “One Year Later” and 52, which may entail some larger-scale restrategizing of the site at that point.)

As of 03/15/2006—minor changes and additions to Sections I, V, and VI (and, from February, to III, IV, VII, and VIII).

Version 4.1 is now complete and comprehensive (all sections fully updated) as of 01/11/2006! Including:

Section VI, “The Future,” fully revised to incorporate additional hypertimelines and all three versions of the Legion of Super-Heroes
Section VIII, “Title Key, Acknowledgements, and Links,” thoroughly updated to include many more sites (plus corrections for changed and defunct links)
Updates and additions throughout every section, including story information from Sandman: Endless Nights, the new Swamp Thing series, JSA: Strange Adventures, the Charley Parker revelations from Hawkman, the very latest events of Infinite Crisis, and much more!
And, of course, ongoing tweaking will continue, to include new developments and correct errors. Feedback is always welcome!

Updates through 10/13/2005—selected revisions and additions throughout, including:

Fully up-to-date information on the lives of John Constantine and Tim Hunter, including reworking of key events in their early careers
Inclusion of First Thunder, and newly added details on Captain Marvel’s background
Further additions and corrections to the character ages in Section VII
Detailed sorting-out of all the myriad events converging on the beginning of Infinite Crisis!

Section VII, “You Say It's Your Birthday,” updated to version 4.1 on 09/25/2005. Improvements include:

A major expansion and reformatting, documenting the age of just about every DC Comics character for whom an age can be documented, with the same attention to detail as the rest of the Chronology.
In addition, I’ve made several updates and corrections to Sections I, IV, and V, both to include several interesting literary/historical references, and to keep up with current events leading up to Infinite Crisis.

Updates through 08/11/2005—selected revisions and additions throughout, including (but not limited to!):

Thorough analysis of all of this summer’s intertwined events (to date) leading toward Infinite Crisis
Inclusion of events in Hellblazer through 2004 (although other recent events from the DCU’s Vertigo “wing“ still remain to be covered)
Revised and clarified introductory copy, and thorough proofreading throughout,including corrections submitted by eagle-eyed readers!

Section V, the Modern Age, is now Version 4.1 — updated on 06/07/2005. Improvements include:

Analysis and chronological placement of key DCU events from 2001 to 2005 (Our Worlds at War through DC Countdown), sorting out the many complications arising from Flash, Robin, Identity Crisis, and other intricately connected recent titles and stories
A summary timeline is now included in the Introduction, just as in the Golden and Silver Age sections
New entries for historical events revealed in series such as JSA, Power Company, Batman: Death and the Maidens, Nightwing (“Year One”), Green Lantern: Rebirth, and more
Analysis and inclusion (insofar as possible) of events from Superman: Birthright
...and other small corrections and additions throughout, frequently thanks to feedback from enthusiastic readers. Thank you all for your patience!

Section IV, the Silver Age, is now Version 4.1 — updated on 11/13/2003. Improvements include:

Complete integration of Dark Victory, Batgirl: Year One, and several crucial tales from Legends of the Dark Knight—reconciling the complicated (and often seemingly contradictory) early history of the Batman and several related characters
New details about Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, and other early JLAers
New details on the Titans and the JSA
A summary timeline is now included in the Introduction, just as in the Golden Age section
Expanded and corrected entries throughout, thanks to feedback from sharp-eyed readers!
In addition, navigational improvements have been made sitewide, mostly to avoid the possibility of a visitor landing on an internal page via a search engine, only to be stuck without access to the navigational frame or the other sections.

Sections I-III are Version 4.1 — updated on 9/18/2003. Improvements include:

New and reorganized entries on the Beginning of Time, including additional information on Lucifer and the First of the Fallen
New and reorganized entries on Ancient Egypt, including the latest events from JSA
Expanded entries on Arthurian England, including an explanation of Merlin’s contradictory history
The life history of Rá’s al Ghúl
Bruce Wayne’s ancestral family history
Expanded entries on Old West characters and events
New and corrected entries on the World War II era, including many recent “flashback” stories
New information on the postwar years, including background on Sgt. Rock and Deathstroke
...and the proverbial much, much more!

Previous version (4.0) — last comprehensive update 8/31/2001. (Versions 1-3 were hardcopy only.) This page last updated 01/31/2008.

Original contents ©2002-2006 Chris J. Miller. All characters and concepts referred to are ™ and/or ©DC Comics Inc., except where otherwise specified. This site is not authorized by DC Comics; it is a work of commentary and criticism, created for non-commercial purposes, and no infringement is intended or should be implied. Permission to reproduce material contained herein is granted provided this notice of authorship and copyright is included.