The Unofficial DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline Vol. 2

By Collected Editions

The second volume in the Unofficial DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline series is updated and expanded to include over 900 titles, including all the New 52 Volume 1s, making this the perfect guide for both new and established readers. The Timeline is your definitive guide for reading DC's library of collected editions in order, organized by DC Comics crossovers to offer a quick glance at the most significant events in the DC Universe as well as collections that readers might have missed. Copious notes help explain how the collections fit together. Whether a fan of DC's old continuity or new, the Trade Paperback Timeline is your map to navigating the DC universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Collected Editions
• Release date: May 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301863501

Collected Editions

Since 2005, Collected Editions has been the "wait for trade headquarters," one of the best-regarded blogs for discussions of reading comic books in collected trade paperback and hardcover format. Collected Editions features news, reviews, commentary, and the occasional scoop -- and now ebooks to help expand our readers understand the comic book industry and the various story universes. One popular feature of the Collected Editions site is the DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline, which seeks to organize all of DC's collected comics in their proper reading order; an expanded edition of the timeline was Collected Editions' first ebook.

Book preview

cover.png

The Unofficial DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline - Vol. 2

By Collected Editions

Copyright 2013 Collected Editions

Smashwords Edition

Read more from Collected Editions at

http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/

http://smashwords.com/profile/view/collectededitions

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Legends

Millennium

Invasion

The 1990s

Zero Hour

Underworld Unleashed

Final Night

DC One Million

Our Worlds at War/Joker's Last Laugh

The 2000s

Identity Crisis

Infinite Crisis

52/One Year Later

Countdown to Final Crisis

Final Crisis

Blackest Night

Brightest Day/Flashpoint

DC New 52

Pre-Crisis (Recommended Reading)

Introduction

In all the uncertainty that swelled from DC Comics's announcement of their line-wide New 52 relaunch, until the books actually arrived on the shelves, one thing that never concerned me was how the New 52 books would fit in with the DC Trade Paperback Timeline. Certainly what would or wouldn't remain in continuity wasn't clear (and perhaps still remains a little fuzzy), but this wouldn't be the first time drastic changes had been grafted on the timeline.

Consider, for example, the three different Superman origins that followed John Byrne's first post-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin, collected in Superman: Man of Steel Vol. 1. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Superman For All Seasons gave Lex Luthor new Smallville-esque origins that carried in to Loeb's run; Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright never quite earned mainstream acceptance, but its depictions of Krypton appeared in stories of that era; Geoff Johns revised the origins of Metallo and others in the Superman books even before the release of his Superman: Secret Origin. Each of these stories broke with what came before and revised DC continuity in their wake, and each of these mostly without the benefit of an event miniseries to smooth the transition.

Some readers have suggested moving these stories to the beginning of the timeline, such that someone following the timeline would read Man of Steel, For All Seasons, Birthright, and Secret Origins all together, and from there presumably continue to Byrne's Superman: Man of Steel Vol. 2. But this seems to me an uneven reading experience that requires the reader to add, subtract, and then add again later events in their memory to have a clean reading experience. I'd rather read Byrne's Man of Steel collections (seven and counting at the time of this writing with an eighth on the way) together alongside other books of their era, and then, when I get down to Loeb's run, read For All Seasons and the books it affects, and the same with Birthright and Secret Origin. Ultimately, if one had been reading all these books in single issues from the beginning, that's how it would have unfolded anyway.

It seemed natural to me therefore that I would simply place the New 52 books at the end of the timeline, as just another category. Right off, Justice League Vol. 1: Origin and Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Tomorrow revise what came before, but Batman Vol. 1: Court of Owls and Green Lantern Vol. 1: Sinestro simply continue from books like Batman: The Black Mirror and War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath respectively. I couldn't conscience starting the timeline with the New 52 books and then listing the post-Crisis books afterward; it would be a poor reading experience, in my opinion, to read how ever many years of New 52 Batman books we'll get, and only then at the end start into Batman: Year One and end with the launch of Batman, Incorporated; the end would be the beginning would be the end, and that'd be even more confusing than, for instance, trying to figure out now which heroes did and didn't appear in the New 52 iteration of Blackest Night (was Hal Jordan still the Spectre? Anyone?).

What turned out to be a larger challenge, or at least surprised me in working with the timeline after the launch of the New 52, was finding the right language to reference our newest new reality. Formerly the DC Trade Paperback Timeline had been largely a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths endeavor; to say that some of the Justice League's adventures pre-Crisis still remained valid post-Crisis (for instance, the death of Red Tornado) was simply to say that some of these adventures were still in continuity. Now, however, those events are in continuity post-Crisis but out of continuity ... post-Flashpoint?

That was a phrase I used a bit when I was first reviewing the New 52 collections, but at this point I prefer in the New 52. Perhaps because the last era never had a formal name, or because Crisis on Infinite Earths turned out to be such a seminal classic in-and-of-itself, "post-Crisis" came along and stuck. Flashpoint however becomes increasingly a footnote in the wake of the juggernaut that is the New 52 (though whatever you think of the first three-fourths of Flashpoint, I still love that last scene), and I think pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and in the New 52 will stick, at least until the universe is rebooted again.

Looking at all of the New 52 Vol. 1 books finally together is a fun experience. Though at the moment Pandora's role in all of it isn't clear, the books are anchored by her appearance in the first chapter of each (except one New 52 Vol. 1 trade where Pandora doesn't appear until the second chapter -- I'll let you find it for yourself). Even outside that they all take place at about the same time, Pandora's presence makes them feel all of a piece; the books feel like they have continuity even before the series really start.

Of course, there is a considerable amount of other connection between the New 52 Vol. 1 books -- perhaps a surprising amount, given that ostensibly the purpose of restarting the DC Universe was to clear the slates and let readers feel like there was less of a history they had to keep up with (not that I'm complaining). A character blows an alien horn in the first issue of Superman and Stormwatch investigates in the first issue of their book; then, fragments from an explosion at the end of the Stormwatch book crash back to Earth before the end of the Superman book (and also in Grifter) -- essentially a complete reading order is to go from Superman to Stormwatch and then back to Superman again. And there's plenty more where that came from.

Titles quickly buddied up. The Detective Comics