DC TPB Timeline Updates

Update 12-28-08

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Took advantage of a lazy Sunday today to update the Collected Editions DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline with the DC crossovers Millenium and Invasion, and a couple of their tie-ins. We have more updates coming soon, just as soon as we have time to enter them. Happy New Year!

Update 09-03-08

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:06:00 +0000

As I've posted over at the Collected Editions blog, I've just updated the DC Trade Paperback Timeline. This update completes most of our One Year Later work and delves into the first volume of Countdown. Among events referenced here are the creation of the Justice League and Green Arrow's proposal to Black Canary, before Amazons Attack deposits us firmly in Countdown-land.

[Countdown, Volume One spoilers follow.]

One tricky spot in the timeline is placing the Teen Titans: Titans East collection before Countdown, Volume One. Bart Allen appears in Titans East, and I wanted all of his "alive" appearances to come before his death; this necessitates Titans East before Countdown. However, Duela Dent's death, which happens mainly in Countdown, is also shown in Titans East; to place Titans East before Countdown "spoils" Duela's death.

Ultimately I decided that preserving the order of Bart Allen's appearances was more important than doing so for Duela Dent, and Titans East should come first. Titans East does a good job with Duela's death, showing it on-screen rather than just referencing it, and so I didn't think it took anything away from that scene to put Titans East before Countdown, whereas the same couldn't be said for the opposite. So there you go.

I'm also still sorting out Captain Boomerang's appearances between Checkmate, Outsiders, Flash, and Countdown. I'm not sure there's a way around Boomer's appearance in Flash spoiling that he leaves the Outsiders in Five of a Kind, but I'm still looking in to this.

As always, any corrections you may find are much appreciated.

Update 2-3-08

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:00:00 +0000

In case you were wondering, the DC Trade Paperback Timeline is still being updated. Added today a couple more Birds of Prey trades, a Blue Beetle trade, Justice Society, and more. I think I have a pretty good idea of how things go leading in to the early part of Countdown, and then how thing's shake out from there ... I'm going to try to keep the timeline more continuously updated this year.

Question of the day: Anybody got early issues of Robin lying around? I know Robin started during the uncollected KnightsQuest section of Knightfall--essentially, as DC has collected right now, the chronology is Knightfall 1, Knightfall 2, Robin: Flying Solo, and then Knightfall 3. But I'm trying to figure where Knightfall fits with the Death of Superman, and I distinctly remember a time where Robin was wearing a black Superman armband--can anyone tell me in what issue the armband might've appeared? Thanks!

Updates for 09-30-07

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:15:00 +0000

Added a bunch more One Year Later titles. Superman: Back in Action has turned out to be a good place to confirm timeline parts -- Firestorm, the Nuclear Man: Reborn, for instance, takes place before and after Back in Action, whereas Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis: Once and Future takes place before Back in Action, as does Flash: The Fastest Man Alive: Lightning in a Bottle. I also began to place the new Justice League of America series, as there's crossover with the new Martian Manhunter trade. The timeline is now complete with the Gotham Central trades, too.

Update 06-11-07

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:21:00 +0000

Been adding a bunch of One Year Later trades, which fortunately are fitting together better than I expected. There's a Checkmate thread running through a couple of these, while the Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Outsiders trades all intersect and cross-reference one another. Check it all out toward the bottom of the timeline.

DC Countdown and the TPB Timeline ...

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Sat, 12 May 2007 18:48:00 +0000

No updates lately, mainly because I've finished reading the Infinite Crisis crossover trades and placed them on the timeline, but I haven't yet started reading the One Year Later trades. But I did briefly scan over the DC Comics MySpace Countdown preview issues, and I see that Countdown #50 apparently crosses over with Justice League of America #8 or #9. Not to mention the upcoming three-way Teen Titans, Amazons Attack, and Countdown crossovers--which is to say, when we finally get to the Countdown trades, there's going to be much fun to be had in timeline-land.

Stay patient--more timeline updates soon.

UPDATE: A little bit more on this over at The Roar of Comics.

Update 04-07-07

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:31:00 +0000

All right ... did some major reorganizing of the Infinite Crisis trades on the trade paperback timeline into what I think is a pretty coherent order. The major benchmarks are essentially Infinite Crisis #1 (the destruction of the JLA Watchtower and aftermath), Infinite Crisis #4 (the destruction of Bludhaven and the first Superboy/Superboy-Prime fight), Infinite Crisis #5 (heroes appearing in multi-dimensional forms), and Infinite Crisis #6 (the death of Superboy), and I think I have everything pretty well ordered. (As mentioned before, the Superman trades, placed after Wonder Woman: Mission's End, get a little sticky, but otherwise it all looks OK.) I know there's still one or two I haven't put in order--Manhunter: Origins, for one, and then some of the trades that contain half-Infinite Crisis and half-One Year Later, like Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch--which'll come later.

Can anyone tell me the exact issue of Starman where Jack Knight reflects on having been involved in Young Justice: Sins of Youth?

Update 03-24-07

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 21:03:00 +0000

Added Batman: Under the Hood, Volume 2, and included more details about Donna Troy's appearances through the various Infinite Crisis crossover trades. Originally, my idea was to arrange the Infinite Crisis crossover trades in order of how they cross-over with Infinite Crisis--so, for instance, all the trades that deal with Bludhaven would be together, and all the trades that deal with issue #5's infinite Earths would be together ... unfortunately, it's just not working out that way--for instance, Batman: Under the Hood, Volume 2 crosses over with Infinite Crisis #4 and Superman: Infinite Crisis crosses over with Infinite Crisis #5, but the Superman trade has to be listed before the Batman trade because of revelations therein ... so it, too, is a puzzle. I'm still reading through the Infinite Crisis crossover trades, and then when I'm done, I may go back through and give the whole thing another look-over.

Update 03-19-07

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:53:00 +0000

Placed Wonder Woman: Mission's End and Superman: Strange Attractors. Mission's End is just as tough to place around Superman: Sacrifice as many of the Superman trades are at this time, but there's a surprise involving a Wonder Woman character that Sacrifice and Superman: Ruin Revealed spoil, so Mission's End comes first. Superman: Strange Attractors has so little continuity in it that it could be placed even before Infinite Crisis begins, except for Superman's appearance in the Amazon (the jungle, that is) that's found in Superman: The Journey. Tough timelining all around.

Update 02-22-07

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 04:17:00 +0000

Re-placed Superman: The Journey, Superman: Ruin Revealed, and Superman: Sacrifice to after Infinite Crisis. No easy shakes there. Superman: The Journey follows immediately on the heels of Superman: For Tomorrow, but essentially takes place at the same time as Ruin Revealed, and both are interrupted halfway through by Superman: Sacrifice. Even though The Journey starts before Sacrifice, a new villain is introduced in Sacrifice that shows up later in The Journey; and, Sacrifice could nearly be read before Ruin Revealed, except for one throwaway line in Sacrifice that spoils a big surprise in Ruin Revealed. To top it off, all the trades begin before Infinite Crisis, but end after Infinite Crisis #1. So it's a big mess, and the recommended reading order is far from perfect, but we hope will ultimately make the most sense and spoil the fewest surprises (all of the above should be read, of course, after The OMAC Project).

Welcome to the DC TPB Timeline Updates blog!

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 03:55:00 +0000

Welcome to the blog for the DC Trade Paperback Timeline, from Collected Editions. This blog will be updated whenever there's an update to the DC TPB Timeline, or when there's news pertaining to the timeline. To subscribe to the DC TPB Timeline Updates blog by RSS, follow this link, or subscribe by email with the handy sidebar form.