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  1. #1
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    Default The History of the DC Universe, revised, updated & illustrated (August 2019)



    During my latest trip to limbo, I made the latest revisions, tweaks, and updates to my all-encompassing History of the DCU project. For those you aren't familiar with my little hobby, here's the lowdown:

    This is an attempt to incorporate all incarnations of the DCU's continuity (including the best elements from TV, cartoons, movies & more) into one history that spans the entirety of DC's established mythology. If you have any suggestions, corrections, or ideas to improve it, please let me know and I will incorporate them into future revisions.

    Prologue: The Dawn of Time to the Great Depression
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    The Golden Age
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    The Silver Age
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    The Bronze Age
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    The Dark Age
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    The Platinum Age
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    The Modern Age to the Potential Futures
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    Epilogue: How Time Works & Author's Notes
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

    Enjoy!
    Last edited by Bored at 3:00AM; 08-01-2019 at 06:47 AM.

  2. #2
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    I’ve made a new addition to the epilogue to explain how this continuity approaches the Pre-Crisis Multiverse, particularly the more Hypertime-ish conception of the Earth-1/Earth-2 divide.

  3. #3
    The Fastest Post Alive! Buried Alien's Avatar
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    Engrossing as always, Bored.

    Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)
    Buried Alien - THE FASTEST POST ALIVE!

    First CBR Appearance (Historical): November, 1996

    First CBR Appearance (Modern): April, 2014

  4. #4
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    I’ve updated the post-Rebirth Multiverse to include the Arkham & Injustice games. Anything else you think should be included?

  5. #5
    Ultimate Member babyblob's Avatar
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    THis is a really great project. Thanks for going through all the trouble to do this.
    This Post Contains No Artificial Intelligence. It Contains No Human Intelligence Either.

  6. #6
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tbaron View Post
    THis is a really great project. Thanks for going through all the trouble to do this.
    It's no trouble, really. I really dig this stuff, and I get to use it for my job, so I'm getting paid to do something I enjoy. Can't beat that

    Glad you're enjoying it. Do you have any suggestions to improve it? I'm always looking for things to tweak or change to make it better.

  7. #7
    Long Live the Legion! Paul Newell's Avatar
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    Amazing amount of work, Bored!

    But needs more Legion!
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  8. #8
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Newell View Post
    Amazing amount of work, Bored!

    But needs more Legion!
    Thanks!

    I'd like to expand the Legion section, but since I am no expert on LSH history and the team has undergone three or four distinct reboots, it makes piecing together a streamlined history that incorporates all the various incarnations a little difficult for me.

    Do you think you could summarize the history of the LSH for me in two or three paragraphs that would fit into this "everything happened/it all counts" continuity?

    I'm also a little hesitant to try to come up with a broad strokes history of the Legion given that they're about to be rebooted again...or is Bendis intending to have this new LSH be the descendants of the earlier teams? I seem to remember him mentioning that as the reason his book is set in the 32nd Century, so as not to invalidate the previous versions.
    Last edited by Bored at 3:00AM; 08-14-2019 at 02:22 AM.

  9. #9
    A Wearied Madness Vakanai's Avatar
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    While I'm not a fan of it "all happened" being DC's official continuity, I definitely love the fun fan project aspect of thinking about it like that and trying to make it work. Not sure if you want to use it or not, but I've done a similar thought exercise regarding the evolution of the Batsignal I might as well share. In Batman Earth One Volume Two Batman gives Gordon a cellphone with only one button on it. Batman even calls it his Batsignal, and in one of my favorite funny Bat-moments Gordon remarks that the button is even shaped like a bat.

    Then in one of the two part Dark Moon Rising books Gordon gets rid of a bat shaped walkie talkie looking device saying he can't have it on his person any more or something to that effect, and that he'll have to come up with another way to contact Batman. I can't remember if this was in Mad Monk or Monster Men, but I want to say it was in Monster Men. Don't qoute me on that though, need to reread those two books. Anyways not hard to imagine this batsignal walkie talkie phone or whatever being similar or the same to the phone to the Earth One phone.

    In Prey Gordon has an idea obviously when talking with Batman and seeing the shape his cowl makes in the lamplight. Personally in my fan head cannon I prefer to replace this with the scene from Batman Begins where the idea comes from seeing the shape Maroni makes after Batman ties him up to a spotlight. Anyways later on Gordon has a spotlight installed and uses a big cloth cutout bat he can fold up and hide to make it into a batsignal. If memory serves (fuzzy, again need to reread that story) that original spotlight gets destroyed at some point.

    Then later at some point the regular real Batsignal gets put in place.

    Went through a few continuities there, but if you squint it all kind of works as a logical progression leading up to the Batsignal. Special secret phone/walkie-talkie setup, Gordon deciding he can't have that on him and needing another way, making a makeshift signal that gets destroyed, and then installing a more permanent one when he comes more into power at the GCPD.

  10. #10
    Fantastic Member
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    Dear DC. You want a 'definite' timeline, May I present to you' Bored at 3am. Sorted!

  11. #11
    Long Live the Legion! Paul Newell's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bored at 3:00AM View Post
    Thanks!

    I'd like to expand the Legion section, but since I am no expert on LSH history and the team has undergone three or four distinct reboots, it makes piecing together a streamlined history that incorporates all the various incarnations a little difficult for me.

    Do you think you could summarize the history of the LSH for me in two or three paragraphs that would fit into this "everything happened/it all counts" continuity?

    I'm also a little hesitant to try to come up with a broad strokes history of the Legion given that they're about to be rebooted again...or is Bendis intending to have this new LSH be the descendants of the earlier teams? I seem to remember him mentioning that as the reason his book is set in the 32nd Century, so as not to invalidate the previous versions.
    I'll have a think about it, but I don't think it's possible as all four existing Legions are just too disparate. The last version and the original version are the closest and the easiest....They both are the sameish until the end of Magic Wars. But then they both diverge quite drastically. I think your way is much better. Acknowledge their existence and keep the future as simple as possible....Especially as you'll likely have to revise that bit again when Legion: Millennium comes out.
    DRINK!

  12. #12
    A Wearied Madness Vakanai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Franny6422 View Post
    Dear DC. You want a 'definite' timeline, May I present to you' Bored at 3am. Sorted!
    God no. While I like the idea of this as a fan project, I'd never want DC to attempt to make a huge freaking everything happened timeline again. Anything that big is just inviting a Crisis to simplify things by getting rid of a lot of things, and a lot of people are Crisised out as is...

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Newell View Post
    I'll have a think about it, but I don't think it's possible as all four existing Legions are just too disparate. The last version and the original version are the closest and the easiest....They both are the sameish until the end of Magic Wars. But then they both diverge quite drastically. I think your way is much better. Acknowledge their existence and keep the future as simple as possible....Especially as you'll likely have to revise that bit again when Legion: Millennium comes out.
    I don't think it's that hard. Admittedly I know very, very, very little about the Legion, but as they're from the future just write it off as each existing in their own alternate timeline in the multiverse. Multiverse simplifies a lot of things. Their should be no main continuity for the future really, I think everything beyond the "present" should be considered its own Earth effectively, but that's just me.

  13. #13
    Extraordinary Member Restingvoice's Avatar
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    Has anyone else refer to that period as The Platinum Age or just you for now?

  14. #14
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Restingvoice View Post
    Has anyone else refer to that period as The Platinum Age or just you for now?
    I am pretty sure I've heard someone else use The Platinum Age before. I have also heard The Chromium Age, but I thought Platinum Age was more appropriate

  15. #15
    Obsessed & Compelled Bored at 3:00AM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Franny6422 View Post
    Dear DC. You want a 'definite' timeline, May I present to you' Bored at 3am. Sorted!
    I appreciate it, but I don’t think my more Morrison-esque take on the DCU would ever be adopted as an official history because it's simply too vast and unwieldy, and it retains Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman as Golden Age characters (which DC will never do).

    This works fine as 'head canon' that fans are welcome to adopt as their own, but I suspect that the next incarnation of DCU continuity will be more of a broad strokes overview of the highlights of the past few decades, leaving the details deliberately vague in order to give creators and fans wiggle room to fill in the gaps however they want.

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