DC's "new" timeline revealed at NYCC

[Tzigone]

I only recently finished the current run of Golden Age Batman omnibuses. There's an issue with Robin's birthday where Batman counts to eight when he gives him his birthday spanking, and this is after he had been Robin for a bit. That does pretty clearly intend he started at age 7. Those issues occasionally referred back to past events and mentioned how many years had passed. WW2 was mentioned a lot, which does suggest those Earth 2 characters were aging in real time.
What confuses that is that the last omnibus out ended in 1951 so Robin had been active for around 11 years but still seems like a kid. If they were aging in real time Dick should've been 18 by that point. Bette Kane was brought in as a love interest in 1961 and they seem to be teenagers then. So I think at the least his aging was slowed down some.
That would put Earth 2 Robin in his fifties in Crisis on Infinite Earths when he looked to be maybe late thirties/early forties, maybe?

Right, the birthday issue - I don't think it meshes with the rest of the golden age and tend to write it off as a mistake/misjudgement, rather than using it as a benchmark. What issue was it (I'm sure it it was 8 years after he appeared, that would be noted already). As for aging real time, I only meant for the first few years (that's the argument I saw), not the entire golden age.

As for referencing years ago events without characters aging - I give you this, from 1977:
1977.jpg

Not really sure when they became unwilling to use real-time references, or even if this was just a one-off.

[Aahz]

Year 2: Death In The Family, Joker xxx , xxx up, Booster Gold joins JLI, xxx

Year 3: Killing Joke, Barbara Gordon paralyzed. Wally West xxx , xxx returns xxx, xxx

Year 4: Knightfall, Tim Drake debuts as Robin, Barbara Gordon xxx, Death of Superman, Reign of the Supermen, xxx , Blue Beetle xxx

That doesn't make much sense.
-Death In The Family happens after Killing Joke (they even refer to it in the story).
- A Lonely Place of Dying is set pretty soon after Death in the Family.
- Knight Fall happens quite some time after Tims debut as Robin ...

[DrNewGod]

I will say two things for this effort:

1. If imperfect, it's still an impressive attempt at being comprehensive
2. If DC imposes some discipline on authors, it offers a great opportunity to do Astro City-like stories across DC's history

That last is something on which DC really missed the boat after all of their reboots, with Legacies being their only real swipe at it. Such a line of stories might make for a good anthology if DC were to revive a title like Adventure Comics

[Stingo]

Any timeline that isn't a chronological release, compressed, will never quite "work". But I'm curious about this regardless. Insane arcane comic book timeline plotting is one of my favorite hobbies. Will this monstrosity ultimately be the only thing Doomsday Clock truly yields? That'd be something. Or maybe Snyder's Justice run and the finale with Perpetua will rejigger things to have a solid timeline for once. I dunno.

All I know is that the iconic JSAers shouldn't be stuck in World War II origin stories, they should simply always be depicted as veteran heroes, a few past their prime. Leave the WWII nonsense on Earth-2 where it belongs.

Respectfully agree to disagree on this one, K. Jones...A lot of JSA fans feel that the World War 2 setting is an essential part of who these characters are; forged in the fires of the late 1930s and early 40s.

[Zaresh]

In case anyone is interested in helping or commenting or whatever, here's the sheet for Generation 3 I've filled so far (I'm still adding stuff).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

RED are things I read but I'm not sure about.
GREEN are Bleeding Cool bits that I cannot read properly.
BLUE are bits from @restingvoice I cannot read properly.

Feel free to point mistakes or add your bits. I'll edit whatever.

EDIT: I'm done with my input.

[Tzigone]

A lot of JSA fans feel that the World War 2 setting is an essential part of who these characters are; forged in the fires of the late 1930s and early 40s.

I understand perceiving that essential. Not sure I agree - not for all of them (don't think it matters for Jay Garrick a bit, for example), but I do understand feeling that way. The only way it works keeping them in a perpetual WWII start is to put them off in the own world, and not let them progress past a certain point in time (say, when all their kids are 20-25?). Elsewise, they fall apart as time progresses, IMO. Because having them live on while their spouses, children, friends, etc. die off would also destroy an essential part of them, IMO - it would change their very nature to be the survivors, watching generation after generation die around them.

[NeonZ]

That doesn't make much sense.
-Death In The Family happens after Killing Joke (they even refer to it in the story).
- A Lonely Place of Dying is set pretty soon after Death in the Family.
- Knight Fall happens quite some time after Tims debut as Robin ...

The Knight Fall/Tim's debut one doesn't really matter. The way they're arranged in the actual graphic doesn't imply one happens after the other one, just that both are in the same year. The DitF and KJ reversal does seem weird though.

[Zaresh]

That doesn't make much sense.
-Death In The Family happens after Killing Joke (they even refer to it in the story).
- A Lonely Place of Dying is set pretty soon after Death in the Family.
- Knight Fall happens quite some time after Tims debut as Robin ...

They are clanging the order for the killing joke, it seems. Maybe they want Barbara to be Jason's Batgirl as well. Wouldn't surprise me, to be honest.
And it seems like they're also changing the time Batman was without a Robin slightly. That one, too, I could understand.

EDIT: I mean, that Dick was out of reach for both character's incidents could be pretty dramatic for the relationship between Dick and Bruce once he comes back.

[Frontier]

They are clanging the order for the killing joke, it seems. Maybe they want Barbara to be Jason's Batgirl as well. Wouldn't surprise me, to be honest.
And it seems like they're also changing the time Batman was without a Robin slightly. That one, too, I could understand.

EDIT: I mean, that Dick was out of reach for both character's incidents could be pretty dramatic for the relationship between Dick and Bruce once he comes back.

I think Barbara's Batgirl career at least extending into Jason's tenure as Robin has been a thing since the New 52. But now I guess she started closer to it, which...kind of reminds me of the Arkham games?

[Tzigone]

I think Barbara's Batgirl career at least extending into Jason's tenure as Robin has been a thing since the New 52. But now I guess she started closer to it, which...kind of reminds me of the Arkham games?

Extending into it has been a thing since the 1980s. She just wasn't being used that much back then, and they didn't interact on-page much (I can only think of once off the top of my head, but haven't read the pre-COIE Jason). But yeah, I do understand N52 to have amped it up. The only panel I saw was a reference to her finding him "no Dick Grayson" back then, and I didn't care for that (or Jason ever being interested in her - and the compressed ages bug me there, too). Haven't read much of Barbara or Dick N52 (and none before Rebirth), as there were several things done with the Batclan I disliked.

[Zaresh]

Extending into it has been a thing since the 1980s. She just wasn't being used that much back then, and they didn't interact on-page much (I can only think of once off the top of my head, but haven't read the pre-COIE Jason). But yeah, I do understand N52 to have amped it up. The only panel I saw was a reference to her finding him "no Dick Grayson" back then, and I didn't care for that (or Jason ever being interested in her - and the compressed ages bug me there, too). Haven't read much of Barbara or Dick N52 (and none before Rebirth), as there were several things done with the Batclan I disliked.

There was that "flashback*" issue/arc with them teaming up late in Jason's tenure. I think it was in Gotham Knights, but I'm not sure about.

I finished with the cart of Generation 3 above. I don't know what else fill; I surprised myself adding a few bits outside Batman or Flash, heh.

[BBally]

So we're stuck with Wally and Jor El being ruined and Clark not having any influence on Legion lore.

[Maxi]

Honestly this is the best thing that could have happened in DC since 2011.

These characters need a legacy, a history, a past. Who cares if it doesn't make scientific perfect sense, these are mythic characters. Continuity enriches stories. I'm glad that they're at least TRYING, making an effort. This is the DC I missed, the only that actually gave a sh#t, as opposed to the lazy "who cares about this stuff" way of thinking.

It's way more comprehensive that I thought it would be, they're pretty much bringing back everything with a few tweaks.

[Maxi]

So we're stuck with Wally and Jor El being ruined and Clark not having any influence on Legion lore.

Wally's tenure as The Flash is back into continuity. He's getting his history back.

[Tzigone]

Continuity enriches stories.

Good continuity does. Bad continuity (or continuity-in-name-only) not so much. I don't know yet whether this is good or bad or neutral. Neutral is if it's ignored, and we're still just where we started. I know they don't really intend for Batman to be 60 or whatnot, so I need to know how these generations work before I know for sure what I think. If they go the un-aging route on Clark and Lois is not part of his early adventures as Superman, that's a problem for me. And a status quo that I don't think will stick. But we don't know they'll do that. I'm not very fond of Diana as premiering when Clark was an infant. But, we'll have to see what happens and how they are have supposed to have met and what they do with her supporting characters (I notice Steve listed at her premiere). That matters to me, too - Diana not having a consistent supporting cast has hurt her, IMO. And with her leaving and returning at least a couple times, I guess they're trying to work in the different ones she's had. But I'm afraid it's going to result in Diana changing time-frames every time a new creative team shows up, and that's not good at all to me.