Originally Posted by
Dataweaver
I just did some number crunching to see how the sliding timeline should look. Here's what I came up with:
The timeline for the Robins puts some fairly strict constraints on the sliding timeline: Morrison retroactively placed Damian's conception in the Bronze Age during Batman's earliest encounters with R'as Al Ghul (originally in 1971), which means that the start of the Bronze Age should be about 14 years before Rebirth (where Damian is seen celebrating his 13th birthday); and if Damian is 14 during Dark Crisis, that means that it's only been a year between Rebirth and Dark Crisis. If we stick with the idea that Damian was 10 when he was introduced to his father (2006), that puts 2006 as three years before Rebirth.
A Lonely Place of Dying (the story that introduced Tim Drake in 1989) puts Dick's debut as Robin ten years earlier (Tim was 3 when the Graysons died, and 13 when ALPoD began). Tim was 19 or 20 just before Flashpoint physically de-aged him; so if it's only been a couple of years since Flashpoint, Dick's debut as Robin would have to be about 18 years ago. If that was in fact “Batman Year Three” (as per the eponymous 1989 story arc that retold his origin), then Bruce's debut as Batman would be about 20 years ago.
Note, though, that the 1970s had Dick Grayson having gone away to college, which would mean that he was at least 18 when Damian was born. Unfortunately, this only works if we say that Dick was 14 when he became Robin; and that's considerably older than I'd like. Maybe retcon that to him bring a 16-year-old prodigy in college, or going away to boarding school instead of college, allowing him to be as young as 12 when he became Robin. I just don't see any way to make him younger without requiring Tim to have been younger, too; and having him remember the event when he was just three years old is already pushing it.
On the other end, Tim was at least 18, possibly 19 or even 20, by the time that the Flashpoint hit. That means that Flashpoint had to be very recent; I'd place it about a year before Rebirth.
Finally, Jason Todd was introduced in 1983, which on this timeline would be between 8 and 14 years ago; and closer to 14 than to 8. He died in 1988, which translates to 8 years ago: Tim was introduced almost immediately after his death (I'd say within three months on the sliding scale). In Batman: Hush (2003), he's physically mature: at least 18 years old. If we call that six years ago, and say that 1983 was twelve years ago, then he was around 12 years old when he became Robin and is around 24 years old now.
So:
2022 (Dark Crisis) is now.
2016 (Rebirth) was one year ago.
2011 (Flashpoint) was two years ago.
2006 (Batman and Son) was four years ago.
2093 (Hush) was six years ago.
1989 (ALPoD) was eight years ago.
1983 (Jason's debut as Robin) was twelve years ago.
1971 (Ra's Al Ghul) was fourteen years ago.
1940 (Dick's debut as Robin) was eighteen years ago.
1939 (Batman's debut) was twenty years ago.
From there, we can start filling in some other dates. I'd place Superman's debut as 20 years ago, the same as Batman's: technically, Superman should come first; but the difference can be a matter of months. Barry's debut in Showcase #4 (1956) should follow Dick's debut as Robin; but not by much: I'd put that as 17 years ago. That means that everything from 1956 to 1971 on the sliding timeline happened over a three-year period, from seventeen years ago to fourteen years ago. Infinite Crisis was followed by a one-year jump forward, and Batman and Son happened almost immediately after that; so Infinite Crisis would have to be five years ago.
That would mean that Zero Hour would have to be about six or seven years ago, and the Crisis on Infinite Earths would have to be closer to eight than to fourteen years ago; I'd put it at ten years, just to make it a nice round number.
Publication dates: sliding timeline.
1938–1939: 20 years ago.
1940: 18 years ago.
1958–1963: 17 years ago.
1971: 14 years ago.
1983: 12 years ago.
1985: 10 years ago.
1988–1989: 8 years ago.
1995: 7 years ago.
2003: 6 years ago.
2005: 5 years ago.
2006: 4 years ago.
2011: 2 years ago.
2016: 1 year ago.
2022: now.
This just barely works with the “31 years ago” and “13 years ago” dates given in JSA #1, if you assume that Bruce was 10 when the Waynes were murdered and 21 in Year One. That would make him 41 now. Meanwhile, Dick would be 30 now; Jason would be 24 now; Tim would be 21 now; and Damian would be 14 now. And the “13 years ago” wouldn't be Batman Year One; it would be an adventure Catwoman had in the Bronze Age, around the same time Damian was being conceived.
Note that these publication dates only refer to events that were taking place “now” when they were published: the adventures of Superboy, for example, were explicitly set “in the past”, and would take place closer to “25 to 30 years ago” on the sliding timeline. Also, this excludes anything that was considered to be “Earth 2” before the Crisis on Infinite Earths; that's mostly treated as 20th century stuff with publication dates matching the actual event dates, with the exception of Earth 2 Batman stuff that's inserted into the future of the sliding timeline.
Earth 2 Superman stuff either doesn't exist or is retroactively inserted into the sliding timeline, on the basis that the post-Crisis Superman has incorporated a key element of the Earth 2 Superman's story (his marriage to Lois), and that an older version of the mainstream Superman could easily become even more like Earth 2 Superman. Note also that Iron Munro was retroactively added to the 1940s as a Golden Age Superman substitute; even the concept for the character was drawn from a pulp-era character (Arn Munro) who had striking similarities to Superman. He's since developed a history of his own; but it wouldn't be too hard to incorporate early Earth 2 Superman material (specifically, stuff from before he developed the power of flight) into Munro's early history.
Note that Jon Kent's post-“Superman Reborn” timeline doesn't fit without pushing the Death of Superman to before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. My recommendation is to embrace his original history: Lois and Clark went missing two years ago during a visit to Gotham City, and reappeared a little under a year ago with a nine year old son in tow and a crazy story about having been trapped on another Earth (i.e., Earth 52) for ten years. If that's not doable, the best alternative I can come up with is to move the wedding of Lois and Clark back to the time of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and say that Jon was two years old at the time of the Death of Superman. It's disruptive; but nowhere near as disruptive as pushing the Death of Superman out of sync with everyone else's timelines (e.g., Hal Jordan and Young Justice).
Finally: looking at the history of the Teen Titans as a test, was have their original run (1964 to 1972) happening “16 years ago” to ”14 years ago”, with a brief revival in 1976 (13 years ago?). The New Teen Titans were launched in 1980 (13 years ago?) and ran until 1996 (7 years ago). There was a brief post-ZH team (1996–1998; still 7 years ago) before Young Justice took over, concurrently with a new Titans team (1998–2003: 6 to 7 years ago). We then got Johns' relaunch of the Teen Titans (2003–2011: 2 to 6 years ago). History is fuzzy for about a year or two after that (most of the New 52 stuff is now Earth 52 stuff, and how much of it happened on the new sliding timeline is an open question), with Titans Academy having only very recently opened.