Rambling on GL placement in pre-post-Flashpoint continuity

[RonG]

Never gave much thought to this, mainly because I admittedly haven't read much of Johns' GL run, either Pre or Post Flashpoint. But I understand the issue - its the same one the Batman franchise faced after the New 52 with the Robins. 4 GL's in 5 years!

In GL's case I suppose it works a little better than it does with the Robins because they aren't kid sidekicks but members of an intergalactic police force who could be recruited fairly rapidly one after the other.

Hal could have been recruited 6 years ago (around the same time Superman and Batman started out). Guy and John could have been recruited 5 years ago. And Kyle around 2 years ago. It's far from ideal, but makes a hell of a lot more sense that Damien being 11 while Bruce became Batman only 6 years ago

This never bothered me somehow - now that I think about it, it IS similar to the Robins in New 52 Batman..

As far as the nuances of continuity went, I dunno. Did the New 52 run refer to stuff like Emerald Twilight? When Hal met Zero Hour era Parallax did he recall being Parallax himself?

The destruction of Coast City is something that could still theoretically have happened in the New 52 I suppose.

As far as I recall, yes. In GL #50 New 52 Hal mentioned to Parallax that his Coast city was also destroyed and rebuilt.. I think he was also Parallax but not sure. Does bring to mind that if New 52 Hal was Parallax, he should be aware of what Parallax actually is (a-la GL Rebirth), which is something Zero Hour Hal/Parallax would not know and should... So why didn't Hal mention Parallax's true nature? It's not as if he wants to secure the timeline.. as this is a Parallax from another timeline.

In terms of the larger mechanics of these reboots, I think the Doomsday Clock explanation works best. Everytime there's some kind of reboot or reset, the history of Earth 0 changes but a 'backup' of the previous iteration is created somewhere out there in the Multiverse (or rather the Omniverse I suppose). That's pretty much in line with Convergence too...its where the Zero Hour era Parallax came from. And how Pre Flashpoint Superman and Lois (and Jon) first ended up on Earth 0 before they were folded in during Superman Reborn, restoring a great deal of Pre Flashpoint history in the process. In this case, the 'backup' was reinserted into/merged with the altered version, creating a new continuity that was a composite of the old and new versions.

Interesting thought.. not sure on the details, but an interesting one nonetheless

[j9ac9k]

As far as I recall, yes. In GL #50 New 52 Hal mentioned to Parallax that his Coast city was also destroyed and rebuilt.. I think he was also Parallax but not sure. Does bring to mind that if New 52 Hal was Parallax, he should be aware of what Parallax actually is (a-la GL Rebirth), which is something Zero Hour Hal/Parallax would not know and should... So why didn't Hal mention Parallax's true nature? It's not as if he wants to secure the timeline.. as this is a Parallax from another timeline.

That's just a creative choice on the writer's part. It wasn't the story he wanted to tell. Even if it made sense for Hal to tell him, Parallax could've just dismissed it (he was pretty crazy at the time after all and under Parallax's influence) so it would've been a waste of space. Also, there wasn't a lot of time for talking in that encounter and it's not like Hal knew who or when/what that Parallax even was.

[bat39]

Interesting thought.. not sure on the details, but an interesting one nonetheless

I think its an elegant solution that integrates both major approaches to DC continuity - a Multiverse of different worlds representing each era/continuity, and one world which keeps getting rebooted. It posits one world that keeps getting rebooted, but in the process spawns other worlds which allows those previous eras to still exist somewhere out there as distinct entities.

It allows the current Earth 0 Superman to be the same guy from Action Comics # 1, albeit rebooted multiple times, but it also explains the separate existence of the Earth 2 Superman - Kal-L - and how he represents more 'accurately' the guy from Action Comics # 1.

[D.Z]

Parallax was from the Pre Zero Hour timeline.

Nu52 Hal was also Parallax and many other similar events (becoming the Spectre) happened too in his own compressed 5 year timeline.

We didn't actually see every iteration of multiple "reboot" worlds spawned off in Doomsday Clock. Also Metaverse is the core reality, someday it won't be Earth 0.

New Earth and Earth 0 are the same world. Just not fully in sense of timeline. And never will be. It's time to move on.