DC's "new" timeline revealed at NYCC

[bat39]

DC PRESENTS GENERATION ONE: AGE OF MYSTERIES



The Charge Towards DC’s Future Continues!

Series of Five One-Shot Comics Spotlight DC’s Super Hero Heritage, While Revealing Secrets that Will Shape its Future!

The path to DC’s future continues to unfold in Generation One: Age of Mysteries! On sale in May, Generation One: Age of Mysteries is the first of five oversized Prestige format one-shots, each detailing a different age in DC’s storied, super heroic legacy!

Generation One: Age of Mysteries follows DC’s Generation Zero: Gods Among Us, in stores on Free Comic Book Day 2020.

“The Generation series of specials are built to bring the new DC timeline to life,” said DC Publisher Dan DiDio. “With Generation One: Age of Mysteries and every subsequent volume we’ll be shining a spotlight on the 80-plus-year publishing history of the DC universe while charting the course for the bright future of DC’s characters. All of our greatest stories and events will create the backdrop and context for the great new adventures we have planned. Everything counts, and we guarantee there’ll be surprises along the way!”

Readers of Generation One: Age of Mysteries will witness firsthand major events from throughout the history of the DC universe as seen through the eyes of characters like Wonder Woman, Lucius Fox, Alfred Pennyworth, Green Lantern (Alan Scott), The Spectre (Jim Corrigan), Mister Terrific (Terry Sloane), and others. The series of one-shots will also expose secrets from DC’s history, such as:

- What was the previously undocumented “big bang” of the Age of Mysteries?
- Which character truly ushers in the dawn of Super Heroes, inspiring all the rest?
- What was the real reason behind the Justice Society of America’s retirement?
- Which Golden Age hero will become history’s greatest villain?
- What contentious alliance kept the Wayne family dynasty alive after Thomas and Martha’s deaths?
- Who are the new, never-seen-before wildcards that will be instrumental in fashioning DC’s push to the future?

These five books will have all the answers to these questions, setting up DC’s boldest storylines ever while laying the groundwork for more excitement to come. The five Generation issues will feature a who’s who of creative talent, with an overarching story by Brian Michael Bendis, Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt, Robert Venditti, and Joshua Williamson, illustrated by artists including Doug Mahnke, Bryan Hitch, Mikel Janín, Ivan Reis, David Marquez, and more.

Generation One: Age of Mysteries is scripted by Andy Schmidt, with lead art by Doug Mahnke. Each of DC’s Generation one-shots will feature a cover by Jim Cheung and a variant cover by Gary Frank. Generation Two: Age of the Metahuman, Generation Three: Age of Crisis, Generation Four: Age of Rebirth and Generation Five: Age of Tomorrow will follow monthly after Generation One: Age of Mysteries.

Source: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2020/0...e-of-mysteries

Really stoked about this!

Funnily enough, Marvel is planning something similar and when I read about it earlier this week, I couldn't but help wonder that it would be a good approach for DC to use the same kind of overarching generation-spanning story structure to explore their new timeline. And now...lo and behold!

Obviously, they're really delving into this question of who was the 'first' superhero - something debated a LOT on this forum but which has rarely ever been addressed in the stories themselves. The JSA retirement story is obviously being rewritten given how, in the new timeline, they apparently disbanded in the mid-50's rather than in 1951. The Golden Age hero who'll become history's greatest villain is an interesting one...Terry Sloane seems like a safe bet given that he had a similar role in Robinson's Earth 2, but I guess it could be Spectre. I wonder if the villainy in some way pertains to triggering the cycle of reboots and resets that Manhattan talked about in DDC.

The Wayne family dynasty bit interests me the most. Alfred and Lucius are part of this, so I have a feeling this might involve them. I wonder if this ties into the Court of Owls somehow.

On the subject of the miniseries names - Age of the Metahuman seems an odd choice for the Silver Age book, since 'metahuman' is more of a modern term that wasn't really used back then. All the other names fit their respective eras perfectly.

[Mr.B]

Marvels you mean?

[Vordan]

Marvels you mean?

History of the Marvel Universe by Mark Waid is what I suspect he means.

[Mr.B]

I thought he meant Marveks because the sliding timescale doesnt exist in that one.

[Frontier]

History of the Marvel Universe by Mark Waid is what I suspect he means.

This project could definitely use a Mark Waid type on the team. The closest is probably Williamson and Jurgens, Tynion to a lesser extent.

[Robanker]

The DCU could definitely use a Mark Waid type on the team.

I fixed it for you, old chum.

[king81992]

I wonder if the stories mentioned on the 5G timeline happened the way readers remembered them or if they'll be altered to accomodate the current timeline.

[Mr.B]

Certain stories will due to aging, adding in Jon where he wasn't before, few tweaks here and there.

[sifighter]

I’m assuming the timeline as it generally happened but with tweaks for the appearance of new characters, inserting Wildstorm characters into the history, aging some characters or at least showing characters age with the one-shots, and probably the build up for some of the replacement characters. Like I’m betting the Lucius Fox story mystery will have some lead into the Luke Fox Batman run.

[Frontier]

I fixed it for you, old chum.

I don't disagree at all .

I’m assuming the timeline as it generally happened but with tweaks for the appearance of new characters, inserting Wildstorm characters into the history, aging some characters or at least showing characters age with the one-shots, and probably the build up for some of the replacement characters. Like I’m betting the Lucius Fox story mystery will have some lead into the Luke Fox Batman run.

The evil Golden Ager might also play into 5G or one of the other Generations books.

I hope they don't turn one of the JSA into a villain.

[bat39]

I thought he meant Marveks because the sliding timescale doesnt exist in that one.

Yeah, I was referring to the new ongoing Marvels series that was recently announced.

I wonder if the stories mentioned on the 5G timeline happened the way readers remembered them or if they'll be altered to accomodate the current timeline.

Well...a lot depends on if the five generations are one continuous timeline, or if there is some kind of cosmic 'reboot' or timeline altering shenanigans at the end of each generation that changes things within the context of the story.

[Ascended]

I wonder if the stories mentioned on the 5G timeline happened the way readers remembered them or if they'll be altered to accomodate the current timeline.

There's going to have to be changes across the timeline, just to rectify differences in continuity. The Kents being dead for the original 50 years, then alive in 1986, stuff like that will have to change, or at least be adjusted and shifted to make some vague sense.

We don't get Superman or Batman in the Golden Age, they show up with the Silver Age crew, apparently. So yeah, there'll be changes. And even within a particular era/generation there's changes. I don't believe there was ever a story in the Golden Age about a hero turning evil, nor was there any "big bang" event (which I'm hoping means Milestone).

The question is not whether DC will change the history but how much they change. I'm intrigued by the idea of a continuity that (mostly) follows the real time publishing history, but if DC makes too many changes then it's not real time history anymore. And in the end, I'm only going to get books if they look interesting on their own merits. I'll be all over an old school Batman book, but it would take a small miracle for me to read about Luke Fox in the role.

[vasir12]

Which makes it nice that they're going to tell us what happened in multiple one shots per generation and not a couple splash pages.

[Lee]

Which makes it nice that they're going to tell us what happened in multiple one shots per generation and not a couple splash pages.

I thought it was one one-shot per generation?

[Digifiend]

It is. No idea where vasir got "multiple" from.