BATMAN and DC Comics in Chronological Order (before New 52):
Above is a Timeline representing the EVENTs oV – BATMAN’s life in Chronological Order. The Continuity remains (or seems) linear up until Crisis on Infinite Earths, which kicks off in Batman year 9. The result of Crisis on Infinite Earths (wherein we find out there are already infinite earths) is New Earth, in which most of the characters carry on about their lives, not remembering many Pre-Crisis events, except for Psycho Pirate, Animal Man (see The Invisibles by Grant Morrison: Ethos of the Demiurge, Part One), Alexander Luthor of pre-Crisis Earth-Three, Superboy of Earth Prime, and Kal-L and Lois Lane of pre-Crisis Earth-Two. Thus the EVENTS oV – Batman year 10 – 16 take place in New Earth.
In Infinite Crisis, Alexander Luthor begins creating new worlds and restoring the Multi-Verse, however his plans get spoiled and the entire reality is essentially restored back to the New Earth paradigm. This continues up until FLASHPOINT in Batman year 26, which results in the creation of the New 52.
What I find most gratifying in the reconstruction of this continuity is the realization of layered EVENTS and stories that are likely missed when comprehending BATMAN’s story as a whole. For example, BATMAN’s alleged paranoia emphasized in Tower of Babel might be more easily understood within the context that within the three years prior to this EVENT, when BATMAN was likely constructing his contingency plans for the JLA, was right after coming back from a broken back at the hands of Bane (see Knightfall), being forced to recover his mantle from Azrael (who betrayed his trust), all the while dealing with Anarky, the EVENTS of Contagion, while literally living in No Man’s Land, following the earthquake in Cataclysm. Or the fact that while the Green Arrow and company are running around, trying to cover up their Guantanamo style lobotomy of Dr. Light in response to Meltzer’s “assault” (see Identity Crisis) BATMAN was supposedly MIA because he was fighting Hush (attempting to steal his identity) in Gotham City… all leading to the War Games EVENTS, culminating in the reveal oV – the Red Hood (see Under the Red Hood) at the cusp of Infinite Crisis!
This is what is so gratifying about maintaining Continuity (oV’WITCh exists as an amalgamation oV – 4D “symbolic” planes (or ideas) projected and transcribed upon 2D surfaces. The “entanglements” between characters are the 4th Dimension, creating a “sense of time,” ref. The Invisibles by Grant Morrison: Ethos of the Demiurge, Part One), which the New 52 attempted to throw out their ferrari’s window after FLASHPOINT.
More on New 52 to come!
This Timeline traces the Events of the Batman Mythos entire … as actual Events within the Mythos and Consciousness of the Collective.
The New 52 represented a total brand reset of all of DC’s characters and their storylines. However, why a “reset” such as this doesn’t really work and feels unsatisfactory is due to the nature of memory. A simple reset does not erase memories from the Collective Consciousness, for they are etched through Time via Quantum Entanglement. When any story is referenced to a specific year in the careers of any of these superheroes, as far as memory and association go, the stories are amalgamated into previous storylines automatically. The audience doesn’t so simply forget past Events they were Witness to. That’s why the 52 concept didn’t entirely work. But what it did do is create something much more interesting. And that’s what this Timeline represents.
What the 52 concept actually did is create Bardo Interstates in which these characters effectively live in as parallel realities to the Events that previously did occur in the Collective Mindscape (or Idea Space as Alan Moore would put it). They are essentially additional branches off the original trunk of the Tree. And while DC pre-FLASHPOINT viewed these “discrepancies” as errors in continuity, a holistic view of Space and Time offers a different perspective – for in actual Space and Time, every possibility in consciousness is explored. Every decision leads to an Event. Each Event causes a splinter line out from the original or “historical” timeline – what we contemporarily view as the narrative, which is one of the fundamental human errors in interpreting our Reality.
Reality does NOT follow a narrative structure. You’ve only been conditioned to believe it does according to an ancient human addiction to narrative. And despite what you’ve been told or taught, there is no beginning, middle, and end… there is only NOW. There will only ever be NOW.
So how do we understand Events and Time within a Quantum Now? And how does this change how we can tell stories?
You’ve inevitably been faced with several big decisions in your life – many of which seemed incredibly difficult due to the idea of impending consequences from those decisions and how that would essentially change the “narrative structure” of your life. In order to illustrate this for you further, let’s select “the decision on whether or not to go to college” as one of these fundamental choices common in contemporary life.
When facing most big decisions, most of us project our consciousness outward into the possibilities inherent through the imagined Events that “might” play out. When contemplating going to college, one may visualize their self going to classes, spending long hours in the library, falling in love, going to parties, etc. When contemplating not going to college, one may visualize themselves traveling the world, hitting the workforce immediately, staying at home where they feel secure, etc. Usually these Events focus in on one specific moment… one freezeframe… where every detail is filled in… from the smells to the fashion to the feeling in the atmosphere. The details flesh out so entirely, that there feels like there is an inevitability built into the Event – and is usually accompanied by a strong emotion, such as fear, desire, lust, love, excitement, etc. This is actually this moment the consciousness enters Event Horizon, and the actual decision is made, despite the deliberation and “hard thought” that may be put into it afterwards.
What is truly interesting, despite what Event is chosen or not chosen, both decisions will be made by a version of your SELF, which will experience the entirety of those various Events, throughout every possible avenue of their expression. The experience that you “live through,” is actually a single possibility holographically projected into the 5th Dimension…