Timeline of the DC Universe

The DC Universe Timeline is a timeline of the major events in the fictional DC Universe. It represents fictional settings for most of the stories featured in DC Comics' publications. DC has published several official timelines with publications such as "History of the DC Universe." These timelines coincide with each other because they were published by DC Universe. Plotholes are common in the Golden Age of Comics throughout the Modern Age because of the concept of the Multiverse. The timeline represents fictional time in the Golden Age, Silver Age, and Modern Age of comics. Due to the "floating timeline" that is applied to events in the Modern Age, everything published in the past 5 decades are considered to have taken place in the present. Please note that DC has officially revised its universe's history several times, such as in the limited series "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (1985), "Zero Hour" (1994) and "Infinite Crisis" (2006) and events in the current continuity might no longer be the same as when they were originally published. All dates are approximate unless stated otherwise and all listings include the individual timelines of the DC Universe.

Creation / The Big Bang

There have been several "creation" stories for the DCU. The current theory (which has been repeatedly revisited, as noted below) was first shown in the Brainiac story in Action Comics #544 (June 1983).Fact|date=August 2008
*Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Anti-Monitor appears at the dawn of creation to undo the universe. The Spectre, backed up by superheroes, fights the Anti-Monitor and allows the universe to be created. [Crisis on Infinite Earths" #12, 1985.]
*Zero Hour: Parallax is defeated before time begins. The Spectre initiates the Big Bang through Damage. ["Zero Hour" #0, 1994]
*Our Worlds at War: Imperiex destroys the previous universe. He is sent back again with Brainiac 13, who helps recreate the Big Bang. ["Action Comics" #782]
*The current universe is created by (and in turn creates) The Source .

The Dawn of Time

*Superman and Waverider leave Doomsday at the end / beginning of time, where history loops over. ["Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey 1994]
*c. 20,000,000,000 B.C. – Dawn of Time
*c. 19,000,000,000 B.C. – The Endless appear into existence. They appear in order: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delight. ["The Sandman"]
*c. 18,000,000,000 B.C. – GodWorld is formed.
*c. 17,000,000,000 B.C. – Life begins to evolve on GodWorld.
*c. 15,000,000,000 B.C. – Humanoid beings on the GodWorld became known as the Old Gods and fought titanic wars.
**Imperiex is reborn in the new universe and begins his eons-long destiny of remaking the universe again.

Billions of years ago

*The GodWorld is destroyed in a great war caused by the Old Gods' greatest weapon, Mageddon. The gods are killed, and the "Godwave" is unleashed on the universe. This creates forces in the universe (such as the Speed Force and the Metagene) that allow certain superpowers to exist. It also gives birth to new gods on planets all around the universe, including Earth.
*Mageddon is imprisoned in a gravity sink on the outer curve of space-time.
*The remains of Godworld form the planets Apokolips and New Genesis.
*An experiment to witness the creation of the universe by Krona, a member of an immortal race of creatures from the planet Oa, creates the Multiverse and Anti-Matter Universe; his people decide to atone for this accident by becoming the Guardians of the Universe. ["52" Week #2, 2006]
*Many of the then existing cosmic entities meet to discuss the ways and means of the universe. There the first Despair convinces Rao to spark life on the planet Krypton, doomed at the onset, and suggests that he should let one Kryptonian survive, in order that he might despair at the loss of his home. [Sandman]
**c. 3,000,000,000 B.C. – The evolved Oans leave Maltus and split between the female Zamarons and the two male halves: the Guardians of the Universe and Controllers.
**The Guardians bind all the wild magic in the universe into the Starheart orb at the farthest reaches of space. ["52" Week #2, 2006]
**The Zamarons temporarily reside on the planet Korugar before moving on to Zamaron. The male Oans swear not to interfere with them as the killing of a male Korugarian by them or their agents can result in the destruction of the main Green Lantern power battery.
**The Guardians create the Manhunter androids to serve as their agents. However, they eventually rebel against their masters. ["52" Week #2, 2006]
**The Guardians replace the Manhunters with living agents, the Green Lantern Corps. ["52" Week #2, 2006]
**The Psions are created from genetically altered lizards by the Guardians.

Ancient Times

*Civilization begins on the planet Krypton.
*100 million years ago. – Armageddon 2001: Captain Atom travels through time in chase with Monarch. He also encounters Chronos.
*c. 50,000 YA
**Caveman Vandar Adg gains immortality from exposure to a strange meteor, setting him on the path to becoming the evil Vandal Savage. ["The Flash" #137]
*c. 30,000 YA
**Anthro, the first Cro-Magnon Man, is born. He becomes a leader among early humans. ["52" Week #2, 2006]
**The Guardians of the Universe accomplish mass genetic tampering with the Martian species, giving them a weakness of fire and making them shy away from being chaotic creatures. ["JLA"]
**A spaceship crashes into Earth, containing a Guardian of the Universe and a burning Martian. The Martian kills a tribe of Cro-Magnons and is later killed by Vandal Savage. ["JLA"]
*A plague wipes out most of the Martian race.
*A great civilization, rich in both magic and technology, forms on the continent of Atlantis.
*Many years after its formation, Atlantis sinks. Some cities survive underwater thanks to their protective domes. The surviving Atlanteans use magic and technology to change themselves into water-breathing forms, and continue to live under the sea, unknown to the rest of mankind.
*2600 BC Shazam gives power to Teth-Adam, a protectorate to watch over his lands while he is gone, who builds the first of the pyramids in Egypt, after which he speeds up civilization to rule it by killing the first of the pharaohs. Shazam only returns to banish Teth-Adam into another dimensional realm. Two Thanagarians crash on the planet. After their deaths the culture and technology is hidden and their civilization disappears.
*To protect the Amazons from persecution, the Greek gods transport them to the island of Themyscira, where they do not age.
*64 AD – Doctor Doome summons the Roman emperor Nero to battle the Seven Soldiers of Victory in 1942. Five tyrants from the past were summoned with his time machine. Nero captures Captain Atom. The alien civilization has settled on Earth waiting in disbelief for Monarch and their leader returning (Alpha Centurion joins the alien civilization and spends centuries with these aliens.
*6th century "Middle Ages."
** Merlin gives the Shining Knight, Sir Justin of the Round Table, magical equipment.
** Morgan le Fay destroys Camelot; Merlin and his half brother, the demon Etrigan, curse a man named Jason Blood into serving as Etrigan's host body. ("The Demon" #1)
*19th century The Age of Western Heroes: Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, Cinnamon, El Diablo, Scalphunter, Nighthawk, El Papagayo, Pistolera, Quentin Turnbull, Max Mercury, Pow Wow Smith, Super-Chief, Terra-Man, Tomahawk and the Trigger Twins. The Kent family appears.

20th Century

*October 30, 1938 : Coinciding with the panic caused by Orson Welles' infamous broadcast, Newspaper publisher Lee Travis, assisted by his Asian chauffeur Wing How, makes his debut as the Crimson Avenger, the first of the twentieth century's masked heroes.
*1939: Alan Scott discovers the Starheart and becomes Earth's first Green Lantern. ["Green Lantern: Secret Origins"]
*1940: The first superheroes debut; they soon form the first superhero team, the Justice Society of America.
*December 8, 1941: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings the U.S.A. into the second World War; America's heroes try to retaliate only to find that a spell cast by Hitler and the Dragon King (using the Spear of Destiny and the Holy Grail, respectively) causes magical and magic-sensitive people to fall under their control if they enter Nazi-held territory. This leaves most of the truly powerful heroes out of the War. A time travelling heroine from the future clad in Red, White & Blue arrives and is in pursuit of an entity called Dark Angel. She is Queen Hippolyte of the Amazons who has replaced her daughter as Wonder Woman. President Roosevelt then organizes all of America's superheroes into the All-Star Squadron, to protect the homefront. Normal people without special powers (such as Easy Company) fight the war, along with secret experimental soldiers like the Creature Commandos.
**Sgt. Frank Rock and the men of Easy Company appears, to battle against the Nazis.
*1951: The Justice Society of America disbands, after being subjected to McCarthyism. ("Adventure Comics" #466) Superhero activity declines (but doesn't totally disappear) afterwards. In response to this, the covert government organization Task Force X is formed to fill the gap left by the departing heroes.

Character origins

*c. "58 Years Ago"
**Krypton explodes. The Kryptonian scientist Jor-El manages to save his baby son, Kal-El by sending him to Earth in a prototype starship. The planet's remains become kryptonite.
*1968
**Nathaniel Christopher Adam, a United States Air Force airman in the Vietnam War, is sentenced to death; as an alternative to execution, he participates in a military experiment which Adam survives as alien metal melted into his body and the excess energy threw him forward in time.Fact|date=March 2008
*c. "38 Years Ago"
**A scientist, Dr. Saul Erdel, accidentally teleports J'onn J'onzz, the last living Martian, to Earth. He is secretly active for years, studying humanity and fighting crime under several false identities.
**Kal-El's spacecraft lands outside of Smallville, Jonathan and Martha Kent find him. They adopt him and name him Clark Kent. ["Action Comics" #850, 2007]
**Bruce Wayne is born to Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne in Gotham City.
**American lighthouse keeper Arthur Curry raises the son of exiled Princess Atlanna of Atlantis.
*c. "30 Years Ago"
**A mugger murders Thomas and Martha Wayne in what will come to be known as "Crime Alley" in Gotham City. Their son Bruce swears to fight a war on crime. [Flashback in "Detective Comics" #33, November, 1939] . The killer, Joe Chill is eventually caught. ["Infinite Crisis" #7] .
*c. "29 Years Ago"
**Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, yearns for a child and carves a statue of a little girl out of clay; her gods grant her wish by turning it into a real girl that she names Diana. ["Wonder Woman" vol. 2, #1]
*c. "24 Years Ago"
**Young, immature Oliver Queen is shipwrecked and trains, eventually becoming the Green Arrow upon his return to civilization ["Green Arrow Year One Annual: From the Beginning", "Green Arrow: Year One"]

*c. "22 Years Ago"
**Clark Kent starts using his powers to help others in secret.
**Bruce Wayne begins his training in a variety of disciplines.
**Princess Diana, being the only child on Themyscira is lonely. Amazon Sorceress Magala creates a "mystic twin" companion for Diana from a fragment of the young princess' soul which was subsequently kidnapped by an enemy of Hippolyta known as Dark Angel. Dark Angel places the twin in a state of suspended animation for years.

Modern Era of Heroes

Modern Era of Heroes: Year One

*Hollywood stuntman Buddy Baker receives the powers of Animal Man.
*Soldier of Fortune Rex Mason is transformed into Metamorpho, The Element Man.
*Barbara Gordon, age fifteen, becomes Batgirl. ["Batgirl: Year One"]

Modern Age of Heroes: Year Four

*Wally West graduates high school.
*Raven arrives and helps create the New Teen Titans: Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Changeling, Robin, Wonder Girl & Kid Flash.
*The wizard Shazam grants Fawcett City orphan Billy Batson the power of Captain Marvel. Dr. Sivana's bodyguard Theo Adam learns how to access the powers of his ancestor Theo-Adam to become Black Adam. ["The Power of Shazam!" (1994, graphic novel)]
*Batman quits the JLA to form his own team, the Outsiders.
*Hal Jordan is exiled into space by the Guardians of the Universe. John Stewart becomes the sole Green Lantern of Earth. ["Green Lantern: Secret Origins"]

Modern Era of Heroes: Year Eight

The Death of Superman

*The monster Doomsday defeats the entire Justice League and kills Superman in Metropolis. ["Superman" vol. 2, #75, 1992"]
*Superboy, Cyborg-Superman, The Eradicator and Steel emerge.
*Coast City is destroyed by Mongul and Cyborg-Superman.
*Superman is resurrected.
*The Parallax entity possesses Hal Jordan. ["Emerald Twilight", ""]
*Parallax ravages the Green Lantern Corps. He destroys the Central Power Battery and murders all the Guardians of the Universe save Ganthet. ["Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight"]
*Kyle Rayner becomes the last active Green Lantern. ["Green Lantern" #50]
*Batman suffers a broken back at the hands of Bane and is replaced by Jean-Paul Valley. ["Batman #497-500", 1993]
*Iris Allen returns from the future with Bart Allen.
*Geo-Force and the Outsiders are accused of killing the Queen of Markovia.
*Zero Hour: Parallax kills the Time Trapper and defeats Extant. The Golden Age Dr. Mid-Nite and Atom perish; the first Hourman, believed to be killed, is removed from the timeline and replaced by the third, android Hourman.
*The new Outsiders disband.
*Captain Marvel shares his powers with Billy Batson's sister Mary and their friend Freddy Freeman, resulting in the origins of Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and the Marvel Family ["The Power of Shazam! #4, #7]
*A new Teen Titans is formed to fight the H'San Natall invasion. The new roster: A newly de-aged Atom II, Argent, Joto, Risk and Prysm. Eventually Joto dies and Captain Marvel, Jr. joins the team. Shortly after defeating the invasion the team disbands.

Modern Era of Heroes: Year Eleven

One Year Later

*Superman [Superman #652, 2006] and Batman ["Batman #651"] return after being missing for nearly one year. Diana returns from her people to again take up the role of Wonder Woman.
*Superman rebuilds the Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic once again. ["Action Comics" #840]
*Bart Allen becomes The Flash [Bart first appeared in costume during Infinite Crisis, but became the Flash in "The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive" #2, 2006]
*Cyborg awakens, and Robin returns to lead the Teen Titans. ["Teen Titans" #33]
*The Justice League and Justice Society of America reform.
*Robin is officially adopted by Batman.
*A new Aquaman emerges.
*The Sinestro Corps forms. ["Green Lantern" #10, 2006] The newly reborn Anti-Monitor, Hank Henshaw, and Superman-Prime join as key members. ["Sinestro Corps Special #1, 2007]

Countdown to Final Crisis

*Queen Hippolyta (manipulated by Granny Goodness ["Amazons Attack" #6] ) is brought back to life by Circe and leads an attack on the United States of America. ["Amazons Attack" #1]
*Bart Allen is killed by the Rogues. ["The Flash - The Fastest Man Alive" #13,2007]
*Wally West returns from the Speed Force with the aid of The Legion of Super-Heroes. ["Justice League of America" #10, 2007]
*The Sinestro Corps War begins. ["Sinestro Corps War" #1, 2007]
**The Guardians of the Universe rewrite the Book of Oa to allow lethal force. ["Green Lantern" #23, 2007]
**The power of Ion is transferred to Daxamite, Sodam Yat. ["Green Lantern Corps" #17, 2007]
**Parallax is split into fours and imprisoned in the lanterns of Earth's Corps members. ["Green Lantern" #24, 2007]
**Superman-Prime is transported elsewhere in the Multiverse. ["Green Lantern" #25, 2007]
**Ganthet and Sayd join to create a new Corps powered by the blue light of hope. ["Green Lantern" #25, 2007]
**The Anti-Monitor is locked inside a giant power battery, signaling the start of the prophesied "Blackest Night." ["Green Lantern" #25, 2007]
**The Guardians of the Universe create the Alpha Lanterns. ["Green Lantern" #26, 2008]
**Atrocitus begins recruiting for the Red Lantern Corps. ["Green Lantern" #28, 2008]
*A Monitor, Jason Todd, Donna Troy, and Kyle Rayner travel through the Multiverse to find Ray Palmer. ["Countdown Presents The Search For Ray Palmer" #1, 2007]
*Monarch and his cohort, Forerunner, search the Multiverse recruiting an army to stop the Monitors. ["Countdown: Arena" #1, 2007]
*Booster Gold joins forces with Rip Hunter to correct temporal anomalies throughout the DC Universe. ["Booster Gold" #1, 2007]
*Lex Luthor, The Joker, and Cheetah reform the Injustice League Unlimited and are consequently defeated by the Justice League of America. ["Justice League of America: Wedding Special" #1, 2007]
*Starman unintentionally opens a dimensional rift and accidentally pulls Superman from Earth-22 into the mainstream DC Universe. ["Justice Society of America" #9, 2007]
*Justice Society meets the reborn Gog of the Third World. ["Justice Society of America" #15, 2008]
*Ray Palmer is found on Earth-51. Monarch's army and the Monitors wage war here. Superman-Prime resurfaces and causes Monarch to explode, destroying the entire universe.
*Talia al Ghul reveals the result of her forced affair with Batman; Damian. Ra's al Ghul returns to life. ["The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul #4, 2007]
*The Challengers and Ray Palmer return to the mainstream DC Universe.
*Almost all the DC supervillains are gathered and shipped to a presumably peaceful planet under Darkseid's reign. ["Salvation Run" #1, 2007] Martian Manhunter's disguise as Blockbuster is uncovered and the villains trap him on the planet when they escape. ["Salvation Run" #7, 2008]
*All of the New Gods except for Orion and Darkseid are killed by The Source. [Death of the New Gods, 2008] Orion destroys Darkseid on Earth. ["Countdown to Final Crisis" #2, 2008]
*Ray Palmer, Donna Troy, and Kyle Rayner threaten to police the Monitors, solving "Who Monitors the Monitors?" ["Countdown to Final Crisis" #1, 2008]
*Spoiler returns and reveals herself to Robin as having survived the events of the . ["Robin" #174, 2008]
*Booster Gold and his sister, Goldstar, form the Time Masters. ["Booster Gold" #1,000,000, 2008]

Final Crisis

*Black Hand disappears, leaving victims in his wake. ["DC Universe:" #0, 2008]
*Libra, equipped with the Crime Bible, returns seeking to breathe new life into the recently disassembled Secret Society of Super Villains. ["DC Universe:" #0, 2008; "Justice League of America" #21, 2008]
*Orion is murdered. Dan Turpin investigates his death and stumbles upon the Dark Side Club. ["Final Crisis" #1, 2008]
*Libra murders Martian Manhunter. ["Final Crisis: Requiem" 2008]
*The Monitors exile Nix Uotan of Earth-51 to a mortal existence on New-Earth. ["Final Crisis" #1, 2008]
*Hal Jordan is accused of attempting to murder John Stewart and is transported back to Oa. ["Final Crisis" #2, 2008]
*Granny Goodness captures Batman and others to recreate the New Gods with the Anti-Life Equation. ["Final Crisis" #2, 2008]
*Barry Allen recruits Jay Garrick and Wally West into the Speed Force to stop Orion's death when all failure. ["Final Crisis" #2, 2008]
*The Rogues refuse to join Libra's coalition. ["Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge" #1, 2008]
*Alan Scott and Oracle institute Article X to form an army of superhumans to combat Darkseid's advances. ["Final Crisis" #3, 2008]
*The Anti-Life Equation is released onto the Internet and, aided by an infected Wonder Woman, Earth falls under Darkseid's reign. ["Final Crisis" #3, 2008]
*Barry Allen and Wally West return from the Speed Force. ["Final Crisis" #3, 2008]

For more major events that take place within this time period, see Major Events of the DC Universe.

Future

*25th Century Booster Gold, Skeets, and Professor Zoom come from this era. ["Infinite Crisis" #2, 2005]
*c. 2800 AC: Bizarro-Brainiac enlarges McMurdo City, which becomes Big City. ["Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes" #20, 2006]

Legion of Super-Heroes

*c. 3000 AC: Legion of Super Heroes is formed. [Legion of Super-Heroes #1, 2005]
**Barry Allen lives during this era, following his murder trial and before his death in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. ["The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive" #2, 2006]
**The Legion is officially sponsored by United Planets.
**Death of Dream Girl.
**Supergirl arrives from the past following the Zeta Beam accident after Infinite Crisis. ["Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes" #16, 2006]
**Bart Allen is born. ["The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive" #2, 2006]
**Owen Mercer is born.issue
*c. 64th Century AC: Magic and Science have become one and the criminal Abra kadabra is exiled to the 20th Century where he again takes up a life of crime.
*64th century: Brainiac 13's home time.

Alternate and possible future events

As of "Infinite Crisis", these future events are unconfirmed.
* c. 2020 Superman returned from ten year retirement to stop those new generation heroes from corrupting current society and possibly start an apocalypse.
* 2030 Monarch reigns for 20 years on Earth and the being Waverider is born. He uses the Timestream to change the future.
* c.2030 The son of Donna Troy torned Lord Chaos, an oppressor king of world. The Monarch will create the Team Titans.
*853rd century Solaris destroys thousands of Superhumans and with the aid of Supermen, Justice Legion Alpha save the solar system. An android Hourman escapes to the past.

*The Great Disaster. Jack Kirby's Fourth World presented a scenario known as The Great Disaster, which destroys human civilization sometime between the 20th and 30th centuries. Infinite Crisis and Countdown have contained a number of implicit and explicit references to the event, and that it may come to pass in the near future.

*Future Earth A.D. (After Disaster)- the world is ruled by evolved animals with intelligence, Kamandi is the last human on Earth.

The End of Time

* The Legion of Super-Heroes' enemy, the Time Trapper, lives at the end of time. The universe begins to collapse as it is consumed by entropy.
* Krona tries to look past this time to view the beginning of the universe, only to unleash entropy on the early universe wiping out countless lives. Doomsday is sent here, consumed by entropy, and later escapes.
* Epoch the Lord of Time goes to the year 1 billion and creates the Timepoint.
* 100,000,000,000 A.D – The universe finally ends. Mister E and Timothy Hunter visit here briefly. Destiny closes his book and dies, and Death sends Mr. E and Tim Hunter back. Death figuratively closes shop on the universe. ("The Books of Magic")
* The universe loops back to the beginning. It is the job of Imperiex to end and recreate the DC Universe.

References

External links

* [http://dcu.smartmemes.com/ The Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe]
* [http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/docs/pre20thcentury.html Chronology of the Pre-20th Century DC Universe]
* [http://www.dcuytb.com/ The DC Universe: Yesterday, Today and Beyond]