Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Update 4-28-10

I'm pleased to release another reading order update to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline. That makes two updates in April -- getting faster.

Two exciting bits on this update that I'm very happy about:

* This update marks the completion, near as I can tell, of the Superman trades in publication up to this point. Of course there's plenty of Superman collections about to be published (Superman: Codename Patriot, for one), but I believe I have every modern in-continuity Superman trade that's been released now on the timeline. This doesn't include books like Superman vs. Aliens or Superman: Kryptonite (which collects a semi-out-of-continuity Superman Classified story), the likes of which I'll deal with later. And of course, if you think there's a Superman collection I've missed, do be sure to let me know.

* Second, I've added the Hawkworld collection to the timeline, in the Early 1990s space that also saw Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds and a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths revision of Hal Jordan's origin in Emerald Dawn. For those not in the know, DC published a Hawkworld miniseries that revised Silver Age Hawkman Katar Hol's origin within the bounds of continuity, but then found the miniseries so popular that they decided to launch a new Hawkworld series starring that Katar Hol, but completely unconnected to the Katar Hol who had appeared since Crisis on Infinite Earths. The timeline now places Hawkworld in continuity and references collected appearances of Hawkwman that the Hawkworld title retroactively changed.

Again, don't forget to lend your support to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline on Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Comic Blips.

Now that Superman's done (and Green Lantern too, I think), what's the next title you'd like to see filled in?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Update 4-13-10

The DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline has a lot new since the last blog update (though eagle-eyed readers will notice changes even when I don't announce them here), including Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Birds of Prey, Gotham Central, and more.

One item of note this time around is Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds. This 1990s miniseries, collected in 2003, didn't have much to do with anything in the DC Universe at the time of its publication (Strange had been seen some years before in the Invasion crossover), but much later on the events of the miniseries would be referenced in Green Lantern and JLA. To that end, the collection belongs on the timeline; putting it near Green Lantern and JLA would put the miniseries with the rest of its story, but it wouldn't be true to the general timeline overall.

To that end, I've placed the Adam Strange collection in an open spot at about the time when the miniseries was published. One could choose to read it then, or later with its after-effects. Aquaman: Time and Tide has similar issues; the miniseries took place just before the new Aquaman series that crossed over into Zero Hour; it's not required reading and there are no other collections of that era's Aquaman series, but it occurred at that time, was collected, and gives a fuller picture of the DC Universe, so it's included.

Here's a mention of the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline on Reddit and on StumbleUpon.

There's still a bunch of books missing from the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline, but we are beginning to narrow the gap a bit. Anything that you're waiting eagerly to see added?