Update 2-17-12 - Final Pre-Flashpoint trades, Batman: Black Mirror, Brightest Day, Superman, Green Lantern, Knightfall

The big news, if you haven't already heard, is that the Collected Editions DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline reading order is now an ebook! The online timeline is great for when you're sitting at your computer, but for those times when you're on an airplane and really wish you could check where a book fits into the timeline (and trust me, this has happened to me!), the ebook is a great mobile, e-reader, or offline alternative to the original timeline. Check it out at Smashwords.

Today, the online DC TPB Timeline has been updated to match the ebook (except for the ebook-exclusive introduction by yours truly). Among the updates are a new, streamlined table of contents that more closely matches the history of the DC Universe (organized largely by events, though the timeline of course includes both crossover-related and "on their own" trades), which will make it easier to find what you're looking for and explore different eras on the timeline.

This new update also adds 40 books to the timeline, including all the final trades of the "old" DC Universe before the DC New 52 reboot (and those books are coming to the timeline, promise!). We have the conclusion of "Batman Reborn," including Batman: Black Mirror, Golden Dawn, Gates of Gotham, and Batman, Inc.; we've got Superman: Reign of Doomsday and all its tie-ins; we've got the conclusion of Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost; War of the Green Lanterns, Flashpoint, and much, much more. The timeline now organizes over 800 DC Comics collections

So go ahead, check out your best source for how to read the DC Universe in order -- the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline. And don't forget, for all your timeline needs on the go, we proudly welcome the DC TPB Timeline ebook to the family. Thanks!

Update 8-19-11 - Batman Reborn, Brightest Day, Flashpoint

The newest reading order update to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline brings to a close (for the most part) the "Batman Reborn" saga with Batman: Bruce Wayne -- The Road Home and the odd Red Robin: Hit List -- "odd" because that particular trade spans from before Time and the Batman to after Road Home, making for some rather tricky placement and reading. Details follow the book listing.

Also, by popular demand, all the Batman Confidential collections are now on the timeline. I resisted this like mad -- books like Batman Confidential and Legends of the Dark Knight aren't quite germane to the timeline necessarily -- but one very small throw-away line in the "Return" chapter of Batman and Robin Must Die brings Batman: Rules of Engagement into continuity, and thus Batman Confidential. Thank Grant Morrison, kids.

We have also shored up much of the early Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost reading order, including moving Green Lantern: Brightest Day way down the list, to after Batman: Road Home. For good measure, there's some Flashpoint books on the timeline now, and of course the gap between Brightest Day and Flashpoint will be filled in as we go.

Look too for my favorite stuff, some new additions to the early post-Crisis on Infinite Earths material, including some Swamp Thing, Justice League International, and Suicide Squad books.

Everyone who writes in -- your comments are read and appreciated. Now that the newest update is live, we will be replying to some of the recent comments soon -- and keep 'em coming! Remember, you can catch all the latest Collected Editions news and discussions on the comment feed, Facebook page, Twitter feed -- and now there's something special on Tumblr, too. See you in the comments section!

Update 4-9-11 - Brightest Day, Swamp Thing, Flash, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

Today, it's all about Brightest Day.

Well ... not all about Brightest Day, but pretty close. I have added a new "Brightest Day/Flashpoint" section to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline, and placed a whopping fourteen books in the inaugural round. There's more to come, but this will get you started with how Brightest Day connects to Green Lantern and REBELS, and how Flash leads in to Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and Wonder Woman, among others.

Other additions to the timeline include some entries from the Vertigo side of things: Saga of the Swamp Thing joins our "Pre-Crisis" reading list, as volume four contains a Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover; later on a volume of Swamp Thing will tie in to the Invasion crossover. I have also added the Kid Eternity miniseries since that character appears in Teen Titans and elsewhere.

A Blackest Night tie-in volume of Secret Six, War of the Supermen, Outsiders, Justice Society, Magog, and Question all round out today's update.

Keep those notes and letters coming -- we appreciate every one. Don't forget you can subscribe to the Collected Editions comments feed for all the latest chatter on the blog; friends of the Collected Editions Facebook page even heard about this timeline update early (though we love our Twitter followers, too). Thanks!

Update 3-1-11 - Batman: Long Halloween, Streets of Gotham, Gotham City Sirens, Arkham Reborn

Thanks to everyone who's been waiting so patiently for a reading order update to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline. I think the Bat-errific update has a lot of what you've been looking for.

First, Batman: The Long Halloween and its related books have finally made it to the timeline. Credit in no small part Tony Daniel's Batman: Life After Death -- some books have made vague references to Long Halloween before, but Daniel's is the first to completely summarize Long Halloween and Dark Victory's plots, and that brings those stories firmly into continuity.

I've placed them after Infinite Crisis, just before Batman: Face the Face, which itself makes a vague reference to Long Halloween. Why not just after Batman: Year One? Because, the way I conceive the timeline, you're reading these books the way they're meant to be understood, and Long Halloween, though it's set in the "Year One" era, is not a contemporary of Frank Miller's 1980s story. Dark Victory, for instance, specifically contradicts Batman: Prodigal and Robin: Year One for simple reasons, that Dark Victory wasn't written yet, so for the timeline I wouldn't recommend reading the Long Halloween books that early; that would just confuse things. But your results may vary.

The other item of note is that some major aspects of the "Batman Reborn" saga -- Streets of Gotham, Gotham City Sirens, the aforementioned Life After Death, and Batman: Arkham Reborn all now appear on the timeline. In short order the rest of "Batman Reborn" is on its way, mostly in line with what reviews you see on Collected Editions.

Other highlights include Ravager: Fresh Hell, Blue Beetle: Black and Blue, and some other minor gaps filled in.

Don't forget you can subscribe to the Collected Editions comments feed for all the latest chatter on the blog; there's also often timeline talk on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. See you around!

Update 12-17-10 - Lobo, Legion of Super-Heroes, Batman Reborn, Superman: New Krypton

To celebrate the 200th fan of the Collected Editions Facebook page, we have a new reading order update to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline.

I have had for a while a reader request to add some Lobo books to the timeline, but held off because many Lobo books, while enjoyable, aren't really tied in to DC Comics continuity -- Lobo: Highway to Hell, for instance, is just a one-off "imaginary" story, for instance.

But -- there is a great trade paperback out there if you can get your hands on it called Lobo's Greatest Hits, which includes a bunch of otherwise-uncollected issues of L.E.G.I.O.N. and Mister Miracle, so that definitely has a place on the timeline. Also, the Lobo: Portrait of a Bastich collection includes two Lobo miniseries that stemmed from the character's popularity in the early 1990s, so I've includes that as well.

In addition to updating the current Superman: New Krypton and Batman Reborn listings, including triangulating where the series come together in Sterling Gates's World's Finest miniseries, I have also found a place for DC's great new collections of older materials. I'm very excited to see DC collection such stories as the death of Aquaman's son and Trial of the Flash -- both pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths stories that are still in continuity today -- so I've found where those should go on the timeline along with the classic Infinity Inc. and Firestorm collections. I'm also thrilled that the stories of the pre-Crisis Legion of Super-Heroes that are now back in continuity post-Infinite Crisis, so I've begun building those into the timeline as well, starting with the vaunted Great Darkness Saga.

I appreciate corrections and suggestions as always, and thanks again to everyone who gives the DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline a mention on their own site or on message boards. More updates coming soon!

Update 7-14-10 - Batman, Manhunter, Hitman, Shadowpact

If you were watching the Collected Editions Twitter feed a couple Saturdays ago, you saw that we spend a day making major updates to the reading order of the DC Trade Paperback Timeline, including completing the listings for Batman, Manhunter, Hitman, Hawkgirl, Shadowpact, Brave and the Bold, and a number of other series.

Obviously there are new graphic novels coming out every week, but this latest update represents a milestone for the timeline -- to a great extent, the timeline is now completely caught up with all the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths and relevant pre-Crisis trade paperbacks that DC Comics has ever published. Consider that version 1.0 of the DC Trade Paperback Timeline is now complete.

We will leave the current update standing for a little while longer, and then we already have more to add to the timeline -- additional details for New Krypton, Batman Reborn, and Blackest Night (you caught Paul Hicks' great Blackest Night trade reading order, right?).

One item now being discussed at timeline headquarters is the addition of Sandman books to the DC TPB Timeline. Neil Gaiman's Death is soon to cameo in Action Comics, but also those characters have appeared in JLA and JSA, enough so that if you were following the timeline, you'd want to have read some Sandman before reading those DC stories (not to mention the loose Sandman Mystery Theatre/Starman crossover). And of course there's already a technically-Vertigo series on the timeline with Animal Man. So that's an item still to be considered.

Let me know if you see any books out of place, and happy reading!

Update 5-29-10 - Batman, Legends of the Dark Knight, Question, and Secret Origins

We have a bunch of exciting reading order updates to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline today, including all the Dennis O'Neil Question trade paperbacks, and a cool hard-to-find Secret Origins trade from 1989 that included an original O'Neil Batman story - how often would you find a trade with original content today?

And speaking of Batman, you'll notice a couple of Legends of the Dark Knight trades on the timeline, including Shaman and Venom. Legends causes some difficulty, of course, because the stories are sometimes out of or contradictory to continuity; but then again, Shaman is reflected in Secret Origins and Venom is reflected in Knightfall, so there's some value to these books. You'll slowly begin to see these added to the timeline around the times the stories that are collected were published, and I'll annotate where appropriate as to how the books connect.

Matt Wagner's Monster Men and Mad Monk now appear on the timeline, too, because they lead in to Ed Brubaker's Man Who Laughs, the collection of which also includes a modern-era Detective Comics story. In this way, things are fitting together nicely.

As you know, you can catch the timeline on Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Comic Blips. Thanks to everyone who's been spreading the word!

Update 5-15-10

Your favorite DC Comics reading order source just keeps moving forward. Last time we completed all the Superman collections on the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline; now we've got all the Wonder Woman collections and all the Catwoman collections, including some incidental trades with single issues you might have missed.

Another highlight is some reorganization of the Batman Reborn/Battle for the Cowl issues, especially in terms of how they intersect with Superman: New Krypton. I'm just starting in to reading Batman Reborn, Batman and Robin, Red Robin and the rest, so you can expect to see that section start to move, coming up.

The last update to the DC Comics TPB Timeline was just two weeks ago ... could we have another update even sooner? Stay tuned!

As always, be sure to lend your support to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline on Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Comic Blips. It's appreciated!

Update 11-15-09

Trying to use this sub-blog again to post when I've made updates to the DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline. Updates today include additional material post-Final Crisis -- Superman: New Krypton, Nightwing and Robin, and Teen Titans.

I'm also especially proud of an update to some of the early timeline listings -- Superman from Exile to The Death of Superman, and also the Batman trades that encompass the death of second Robin Jason Todd and the introduction of third Robin Tim Drake.

Update 06-11-07

Been adding a bunch of One Year Later trades, which fortunately are fitting together better than I expected. There's a Checkmate thread running through a couple of these, while the Batman, Robin, Nightwing, and Outsiders trades all intersect and cross-reference one another. Check it all out toward the bottom of the timeline.

Update 03-24-07

Added Batman: Under the Hood, Volume 2, and included more details about Donna Troy's appearances through the various Infinite Crisis crossover trades. Originally, my idea was to arrange the Infinite Crisis crossover trades in order of how they cross-over with Infinite Crisis--so, for instance, all the trades that deal with Bludhaven would be together, and all the trades that deal with issue #5's infinite Earths would be together ... unfortunately, it's just not working out that way--for instance, Batman: Under the Hood, Volume 2 crosses over with Infinite Crisis #4 and Superman: Infinite Crisis crosses over with Infinite Crisis #5, but the Superman trade has to be listed before the Batman trade because of revelations therein ... so it, too, is a puzzle. I'm still reading through the Infinite Crisis crossover trades, and then when I'm done, I may go back through and give the whole thing another look-over.