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 6-6-10 - Teen Titans, Justice Society, Huntress, Crisis on Multiple Earths

Admittedly not a great amount of reading order updates to the DC Universe Trade Paperback Timeline this weekend, but some we hope you find interesting. In addition to adding some Blackest Night crossover titles (it's getting to be that time!) and Teen Titan spotlight trades, I've added a bit to our Pre-Crisis section.

Again, the goal of the Pre-Crisis section is to note the collections of solely pre-Crisis material (not pre- and post-Crisis material, which would go in the timeline proper) that's still referenced in the modern DC Universe, and to point out those pre-Crisis stories we think contribute to a good understanding of modern-day DC Comics.

Among others today, we've updated trades concerned the Earth-2 Power Girl and the Earth-2 Huntress. Infinite Crisis included both mentions of the modern Power Girl's past Earth-2 life, and also such events as the death of the Earth-2 Batman; these items on the timeline should help readers sort those out.

Thanks for all the well-wishes. There's more updates coming soon!

Update 2-21-10

Added a couple new books to the timeline today, including Mystery in Space and Rann/Thanagar: Holy War.

The most exciting addition, however, is a new table of contents section: Recommended Reading. While the DC TPB Timeline is mostly a post-Crisis endeavor (no sense organizing Golden Age Superman stories, for instance, which largely had no continuity), there are some books which were published pre-Crisis but are still referenced today and bear reading to understand current events -- the Jack Kirby's Fourth World omnibuses, or the Red Tornado stories from Crisis on Multiple Earths showing up in Brad Meltzer's Justice League of America. The "Recommended Reading" section is the place for these books, and I'll generally try to put them in order, too.

So, two questions:

1) Right now, I've placed "Recommended Reading" at the bottom of the list so as not to be distracting, but really those books are meant to be read before the "1986" books. Keep it at the bottom, or move it to the top?

2) I've wracked my brain for pre-Crisis collected stories that still affect the post-Crisis world, and here's what I've come up with so far. If you have moe suggestions, please leave your comments here. (Just realized I forgot Crisis on Infinite Earths itself. Oops! I'll add it soon.)

Thanks! And don't forget to drop by the Collected Editions blog this Wednesday, February 24, for our fifth anniversary bash!

Update 11-28-09

One unspoken rule of the timeline (now spoken) is that in general, numbered trades are presented on the timeline in order. That is, even though Green Lantern: Secret Origin (now added) technically takes place even prior to Legends, I've placed it after The Sinestro Corps War as it was published. This eliminates confusion caused by retroactive continuity, for one thing, and also for the most part keeps the various series in their linear order.

It's for this reason that Justice League of America: Second Coming now appears on the timeline after Final Crisis, even though the events of that book preceed it. Justice League: Sanctuary lead right in to Final Crisis; I've placed Justice League: Worlds Collide right after Second Coming, and since Worlds Collide does cross over with Final Crisis, events right themselves soon enough.

Also added some various titles in the Countdown to Final Crisis section.

When I paste the rather large timeline text file into the timeline Blogger post, my computer seems to "freeze" for a few minutes as the Blogger interface accepts the paste. Anyone also encounter this with large posts, or have any suggestions? The timeline is only going to get bigger.

Update 09-03-08

As I've posted over at the Collected Editions blog, I've just updated the DC Trade Paperback Timeline. This update completes most of our One Year Later work and delves into the first volume of Countdown. Among events referenced here are the creation of the Justice League and Green Arrow's proposal to Black Canary, before Amazons Attack deposits us firmly in Countdown-land.

[Countdown, Volume One spoilers follow.]

One tricky spot in the timeline is placing the Teen Titans: Titans East collection before Countdown, Volume One. Bart Allen appears in Titans East, and I wanted all of his "alive" appearances to come before his death; this necessitates Titans East before Countdown. However, Duela Dent's death, which happens mainly in Countdown, is also shown in Titans East; to place Titans East before Countdown "spoils" Duela's death.

Ultimately I decided that preserving the order of Bart Allen's appearances was more important than doing so for Duela Dent, and Titans East should come first. Titans East does a good job with Duela's death, showing it on-screen rather than just referencing it, and so I didn't think it took anything away from that scene to put Titans East before Countdown, whereas the same couldn't be said for the opposite. So there you go.

I'm also still sorting out Captain Boomerang's appearances between Checkmate, Outsiders, Flash, and Countdown. I'm not sure there's a way around Boomer's appearance in Flash spoiling that he leaves the Outsiders in Five of a Kind, but I'm still looking in to this.

As always, any corrections you may find are much appreciated.

Updates for 09-30-07

Added a bunch more One Year Later titles. Superman: Back in Action has turned out to be a good place to confirm timeline parts -- Firestorm, the Nuclear Man: Reborn, for instance, takes place before and after Back in Action, whereas Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis: Once and Future takes place before Back in Action, as does Flash: The Fastest Man Alive: Lightning in a Bottle. I also began to place the new Justice League of America series, as there's crossover with the new Martian Manhunter trade. The timeline is now complete with the Gotham Central trades, too.

DC Countdown and the TPB Timeline ...

No updates lately, mainly because I've finished reading the Infinite Crisis crossover trades and placed them on the timeline, but I haven't yet started reading the One Year Later trades. But I did briefly scan over the DC Comics MySpace Countdown preview issues, and I see that Countdown #50 apparently crosses over with Justice League of America #8 or #9. Not to mention the upcoming three-way Teen Titans, Amazons Attack, and Countdown crossovers--which is to say, when we finally get to the Countdown trades, there's going to be much fun to be had in timeline-land.

Stay patient--more timeline updates soon.

UPDATE: A little bit more on this over at The Roar of Comics.