Jason Todd Robin New 52 Green Lantern Fan Art
I've talked previously about the unwieldy nature of the New-52 timeline, just today I want to attempt and suss out some specifics.
There wouldn't be as much of an issue -- and mayhap none at all -- if every character'south history had been allowed to reset. However, stating specifically that the Batman and Light-green Lantern families both came through the relaunch relatively unchanged, even as Superman, the Flash, the Teen Titans, and the Justice League generally each got new ancestry, was just request for trouble. However, the question and so becomes how much of Batman and GL backstory has become crucial to the present agreement of those characters?
* * *
Nosotros begin with Batman. Pre-relaunch, Batman had congenital upwardly a small army of proteges and assembly over the course of a long career. In fact, said career spans at least 10 years, considering Damian Wayne was x years old when he met Bruce Wayne, and his mom (Talia al Ghul) simply sought out Bruce considering her father had figured out he was Batman. Factoring in Dick Grayson's age (between 18 and xx, depending on when you think 1987's Batman: Son of the Demon falls in the timeline), and adding a few years for Dick's early on Robin career and Bruce'southward solo debut (accounts vary) gives u.s.a. a crude thought of how many years Batman's been operating.
With all that in heed, here are some of the milestones of Batman's pre-relaunch career.
-- "Year One": Bruce returns to Gotham and Batman meets Jim Gordon. Around this time he also meets Superman, Wonder Woman, et al., and helps form the Justice League.
-- Dick's parents are murdered (with the Drake family watching). Batman and Robin take down Boss Zucco.
-- The 1950s, reimagined: in and around more mundane exploits, the Dynamic Duo take a series of weird adventures later set down in Bruce's Black Casebook. Batman and Robin join the international Club of Heroes. Inspired past Batman, circus star Kathy Kane becomes Batwoman.
-- Robin, Child Flash, and Aqualad team up with Speedy and Wonder Girl to form the Teen Titans. Barbara Gordon becomes Batgirl.
-- Dick goes to higher. Bruce and Alfred move out of Wayne Manor, establishing a new Batcave downtown.
-- Ra'due south al Ghul enlists Batman's help in finding the kidnapped Robin and Talia, and reveals his ultimate plans for Batman and Talia.
-- The original Teen Titans break up (as it happens, just before Bruce and Silver St. Cloud do).
-- Batman discovers Zatanna has brainwashed Dr. Low-cal, so Zatanna alters his memories.
-- Frustrated with higher and wanting independence, Dick leaves Hudson University. Not long afterwards, Raven recruits Robin into a new Teen Titans.
-- Batman quits the Justice League and forms the Outsiders.
-- Robin'southward dealings with the grim Vigilante, and the Teen Titans' teamup with the Outsiders, requite Dick a new perspective on his human relationship with Bruce.
-- Bruce and Alfred motion back to Wayne Estate.
-- Later Robin is shot during a fight with the Joker, Dick decides to quit as Batman's sidekick. When the other Titans are captured by Deathstroke and Terra, Dick becomes Nightwing to rescue them.
-- Jason Todd becomes Robin Ii.
-- Batman rejoins the Justice League. Dick and Bruce reconcile.
-- Bruce and Talia excogitate Damian Wayne.
-- The Joker shoots Barbara, paralyzing her; and murders Robin II shortly thereafter. Barbara becomes the anonymous, all-seeing Oracle.
-- Debut of Huntress (Helena Bertinelli).
-- Noticing the changes in Batman (and the lack of Robin), and having put together that Robin was once a Flying Grayson, Tim Drake sells Batman and Nightwing on the thought that he could exist the 3rd Robin.
-- Batman meets Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael.
-- "Knightfall" /"Knightquest": Bane breaks Batman'due south back. Jean-Paul Valley takes over as Batman Two. Robin goes solo while Bruce recuperates.
-- "KnightsEnd": Robin and Nightwing help a recovered Bruce have back the Batman identity. Nightwing so poses as Batman briefly while Bruce finishes recuperating.
-- Debut of Spoiler (Stephanie Brown).
-- Nightwing leaves the Titans for Bludhaven.
-- Oracle and Black Canary get the Birds Of Prey.
-- Large Bat-crossovers, 1997-2004, include "Contagion," "Legacy," "No Man's State," "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" and "War Games."
-- Cassandra Cain becomes Batgirl II.
-- Batman learns well-nigh Zatanna'due south mindwipe and creates Blood brother Eye.
-- Stephanie Dark-brown substitutes for Tim as Robin Iv.
-- Jason Todd returns from the dead equally the Ruby-red Hood.
-- Infinite Crunch /52: Batman decides to exist mellow, and takes a year off to observe himself. Kate Kane becomes Batwoman 2.
-- Talia brings x-yr-one-time Damian to Gotham. Batman squares off against Dr. Hurt, and Darkseid hurls him dorsum through time.
-- Musical chairs during Bruce's absence: Dick becomes Batman Iii, Tim becomes Red Robin, Damian becomes Robin V, and Stephanie becomes Batgirl Three.
-- Upon Bruce'due south return, he sets upwards Batman Incorporated, based loosely on the Guild of Heroes.
While that seems like a lot of detail, I call back it hits almost of the high points. There'southward not a lot to cut out, either, except for the Teen Titans' role in Dick's development. Ane could fence that Batman's 52-related journeying of discovery could be rendered largely moot past its very resolution: if the New-52 Batman was never that grim, he never would accept needed to have the yr off (and the New-52 timeline wouldn't have given him the year anyhow). The New-52 OMAC may also have erased Batman'south role in Blood brother Eye's origin, and from there the whole "mindwipe" subplot may similarly fall away.
This sort of where-did-the-knot-go? streamlining is perhaps a bit unfair to those of us who followed those storylines as they unfolded, but for purposes of compressing decades of comics into "five years" of comic-book time, information technology may actually be close to DC's intention. We'll get into that a niggling more than subsequently.
Generally, the Batman timeline comes together in terms of characters and relationships, not events. The intertitle crossovers of the late '90s and early on '00s each involved catastrophic situations which were eventually reset, from the killer virus of "Contamination" and "Legacy" to the devastating "No Man'due south Country" and the more personal "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" Even Stephanie Dark-brown'south death (as one of "State of war Games'" big consequences) was explained abroad (after much fan outcry, but still). The issue-based debuts of new characters, like Cassandra Cain in "NML" and Batwoman II in 52, don't necessarily depend on the substance of those events. Therefore, if y'all tin can get around compressing all the Robins' collective histories into a little less than five years' time, the rest can blur together somewhat.
To be sure, there are good reasons for allowing each Robin to take a longer, more than pregnant tenure; and virtually of them have to do with the special relationship -- not similar that! -- betwixt Batman and his number-i protege. While "Robin" can exist an internship, it should center more than around the unique bond forged by each sidekick's item circumstances. Only hey, if that's what you want, internship tin work. Thus, under the New-52 Batman timeline, perhaps Dick became Robin sometime in Year One, followed past Jason in Year Three, Tim in Yr Four, and Damian in Year Five. We also know Barbara was shot in Year Three, and just recently healed. (Since everything started "5 years agone," I'grand guessing we're currently in Year Half-dozen.) We tin tweak that a little -- Jason at the outset of Year 3 and Tim at yr'southward end, maybe -- to reflect the proportions of their pre-relaunch careers, but there's not a lot of wiggle room.
* * *
Nosotros can analyze the Green Lantern timeline similarly, since the GL setup encourages the introduction of new characters. Moreover -- and only to be blunt -- not a lot of substance happens to Hal Hashemite kingdom of jordan for much of the 1960s. Oh sure, he leaves Ferris Shipping for a series of mundane jobs (toy salesman, insurance agent, truck commuter), just none of those have much bearing on his GL duties. Even Guy Gardner's debut happens in the context of a what-if story, where Guy never actually gets the ring.
Here, and so, are my GL bullet points:
-- Hal is recruited by Abin Sur. He soon meets the Guardians and various other Lanterns; and joins the Justice League.
-- A Guardian "introduces" Hal to Guy Gardner.
-- Hal, Green Arrow, and the Guardian called the "Old-Timer" begin their cross-land soul-searching. This may be where Hal's susceptibility to Parallax starts.
-- When Guy is injured, John Stewart becomes Hal's deputy.
-- Guy comes dorsum briefly, simply Sinestro puts him in a blackout.
-- Subsequently Hal spends too much time protecting Ferris Air, the Guardians exile Hal from Earth for a year.
-- Shortly afterward Hal comes back, he quits the Corps in favor of Carol Ferris. John becomes Sector 2814's primary GL.
-- Crunch On Space Earths : Guy comes out of his coma, the Anti-Monitor attacks Oa and kills several Guardians, and one faction of Guardians reactivates Guy and Hal.
-- The Guardians and Zamarons leave this dimension to spawn. A group of Lanterns relocates (with Hal and John) to Earth.
-- The Manhunters (the Guardians' old agents) strike at Earth's super-folk, trying to destroy the superpowered "New Guardians."
-- The GL Corps is reduced to four (Hal, John, Guy, and Ch'p) after the Key Ability Battery is destroyed.
-- Hal sports grey temples. Hal, John, and Guy stop the Old-Timer from kidnapping the Earth cities he visited. The Guardians return and restore the GL Corps. John stays on Oa to oversee the "Mosaic" communities.
-- Mongul destroys Coast City. Hal helps Superman finish Mongul. Hal then goes nuts, killing the Guardians and several GLs before giving in to Parallax.
-- Kyle Rayner becomes the terminal GL. Guy becomes Warrior. John becomes a Darkstar.
-- Goose egg 60 minutes : Parallax tries to restart time. During a later battle between Hal and Kyle, Oa is destroyed.
-- The Concluding Night : Parallax sacrifices himself to restart the Sun.
-- A younger, time-lost Hal teams up with Kyle for a short while, but of grade Parallax puts a end to that. Kyle is left with a power ring which can make other ability rings.
-- Day of Judgment : Hal (nevertheless expressionless) becomes the Spectre's new host.
-- Light-green Lantern Legacy: The Last Will And Testament Of Hal Jordan : Using a unique power ring, Tom Kalmaku rebuilds Oa. Soon afterwards (GL vol. three #150), Kyle expends his recently-caused Ion power to refuel the Key Ability Battery and bring dorsum the Guardians.
-- Green Lantern: Rebirth : Hal is revived, Parallax is defeated, and Hal, Guy, and John become GLs again.
At this point we are into Geoff Johns' run as GL author, so I'thou assuming everything from Rebirth forwards is still mostly valid. This includes the Rainbow Lanterns, Blackest Nighttime, and "State of war of the Green Lanterns."
Looking at the timeline, it'southward clear that the phase had been set up for a new Light-green Lantern Corps, almost likely with Kyle equally headliner. From 1994 through 2002 (when Legacy and GL #150 were published), the proverbial world had been pretty well salted against the returns of either Hal Jordan or the Corps. Hal spent v years as Parallax and the next five as the Spectre, and Kyle's attempts to bring back the intergalactic Corps never really went anywhere. (However, he did brand Jade a GL briefly, and he brought John Stewart back to agile duty.) Therefore, when Johns took over Dark-green Lantern, his real job was in sorting out Hal's complicated journey from deranged ex-GL to omnipotent agent of God, and literally bringing him downwardly to Earth.
Still, in the interests of compressing and streamlining Hal's history, it may brand a certain amount of sense just to eliminate Hal's Spectre career. The Spectre does effigy significantly in Hal's restoration (helping separate Hal's soul from Parallax's influence), but depending on the Spectre's status in the New-52 cosmology, some other means (a concluding outburst of Ion-power?) might also do the trick.
Too, Johns used a few longstanding DC characters in his GL epics, including the Cyborg Superman (as the Manhunters' new leader), the Anti-Monitor (every bit the Sinestro Corps' "Guardian"), and Superboy-Prime (equally a super-powerful Sinestro Corpsman). Each of these characters comes from other Big DC Events -- "Reign of the Supermen," Crisis, and Infinite Crisis -- and so their continued presence in the New-52 timeline suggests that those events (or versions thereof) remain valid. By the aforementioned token, though, none of them appears essential to Johns' overall narrative, so it may exist relatively easy for the New-52 to forget virtually them. Personally, I suspect a New-52 retelling of Crisis On Infinite Earths would be particularly strange and artificial, merely that's speculation for another day.
Ironically, Greenish Lantern's continuity has get a victim of Geoff Johns' own vaunted plotting skills. With Rebirth, Johns very cleverly reworked Hal Jordan's convoluted fate(south) into pieces of a slowly-emerging puzzle which would eventually unlock the secrets of DC'southward universe. It remains a masterful performance of continuity gymnastics. Nevertheless, at the time it depended heavily on those existing story elements. If the New-52 relaunch has erased some of those, the larger narrative integrity of Johns' run starts to break down. I don't retrieve information technology'south cleaved irreparably, but it'll be instructive to acquire who'due south still around and who's never mentioned again.
Actually, the Anti-Monitor could go along to sponsor the Sinestro Corps, since he (and the Monitor) were originally associated with the moons of Qward and Oa. It could fifty-fifty be the case that the Crisis On Infinite (52?) Earths hasn't even so happened to the New-52 -- and wouldn't that be a nice crossover...?
I digress slightly, merely the bespeak remains: the Green Lantern timeline has go more dependent on Big Events (Crisis, Cypher Hour, Terminal Night, Infinite Crisis, and the various GL-axial arcs) than the Batman timeline. As such, it raises more than questions about the validity of those events in the New-52 chronology. I don't conceptualize these sorts of questions existence answered with any kind of specificity, then we may have to encounter what remains by implication.
* * *
When I started thinking about this postal service, I was reminded of all the characters DC revised in the late '80s, following Crisis On Space Earths. Hawkman may be the most infamous of these, since a whole new graphic symbol had to be invented (shades of the Doombots!) to explain a big chunk of "his" appearances. Yet, I continue coming dorsum to Jason Todd, conceived originally as a rather obvious update of Dick Grayson, right down to the murdered-aerialist parents. Jason spent the improve part of three years as a fixture of Batman and Detective, which in those days were interconnected in "biweekly storytelling" fashion. Readers got to know Jason -- who wasn't every bit obnoxious every bit his revamped version, but who was comparatively more than bland -- and got to see him develop relationships with Bruce, Alfred, and Dick. (Jason showed upwardly in a few issues of New Teen Titans every bit well.) Regardless, when the combination of Frank Miller's Night Knight and "Batman: Yr 1" prepare the phase for a grittier Batman, the more than beneficial Jason went away. While Batman and Robin'south pre-COIE adventures probably notwithstanding held together in terms of plot, Jason'south changes altered those relationships to diverse degrees.
Allowing the Batman and Green Lantern books to "continue their histories," while the rest of the New-52 has its collective slate wiped, strikes me every bit the inverse of Jason'south situation. Simply as re-reading the early Jason Todd stories in light of his personal revamp forces one to reconsider them, re-reading something similar "The Sinestro Corps State of war" invites a similar, additional layer of analysis. All the same, reading current issues of Dark-green Lantern or Batman offers some distance from the pre-relaunch stories, considering they are presented equally "of the moment." They will probably likewise hold up in isolation (i.e., if y'all but re-read Johns' GL), because as far as those titles are concerned, the New-52 relaunch had fiddling, if any, effect.
Where this really hurts DC is in its attempts to cultivate a seamless superhero universe across multiple unrelated titles, and (I doubtable) particularly when those titles are collected. Yous can't go from Infinite Crisis to "Sinestro Corps," Blackest Nighttime, and the current Indigo Tribe storyline without adjusting your expectations at to the lowest degree slightly about the players. I'1000 even wondering about the status of a certain villain from the pre-relaunch Detective Comics suddenly showing upwardly in 1 of the New-52 Bat-books.
I do believe that the New-52 titles are still well-suited to telling accessible stories which utilize continuity effectively. Fifty-fifty the compressed timeline may turn out to exist elegantly uncomplicated. Yet, watching information technology unfold has not been birthday shine. All the highlights of Batman and GL history may now fit into five years, simply losing the details is giving me a fleck of a headache.
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