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BATMAN AND THE ART OF CONTINUITY MAINTENANCE
The Real Batman Chronology Project tracks the narrative continuity of DC Comics via the lens of Batman, plotting each of his appearances into detailed timelines. To the average comic book reader or non-reader, simple questions arise: “Doesn’t one just read the comics in the order they are published? Why does there need to be a project dedicated to ordering comics? And if it is so difficult to figure out a reading order, surely there must be a lot of similar projects online, right?” Ultimately, we get to the bigger question: “Why is my site necessary?”
These questions (which I will answer, don’t worry!) speak to something broader than just Batman (we’ll get to Batman in a minute, don’t worry!)—they speak to the complexity of superhero comics in general. Beyond the already layered intricacy of writing and reading sequential art, the very nature of superhero comics is unique compared to other forms of media. When you read (or create) serialized superhero comic book narratives, you are engaging in a perceptive (or creative) process that is quite unlike any other. My site, using Batman as a primary case study, serves to analyze and catalogue this phenomenon.
The unique narrative complexity of superhero comics consists primarily of a few key things. First, superhero universes exist in comics as a vast collections of interconnected serialized fiction—authored by hundreds of different people, including writers, pencilers, colorists, inkers, letterers, editors, publishers, and more—over the span of decades. Beyond this (and because of this), much of the superhero genre is open to reader interpretation—and authorial interpretation of previous authorship. Every Wednesday, dozens of titles come out continuing the story from the previous week’s batch of titles. And all of these titles–week to week, month to month, and so on—tell an ongoing über-story in which the events and characters of said titles all exist in the same shared world, directly influencing each other. (To show how many ongoing titles are released, we can look at a mainstream comic shop selection of Diamond monopoly-distributed publications from a random Wednesday in 2015: Dark Horse put out 10 comics, DC put out 25, IDW put out 10, Image put out 15, Marvel put out 20, and various indie companies combined to put out 30. An article from The Atlantic notes that, as of May 2017, “Marvel publishes around 75 ongoing [monthly] series, along with miniseries and single-issue specials. DC, for comparison, […] publishes around 50 [monthly] ongoing series.”) That’s a lot of material, and DC and Marvel[1] don’t tell you in what order to read them or how to organize them. Now, to be clear, the Big Two (Marvel and DC) do publish trade paperbacks and their issues are all numbered and can be read in some sort of an order. But when it comes to stitching every title together to make the über-story that tells the whole tale, that is not a task that either company really gets bogged down in. If we look solely at DC, for example, we are talking about literally hundreds of creators working together to create a “shared universe”—essentially one single unified story. How can all these titles (and creators) possibly exist and function cohesively? How can there be a coherent story, both visually and narratively? Holistically, the comics form a puzzle and it’s how the pieces fit together that really interests me.
But why Batman? Why is he so important? Well, he’s not just an awesome character. He’s quite popular, in case you didn’t know—he shows up in almost every DC title at some point or another. Batman is the primary lens through which DC Comics has been able to tell a consistent narrative for the past 75 years-plus. Technically, in the DC Universe, everything kind of revolves around the Holy Trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman—but the Dark Knight of Gotham City seems to be prominently featured a tad more than the others. Therefore, sticking with Batman appearances allows for the easiest opportunity to determine passage of time, character age, where events occur, where things need to be rearranged, how things come together, or how things fail to come together for the entire DC Universe. Of course, a ton of variables have to be considered and the process gets complicated. This is the reason why there are so few attempts at what I’ve done. The few attempts that exist—in niche areas of the Internet and in a few rare books—have either been quickly abandoned or left incomplete. Because Batman’s past is so richly complicated, it has not been successfully evaluated and analyzed from the narratological perspective of serial-continuity. I’m sort of a masochist for continuing my project with such diligence! But I do so because of a desire to prove certain theses: one, continuity equals congruity (meaning that, contrary to what a lot of folks think, continuity isn’t supposed to over-complicate or make texts feel exclusive—it actually helps us understand narrative more easily); two, serialized multi-authored narratives utilize truly unique forms of storytelling; and, three, a cohesive superhero universe is the result of a collaborative interpretive process undertaken by both creators and readers alike. To verify this list, my foundational focus has always revolved heavily around respect for the concept of fictional canon and knowledge of DC’s line-wide reboots. It is because of this dual focus that the Real Batman Chronology Project has been so successful and has remained the preeminent source of comic book continuity information on the Internet.
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Please click on the following link to continue reading the next part: FICTIONAL CANON: WHAT COUNTS?.
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ABOUT THE SITE CREATOR/PROJECT MANAGER:
Collin Colsher, the creator of The Real Batman Chronology Project and disCONTINUITY, is a writer, filmmaker, teacher, and comic book historian that currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He has lectured at various universities, libraries, and book fairs. Collin has also served on the jury for the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, which is sponsored by the US Library of Congress.
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- [1]COLLIN COLSHER: I should clarify, when I say “DC” I refer to the corporate beast that is “DC the company.” Same goes for “Marvel.” Without Warner Bros, Disney, and other conglomerates, our favorite characters and stories would not exist in the forms they do today. Is this good? Is this bad? It’s a complicated issue that only increases in complexity as you peel back the layers. We cannot deny that Big Business has a long-documented tradition of screwing over some creators, writers, and artists. Likewise, corporate-owned comic companies have a history of throwing their weight around to extend copyright as well. Don’t even get me started on the gross monopoly of the Diamond Comics distribution model. Ethics in the comic book “industry” isn’t something that I will tackle with regularity on this site, but it should never stray too far from our minds as consumers and fans. All superhero comics, including Batman books, are the products of many different creative minds, but it is the conservative or neoliberal committee of corporate bigwigs, publishers, and editors that control the characters and the worlds in which they live—even if most of the time the committee has contributed little or nothing towards either. Thus, from a narratological perspective, strong continuity or innovative story development are tough things to achieve in the capitalist money-driven market. It’s a sad state of affairs, and probably a topic of discussion for another venue, but it is interesting to see how the hierarchical dynamics of the mainstream superhero comic book genre directly affect how story and character are shaped. In the end, no matter what, I love superhero comics and hope they will continue to evolve for the better.↩
I just wanted to take a second to thank you for what you are doing here. I’ve been attempting to read Batman chronologically, and your site(s) have proven invaluable in my collector hunts. Cheers!
Collin, thanks so much for all the hard work you’ve put into your site. I’ve been a big Batman fan for years and am finally getting a good collection of comics together. Great to be able to reference this chronology to see where those comics fit in the scheme of things.
I just discovered this site, and I love it. I chronicle Booster Gold appearances, and those alone can be daunting. Ordering Batman appearance is a Sisyphean task, indeed, but you are making it look effortless. Thanks for making the effort.
Thanks for the support! Your website is pretty amazing too. Booster Gold is (and always has been) one of my favorite characters in the DCU. I’ll post a link to your page up on here.
Longtime fan here, and when I first heard about the New 52 my thoughts turned to you and what it was going to mean for the BCP! Good to see you’ve been able to survive this DC-inflicted madness 🙂
I’m running a Catwoman scripted fiction project, and the BCP has been an invaluable resource as we develop plots and storylines for that, so just wanted to say thanks and see you when the new site is up and running.
I love this site, and it’s a great resource, even for people developing their own chronology of Batman that may not fully match up to yours. As I alluded to in another post, I’m creating my own Batman collection/chronology without using Long Halloween and Dark Victory. They are fine stories, and I like them, but they do prevent a lot of other stories from fitting in, or cause some awkward placement. (Look at the Unofficial DCU Chronology site…he has both stories compressed down to a couple of months and moving scenes all around.)
So, I might post a comment from time to time asking why an issue might not fit exactly. If you say issue x can’t fit because it contradicts issue y, but I don’t include issue y in my Batman collection, then maybe I could work issue x into it.
It is definitely possible–see Chris Miller’s amazing and profoundly seminal work over at the Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe (http://dcu.smartmemes.com/). However, I really am just focusing on Batman here. I even omit Bat Family titles if the Caped Crusader fails to appear. It’s not a knock to the other characters; but to add a handful of “major story-arcs” into this chronology would be hard because I feel you either need to pick one character (as I have done) or do a comprehensive all-encompassing list of the whole DCU. Who am I to say what story-arcs are the most important? If I were to begin adding other stories, then it would be wrong of me to leave others out. I do try, though, to add important event items that affect the whole DCU. Maybe I will add a series of footnotes including pertinent info about the goings-on during the “Death and Return of Superman,” “Green Arrow: Year One,” and “Superman For All Seasons.”
Thanks for your input and comment!
Hi Collin,
Would there be any way to put a note in your chronology listings as to what collected edition (if any) a comic book in question belongs? As I’m not hugely knowledgable about comics, it’d be great to know what graphic novel/book that, say, Batman 536 belongs to when I’m following the chronology.
Thanks so much for establishing and maintaining this site and blog – I’d long been looking for something that could give me direction as to where to start with Batman comics when I stumbled across TRBCP. It’s been very informing and helpful, keep up the great work!
-Allie
Dear Allie,
Thanks so much for the kind words and your continued support of the site! I’ve had a lot of requests lately, among them: adding a downloadable version of the quick lists and making the whole site more navigable in general. Your suggestion is a good one as well, and one that I will add to the list. It’s tough maintaining everything solo, but hopefully in the months to come I can start to take care of some of this business.
Trade Reading Order.com is a faaaantastic site that lists just about every single trade/collected edition that has ever been published and also gives the info regarding which issues are in which books. In the meantime (before and changes are likely to be seen on my site) I’d suggest perusing over there for some info regarding this specific topic. If and when I do add trade/collected edition information to TRBCP it will likely come straight from that source.
Take care, Allie. And again, thank you!
–CC
I’m curious, do you own all of the bat titles, if not how do you go about taking care of all the placement and so on and so fourth?
Having been a collector for quite a while now (and having had family members that collected for years) I own nearly 100% of the Batman corpus from the Modern Age, which allowed me to complete the Modern Age section mostly from reading actual physical comic book issues and trades. Of course, I don’t have much of the Golden or Silver/Bronze Age stuff—if I did I’d be a millionaire. Thus, torrent downloads of cbr and cbz files are my outlet there. I hope I’m not exposing myself as an illegal downloader, but really the only way to get your hands on some of the older stuff is via digital downloads. (Also, I’m not against downloading stuff purely for research purposes). That being said, I do try my best to purchase (or borrow) some of the Sunday/Dailies trades and Golden Age Batman trades that have been released when I can. Currently, economic times are rough (as we all know) and it’s hard to make ends meet, but I haul my ass over to the comic shop and am able to gather the issues I need for the New 52 stuff.
I usually advise the reader to ignore an incorrectly-drawn costume if it is drawn in a flashback sequence because it most often means the error was simply made by the artist or writer (as opposed to a non-flashback story deliberately written in “current time” narrative style that gets it definitively wrong)—if that makes any sense. It is a bit confusing, I know. Let me try to explain it in another way. Here is a specific random example: Gotham Knights #43 occurs in Year 18—it absolutely has to for various reasons including publication date, in-story factors, numbering, etc… In this issue there is a flashback, which must be canon since it effetcs a canon issue and is shown in a canon issue. This flashback shows a retired Batgirl take a new Jason Todd Robin out on patrol at the behest of Batman to psychoanalyze him and test his physical capabilities. It also tells us that Joker breaks out of Arkham and foreshadows that he will soon do terrible things to both Babs and Jason. Therefore, this flashback has to take place in Year Eleven, relatively close to the events of Killing Joke and “Death in the Family.” However, by this point, Batman is wearing his yellow-oval costume, and yet in this flashback he has his black bat insignia! Thus, this becomes a prime instance of a canonical flashback where we must ignore the incorrect costume.
As far as how the significance of Batman’s costume can make an otherwise “fine” story into a non-canonical story, it all depends. Usually, there is something more going on than simply the costume to make it non-canon. If you have specific questions about specific tales in mind, I’d be happy to answer questions regarding them. Shoot me an e-mail at therealbatmanchronologyproject.com if you do have any queries.
And for the Modern Age there is definitely a chronology/canonicity for the Dark Knight’s suit designs. Batman’s costume definitively goes through many changes, in this order: The black insignia costume with gray tights, the yellow-oval with gray tights, the yellow-oval with black tights, back to the black insignia with gray tights, then the raised-yellow oval with gray tights. Of course, the switch from the original costume to the yellow insignia has had many different time placements and been retconned a bunch, but it always signaled the transition from the Golden Age to the Silver Age. So for the Modern Age, the yellow-oval is kinda-sorta linked to the inception of the Teen Titans. For the intents and purposes of my chronology, everything pre-Titans era is original costume. Following that (in Year Seven) is the yellow-oval period. After “Knight’s End” and returning from the Bane affair, Batman dons an all black (with yellow-oval) ensemble at the end of the “Prodigal” story-arc (in Year Fourteen). He will rock this look until the end of “No Man’s Land,” at which point he returns to his original costume design (in Year Sixteen). When Batman returns from his jaunt through time and starts Batman Inc (in Year Twenty-Two), he will switch to a raised yellow-oval symbol on gray set of togs.
Always remember, this is a suggested chronology. There can never really be the exact dead-on version. Everyone is free to mold their own timeline and pick and choose as they see fit. But hopefully, this is as close as anyone has ever gotten (and ever will)! And hopefully this is the numero uno reference point for any other lists out there!
I was intrigued to read about your take on the costume/insignia and its effect on chronology and canonicity (probably not a real word but you know what I mean). I agree that it’s undoubtedly a useful indicator for story placement, especially where other evidence is lacking. However, my take is that any individual book (and by extension any individual panel) is just a representation of the “reality” of the DC Universe (whichever one it happens to be). For instance, I’ve been reading “Wargames” in order, and the change in art styles between, say, “Detective” and “Batgirl” is dramatic – in one, Batgirl (Cassandra) looks like the perviest thing you’ve ever seen, and in the other she looks cute as a button. Both issues are clearly canonical (at least within the overall arc) despite one or both clearly not representing “reality”. The characters obviously don’t live their “real” lives as a series of static images with bubbles coming out of their mouths. I think of it like Julius Schwartz channelling the original Flash and turning his adventures into a comic which was read by Barry Allen (which was a stroke of storytelling genius in my opinion, decades before everyone was dropping the word “postmodern” into every conversation). We’re not seeing a reality, but a retelling/reinterpretation of that reality.
Factual/timeline inconsistencies are a different issue, and I appreciate your point that the costume alone isn’t usually enough to discount a story. However, I don’t think an inconsistency (or a downright error) should necessarily discount a story from canon either. For instance, I’m a fan of Doctor Who, mainly the original 26-year run (I’m going to assume you’re not familiar with it; if you are then you probably know where this is going…) Clearly every story that was shown on TV during that run is canon; removing almost any given story would have a house of cards effect on the rest (arguments will rage for eternity over whether to include the hundreds of books, comics, audio plays etc). However, there are massive inconsistencies within just the TV show which make it impossible for events to all have happened as shown. For instance, in a mid-seventies story a certain character is clearly established as being a high-ranking officer in a UN military organisation in 1980, but in a mid-eighties story is seen retired from the military and visibly older in 1977. Theoretically you could pretend that the later story doesn’t count and never happened because a different production team made a mistake (or wilfully ignored continuity for the sake of telling their story) , but the fact remains that at the time of production both the stories were meant to be part of the ongoing tale (and it can be argued that it was in fact the earlier of the two stories that got it wrong). There are whole books dedicated to trying to resolve this and many other problems, and they all fail (or at least cheat outrageously). The only truly workable explanation is that we are seeing an interpretation of a different reality, not that reality itself. There are endless other examples; Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has a handful of timeline problems, but it all still counts; the New Testament has two very contradictory accounts of the birth of Jesus, but are both considered canonical (which is I think is where the term originates); any TV or film series that has recast a character has a problem akin to that of a change in art style; Dr No and Skyfall can’t both be about the “real” James Bond, but both are unquestionably canon.
So I suppose my argument is that unless a story is clearly meant or stated to be outside of continuity, then why not include it? Point out any issues with continuity, and if it can’t be explained or retconned away, then it can be put down to an error on the part of the creatives who reinterpreted the events of the DC Universe(s) for those of us unfortunate enough to live in the real one. My final point is that whatever your intentions people will use your work as a reading guide (I know I do); to that end it makes sense to me to throw out as little as possible.
Anyway, feel free to completely ignore my little essay and keep up the great work. Been getting into comics and Batman specifically after a long break (I used to rely on http://dcu.smartmemes.com/index.html to help me make sense of it all but he’s stopped unfortunately).
Dear Andy,
Thanks for your support and kind words! I would never ignore such a well-thought out and insightful comment. And as far as “The Unauthorized Chronology of the DCU” goes, it was originally my primary source when I started this mess five years ago. (I’ve corresponded with site author Chris Miller before as well—I believe he stopped because he is in the process of getting his PhD).
As I always say, continuity is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak. We all create our own personal continuities and the beautiful thing is that we can never really be wrong. I’ve tried to include as many stories as possible—I agree with you when you say that all stories that aren’t explicitly meant to be out-of-continuity should therefore be IN-continuity. I’ve tried to stick to that concept while building my timelines, although my natural stubbornness probably has a significant effect in what gets left in and left out. I’m sure others are more willing to accept stories as canon—ones which I haven’t, while others still are upset with the stories I have chosen to include.
It’s funny you mention Skyfall too. Skyfall is the perfect example of everything I love about comics—seamlessly folding in bits of old continuity into new continuity, meshing an older version of a character’s history with the new. Except in this case, the problem (for me) with Skyfall is that it isn’t a comic book, it’s a movie, and one which I had always regarded the same way Alan Moore playfully does—as a chain of decidedly different British agents “filling the Bond role” over time. The Broccoli family seemed to quietly share that same view for decades, until the Craig films, of course. That’s precisely why Skyfall was so amazing yet baffling and frustrating for me. You are absolutely right, the very smarmy Scottish Bond seen in Dr. No who drives the trick-gun-equipped Aston Martin could never in a billion years be the ice cold decidedly not-Scottish badass from Casino Royale. And yet they are one and the same thanks to Skyfall! I’m digressing a bit (or a lot) here, but the Skyfall example is something so intrinsically linked to narratological issues stemming from comic book type continuity, I’m surprised there aren’t more write-ups about it.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to say hi and to give a wonderful piece of your mind. Not sure if this has been an adequate response, but I hope it is!
Best,
Collin C
PS. Canonicity is indeed a REAL word and one I use far, far too often!
Hello, I want to say I am looking forward to reading these timelines and remember we must all be vegetarians because of the dark beef (Batcow)
Hi Collin – pretty awesome that this has been going on now near 6 years and thank you for all the hard work. Just a couple quick questions:
1. Where did the updates section go? I used to be able to tell when and which updates you made and now i can’t seem to find it.
2. Are you still updating the site? Understandably TRBCP/’disContinuity’ Blog is being continuously updated and has great stuff but haven’t seen much movement on the Silver Age and cant tell if you have made any new discoveries/changed anything around in the Modern Age in the last couple months.
As always, great work and hope that that ‘updates’ section can be re-introduced (or you can provide a link as i simply cannot find it) and that if, understandably, you are stepping away from updating TRBCP that hopefully somone will don the cape, cowl, and keyboard that you have been wearing/wielding these last 6 years.
Hey Rebel,
I got rid of the updates page because it wasn’t giving much specific information and it wasn’t being kept up to date (which is terrible for an “updates” page). I am definitely updating the site still. There hasn’t been much to add or correct on the Modern Age section. And the Silver Age has been going slow. We had a terrible site crash and lost some info in the Silver Age section (even despite having had everything backed up multiple ways). Hopefully, the Silver Age will get rolling again—it is frustrating to have to re-write chunks of it, though.
I will look into better means of keeping my readers and patrons up to date on the latest site changes. Like I said, I think what was up before was simply inadequate.
Thanks for your continued support.
Keep up the great work man. Still my go to site for chronology!
Hey man. First off, tremendous job on this site! Quite possibly my favorite comics-related web site of all time. Second, with DC launching their Rebirth Series soon, will you be starting to make a new time line to accommodate that (The Rebirth Age?)? Thank you and keep up the great work.
Thanks for your very kind words, Zak. Comments like these keep me going strong after all these years.
If Rebirth functions similarly to the way Zero Hour or Infinite Crisis did—as line-wide SOFT reboots, then I will simply continue the New Age timeline. I’m not sure that any major retcons are happening that would constitute a new timeline, although the Justice Society being folded back into Earth-0 history seems pretty major. Things may be “returning to their roots” (aka lining up with the cinematic universe a bit more and giving us a more Geoff Johns Modern Age feel), but so far as I have heard, this soft reboot will not jettison the continuity that has been built up since 2011, meaning that Rebirth shouldn’t be a massive total relaunch. That being said, we shall see…
Hey there. Just wanted to thank you for putting all this together. It’s been really helpful to me. Is there anyway to tell if any updates have been made to any of the sections? Again, thanks so much. All the best and best of luck.
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for the kind words. There used to be an updates page, but updates are made so frequently it didn’t make sense to keep it active. The Modern Age section is completely finished. The New 52 is completely finished. The New Age is current comics, ongoing but completely up to date week to week. The Golden Age is about 90% done. And the Silver Age is about 50% done, and it gets updated basically every other week.
Hope that helps a little bit. Feel free to email me directly (ccolsher@gmail.com) if you have any questions.
Best!
I really appreciate the response. And I also want to reiterate how great a job you’re doing with the site. The wealth of knowledge you have about the comics, as well as the ability to put them in a proper order, is absolutely staggering. Getting all of my issues/books together and putting them in the right order is almost as fun for me as reading them. So thank you for your tireless and continued effort. I’m currently on Part 2 of Year 15 of the Modern Age, so that’s good to know it’s 100%. If I have any further questions I’ll be sure to reach out. Thank you again, and all the best.