Welcome to the DC Universe Chronology.

This feature lists the stories which take place in the DC Multiverse. Stories are separated by the individual universe in which they occur and are sorted in chronological order. Stories may contain multiple events (known as sequences) which occur during different time periods. Therefore, the same story may appear in the Chronology more than once.

The Chronology is not intended to be a reading order. Comics may be read in whichever order the reader chooses.

Stories published by DC, but taking place outside the DC Universe, will not be listed in the Chronology.

or How Do Characters Age?

Superman was first published in 1938 and his adventures have continued to be published for over 75 years. If Superman was in his twenties in 1938, wouldn't that make him 100 years old by now. He looks pretty good for his age, even for a Kryptonian. So how does aging take place in the DC Universe?

It's Not the Same Superman! The Superman published in 2012 is not the same one first published in 1938. By my reasoning, he is actually the fourth "major" version of the character. Each version exists in a different universe. For more on the different DC Universes see the "History of the DC Universes" section. The first Superman existed on Earth-2. His adventures began in 1938 and continued into the 1950s. The second Superman existed on Earth-1. His adventures as Superman began in the 1950s and continued into the 1980s. He also had a career as Superboy who began appearing in 1944 (cover dated 1945) and was published until the 1980s. The third Superman began in 1986 with the Man of Steel mini-series. His adventures continued until 2011 though he had some revisions along the way. The fourth Superman exists in the New 52 and is still fairly new, having only started in 2011.

Each universe has versions of the same characters: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. Since each universe is separate, the characters in each universe can be different ages. However, within a given universe it can be useful to know how aging works in order to place stories and events in chronological sequence as this chronology is attempting to do. For example the Earth-1 Superman was active from the 1950s to 1980s. Did he age from his mid-20s to mid-50s during that time? What about Superboy who was published from the 1940s to 1980s? 40 years is a lot of time for a "boy" to be around.

So clearly characters who exist in comic books don't age in real world time. Many stories do use events or facts from the real world to establish them in time. For example the JSA of Earth-2 had many adventures during World War II which took place in the 1940s. In the post-Crisis universe, Ronald Reagan was often referenced as president during the Legends and Millennium series which took place in the 1980s. While these facts and events can act as a guide for placing stories, these references often create contradictions, the further away from them you get. For example in stories published in the 1960s, the Earth-1 adult Superman met president JFK. Yet in the Earth-1 Superboy stories published in the 1980s, it would seem that Kennedy was president.

One solution to this paradox is to consider that these stories took place in separate parallel universes. The Superboy published in the 1980s did not grow up to be the Superman published in the 1960s. While that explanation could be acceptable, when taken to a logical end, it essential means that most stories would have to take place in there own universe independent of the next one. While this is acceptable to some readers, many (including me) want a sense of continuity between adventures. To respect this continuity but not be a slave to it, the best solution is to ignore some amount of topical references such as who was president at the time of Superman/Superboy's adventures.

Some topical references though are harder to ignore as they are continually referenced in many stories. The JSA's World War II adventures are a great example of this. The post-Crisis universe JSA was said to have fought during World War II. Their members included among others Flash (Jay Garrick) and Green Lantern (Alan Scott). Wildcat (Ted Grant) was also a member, though he joined later. Yet in the post-Crisis universe of the 1990s and 2000s, if those heroes were active in World War II, they must be in their 80s which stretches credulity. Many stories tried to explain the fact that these characters remained youthful as a result of one effect or another, but these explanations are not always satisfying to the suspension of disbelief.

To answer the question of how old characters are when stories take place, let's look at each universe independently.

Earth-2: In this universe, Superman began publication in 1938. He was followed by many other heroes including Batman, Flash, and more. If Superman was in his mid-20s in 1938, that would place his birth around 1913 or thereabouts. I chose to place it in 1914 which is when his creator Jerry Siegel was born. If the Man of Steel was born in 1914, that would make him about 24 when the story in Action Comics #1 took place. His adventures continued into the 1950s. Stories about the Earth-2 Superman in the 1970s show that he married Lois and went into semi-retirement in the mid-1950s which would make him around 40 years old. He and many JSA members would turn up in Justice League stories in the 1960s and 1970s. He also made a few appearance in the 1980s before finally leaving existence at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986 (which took place in 1985). If born in 1914, this would make him 71 in 1985 which given the age shown by the character is not unreasonable.

Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman and other characters from Earth-2 also seem to age in real time. Robin is an especially useful character to look at since he grows into an adult on Earth-2. Robin first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in 1940. If I assume his age in that story to be 8 years old, he would therefore have been born in 1932. Batman and Robin of Earth-2 continued publication into the 1950s before giving way (although not explicitly stated at the time) to the Earth-1 Batman and Robin. Although Robin's age is somewhat difficult to pin down, he would be about 21 in 1953. The stories published in 1953 show Robin as younger than 21, but with some hand-waving, it could be reasonable for him to be that old. It would later be revealed that Bruce Wayne married Selena Kyle in the mid-1950s and had a daughter Helena, who would grow up to become the Huntress in the 1970s. Robin would return in the JSA in the 1960s as an adult. He would be about 33 in 1965. By 1985 when Crisis erased the Huntress and the Earth-2 Robin from existence, he would have been 53. Batman died in 1979. Assuming he was about the same age as Superman, he was about 65 at the time of his death.

So on Earth-2, it can be concluded that characters aged in real time in relation to when the stories were published. That won't be the case for the other universes.

Earth-1: The first evidence of the Earth-1 Superman is the existence of Superboy. As stories fleshed out the differences between the Earth-2 Superman and the Earth-1 version, the biggest difference was that on Earth-2 Superman was never Superboy. Therefore the Earth-1 Superman first appeared as Superboy in More Fun Comics #101 cover dated 1945, though it came out at the end of 1944. For more information on which stories feature the Earth-2 Superman and which feature the Earth-1 Superman, see my "Earth Words" articles in Fanboy.

As referenced in my Fanboy articles, the Earth-1 Superman began appearing in Superman stories in the early 1950s and was the primary Superman by 1954. His adventures appeared continuously until 1986. Superboy's adventures continued until 1984 with a few appearances thereafter. If Superman was in his mid-20s in 1954 and aged in real time like his Earth-2 counterpart, that would put him in his mid-50s in 1986. Those stories do no feature a Superman in his fifties. At most he is in his mid to late 30s. The Robin of Earth-1 did age during his publication from the 50s to 1986, but not 30 years. He was still around 20 during Crisis on Infinite Earths. So how can aging on Earth-1 be explained.

The first assumption I make is that Superman's career begins in his early 20s. It has been shown that he changed from Superboy to Superman during college. So if the earliest Earth-1 Superman stories published in 1954 take place in Superman mid-20s, that places his birth in the early 1930s. I am going with 1931. Superman was a baby on Krypton for a couple of years before it blew up as shown in many flashback tales, so I place Krypton's destruction in 1933. His debut as Superboy came at around age 8, which would be 1939. Most of the Superboy stories show him as a teen. His teen years would therefore be 1944 to 1950. 1944 was the year the first Superboy story was published. Therefore I have compressed 30+ years of published Superboy stories into the span of 1944 to 1949 when Superboy would be about 18. That year the Kents died, he left Smallville and went to college in the early 1950s. After graduation he got a job at the Daily Planet and began his regular adventures of Superman in published in 1954 at age 23.

As mentioned previously if characters aged in real time, the Earth-1 Superman would then be 55 in 1986 when his adventures ceased publication. That is too old based on the Superman shown in the stories. Therefore aging must go slower. To determine how slow, let's look at Robin. Batman and Robin's adventures transitioned from Earth-2 to Earth-1 in 1954 (see my Fanboy article for details). I'm going to say Robin was 12 at this time, based on most later stories depicting him as a teenager. In the next 32 years (1954 to 1986) he would only age 8 years (12 to 20 years old). So there is about a 4 to 1 ratio between the passage of real time to comic book time. Applying this same math to Superman at age 23 in 1954 makes him 31 in 1986 which is completely within reason for his appearance in those stories. Therefore I am concluding that on Earth-1 characters age in real time until 1954. Then from 1954 onward they age 1 year for every 4 years of real time. 1954 works as a good cutoff point since that is also when most of Superman and Batman's adventures transitions from Earth-2 to Earth-1. All others characters on Earth-1 are subject to this same 4 to 1 aging effect also.

Post-Crisis: Like the Earth-1 Superman, the post-Crisis Superman was around for nearly 25 years, but he certainly could not have aged in real time. Unlike the Earth-1 Superman, the Post-Crisis Man of Steel did not have a career as Superboy, although later revisions to this version of the character would reinstate that detail. This Superman debuted in 1986's Man of Steel #1, but that story took place in the past. The internal timeline within the series provides some details as to Superman's age, but it also presents some contradictions.

In the history of the Post-Crisis Superman, Clark leaves Smallville after high-school at 18 and becomes Superman at 25. Stories picking up after Man of Steel are set 10 years after Clark left Smallville making him 28. However, Lois mentions having met Superman five years earlier which doesn't make sense since by that timeline he would only have been 23. When you add in the timeline of Batman and Robin, more contradictions develop. Batman met Superman after his first year. Robin (Dick Grayson) became Batman's partner in Year Three. Yet if Clark became Superman at 25 and had been Superman only three years, Dick Grayson would not have aged. More time must therefore have passed than three years.

My solution for this is to make the age at which Superman debuted much less than 25. By setting the debut age to 20 or 21 this allows more time for other actions in the DC Universe to have taken place. It makes Dick Grayson's timeline work correctly and Lois's comments about meeting Superman 5 years earlier in Man of Steel #5 actually make sense. Superman's adventures post-Man of Steel still take place at age 28 and he still left Smallville at 18 meaning he was born in 1958. Superman's debut and Batman Year One both take place in 1978. Dick became Robin in 1980 at age 14 and would grow into Nightwing age 20 in 1986.

Just as with Earth-1, the time after the regular continuity begins, I am applying a 4 to 1 ratio to explain the passage of time from 1986 to 2011. Superman would therefore be 34 at the time of the Flashpoint event when primary DC continuity changed to the New 52.

New 52: This Superman is too new to discuss, and will not be covered in the chronology until later.