On Tuesday, February 23, DC will introduce the Linearverse – a new way to see the publisher’s 82-year history. Part of the new expanded Multiverse concept introduced in January’s Black Nights: Death Metal # 7 called the Omniverse in which every DC story ever told is in continuity, the Linearverse somewhat ironically eliminates the need for why the DC Multiverse was created in the first place.
Do you have any questions? Don’t worry, we’ll explain in detail. But first…
Spoilers for the February 23 generations: Forged # 1
Generations: Forged # 1 by writers Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt and Robert Venditti is the second half of a story that started with a prologue in Detective Comics # 1027 and continued into Generations: Shattered # 1 January. A kind of Avengers adventure forever, the story features a team of DC superheroes harvested from different timelines, including the original 1939 Batman, set up to fight a villain who is erasing time (for reasons that are somewhat similar to what’s happening at Disney Plus’s WandaVison).
A natural assumption about the history of the Generations following the revelation that all the stories are now in continuity in the new Omniverse is that heroes are drawn from different Lands of the Multiverse, representing different timelines. But it ended no to be the case.
Instead, in the final pages of Forged, readers learn that despite all the familiar pitfalls of DC’s past and future in the plot, such as the original depictions of Krypton’s Superman birth world, everything really occurs in his the Omniverse’s own new song called the Linearverse, in which the entire history of more than 80 years of DC takes place in a singular and, of course, linear timeline on an Earth.
In other words, the Batman-Bruce who started his career in 1939 is the same Batman-Bruce Wayne who just participated in ‘The Joker War’ of 2020.
No multiple lands, no crises that rework schedules and continuity. Just heroes who live long, long.
At Linearverse, “people age much more slowly, living much longer than elsewhere,” Waverider (a guardian of the DC timelines) explains to Batman in the final pages of Forged. “Your youth and vitality will last for decades, allowing you to be effective for much longer than usual.”
The final pages also show representations of various iconic versions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Robin / Nightwing and others, indicating that, despite changes in styles, all DC stories from their origin to the present day have happened with the same people.
It’s a simple and straightforward way to explain why fashion and technology have changed, contemporary characters who are active in 2021 have lived through historic events like World War II, and heroes have had far more adventures than can be reconciled in 10-15 years that DC and even Marvel Comics superhero careers are generally considered.
Co-writer Dan Jurgens tells Newsarama that the Linearverse gives readers “a place that embraces a different concept than DC history”.
As people age differently on the Linearverse, Jurgens explains, Batman “is still young and lively enough to have operated like Batman in the 40s, 70s, 90s and even today. Despite being much, much older, Batman still would have the physique of a much younger man. The same with Robin.
“This is not only true for superheroes. Commissioner Gordon, for example, would have the same status.”
The Linearverse is the formalization of an approach that some writers like Grant Morrison took unofficially during his Batman days, but at the moment it exists as a separate reality within the Omniverse.
“It is fair to say that what we build here, the Linearverse, is its own universe that can fit into the larger context of DC’s Omniverse,” explains Jurgens. “It is a place where some unique and individual stories can be told.”
And while the methodology is simple, eliminating the need for Multiple Lands, alternative timelines, Crises and reconciling the enduring nature of iconic fictional characters with the passage of time in the real world, DC continuity is never what simple.
As much of DC’s narrative has been concerned with creating a cohesive timeline for almost 40 years, Linearverse requires some creative concepts to make everything work well.
“Whenever you try to build these things, some accommodations need to be made because it’s never a perfect fit,” replies Jurgens when asked how stories like Batman: Frank Miller’s first year of 1987 (which assumes that Batman’s early years took place more contemporary) fit the Linearverse concept.
“Did something happen reasonably close to Frank’s first year? I would like to think so, and it would have been in the 1930s, ”continues Jurgens. “Are we still going to get to the point where The Dark Knight Returns happens? This is in the future, as Bruce has not yet reached that general age.
“It’s not always the cleanest fit. But if you look at it as a set of puzzle pieces where you’re allowed to sand a little edge, cut and trim another while adding a little putty to the next piece, you can put everything together to make it look really good. “
Jurgens made it very clear that, although this new Linearverse “is a place where some unique and individual stories can be told”, it also fits into the “broader context of the Omniverse”. But attentive observers of DC also cannot help wondering what it may have been, and whether this approach has already been programmed to be the official continuity of DC.
Remember, Generations: Shattered and Forged is a somewhat reimagined version of what was intended to be, in early 2020, the great redefining event in the DC universe, kicking off the new decade in five monthly installments, along with a Day of Free Comics (FCBD) prologue.
Readers must remember almost a year before the original Generations debuted in May 2020, DC co-editor Dan DiDio began to trigger the definition of a new canonical DC timeline that started with the appearance of DC Wonder Woman during World War I (Generation One), as described for the first time in a story written by Scott Snyder in Wonder Woman # 750 of January 2020.
“The Generation series of specials was built to bring the new DC timeline to life,” DiDio said in February 2020 about the original event. “We will be highlighting the more than 80-year publishing history of the DC universe as we chart the course for the bright future of DC characters. All of our greatest stories and events will create the backdrop and context for the great new adventures we plan to Everything counts, and we guarantee that there will be surprises along the way! “
A surprise along the way was DiDio’s abrupt departure from DC a few days after this announcement. And while the special FCBD was officially sunk and the series delayed because COVID-19 effectively canceled the FBCD, the entire event was subsequently removed from DC’s programming to this day without an official explanation before resurging as Shattered and Forged.
Asked whether the Linearverse was the final game in the initial 2020 iteration of Generations, or whether it emerged during the process of developing what Generations would become, Jurgens told Newsarama that its origins date back to the original version.
“Ironically, this reflects a little of what Generations was at the beginning,” says the writer. “There is still a big difference, but the idea of telling a story that reflects DC comics from the beginning to the present is where we started. The itinerary for the journey was filled with changes in direction, blocked roads, several flight changes and some rebel cruises that were lost at sea, but the project still maintains aspects of our first conversations.
“DC’s editorial history is generational. It’s, after all, one of the reasons we’ve picked characters from specific points in time throughout DC’s history. It’s amazing that these characters have endured so long and it’s remarkable to see how they have adapted to times, although they still retain, in many cases, their original essential attributes. “
Whatever the original intent, Linearverse now exists as a playground where new stories can be told within the Omniverse, and Jurgens and his co-writers ended the story by practically inviting DC to explore it further.
Generations: Fine forged with Waverider giving Batman 1939 a time travel device to be used only as a last resort in a “real crisis” and the final words of the story are “The beginning!”
“There are all kinds of stories and adventures that are worth exploring on the Linearverse,” concludes Jurgens. “If readers like what they saw, react well to the concept and ask for more, it can just happen.”
Speaking of crises, Newsarama classified all crises in the history of CD from best to worst.