Superman Anthology - Timeline (Outdated)

thecomicperson said:
Well, i don't think that are just references anymore
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If there's any actual crossover, easy way to make it work:

Earth-89
1977 - Superman: The Movie
1979 - Superman II
1983 - Superman III
1983 - Supergirl
1985 - Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
198? - Superman '78 #1-6
1989 - Batman
1992 - Batman Returns
1993 - Batman '89 #1-6
1995 - Batman Forever (?)
1997 - Batman & Robin (?)
2004 - Catwoman (?)
2019 - Crisis on Infinite Earths
2022 - The Flash

Earth-96
2006 - Superman Returns
2019 - Crisis on Infinite Earths

Earth-97 (unofficial number?)
Batman
Batman Returns
Batman Forever
Batman & Robin
Catwoman

We'll see what they do. If they don't crossover, then there's no need for that.

Also potential to have Earth-89 as Schumacher and Earth-97 as the crossover reality, with Superman Returns taking place in 1982.

Also, the possibility of merging universes is there. Earth-89 could be folded into post-crisis Earth-97. Perhaps this created a new history in which Superman debuted in the 1970s... or something.

Jeez... whatever happens, I'm sure it'll be easy enough to explain, if not a bit confusing.

For now, they're two separate realities.
 
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comicbook.com

Brandon Routh Has Looked Into a Kingdom Come Superman Series

After the disappointment of 2006’s Superman Returns, Brandon Routh assumed he would never get to play the Man of Steel again. That opportunity arose in The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event, where Routh played an iteration of his character whose background had taken a dark turn. Influenced...
comicbook.com comicbook.com
You never know. Brandon thinks that maybe after The Flash opens the multiverse, he can get that Kingdom Come show he wants.
 
Timeline
You know, I think my placements of the films actually match up the best they can right now.

School Reunions are held every 5 or 10 years after the end of School. This timeline puts that as 1988 and 2008, which is 20 years. 1988 places the first film in 2000.

Lex states he's been in prison for 5 years (since Superman I or II) in the prequel comic, as well as 5 years after Superman left Earth. 6 years is close enough, and you could assume it's late 2000, early 2006.

2008 lines up with the Olympics occurring in that year. That Olympics occurred in China though, but I suppose the Olympics happens in different countries in this universe for some reason. Definitely not perfect.

Supergirl
Supergirl's ridiculously long serveral billion light-years number is still driving me nuts, though. Maybe the reason his trip to Krypton took so long yet is a considerably lower distance from Earth is because the path to Krypton had a red sun (not Kryptons, obviously), and so he needed to take that Kryptonian spaceship to fly there?

That, or Supergirl takes place after Superman '78 and the reason he couldn't save the Daily Planet from Joker was due to his mission in space. How tragic that would be...

The Richard Donner Cut
Also thinking of removing The Richard Donner Cut from the timeline. I think you could say that the flashback in the Returns Prequel comic is just a small inconsistency or Lois has a memory of being buried and dying in a previous timeline. Plus, while many Clark/Lois moments are very different, background characters show up that should logically not show up in the same place a year later. For example, that kid in Niagara Falls doing the exact same thing. I guess you could say the timeline is trying to adjust itself and Superman II is a "fixed point in time", like What If...?, though. That would leave room to explain these things.

I'd probably create a Richard Donner Duology timeline alongside the prime Earth-96 one. That would be the Special Edition and The Richard Donner Cut, both being Donners preferred cuts. Logically, they'd be set in the 1970s, since they'd have no Superman Returns/Crisis to anchor them to the 2000s.
 
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Pro Bot said:
Timeline
You know, I think my placements of the films actually match up the best they can right now.

School Reunions are held every 5 or 10 years after the end of School. This timeline puts that as 1988 and 2008, which is 20 years. 1988 places the first film in 2000.

Lex states he's been in prison for 5 years (since Superman I or II) in the prequel comic, as well as 5 years after Superman left Earth. 6 years is close enough, and you could assume it's late 2000, early 2006.

2008 lines up with the Olympics occurring in that year. That Olympics occurred in China though, but I suppose the Olympics happens in different countries in this universe for some reason. Definitely not perfect.

Supergirl
Supergirl's ridiculously long serveral billion light-years number is still driving me nuts, though. Maybe the reason his trip to Krypton took so long yet is a considerably lower distance from Earth is because the path to Krypton had a red sun (not Kryptons, obviously), and so he needed to take that Kryptonian spaceship to fly there?

That, or Supergirl takes place after Superman '78 and the reason he couldn't save the Daily Planet from Joker was due to his mission in space. How tragic that would be...

The Richard Donner Cut
Also thinking of removing The Richard Donner Cut from the timeline. I think you could say that the flashback in the Returns Prequel comic is just a small inconsistency or Lois has a memory of being buried and dying in a previous timeline. Plus, while many Clark/Lois moments are very different, background characters show up that should logically not show up in the same place a year later. For example, that kid in Niagara Falls doing the exact same thing. I guess you could say the timeline is trying to adjust itself and Superman II is a "fixed point in time", like What If...?, though. That would leave room to explain these things.

I'd probably create a Richard Donner Duology timeline alongside the prime Earth-96 one. That would be the Special Edition and The Richard Donner Cut, both being Donners preferred cuts. Logically, they'd be set in the 1970s, since they'd have no Superman Returns/Crisis to anchor them to the 2000s.
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Earth-78 and Earth-96 tho ;)
 
selfishmisery said:
Earth-78 and Earth-96 tho ;)
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Do you mean:
Earth-78
1978 - Superman: The Movie: Special Edition
1978 - Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Earth-96
2000 - Superman: The Movie: Extended Cut
2001 - Superman II
2006 - Superman Returns
2008 - Superman III
2008 - Supergirl
2009 - Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Seems right to say that the Donner Duology is Earth-78.

Otherwise, the Arrowverse guys kinda pushed Superman Returns into continuity, with a reference to Superman III, Superman IV and Superman Returns. Marc Guggenheim confirmed that they're canon, but was under the impression that Superman Returns is after Superman IV. Evidently, that's not possible. It works well enough before Superman III, but yeah.
 
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Pro Bot said:
Do you mean:
Earth-78
1977 - Superman: The Movie: Special Edition
1977 - Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Earth-96
2000 - Superman: The Movie: Extended Cut
2001 - Superman II
2006 - Superman Returns
2008 - Superman III
2008 - Supergirl
2009 - Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Seems right to say that the Donner Duology is Earth-78.

Otherwise, the Arrowverse guys kinda pushed Superman Returns into continuity, with a reference to Superman III, Superman IV and Superman Returns. Marc Guggenheim confirmed that they're canon, but was under the impression that Superman Returns is after Superman IV. Evidently, that's not possible. It works well enough before Superman III, but yeah.
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Might as well if DC can't decide if this is the 70s or the 21st century lol.
 
Well, it's updated now. Still need to do the timecodes for the Special Edition (Richard Donner's definitive Superman I), but there's two timelines.
Earth-78, the Donner Duology
Earth-96, the Reeve/Routh Timeline

Hey, at least if Superman '78 places itself in the 1970s/1980s in the next few issues, we have a backup. :p Nuclear Man is still meant to fit in it, though... hm
 
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Okay, so I think, on Earth-96 at least, Krypton did explode in 1948. Baby Kal-El's ship has data on the Nazi party and Einstein's theory of relativity in the Returns Prequel comic. The latter is in the Extended Cut, but not sure if in the Special Edition, but it most likely is.

I'd assume Lex was wrong about when Clark landed on Earth, however. He has to be wrong. In Earth-78, I'm sure Lex would be correct.
 
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Pro Bot said:
View attachment 492
Bruce Wayne/Bat-Man (Earth-96)
Looks like Keaton...

So, according to this timeline:

Prior to 2006, Vicki Vale had encounters with "Caped Crusaders".

In 2016, Bruce Wayne returned to Gotham after being away for a while.

In 2019, Joker gasses the Daily Planet.

Seeing as he's still called "Bat-Man" (first appearance hyphen) and "terrorizes Gotham", it implies he hasn't been Batman for that long.

This implies that it should be as close to Superman Returns as possible. Maybe I will condense the timeline.

Edit: Okay. 2008 has an Olympics. Obviously it was in a different in real life, but I think it can be used as a year. Should I line up the torch lighting to be August, such as in real life? That implies a time jump that was never implied in the movie.

Oh, also the ages of characters is considerably more reasonable now.
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But the Batman in ''Batman'' film during the 1988-89s is in his six month career as ''Bat-Man'' and This Superman's comics show him in the spotlight which in 89 & Returns universe's Bruce actually hate the idea of it and add the78's comics seeming took place in the end of the70s and start/mid-80s timeline.
 
RedStar 4546 said:
But the Batman in ''Batman'' film during the 1988-89s is in his six month career as ''Bat-Man'' and This Superman's comics show him in the spotlight which in 89 & Returns universe's Bruce actually hate the idea of it and add the78's comics seeming took place in the end of the70s and start/mid-80s timeline.
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Good thing we don't have to worry about it because there's no actual crossover.

I'm sure the comic can take place in 1989.
 
RCO013_1471667569.jpg
So Superman couldn't stop the missile hitting California. He only managed to reduce the damage enough so that it didn't bury Lois? Though, in another page you could see Superman saving her from bring buried in the ground inside a car. I'm assuming that was a different occurance in-universe, though.

I think I know why I put Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut as being canon also, now. Still, quite a coincidence if the same people went to the same place and did the exact same thing they do in an alternate timeline from a year ago.

From what I can gather:
1) Superman went back in time.
2) The missile hit California like before
3) Superman managed to reduce the damage so it's not as bad as before
4) He checked on Lois

That works for me.
 
f828f91aad1814c2c09adc8466575c33.jpg
Superman Returns prop. Superman 1978 takes place in 1997? I guess the entire Superman 1978 timeline can be tracked from here.
6b9b606ece15ab6352a6eddfaa1855f4.jpg
"It has been 2 months since any sighting of Superman has been reported"
If we adjust this to 2001, because he leaves 5 years before 2006, then Superman II takes place in a very warm December 2000, most likely.

That, or Kryptonian babies take longer pregnancies. Zack Snyder seems to think so, as Lois is pregnant in Zack Snyder's Justice League. Maybe?
 
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Pro Bot said:
View attachment 527
Superman Returns prop. Superman 1978 takes place in 1997? I guess the entire Superman 1978 timeline can be tracked from here.
View attachment 528
"It has been 2 months since any sighting of Superman has been reported"
If we adjust this to 2001, because he leaves 5 years before 2006, then Superman II takes place in a very warm December 2000, most likely.

That, or Kryptonian babies take longer pregnancies. Zack Snyder seems to think so, as Lois is pregnant in Zack Snyder's Justice League. Maybe?
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as she is few month...…but Snyder should know pregnancies only last a 9 month...….anymore of that could harm women......
 
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Do ya think I should split the timeline to be:
Earth-78 - Donnerverse (Bruce became Batman in late 1980s, Burton variant?)
Earth-80 - The Richard Donner Cut
Earth-96 - Superman Returns (Bruce became Batman before Superman Returns, Schumacher variant?)

*By variant, I mean it's probably a reference to those versions. Not that it actually is them, because they're different universes. Joker is definitely dead in the Schumacher timeline.

I mean, that's much cleaner. Ignores official word a little, but more consistent with the tie-in material. It's not just Batman, but also the Superman Returns Prequel using slightly different dialogue in flashbacks to the original films. Props are easier to track.

Ignores some intention with Crisis on Infinite Earths to be the exact Superman from all 5 films, but hey. It's close enough, you know?

In terms of that, then:
Earth-78
1977 - Superman: The Movie
1979 - Superman II
1980 - Superman III
1984 - Supergirl
1985 - Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
1989 - Superman '78 #1-6

Earth-80
1977 - Superman: The Movie
1977 - Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Earth-96
2006 - Superman Returns: Prequel #1-4
2006 - Superman Returns
2019 - Crisis on Infinite Earths
 
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I don't really see the need to split it into different unofficial Earths, especially to accommodate tie-in comics; we already knew just from Crisis that they were kind of putting two different continuities into one Earth based on broad strokes similarities (with an additional continuity seemingly created at the end of the event), but they seem to be holding that line so far. I think we may have a better sense of how consistent (if at all) WB and DC is going to be with the live action multiverse after The Flash movie; no need to jump the gun before then.

As it is, we still have at least one multiversal reset to explain discontinuities between the movies and comics connected to the original Superman film; I'd lean on that or theoretical unseen time travel events, or even just noting the different continuities at play before creating unofficial Earths just for the sake of the timeline.
 
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