The Timeline of the in-universe chronology of the DC Universe is as follows:
1978 – Superman first introduces himself. Autumn 1979 – Batman introduces himself. 1980 to 1981 – Batman and Superman first meet, Season 1 Caped Crusader, Superman 2.
1982 to 1983 – Wonder Woman, Season 2 Caped Crusader.
1984 to 1985 – Arrow/Supergirl, Season 3 Caped Crusader.
1985 to 1986 – The Flash, Caped Crusader Season 4.
1986 to 1989 – Green Lantern, Caped Crusader Season 5, Superman 3.
These four miniseries, Wonder Woman, Supergirl/Arrow, The Flash, and Green Lantern, run concurrently with the Superman Movie Trilogy and five seasons of The Caped Crusader, from 1978 to 1989. The details of the Superman Movie Trilogy and The Caped Crusader can be found here:
Lovely Bones DC Universe Archives, Part One: The Complete Caped Crusader
Main Cast list
Wonder Woman: Princess Diana/Wonder Woman – Jamie Chung, Queen Hippolyta – Joan Chen, Queen Antiope – Ming Na, Althea – Grace Park, Nubia – Nathalie Emmanuel, Giganta – Yunjin Kim, Mala – Doona Bae, Steve Trevor – Winston Duke, Etta Candy – Gabourey Sidibe, The Fates – Michelle Yeoh, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ivonne Coll, Ares – Temuera Morrison.
Arrow/Supergirl: Kara Danvers/Supergirl – Narges Rashidi, Olive Queen/Green Arrow – Adrianne Palicki, Greg Osborne – Rodrigo Santoro, Count Vertigo – Sendhil Ramamurthy, Constantine Drakon – Lee Byung-Hun, Shado – Chiaki Kuriyama.
The Flash: Wallis West/the Flash – Mya Taylor, Jesse Chambers – Jamie Clayton, Reverse Flash/Eobard Thawne – Giancarlo Esposito, Captain Cold – Pedro Pascal, Mirror Master – Rose Leslie, Gorilla Grodd – Ian McShane, Trickster – Aubrey Plaza, Captain Boomerang – Margot Robbie.
Green Lantern: John Stewart/Green Lantern – Mike Colter, Thaal Sinestro – Mahershala Ali, Carol Ferris – Naomi Harris, Kilowog – Kevin Michael Richardson, Tomar Re – Brian George (voice), Abin Sur – David Strathairn, Hal Jordan – David Boreanaz, Killer Frost -Constance Wu, Jack T Change – Orlando Jones, Jessica Cruz – Natalie Morales, Kyle Rayner – Gael Garcia Bernal.
Wonder Woman
In the dimension of Olympus, young Diana grows up on the island of Themyscira, the capital of Amazonian society, raised by her two mothers Hippolyta and Antiope, alongside an older sister, Giganta. At 16, she attends the Festival of Diana, for which she was named, where she is crowned the champion of Amazonia by the Fates, with a lion headdress, and for the first time invited to participate in the closing ceremony of open love. She takes Mala, her childhood rival, as her lover, and their relationship continues for the next few years.
A great stir draws Diana to the shore of the island one day, where she encounters a man named Steve Trevor fleeing several soldiers from two crashed planes, which traveled through a portal into their world. Diana helps him defeat the soldiers and hide their bodies, before taking him to a remote spot to treat his wounds. She and Steve converse about what led to his arrival in her world, resulting in an argument due to her skepticism that the world of humanity could be as bad as he says.
“Like a lot of people in my world, my ancestors were enslaved and persecuted by men with too much power. The truth is that rich men and the men who do their dirty work will try to sell you garbage while they stripmine your technology, poison your culture, and degrade your women. Sometimes it’s so overwhelming, you feel like you can’t fight them.”
“That’s why we have to fight them.”
Diana wants to return with Steve to his world once his recovery is completed, but they are forced to leave sooner after Mala grows restless and investigates why Diana has spent less time with her, eventually angrily discovering Steve and alerting the other amazons to his presence. On Earth, Diana takes both Steve, and his friend and coworker, Etta Candy, as lovers, as she begins to act as a peace advocate in the military conflict Steve and Etta are a part of while defending humanity from creatures of her world that stumble through the portals that have been appearing, such as Cheetah and Medusa.
“You’re from a land of science fiction lesbians with a side of bondage? Honey, I’ll drink to that!”
The Amazons confront Diana and order her to come with them. She does so, agreeing to return to Themyscira under the promise of a trial, conducted by the fates. She goes on trial for leaving their plane of reality, abandoning her post as their champion and defender. Steve and Etta both accompany her and speak in defense of her and humanity in the trial, arguing that just like she did for them, their people can be inspired by her, rise to the challenge of believing in the beauty of humanity and creating a better people. Earth is in dire need of her, more than the Amazons are. Ultimately, the Queens and Fates accept that Diana’s dreams reach far beyond what they can offer her, and that being an ambassador for their people and agent of change in a troubled world is more worthwhile and true to her nature. She is granted the freedom to travel between her home and any other world at will and declared champion of Earth rather than Amazonia.
“I come of my own free will, in submission to the loving authority of the queens, my mothers. I agreed to this ordeal because I know its outcome will change our world and all worlds for the better.”
“If there are fights, I will win them, but I won’t be a weapon or a warrior. Let me be more than I was made to be!”
Arrow/Supergirl
A mysterious adult woman falls out of the sky and crashes somewhere in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. With no memories of her life, she wanders as she begins to stumble into strange powers she possesses with no known source, including super strength, flight, and heat vision. She discovers a small town in Washington state, where several locals attempt to speak with and help her. They eventually decide to bring her to Olive Queen, a hippie loner known for her fascination with the weird, paranormal, etc. Olive discloses to her that since the emergence of the alien Superman and vigilante Batman several years ago, her interests have primarily turned towards the development of superhero culture in their world.
After some time spent together, in which she provides the woman a secret identity of Kara Danvers, studies her, and helps to refine her control over her abilities, Olive determines that Kara must be an alien of the same background as Superman. Kara’s camaraderie and cheery exterior quickly endear her to Olive, until finally she learns Olive’s true journey: she has began to study and train as an aspiring vigilante herself, a nomadic hero with bow and arrows modeled after Batman and his ilk, traveling up and down the west coast in a pick-up truck to defend and serve the working class and marginalized wherever she is needed, and now the Green Arrow is ready and happy to take Kara as her counterpart inspired by Superman.
Quickly after they begin operating as superheroes, Kara and Olive establish a strong relationship dynamic inspired by the famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow Denny O‘Neal series, a dynamic defined by their contrasting social perspectives of Olive advocating for upheaval and institutional reform, and Kara trusting authority and establishment, wanting to work with law enforcement they come across. During their travels, Kara and Olive encounter numerous individuals and opponents, including: a Yakuza assassin sent after them called Shado, a cult leader named Stanley Dover Sr. that attempts to kill Olive in a sacrificial ceremony, the mercenary and assassin Constantine Drakon, terrorist group Eden Corps, Merlyn the Magician, Count Vertigo, William Tockman, and most frequently, state trooper Greg Osborne, who obsessively monitors the duo and begins chasing after them.
In the final two episodes of the miniseries, Kara confronts Olive and considers ending their partnership upon learning of the infant child and college boyfriend that she left behind in order to singlemindedly pursue becoming a superhero. After some debate, Kara wants to stay on, but encourages her to reconnect with her family and keep in regular contact while doing their work. Additionally in these climactic episodes, Greg Osborne seizes the opportunity of Olive’s reunion to attack her family, leading to her eventually killing him during the confrontation and turning the group into fugitives from the law.
The Flash
Shortly after completing her recovery from her gender confirmation surgery, graduate student Wallis “Walli” West returns to her work at the research facilities of Star University, where she soon experiences a freak accident involving a lightning bolt and the various chemicals she works with that give her the powers of hypersonic speed.
Walli visits her mentor and personal hero, professor Jesse Chambers, for advice, as she knows Jesse’s secret: that her father is Johnny Quick, one of the perceived as mythical members of WWII organization The Justice Society of America, that she inherited his powers from him and quietly used them to help people for a period after his retirement, maintaining an anonymity and aura of mystery in order to live a normal life and not alert the public to the continued existence of superpowers.
Inspired and supported by her and her father, Walli takes on the identity of the Flash, a superhero who actively courts her quickly developed status as a beloved public figure local to Central City, Missouri. She faces a variety of foes as the Flash in a series of strictly self-contained episodic stories, including an actress named Stephanie Palmer that attempts to steal and profit from her image, and a variety of self-styled supervillains rising to meet her challenge, including Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Pied Piper, the Trickster, Captain Boomerang, Abra Kadabra, and a hyper-intelligent ape called Gorilla Grodd.
And most prominent is a rival professor named Eobard Thawne, who hates both Walli and Jesse. Upon discovering her second life as the Flash, this professor transforms themselves into the Reverse-Flash, who shares her super speed powers and is devoted to destroying Walli’s life. Walli begins to develop a sense of friendly rivalry with the majority of the villains she faces, except for Grodd and the Reverse-Flash.
Green Lantern
Vietnam veteran and former marine John Stewart lives and works in Coast City, California as an architect, until one day being sought out by and coming into contact with a mysterious, spectral figure claiming to be Hal Jordan, an old friend of John’s who served with him in Vietnam and disappeared mysteriously, presumed dead, during the war. Unable to resist the possibility of finding the truth about what happened to Hal, John agrees to meet with the individual while remaining skeptical.
In order to gain his trust, he finally reveals his true form as an alien named Abin Sur, who says that Hal’s disappearance in Vietnam was in fact his recruitment into the intergalactic peace force known as the Green Lantern Corps, and before his recent death in an act of tremendous heroism and sacrifice, Hal named John as the person on Earth most worthy to be his successor. Abin gifts John with a powerful ring and lantern fueled by imagination and willpower, and says that soon he will have to choose whether he accepts this responsibility, before departing.
John soon discovers the capabilities of the ring and vows not to abuse it, only using it to help with his blueprints for architectural designs, until he finally is contacted by other members of the Lantern Corps: Katma Tui, Arisia, and Tomar-Re. The trio discuss with John at length to ensure he considers the choice of enlisting with the Corps in complete seriousness, taking into account his previous experience in the US military, among other factors. John finally agrees and, after reciting the oath, is quickly teleported to Oa, planet of the Guardians and Lanterns, where he begins his training under Kilowog.
Among his fellow new trainees is Thaal Sinestro, who looks up to Hal, and remains deeply skeptical of John’s ability to live up to Hal’s example, even while Tomar-Re informs them both that the history of humans in the Lantern Corps will not begin or end with Hal, speaking at length about a predecessor by the name of Alan Scott. John and Sinestro have a competitive rivalry, from which emerges at first begrudging respect, that ultimately develops into a more friendly relationship.
John’s training is completed and begins his service in the sector surrounding Earth under supervision by senior officers like Kilowog, Katma Tui and Tomar-Re. In order to test John’s ability to handle extremely strange circumstances, one of the first missions he is brought along for entails traveling to an alternate universe where Earth has been conquered by mutant gila monsters known as Zegors.
Some of John’s other early missions involve encounters with mad scientists like Hector Hammond, Dr. Neal “Polaris” Emerson, and Louise Lincoln, who transforms herself into Killer Frost in a conflict that brings John in contact with The Flash. Despite their personality clash, John and Walli are able to effectively work together and he convinces her to keep her knowledge of the Lantern Corps secret to the public so he doesn’t have to wipe her memory.
However, the collateral damage starting to occur in situations like the Killer Frost incident, as well as when a group of violent mooks called the Demolition Team attack the airfield controlled by John’s friend Carol Ferris, convince him that he must speak with the Guardians of Oa about opening diplomatic contact with the governments of Earth.
They are resistant to the argument, believing that humans as a whole are not yet ready, until an extended conflict in the climactic episodes of the miniseries involving an attack on Oa and Earth by the Guardians’ ancient robot army the Manhunters, results in both John earning substantial accolades and greater trust for his effective service during the crisis, and the gravity of the threat to humanity posed by their lack of knowledge being demonstrated by the attack.
While Carol Ferris’ investigation into John’s activities ultimately result in her making contact with an alien race that empower her to emerge during the battle with the Manhunters as the mysterious Star Sapphire, and a resentful Sinestro is conspiring in secret against the Guardians after their rejection of his proposal to weaponize fear and a new yellow power ring against the Manhunters, John prepares to lead the Lantern Corps’ first diplomatic mission to Earth.
The DC Universe Saga Will Continue with the Complete World’s Finest Archive in December 2017!
