DC's 'Generations' explains the new DC timeline and a Doctor Manhattan-ed Wally West kickstarts it all
The Multiverse has wronged Wally West, but he's about to strike back. The end of the multiverse-hopping 'Flash Forward' will see Wally West gain the formidable, godlike powers of Doctor Manhattan, and with it, the power to change DC's metaverse.
The heart of this colossal storyline, though, is that DC needs an excuse to reboot its VERY complicated timeline and history, and hopefully in a way that makes it stick, with the 'Generations' one shots.
First introduced in the announcement for DC's Free Comic Book Day offering, 'Generation Zero' will act as an epilogue for 'Flash Forward' and show just how Wally, with all his new powers, will start to affect the timeline.
The official solicit from DC Entertainment reads: "In order to save his children and the multiverse itself, Wally West makes the ultimate sacrifice, taking his place in the Moebius Chair."
"Unknown to him, the chair is packing a little extra power, having been imbued with the godlike powers of Dr Manhattan! Now armed with infinite knowledge – and the powers of a god – Wally West can see the past, present and future of the DC Universe all at once… Including what needs to be changed," it adds.
The issue will also contain a reprint of a story from 'Wonder Woman' #750 that officially established Wonder Woman as the first public superhero in the DC Universe.
DC has just announced that 'Generation Zero' is just the beginning. DC will be releasing a series of one-shots that will attempt to, once and for all, completely cover the history of the DC universe in a coherent manner.
DC has been trying to do this for decades, now, with one Crisis after another attempting to unify DC Comics' multiple titles into one coherent history. It started with 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' combining all the separate Earths into one, merging histories, but the job wasn't complete.
With stories like 'Zero Hour,' 'Infinite Crisis,' '52,' and even as recently as 'Doomsday Clock,' DC has been trying to make its messy, complicated history make sense.
This grew especially necessary in the wake of 'Flashpoint,' where several years were taken off of continuity to establish a brand new timeline whose history was vague, uncertain and that fell apart the closer you looked at it. 'Rebirth' was an attempt to change that and 'Generations' appears to be the final step.
The five one-shots appear to be covering very specific areas of DC Universe history, titled as follows:
'Generation One: Age of Mysteries' arrives in May
'Generation Two: Age of the Metahuman'
'Generation Three: Age of Crisis'
'Generation Four: Age of Rebirth'
'Generation Five: Age of Tomorrow'
It should be noted that with much less fanfare, Marvel has attempted to do something similar, with Mark Waid and Javier Rodriguez's 'History of the Marvel Universe,' accomplished in one single mini-series — although to be fair, Marvel's timeline hasn't gone through nearly as many line-wide reboots, revamps and rebirths as DC has.
'DC’s Generation Zero: Gods Among Us' releases May 2, as part of Free Comic Book Day 2020.