TIMELINE
The History Earth-III in Brief
DAWN OF TIME
BEFORE ALL ELSE The
Endless come into existence. They appear in order:
Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and
Delight.
c. 20,000,000,000 B.C. The current universe is created.
c. 20,000,000,000 B.C. At exactly one Planck time unit (roughly 10^−43 seconds) after the creation of the universe
The Great Time War ends. Only one
Time Lord survives and he remains the only being -— short of the Endless — to know when in the distant future it will have begun.
c. 18,000,000,000 B.C. GodWorld is formed.
c. 17,000,000,000 B.C. Life begins to evolve on GodWorld.
c. 15,000,000,000 B.C. The eldritch beings on the GodWorld who would become known as the
Old Gods fight a series of titanic wars.
BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO
c. 10,000,000,000 B.C. The GodWorld is destroyed in a great war. The Old Gods are killed, and the
Godwave is unleashed on the universe. This creates the forces in the universe (e.g, the metagene, magic, etc.) that will allow certain superpowers to work.
c. 9,999,999,999 B.C. The remains of Godworld form the twin planets
Genesis and
Apokolips. Only two of the Old Gods survive, one who will come to be called
All-Father (also known as Rao, Zeus, Krom, Odin, etc.) and one whom will come to be know as
Darkseid (or Thanatos, Hastuur, Chronos, Ragnarok, etc.). Each of them will create a society of
New Gods in their own image. The New Gods are effectively immortal and if killed through violence will, eventually, be reborn on their homeworld. These two soceities form the basis of every known pantheon in the universe and their constant battles against each other frequently result in mutual annihilation.
c. 5,000,000,000 B.C. The first sentinet species evolve on the planets of
Kyrpton (Kryptonians),
Oa (Oans),
Goa'ri (Goa'uld), and
Skrullos (Skrull). In time they would come to be collectivly known as
The Eternals. Each of these incredibly long-lived races is identiffied with a certain cosmic tennant: Oans - Order, Skrulls - Chaos, Kryptonians - Justice, and the Goa'uld - Self-Interest. In the modern era, very few Eternals remain and they interact with the galaxy mostly through pawns and proxys.
c. 5,000,000,000 B.C. A fifth sentient species evolves, but remains hidden from the other Eternals on the planet
Gallifrey, their ruling caste are known as the
Time Lords. On the whole their society is dedicated to neutrality and non-interference. As the first species in the known cosmos to develop time travel, their history is largely unrecordable by any outsiders.
c. 4,900,000,000 B.C. The great-link of liquiform Skrulls on their homeworld becomes self-aware and devours its own biome, this
Supreme Intelligence is now worshipped by all Skrulls. It wanders the galaxy seeking new worlds to consume and is feared by all as
Galactus.
c. 4,500,000,000 B.C. Kryptionian scientists seed most habitable worlds in our galaxy with interstellar travel devices known as
Stargates.
c. 4,500,000,000 B.C. Goa'uld geneticists successfully engineer a means by which their may use their natural parasitic abilites on nearly any species, not just the few they had naturally evolved to inhabit. The Oans' physical frailty makes using them unsuitable, Skrull shapeshiting using makes them impossible, but the physical might of Kryptonians is considered ideal. The Goa'uld and Kryptonians are soon locked into bitter war.
c. 4,000,000,000 B.C. The Oans now known as
The Guardians of Order declare themselves to be the keepers of cosmic law throughout the universe. They bind all the wild magic in the universe into the
M'Kron Crystal at the farthest edge of our galaxy.
c. 3,900,000,000 B.C. The Skrulls consider the Guardians' obsession with enforcing order a grave threat. The Skrulls worship change, dynamism, and chaos. These two Eternal races begin a rivalry that will last for billions of years.
c. 3,900,000,000 B.C. The Krpytonians form an elite fighting force that uses advanced technology to retain yellow-sun energy anywhere. They are dedicated to combating the Goa'uld and will come to be known as the
Eradicators.
c. 3,000,001,000 B.C. The Guardians create the
Manhunter Androids to serve as their agents. However, they eventually rebel against their masters having been corrupted by the Skrulls.
c. 3,000,000,000 B.C. The Guardians replace the Manhunters with living agents, the
Green Lantern Corps.
c. 1,000,000,000 B.C. The Green Lantern Corps and the Eradicators drive the Goa'uld out of our galaxy. This heroic success comes to be known in the Book of Oa as
The Brightest Day.
ANCIENT TIMES
c. 64,000,000 B.C. The dinosaurs on Earth go extinct... Mostly.
c. 50,000 B.C. The Cro-Magnon hunter, Vandar Adg gains immortality from exposure to a strange meteor, setting him on the path to becoming the evil
Vandal Savage.
c. 30,000 B.C. The first
homo sapiens man, known today as Adam, is born. He will become a leader among early humans.
c. 30,000 B.C. The Guardians of the Universe finally conquer the Skrull Empire, and perform an act of mass genetic tampering with the species, giving them a weakness to fire, rendering them mortal, sundering their empire, and scattering them across the galaxy. Several billion of them are exiled/marooned on Mars.
c. 20,000 B.C. A plague wipes out most of the Martian-Skrull race, the few who remain are reduced from a Post-Atomic Age civilization to a Bronze Age level of technology within a few centuries.
c. 20,000 B.C. A great civilization, rich in both magic and technology, forms on the outer edges of space near the M'Kron Crystal. This civilization evolves rapidly, and comes to call itself the
Shi'ar Empire.
c. 15,000 B.C. The Green Lantern Corps discovers the use of magic by the Shi'ar, and is dispatched en masse by the Guardians to put an end to this new threat to cosmic order. Seeking to draw more and more energy from the M'Kron Crystal the Shi'Ar accidentally destroy it, releasing a beaing of pure chaotic energy which they identify with their most sacred deity, the
Phoenix.
c. 14,999 B.C. The Phoenix Force decimates the Green Lantern Corps, destroys most the Guardians of Oa, and generally wreaks havoc as magic returns the universe. This devastating war comes to be known in the Book of Oa as
The Darkest Night.
c. 10,000 B.C. The Goa'uld, who had conquered their new home of the Pegasus Galaxy millions of years earlier, have remained in isolation ever since. For unknown reasons, they now begin their slow jounrey into this galaxy. They are held at bay by their Eternal rivals, the Kryptonians, and the few remaining Green Lanterns. They do establish a foothold on the spinward rim of our galaxy, a divided empire ruled by feuding
System Lords.
THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO / THE MYTHIC AGE
c. 1,000 B.C. To protect the
Amazons from persecution, a faction of the New Gods known as the
Olympians transport the warrior-women to the island of
Themyscira.
c. 500 C.E. In the early 6th century
Merlin the Magician gives the Once and Future King,
Arthur Pendragon, magical equipment and instructon. King Arthur founds Camelot and forms the Round Table ushering in the Mythic Age. The evil
Morgan Le Fay destroys Camelot, imprissons Merlin in the
Rock of Eternity, and is herself trapped in the
Otherworld.
EARLY 20th CENTURY / THE GOLDEN AGE
1924: The first public debut of
mutants, when an 24 year old American scientist, Prof.
Charles Xavier (with assitance from his German counter-part Dr.
Erik Lensherr) publsihes a paper on their discovery of the
metagene. The world at large reacts with fear and loathing at the thought "Xavier's New Men." Newspapers across Europe and America denounce these "
x-men" as freaks of nature. In Germany, the National Socialist Party adds mutants to their lists of
untermensch ("subhumans").
1938: Throughout the interwar period, the U.S. Government had been secretly developing a project to create
super soldiers to fight in future wars, but in its final days it is sabotaged by a Nazi agent and the full formula was lost. Only one soldier,
Steve Rogers, was given the full super soldier treatment. Rogers was given the secret identity of
Captain America to be a morale-boosting symbol. Other nations across the globe engage in super soldier research projects at this time, including Nazi Germany.
December 7, 1941: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings the U.S. into the Second World War.
1942: When America entered the war, President Roosevelt himself arranges for several "mystery men" of the Allied Nations to form a team called
The Invaders, to perform missions inside "Fortress Europe" behind enemy lines against the Axis Powers. Several costumed villains have important roles among the Axis and conflicts between the groups are the stuff of legend. Most infamous amongst the Axis super-villains are the Nazi Super Soldier code-named
Red Skull, Italy's
Baron Blood (actually Vandal Savage operating under an alias), and Japan's
Silver Samurai.
April 30, 1845 Adolf Hitler commits suicide in a bunker beneath Berlin.
May 8, 1945: V-E Day, the Allies formally accept the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.
August 2, 1945: V-J Day, the Empire of Japan formally surrenders in a ceremony performed in Tokyo Bay, aboard the battleship USS
Missouri.
MID 20th CENTURY / THE INTERREGNUM
1951: Due to rapidly escalating cold war tensions between the USSR and the West, the United States government forms the covert organization
S.H.E.I.L.D. to fill the gap left by the departing heroes. The British govenment follows suit with the creation of
CHECKMATE. The Soviet Union responds in the creation of
HYDRA.
1952: The Invaders disband, after being persecuted under McCarthyist paranoia. Superhero activity declines (but doesn't totally disappear) afterwards. Most historians see this as the end of the Golden Age of Heroics.
1953: Rao the anceint star of the planet
Krypton explodes. The Kryptonian scientist Jor-El manages to save his baby son,
Kal-El, by sending him to Earth through a transdimensional gateway. The planet's remains become
kryptonite. The cosmic energy wave released travels across the galaxy at tremendous speeds, passing through Earth's solar system a mere decade later.
1953: Distressed by the McCarthyist "Red Scare," the post-war persecution of homosexuals like their friend Alan Turing, and still alarmed by by the abuses of science carried out by all sides during the war a new political party is born. Founded by Howard Stark, Robert Oppenheimer, Lionel Luthor, and Thomas Wayne. The
Scientific Liberty Party are soon dubbed "
Technocrats" in the popular press.
MID 20th CENTURY / THE SILVER AGE
November 1, 1963: Doctor
Reed Richards, his fiancée Dr.
Susan Storm, and their companions
Johnny Storm and Capt.
Ben Grimm are expossed to cosmic energy cast off by the death of Krytpon during a scientific space mission. The metagenes of all four activate, and they gain fantastic superhuman powers and become the adventurers known popularly as
The Fantastic Four. The "FF" are cited by most historians as the beginning of the Silver Age of Heroics.
1965: Bruce Wayne is born to Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne.
1965: Kal-El arrives on the outsirks of a small Kansas farm, Jonathan and Martha Kent find him. They adopt him and name him Clark Kent.
1970: Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, yearns for a child and prays to the gods to grant her wish. During an intense hurricane, American pilot Steve Trevor is forced to crash land on the hidden island. He is the first outsider to arrive in nearly 3,000 years. Hippolyta takes him as a husband and consort.
1973: A mugger murders Thomas and Martha Wayne in what will come to be known as "
Crime Alley" in Chicago. Their son Bruce swears to fight a war on crime. The killer is never caught.
1975: Hippolyta gives birth to the first Amazon child, whom she names
Diana. In a closely guarded secret, known only to the Queen and her Consort, a twin brother is born. Steve Trevor flees Themscria with the male infant.
LATE 20th CENTURY / THE BRONZE AGE
1981: Peter Parker is born.
1982: Dick Grayson is born, the youngest son of the famous
Flying Graysons aerialists.
1983: After twenty years of adventure, the Fantastic Four announce their retirement.
1984: Peter Parker's parents are killed in an auto accident, he is taken in by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
1985: A group of super-powered heroes operating in New York City's Harlem and Hell's Kitchen neighborhoods, consisting of
Power Man, Black Lightning, Iron Fist, Hawk and
Dove appear. They call themselves
The Defenders but due to a habit of accpeting donations from the neighborhoods they protect are smeared in the media as "
Heroes for Hire."
1985: Bruce Wayne begins his training in a variety of disciplines.
THE MODERN AGE
1990: HYDRA discovers a Kryptonian Stargate in Egypt, the device is captured by SHIELD before HYDRA can unlock its secrets.
1995: Clark Kent, emerges as
Superman. This inspires a new generation of superheroes to debut soon afterward. In his civilian guise as a criminal defense lawyer, he joins the staff of the New York Public Defenders Office.
1995: Bruce Wayne begins his career as
The Batman. Selina Kyle is inspired by Batman to become
Catwoman shortly after. The Joker appears by the year's end.
1995: Diana princess of the Amazons, arrives in America, where she takes the costumed identity of
Wonder Woman. She also creates a civilian identity for herself as Donna Troy, owner of a small antiques shop.
1996: Dick Grayson, age 14, debuts as
Robin.
1996: Peter Parker, age 15, is bitten by a "radioactive" spider. Gaining great powers, he initally wastes them on petty gain. But, after his Uncle Ben is murdered, he vows to live up to his great responisbilty. Parker debuts as
Spider-Man soon after.
1997: Barry Allan, age 24, makes his debut as the Flash.
1998: Injured in battle against a Goa'uld fleet and crash landing on Earth, the sole remaining member of the Green Lantern Corps, Abin Sur of Ungara, chooses young Air Force pilot
Hal Jordan to succeed him as the last Green Lantern.
1998: Barbara Gordon, age 25, makes her debut as Batgirl.
2000: Batgirl and Robin with assistance from Flash and Spider-Man foil a scheme by the
Riddler to disrupt the Florida presidential election, the trio become good freinds and are dubbed by the media as the
Teen Titans.
December 31, 2001: The famous geneticist Prof. Charles Xavier dies in his sleep. His adopted daughter,
Jean Grey, only age 21, inherits his entire estate.
Janurary 20, 2001: John F. Kerry is sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States.
September 11, 2001: Islamic Terrorists destroy the World Trade Center, and heavily damage the Pentagon in an unpredcedented terrorist attack. Although long retired, Susan Storm responds, giving her life in the process of saving hundreds of others.
October 11, 2001: As a reaction to the events of 9/11, the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman form the
Justice League of America. The Flash and Green Lantern are soon persuaded to join the new League.
2002: The death of Gwen Stacy.
2002: Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne end their partnership.
2002: Six months after leaving Chicago and giving up the mantle of Robin, Dick Grayson makes his debut in Detroit as
Nightwing.
2003: As part of a plot to corrupt Chicago Police Commissioner
Jim Gordon, the Joker shoots and paralyzes Barbara Gordon, never realizing she was secretly his frequent foe Batgirl.
2003: Katar Hol returns to Earth from the Shi'Ar Empire, and makes his first modern appearance as
Hawkman.
2003: After the Justice League dismantles al-Qaedia in Afganistan and the brutal Taliban government, many UN member states begin to express grave concern about so much power residing in this "American" superteam. Superman reassures the world that the League is international in scope by officially renouncing his (honorary) American citizenship and signing a new charter that makes them an official UN Peacekeeper mission, now named the
Justice League International. Several new members from outside the United States are recruited, including
Captain Britain (U.K.),
Crimson Fox (France), and the
Black Panther (Wakanda).
2004: Lex Luthor is elected President of the United States of America. [/b]Justine Hammer[/b] becomes the first woman elected as Vice-President.
2004: Barbara Gordon reinvents herself as the "digital vigilante" called
Oracle.
2004: A strange group of teenagers and young adults with uncanny powers debut, stopping the mutant terrorist
Magneto from detonating America's nucelar arsenal at a Colorado Air Force Base. These five heroes called themselves
Angel, Beast, Changeling, Cyclops, and
Phoenix. Upon learning they are mutants, the media dubs them the X-Men.
2005: Tim Drake, age 15, deduces that the Batman is really Bruce Wayne. He convinces the Dark Knight to accept him as a partner, becoming the second Robin.
2005: WikiLeaks publishes the classified transcripts of a Congressional committee investigation of the Magneto attack in Colorado. The most shocking revelation is the existence of the secret
Stargate Command facility underneath the mountain.
2005: The Fantastic Four is persuaded by SHEILD to investigate the possibilty that Magneto is building a fortress at the Artic magnetic pole, they find no sign of Magneto but they do discover
Captain America frozen in the ice since the last days of WWII.
2005: Captain America returns to duty in the modern age, and is soon added to the Justice League's roster at the incistance of President Luthor.
2006: After a year of intense rivalry and distrust, Batman quits the Justice League rather than continue to work with Captain America. The final mission the two serve on together ends in tragedy, as the two issue contrary orders in the field and Crimson Fox is captured and ultimatly executed by HYDRA.
2007: Lex Luthor is revealed to have been conducting secret negotiations with Magneto. Pres. Luthor has been allowing Magneto to bring American mutants to a secret facility on Earth's Moon in exchange for a steady supply of rare lunar elements. Luthor is impeached and removed from office. The UN recognizes Luna as a soveriegn state.
2008: A group of young teenaged heroes, led by Oracle, are gathered as the
New Teen Titans.
2008: Tainted by the Magneto Scandal, Pres. Hammer looses her re-elecetion bid and Sen. Barack Obama is elected as the next President of the United States.
2009: In an event that will become known as
The Loki Incident a Skrull warband launches an assault on New York City, Gen. Jack O'Neill of SHIELD greenlights
The Initiative. Led by Colonel Nick Fury this team is dubbed
The Avengers by member Janet van Dyne, the winsome
Wasp, who is the only fatality during the attack. The Avengers turn back the invasion without any assistance from the Justice League and continue to operate as the U.S.A.'s premire super team.
2010: Pres. Obama completes the reorganization of the top-secret Startgate Command and SHIELD agency into the new Department of Homeworld Security.
2012: The Batman concludes that the Justice League places too much emphasis on world-wide crisis and that the Avengers are too much the pawn of the government. He is also concerned over the rising number of militant and agressive "anti-heroes" operating today. Seeking to direct these individuals to his own ends, he begins recruiting them into
The Outsiders.
2014: Rep. Harold "Harry" Osborne of New York, having spent years distancing the Technocratic Party from the scandals of the Luthor Administration leads his party to a majority in the House and Senate. He is elected Speaker of the House.
2015: Tim Drake, now 25, steps away from his career as Robin to dedicate himself to his law school studies.
Stephanie Brown takes up the mantle as the third Robin.
2016: With the country still deeply polarized between the parties, Republican candidate Donald J. Trump and Democratic candidate Sec. Hillary Clinton are both defeated by the much better organized campaign of Technocrats.
January 20, 2017: Dell Rusk is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.