That new DC Universe timeline is now showing up in DC’s marketing

There’s been a lot of leaks and teases in the comics world about a new authoritative DC Universe timeline, as well as a rumored major crisis/hypertime combo event next year; this will subsequently give rise to a major DC Comics publishing initiative in the spirit of Rebirth or the New 52.

Well, now DC’s own marketing folks (or at least a singular verified DC Twitter account somewhere down in Burbank) are getting in on the fun.

In January, a Twitter account was created for DC Nation, a magazine about DC Comics that published six issues last year. We know this account is legit, because it somehow got that elusive blue checkmark status that we all so desperately crave and would do truly depraved things for, seeking that sweet sweet social media validation. Ahem. Anyway, that account posted its first tweet earlier this week, which you can check out below:

Uh oh…looks like Dan left his office door open. pic.twitter.com/uKgtri1tGb

— DC Nation (@thedcnation) October 30, 2019

The account, which has a bio that implies it’s aimed largely at weekly DC Comics readers, is making light of DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio‘s barely-restrained enthusiasm to share this timeline with the world (don’t worry, I’ll rehash what that timeline is toward the end, for those of you who haven’t kept up with or clicked any of the embedded links at the start of this story).

Dan first announced the new DC Universe timeline during DC’s “Meet the Publishers” panel at San Diego Comic Con, noting as he did so that he was probably going against the marketing team’s wishes. The timeline next showed up in September in the background of a Dan DiDio interview about the current Year of the Villain motif. There it is…

Who knows what that was about. It could have been a total accident, or maybe it was DiDio trying to release his baby into the world, the way you just have to brag when you do something of unimpeachable substance. Anyway, the public got its first official glimpse of the thing (as well as some brief words related to what it’s all about) at the “DC Nation” panel during New York Comic Con, when Dan put pictures of it on the screen — pictures that were quickly photographed and spread throughout the Internet.

This new, cheeky tweet is obviously a way of winking at the timeline’s history of escaping into the world courtesy of DiDio.

So, what is the timeline? Well, as Dan told us all in New York, it’s the publisher’s means of organizing its long and at times convoluted history, a way of ensuring that when something new does start (see DC 5G), they won’t disregard their past as much as they did with their New 52 initiative, which started with a bang but fizzled relatively quickly.

Does the teased photo above reveal anything wholly new about the timeline or 5G? Not really (as we noted in the headline, it was the work of marketing). It really just gives us a sharper visual of info we had already, namely that the publisher was making the start of its whole superhero thing the public arrival of Wonder Woman in the world.

Have we heard anything new about the timeline or 5G? Eh, there is buzz, sure, and actually some of the comics that have come out since we posted our story about 5G seem to foreshadow a coming crisis, specifically the Tales From the Dark Multiverse one-shots, the first of which actually has this line on its fourth page, “A crisis is coming…perhaps the greatest yet.”

Perhaps the next tweet from the account will be something like, Dan’s got a fever and the only prescription is another crisis. Or whatever, I don’t know…I just write about marketing Tweets.