The following information should give you a good idea of when the MUSH is set and the general history of the DC World:
15 BILLION YEARS AGO----------------------------> The Big Bang 5 BILLION YEARS AGO-----------------------------> Life first emerges on Earth. 4 BILLION 400,000 YEARS AGO---------------------> Renegade Maltusian KRONA links past and future together, releasing entropy into the Universe.3 BILLION YEARS AGO-----------------------------> Guardians create Manhunters. 2 1/2 BILLION YEARS AGO-------------------------> Owan race splits along gender lines. Females evolve into Zamarons. 100,000 YEARS AGO-------------------------------> Homo Magi Birth of Atlantis. First woman killed by male aggression. 50,000 YEARS AGO--------------------------------> Atlantis sinks. 25,000 B.C.-------------------------------------> Dr. Mist 12,000 B.C.-------------------------------------> The Amazon race born. ROMAN EMPIRE------------------------------------> Golden Gladiator 6TH CENTURY A.D.--------------------------------> Camelot 964 A.D.----------------------------------------> Viking Prince LATE 1700's-1800's------------------------------> Daily Planet founded--1826. MID TO LATE 1800's------------------------------> Bat Lash, Jonah Hex, Nighthawk, Don Caballero, El Diablo, Johnny Thunder, Madame .44, The Trigger Twins, Matt Savage, Scalphunter. WORLD WAR I ERA---------------------------------> Enemy Ace Balloon Buster 1919-------------------------------------------->Morpheus imprisoned 1935--------------------------------------------> Dr. Occult 1938-------------------------------> THE GOLDEN AGE OF HEROES BEGINS The Flash (Jay Garrick), The Crimson Avenger 1939-------------------------------> Green Lantern (Alan Scott) Sandman, Steel, Hawkman, Blackhawk, Dollman Jim Corrigan becomes The Spectre. 1940-------------------------------> Johnny Thunder, Hourman, Atom, Dr. Fate, Scarab The Justice Society of America forms. 1941-------------------------------> Starman, Dr. Mid-nite, Fury, Star Spangled Kids and Stripes, Shining Knight, Vigilante, Johnny Quick, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific, Liberty Belle, Robotman, Tarantula, Sandy, Firebrand. 1942-------------------------------> WORLD WAR II VIRTUALLY ALL COSTUMED HEROES COMBINE INTO THE WARTIME ONLY "ALL STAR SQUADRON" WITH THE OFFSHOOT "YOUNG ALL-STARS". Armed Forces overseas include: Sgt. Rock, Easy Company, Haunted Tank, The Losers, Mlle. Marie, Unknown Soldier, Viking Commando, Blackhawks, The Boy Commandos, Creature Commandos, G.I. Robot, The Ghost Patrol and Gravedigger, Guardian and the Newsboy Legion, Amazing Man, TNT and Dan the Dyna-Mite, Neptune Perkins. 50 YEARS AGO-----------------------> Krypton explodes. Baby Kal-El rocketed to Earth via space warps. 47 YEARS AGO-----------------------> Black Canary 43 YEARS AGO-----------------------> The Justice Society Of America disbands. THE FIRST HEROIC AGE ENDS. 35 YEARS AGO-----------------------> J'onn J'onzz accidentally teleported to Earth. 33 YEARS AGO-----------------------> Kal-El arrives on Earth, landing near Smallville. 25 YEARS AGO-----------------------> Bruce Wayne's parents killed. Project Atom begins. Wonder Woman's clay form is given life by the gods. 15 YEARS AGO-----------------------> Clark Kent leaves Smallville for Metropolis. Cave Carson, Sea Devils, Sarge Steel, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Alec Holland becomes Swamp Thing. 13 YEARS AGO-----------------------> Metal Men, Metamorpho, Challengers of the Unknown, Deadman. 11 YEARS AGO-----------------------> Oliver Queen stranded on a desert island learns archery. 10 YEARS AGO-----------------------> THE NEW HEROIC AGE BEGINS Superman makes his debut inspiring a new heroic age. Batman, The Joker, Catwoman, Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), J'onn J'onzz goes public as Manhunter from Mars, Black Canary, Aquaman, The Original Blue Beetle, Adam Strange first teleports to Rann. Katar Hol exiled on Thanagar. Speedy Triumph makes his debut then disappears. Justice League of America forms. 9 YEARS AGO------------------------> The Atom (Ray Palmer), Kid Flash, Elongated Man, JSA re-forms, Doom Patrol dies. Creeper, Hawk and Dove, New Gods reappear on Earth. The Cadmus Project Begins. Zatanna, Aqualad. 8 YEARS AGO------------------------> Dick Grayson becomes Robin. Plastic Man, Bruce Gordon frees Eclipso, Etrigan the demon reappears, Wonder Girl, Deathstroke. 7 YEARS AGO------------------------> Teen Titans Form. Manhunter (Paul Kirk) is ressurected. John Stewart becomes reserve Green Lantern. 6 YEARS AGO------------------------> Power Girl, Shade, Rose and Thorn, Black Lightning. 5 YEARS AGO------------------------> Omega Men form. Batgirl, Ted Kord becomes Blue Beetle Blue Devil, Fire, Ice, Captain Atom emerges from quantum field, New Titans form. Infinity Inc. form, Firestorm. 4 YEARS AGO------------------------> Outsiders form. Robin becomes Nightwing. CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Barry Allen dies, Wally West becomes The Flash. Guy Gardner activated as a Green Lnatern. Doctor Light, JSA goes to Limbo, Wonder Woman comes to Man's world. Captain Marvel makes his public debut. The Question, Vigilante. 3 YEARS AGO------------------------> Maxwell Lord forms The New Justice League. Jason Todd becomes Robin, Barbara Gordon crippled by the Joker, The Huntress, Suicide Squad, Checkmate form, MILLENNIUM, Guardians depart Green Lantern Corps, Corps disbands. Controllers expand Darkstar program. New Guardians, Gangbuster, Outsiders disband, Rocket Reds form in USSR, Manhunter (Mark Shaw), Jason Todd killed by the Joker. Lobo comes to Earth. 2 YEARS AGO------------------------> Thanagarian invasion, L.E.G.I.O.N., Valor, Starman (Bill Payton), Rip Hunter cracks time barrier. 1 YEAR AGO-------------------------> Tim Drake becomes current Robin, Hawkman and Hawkwoman arrive from Thanagar, Guardians return, Green Lantern Corps reinstated, War of the Gods, Beret, Ragman, Team Titans, Armageddon, JSA returns from Limbo, Thunderbolt, Darkstar Colos comes to Earth, existence of the Linear Men are revealed.
The DC Comic Book company has been around for well over 50 years, and within the pages of their books created an entire Universe filled with hundreds of characters, each with their own unique story. In 1985, DC decided to streamline their continuity due to the fact that in those fifty years, various writers had created "Earths" 1, 2, x, 0, and so on. This made reading them a minor mental miracle. "Well, Flash lives in Earth-One, but the OTHER Flash lives in Earth-Two, while Superman 1-14 lives on ALL the Earths, and..." You get the idea. The CRISIS erased all the "Earths" save one, which began anew with landmark tales such as THE MAN OF STEEL, and BATMAN: YEAR ONE.
In 1994, they did it again, although not to the same extreme as CRISIS. In ZERO HOUR, the continuity was once again streamlined, yet kept the Universe, as well as the "DC Earth", intact.
"In the beginning there was but one universe, one world... one Earth. At the moment of creation, a moment some believe inspired by an outside force, a moment others believe exploded whole and unto itself--a second universe was created of heat and light, gas and plasma, and a million other elements gestating in the cosmic womb. This was a universe of counterbalance...a negative universe to our positive creation: an existance of anti-matter to our positive matter. This was a universe of darkness, a universe of evil, a universe of twisted reality."
"And in this second universe, there was born one single being who would live ten billion years and disrupt all future reality."
"This is the history of those ten billion years, and of the years that follow. This is not a chronological retelling of historical events which can be read in any text--this is the history of heroism."
"My name is Harbinger and I am honor-bound to record all that has happened and all that will occur."
"Throughout history there have been those men and women, those creatures from other worlds and dimensions, those beings who have altered the face of the world: sometimes by their deeds, sometimes by their very presence. They are beings often with unique abilities and possessed of unexpected courage."
"My mentor--who called himself The Monitor--spent ten thousand millennia observing these heroes, cataloging their tales and recording their moments of greatness. He spent an equal number of years observing others: those with special powers who used their abilities for evil. The Monitor has since perished, but his chronicles must be continued. I have appointed myself to that endless task. "
"This then, is the History Of The Universe."
"America entered World War II and hope was high that this international conflict would soon come to an end. The allied heroes- -costumed and otherwise--joined the battle for freedom and democracy. Judomaster and Tiger were among the first in the Pacific Theatre of War, but others followed quickly on their heels."
"As soldiers marched through Europe and Japan, they battled alongside others who kept their unique gifts hidden. This would be a war fought with the uncommon courage of common people in a conflict against global evil. It was a a war that had to be fought by the ordinary person in order to assure freedom on a world that had to stand on its own, without the aid of super-powered beings."
"And yet, the super-powered beings were there as well: from the Japanese-American nisei Tsunami to Neptune Perkins, the ocean- locked mutant, the fought alongside the Allies to free a world from tyranny."
"The war was fought on all continents. Many remained in America to battle subterfuge from enemy agents: The Guardian and The Newsboy Legion proved even those without extraordinary powers could advance the cause of freedom at home."
"Jeb Stuart led his Sherman tank crew throughout Europe, aided by his namesake ghost. This Haunted Tank scored impressive victories."
"Project M created monster-like beings to battle in war's most bizarre campaigns. The Creature Commandos' record of victory was stunning, as were those of the famed G.I. Robot and the mysterious Viking Commando."
"But here, as in all wars, it was the ordinary soldier who proved it does not require special powers to become a hero."
"There were those men and women who worked with the O.S.S., or those who battled in the underground like Mademoiselle Marie, or Captain Ulysses Hazard who fought prejudice at home at the same time he battled the Nazi enemy."
"All too often, these heroes paid the price of valor with their lives. Until, at long last, these sacrifices were rewarded with victory--and with peace."
"The war was over, and with it began the decline of the latest Heroic Age. The Law's Legionnaires formed before the war, came to an end when one of their teammates, Wing, sacrificed his life to defeat the entity known as Nebula Man. The other heroes were dispersed throughout time, only to be rescued many years later by the combined forces of the Justice Society of America and one of the later-formed Justice Leagues."
"There were others--heroes such as Black Canary and Merry, Girl of 1000 Gimmicks. Both women would later have crimefighting children of their own as, out of necessity, the tradition would continue."
"The 1940's began with the birth of the super-hero and ended with their slide into obscurity. The final, crushing blow came in the early 1950's when the Justice Society of America was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee under suspicion of giving aid to enemy spies. Rather than reveal their secret identities, the Justice Society disbanded, and their members retired to civilian life."
"Without the World's Greatest Heroes fighting to preserve freedom, the govornment created it's own warriors: Task Force X led the fight against evil on an international scale as former O.S.S. spymaster Control headed a domestic force."
"Thus the 1950's began in quiet despair. Those people who banded together to help a world in need were driven away by an un- thinking public during paranoid times. For a handful of years, there was quiet, but forces were already combining to create the greatest of all Heroic Ages."
"From the planet Krypton an infant hurtled through star- studded space toward the midwestern Earth city of Smallville. This last son of a destroyed world would become the greatest hero on our planet."
"Lighthouse keeper Tom Curry rescued a frightened woman ship- wrecked from a hurrican and nursed her back to health. They later married and had a child whose fame would ring across the seven seas."
"In Gotham City, a cowardly crook took the life of Thomas and Martha Wayne, letting a young child named Bruce Wayne remain alive. The brooding boy would later become the scourge of all evil."
"Three incidents, seperate yet intangibly connected. Together they would alter forever our views of heroes for all time to come."
"A child in Smallville, a hybrid of Atlantis, and an orphan in Gothan City...all still children; all still growing, learning, their values being shaped as their skills were being honed. They would become the saviors of tomorrow."
"While they grew, there was another who watched them but was never seen. He was in Smallville and on a lonely Atlantic Island. He was in Gotham City and in Star City. And while he waited for those future heroes to mature into adulthood, he confronted evil, appearing as if some Phantom Stranger."
"Not even The Monitor's sophisticated computers have been able to analyze this Phantom Stranger. I have been unable to discern clues to his origin, to determine the extent of his abilities. All that is known is that when he is needed he is there. A hero? Definately. His reason for being--unknown."
"The stage was set for a revolution, but first there were the trailblazers--those who paved the way for the heroes to come. Captain Comet--a mutant born one hundred thousand years ahead of his time--was among the first."
"The history of heroes spans the universe: from a mutant born ahead of his time to the canals of dying Mars."
"Warrior J'onn J'onzz, exiled to the parched Martian desert, was teleported accidentally to the planet Earth by the famous Pro- fessor Erdel. This Manhunter from Mars knew the time of heroes had not yet come and so remained in hiding, disguising himself as a police detective until, at last, he could allow the world to know of his existence."
"It would take the heroic appearances of the last son of Krypton, the child from Atlantis and the orphan from Gotham City to change the climate for super-heroes on Earth."
"The children from Krypton, Atlantis, and Gotham City were in their late teens when another child was born: not from flesh and blood and bone but from mud and clay and was given life by the Gods of Olympus. Born on Paradise Island, an inaccessable land in the mid-Atlantic, the child Diana would one day grow up to become the greatest heroine of all time. Krypton, Gotham City, and Paradise Island--from these very different locations emerged a triumverate of power and justice."
"In Egypt, Professor Dan Garrett was investigating the Tomb of Kha-ef-re when he found the beetle scarab buried for thousands of years. Events from the past were at last affecting the future. Dan Garrett would soon become the first Blue Beetle."
"In America, a lost and lonely woman was chosen by an interdimensional demon known as Trigon to become his mate and the mother of his child with whom he would conquer our dimension."
"At sea, a frightened child who had witnessed the drowning of her parents was rescued by the alien known as The Monitor. The child was brought to his satellite and was raised into adulthood. I am that child."
"The time had come at last! This was to be the most spectacular Age of Heroes."
"The child from Krypton, raised in Smallville, had moved to the city of Metropolis where, in his guise as reporter Clark Kent, he fought a never-ending battle for truth and justice. This last son of Krypton became the greatest hero of all time--Superman!"
"In Gotham City, the child orphaned by a killer's gun sharpened both his mind and body to a keen razor's edge. With his young partner Robin, the Boy Wonder, Bruce Wayne became a cancer on the underworld in the form of the Dark Knight Detective--The Batman."
"The time for heroes had returned. Among the first of the new breed was police scientist Barry Allen, who survived a chemical explosion to become The Flash, the fastest man on earth."
"Test pilot Hal Jordan was summoned to the side of the dying alien Abin Sur and given the fabled Guardian's Ring of Power to become the Green Lantern of space sector 2814."
"Physicist Ray Palmer discovered the secret of size control when he combined the ultra-dense materials o a white dwarf star to become The Atom--The World's Smallest Hero."
"Katar Hol and his wife Shayera Thal came to Earth to study terran police methods. Mergin the weapons of Earth's past and present with alien technology, these law officers from the planet Thanagar fought evil as Hawkman and Hawkwoman."
" By 1994, the DC Universe was in big trouble. "A rift of draining entropy" was "working its way back through the time stream --simultaneously wiping out time and space!" Back in the offices where the DC Universe was created, some considerably smaller problems had arisen, but they were the reason for the publishing event called ZERO HOUR. A company-wide crossover is common during the summer months, and as DC president Jenette Kahn notes, "Deciding on the big event often solves other problems at the same time." Despite the effort to clean up all of the DC Universe continuity with the 1986 mini-series CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, some loose ends had been left dangling. The solution was ZERO HOUR, another "clean up" mini-series. "ZERO HOUR was certainly necessary," says CRISIS writer Marv Wolfman. "Fortunately, I think there are some people at DC like Mike Carlin who will try to make sure that when ZERO HOUR sort of replaces CRISIS, things don't get screwed up."
" Mike Carlin, Denny O'Neil, and Archie Goodwin are DC group editors, three seasoned professionals responsible for overseeing any drastic changes in the DC Universe. "We're like a three-headed monster," Carlin says. "We read every proposal and a majority rules on it. If two guys think it's okay, then we go with it. Paul Levitz can tell us we're nuts, but he hardly ever does that. With Jenette and Paul running the show, there's a lot of trust put in an individual editor's gut feeling. They've always encouraged us to fight for what we believe in."
" One DC editor with something on his mind was KC Carlson. As Mike Carlin recalls, "What happened with ZERO HOUR was that KC, who was editor of LEGION OF SUPERHEROES and dealing with the future, was looking for a way to do a crossover event that would help his books by linking them to the books set in the twentieth century. A week earlier, write-illustrator Dan Jurgens had sent in proposal for 'A Crisis in Time', which was his idea for doing a big-time travel event that would shake up the Universe." The two concepts were combined. KC Carlson served as editor for Jurgens, still on a roll after killing off Superman, and the five core issues of the ZERO HOUR mini-series, all dated September 1994, were numbered to count down from #4 to #0. In the same month, most of DC's comic books bore the ZERO HOUR logo on their covers, and in October they each had a special issue #0, based on Carlson's idea that it would be a good chance to recapitulate the origins and backgrounds of the heroes."
" "We were keen to do something of that magnitude," says Mike Carlin. "Crossovers are a pain to pull off, but they really do solidify the Universe, and that's what the readers want to see. It's important for us to have confidence in what we're doing, and I hope that the people who come after us will do the same thing. Otherwise it's stagnation and you might as well put out reprint books. I would be very disappointed if in ten or fifteen years somebody didn't just trash what we've done and say that it was all a dream or whatever."
" Making ZERO HOUR work required the cooperation of dozens of writers, artists, and editors. Mark Waid, who writes FLASH, jokes that he was "terrified" when word of the crossover came down, since CRISIS in 1985 had resulted in the death of that era's Flash. "After ten years of Barry Allen being gone, people had finally accepted Wally West as the Flash. They had finally stopped asking us when Barry was coming back. So we thought it would be good to tweak them, now that they like Wally, and make them think that we were going to take him away." So the start of ZERO HOUR makes it look like another Flash has bitten the dust, but later issues of FLASH, edited by Brian Augustyn, show Wally's apparent demise to be a journey beyond the speed of light, from which he returns faster than ever before."
" Things worked out differently for Hal Jordan, who had been Green Lantern since 1959. The character had undergone some trans- formations in his own comic book, breaking his vows about exhibiting restraint in the use of his powers. Determined to right wrongs by altering the past, Hal had become a rogue Green Lantern, subduing his colleagues and absorbing their strength. "We were all in this gigantic meeting, says GREEN LANTERN editor Kevin Dooley, "and we needed a central villain. Dan Jurgens, who is a good reader of all the DC titles, saw that Hal Jordan's motivation was setting right what's wrong. So basically, ZERO HOUR became Hal Jordan wiping out time." Readers were stunned to see a major hero gradually revealed as a deluded villain, and shocked when he was apparently killed by his old comrade in arms, Green Arrow."
" The demise of a hero has frequently been used to shake up the fans, and in fact it has recently been revealed that Hal Jordan is still around, although the role of Green Lantern has been assumed by a new man, Kyle Rayner. Killing a character is now commonplace, Dooley admits, but "replacing the old hero with a new one is some- thing different. We've added to the DC Universe, thus enriching the whole. And we aren't afraid to make a change if it's for a good story."