Ask Collected Editions #3 - DC Timeline and Fallen Son

For this latest edition of Ask Collected Editions, we're going to dip into the DC Comics Trade Paperback Timeline mailbag a little bit. As always, if you have a question for "Ask Collected Editions," send an email to the Yahoo account or post it on the Collected Editions Facebook wall, and your question could be used in a future segment.

First up, frequent commenter and contributor to our upcoming guest review month, Paul "Hix" Hicks:

Do you consider James Robinson's The Golden Age list-worthy? I'd encourage you to include it as it is referenced in the first Starman collection and it's a work that contributed to the existence of the JSA resurgence. I'd place it somewhere around the Death of Superman which is when it concluded.

Good question. Golden Age is technically an Elseworlds story, but Robinson employs a bit of slight-of-hand in his Starman books in establishing that some events of Golden Age actually happened. I haven't for the most part included Elseworlds stories in the timeline as they don't affect DC continuity directly; I did recently include Kingdom Come, however, because some of the characters later appear in Justice Society of America. Golden Age doesn't tie in quite so tightly as Kingdom Come, but I'd be inclined to include it with a caveat. What do others think?

Our next question comes from an anonymous commenter, who notes:

Placing Red Robin: The Grail after Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn doesn't make sense timeline-wise considering what happens to Damian in Batman & Robin #6.

Also an excellent question, and good noticing. The issue here is that indeed Red Robin: The Grail does not happen after Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn, but actually between the pages of it. Since there's no way to conflate our trade paperbacks (would that there were), we have to make a choice as to which to read first. I have always in the timeline tried to favor the main event over its subsidiaries unless there's a compelling reason otherwise -- that is, Final Crisis before the Final Crisis Companion or Batman before Nightwing; again, when there's no compelling reason otherwise, this seems to me the natural reading order.

Really, I'd have liked to put Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn right at the beginning of the "Batman Reborn" saga, seeing as how it follows almost directly from the "six months later" sequence at the end of Batman: RIP -- and also because the first Batman & Robin collection marks what I think of as the official "debut" of the new Batman and Robin. Ultimately I gave in and put Batman: Long Shadows before Batman & Robin because it deals with events leading up to Batman & Robin -- but that's why Red Robin comes afterward, because it fits between the pages of Batman & Robin, but I feel the latter is the more major of the two books.

Hope that clears it up. Keep an eye on the timeline -- new books to be added soon!

Here's one more Captain America question in the mailbag from Theon Laney; hopefully our eagle-eyed readers can help out:

The Marvel title Fallen Son has two different hardcovers for sell, and I can't tell what the difference is between them. On the covers one has several heroes gathered mournfully around a casket, and the other has a close up of Captain America's battered shield. Do you know what the difference is in these two collected editions and which one would you recommend?

Anyone? Bueller?

Thanks for checking in to this edition of "Ask Collected Editions." Don't miss our live Collected Editions event celebrating the release of Superman: Earth One, Wednesday, October 27 at 8 pm. See you then!