Glossary of Terms Used on This Site

Bronze Age . Comicsverse . Continuity . Crisis on Infinite Earths . DCU
. Golden Age . Infinite Crisis . Modern Age . Movieverse . Multiverse . Post-Crisis . Pre-Crisis . Retcon . Silver Age . Toonverse

Bronze Age
The Bronze Age of comic books is generally agreed to have lasted from the early to mid-1970s until the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. This period was marked by an increase in character development, social concerns, and “grim and gritty” tales. For the purposes of this website, the Bronze Age is defined as 1971-1985. 

Comicsverse
The universe(s) in which the comics take place, as opposed to the movies and TV shows featuring DC characters. Comics based on the cartoons are considered toonverse as opposed to comicsverse.

Continuity
Loosely, the agreed-upon, within-comic history of a character, team, universe, etc., into which (or out of which) details can be retconned. In other words, Kara Zor-El has appeared in many, many stories since her debut, but since her existence in the DCU prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths has been retconned away, only her appearances post-Crisis remain in continuity.

Crisis on Infinite Earths
This 12-issue miniseries from 1985 by Marv Wolfman and George Perez was intended to simplify the DCU by merging its parallel universes (the “multiverse”) into one.  The artistic merits of the story and the utility of this merging have often been debated, but for better or worse it changed the DCU drastically and is important for understanding the way DCU continuity works (hence the fact that it is perpetually in print).  For more on the Crisis, check out Alan Kistler’s Guide to THE CRISIS or The Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths.

DCU
The “DC Universe.”  Basically everything that’s ever happened in a DC comic book ever.

Golden Age
The Golden Age of comic books is generally thought to have started in 1938 with the creation of Superman and ended in the mid-1950s, around the debut of the Barry Allen Flash, often considered the first Silver Age hero. Comic book superheroes first appeared in this area and were shaped into the archetypes we know today. For the purposes of this website, the Golden Age is defined as 1938-1955.

Infinite Crisis
The 2005 sequel to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis was an extremely confusing bloodbath that brought the concept of the multiverse back to the DCU and recalibrated the universes into New Earth, with a newly-rebooted continuity.

Modern Age
The current era of comics began in 1986, making it essentially synonymous with post-Crisis. The Modern Age has also been called the Dark Age, the Iron Age, and the Diamond Age, which highlights the ambivalent nature of many comics fans and academics to this era.

Movieverse
The universe(s) in which the live-action films featuring DC characters take place. Since the movies do not necessarily mesh (for example, the 1965 Batman starring Adam West and the 2005 Batman Begins starring Christian Bale clearly do not take place in the same universe), which films make up which movieverses is a matter of personal interpretation. For the purposes of this website, “movieverse” denotes only the 1986 Supergirl film.

Multiverse
The multiverse is the name given to the series of parallel universe that constituted the pre-Crisis DCU. These universes were denoted as Earth-1 (the “main” universe; contained the Silver Age characters), Earth-2 (contained the Golden Age characters), Earth-3 (contained villainous versions of the Justice League), etc.

Post-Crisis
Published after Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Pre-Crisis
Published before Crisis on Infinite Earths. See how easy this is?

Retcon
Short for retroactive continuity, retcon refers to the deliberate changing of previously established canon. For example, it was originally stated that a bubble of air surrounded Argo City after the destruction of Krypton, but a later retcon stated that Argo was in fact surrounded by a protective dome. Retcon can also be used as a verb (to retcon, retconning, was retconned, etc.).

Silver Age
The exact parameters of the Silver Age of comic books are debated, but most agree it began with the debut of the Barry Allen Flash in 1956 and ended in the early to mid-1970s. The Silver Age was marked by an increase in both science fiction tales and character development – and, of course, the debut of Supergirl. For the purposes of this website, the Silver Age is defined as 1956-1970.

Toonverse
The universe in which some of the animated shows featuring DC characters take place. It includes Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Teen Titans. It also includes the comic books based on the aforementioned shows. It does not include any shows predating Batman: The Animated Series, such as Superfriends. Supergirl has appeared on Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited.

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