I was trying to do a basic map of the timelines of the multiverse and before going further (though I'm not sure where that would be) I wondered if I'm understanding the basic timelines of Shattered Timelines the same way as others.
(Oh look...i got a picture to actually show up)
How have you interpreted the timelines thus far represented? The pic obviously shows my first take, but I wonder what others have thought.
We don't know if the "Final Wasteland timeline" branches before or after "present days". It is possible that the monsters only begin to rise in the future (maybe in a future expansion?).
I like it. It's obviously kind of arbitrary which timelines you want to show as branching. Could be just as correct (and maybe easier to diagram?) to keep the Main Storyline Continuity as the central straight line and have everything else branch from that.
I wasn't aware that Chrono-Ranger was successful in averting the monsters overpowering the Earth. We don't know one way or the other right? Isn't it just as possible that the monsters take over the earth some time after Iron Legacy's rule?
yeah diagrams!
The Assistant was from an alternate timeline rather than the future. So another branch would need to be added.
Looks good.
I tried to get some solid dates for major events based on some hero bios.
If you look at Finest Legacy's age and birthdate, the current year is 2020. However, Visionary's bio says the current year is closer to 2007 (based on the age of the Dreamer, the age of Visionary, and what time Visionary traveled from).
There's a lot of wonkiness with comics, time, and ages. I was hoping to dig around and find a hard date not related to age but, alas, I haven't found one.
And you probably won't; as you said, Comics. 
Seriously, how long have Spiderman, Batman, and all the others been around? Iron Man's origin story has been shifted from one later war to another over the years. It's just the way comics work - and >G has really captured that.
Personally, I don't think the Final Wasteland can be the main timeline. It could be Iron Legacy's or just one averted by Chrono Ranger (or even The Assistant's 
) but having the apocalyptic future be the main future is a bit too cynical for comic books, I'd think.
Unless you read X-Men.
Yeah, pretty much all X-Men "final futures" blow. In 1/4 Apocalypse rules with an iron first. In 1/4 the Sentinels have all but erradicated mutants. In 1/4 Apocalypse uses the Sentinels to rule with an iron first, and in the last 1/4 Apocalypse was somehow defeated, but not before he killed practically the whole planet. X-Men never really see utopian futures.
Perhaps the interpretation is that the second one is how it is…but should Chrono-Ranger actually succeed the first post version comes to be. Maybe that timeline should be represented as a split off later leading to the wasteland…the actual continuity is based on his success while a branch shows he failed? This is probably based on the definition of time travel for this mythology. For instance if time travel is like it is in the Harry Potter books…the things they've done already happened…they were part of the current history they faced…vs Back to the Future where going back and changing somehting makes a new reality. New realities seem to be what the multiverse timelines seem to represent.
So who knows?
Christopher, Paul, Adam…teaser hint? cold, warm, getting warmer, getting colder?
Crisis of infinite Multiverses.
I was just trying to make a diagram of the timelines, myself, and I found this old thread! SO I AM DREDGING IT UP.
I'd like to update the diagrams to show the major "Events," since we're accumulating them fast - the Deadline Event, the Progeny Event, and so on - especially since we know some new things that we didn't when logan_mann drafted the original charts. For instance:
My hope was that some Google Drive app would let me make an editable version that anyone could go into, but I think that's the wrong platform. Particularly because I couldn't make arrows do what I wanted them to do. And also because I'm not sure we can get the right size for the overall document. Anyone know if there's a browser-based version of Inkscape or something?
Here's what I had so far, starting from things I knew off the top of my head:
...then I ran out of space at the bottom. And then I realized I should search the forums to see if anyone had already done this. And then I saw that they had, but a while ago. And then I wrote this post. And now I'm hoping you all jump in!
You could even add events from Sentinel Tactics at this point. We know some event before Sentinel Tactics caused the govt to clamp down on the Freedom Five.
Be careful with Acronyms, Powerhound. When I see ST, I think of Shattered Timelines first.
Noted and changed.
I love all of this.
However, there is this big misconception out there that the "shattered timelines" is a signular event (evidenced by your blip on the map). I am in the camp that 100% dissagrees with that notion. I think It is a recurring thing that happens throughout the comics as the ties and cracks inbetween the multiverses weaken gradually. Look no further than Freedom Five Annual #4 when Tachyon notices the presence of the Treacherous Ape at Mittermeir's carnival. Iron Legacy's big crossover event is Freedom Five Annual #25. Or how about Omnitron-X showing up during the Singularity story arc which ends with Omnitron-I being destroyed. Saying Shattered Timelines was an event is like saying "the Infernal Relics" event. It's more overarching than that.
I think by Shattered Timelines people (me included) mean the Time Cataclysm and Iron Legacy events, which seem to be the height of timeline intersection. We know Chrono, Capitan and OX all travel through time and the timeline stories are all over time, but those occurrences seem to build to a climax that involves the cataclysm and IL.
But I don't think the "Time Cataclysm" is a singular event either. There is really nothing that suggests that it is. There isn't a point in the comics that we can point to and say "oh, well this story happens before the Time Cataclysm, and this here is after the Time Cataclysm". At least not that I can tell. It seems to me like it's just been an ongoing event underlying and sewing through the entire comic run, with all those threads tieing back up together at the very end.
Maybe if there was like an issue called "Time Cataclysm #3" or something, then I could see that being the case. But It's not like Iron Legacy, where he is the big bad of the Annual #25 crossover and other smaller comics and a one-shot that came out around the same time. Or even other similar contained story arcs like "Moonfall", "Sunrise", or "Singularity", which are all clearly defined comic events.
That's how I see it anyway. I'm totally willing to be swayed by a good argument to the contrary.
I just don't see a sudden and violent upheaval being a behind the scenes ongoing event.
There's gotta be one thing which actually caused the timelines to shatter, though, one event or action or something which broke everything into pieces and enabled different universes to start leaking into each other.
Sure. But I have very big doubts that the particular event you are talking about is made as a large event in the comics. I think whatever shattered the timelines happened well before our comic continuity begins.
I dunno, I'm not thinking in terms of comics, just as a story in general...
Foote, this is exactly why I wanted to go for a Google Doc approach, so we could all collaborate on the diagram!
I guess my “Shattered Timelines Event” is really the “Iron Legacy Event.” I’ve no objection whatsoever to going in for all the spidery spaghetti we can, to try and trace how all the timelines split and intersect each other. I started in on that with Iron Legacy’s future leading into Visionary. Of course there will be more! I don’t have Miss Information or La Capitan, for instance.
Anybody know a good collaborative platform for a diagram?
Just so you all know, I could very well be wrong here (shocking I know). This is just my best guess.
Well, sure, but maybe we'd have better fidelity if we split the whole "Shattered Timelines" thing into its individual events.
Just trying out an online app...
I don't suppose this link lets anyone edit it immediately?
EDIT: Crap. Google, why won't you let me share the thing? I attached the image.
I think we have seen the event creating the time cataclysm, but then I think the time cataclysm is the overarching event for the entire series. It's called sentinels of the multiverse for a reason.
What's the actual event? I don't know. Pulling the moon towards the Earth? The formation of the Block (but then)can the Block exist without the shattered timelines? So, then maybe tachyon's accident.
The actual event could be the arrival of the cosmic entity.
After all, when messing with time, effect doesn't always follow cause.
Don't forget that The Visionary travels back to before she was born, which may be before The Freedom Four was even formed.
When Vanessa Long transported herself backwards in time, her first goal was to save the not-yet-born version of herself. She managed to get her parents out of the clutches of Project Cocoon and kept an eye on the family. When Vanessa Long was born, The Visionary was relieved that it was without an explosion of psychic energy, and that the baby seemed to be normal in all ways.
Good call, thanks!
Visionary's path back is fixed.
We don't know that Omintron X comes from the "core" timeline, particularly when he doesn't remember seeing inside Omnitron IV.
I am yet to be convinced that The Visionary comes from the same timeline as the Iron Legacy who busts back into the "core" timeline, sounds like she comes from a timeline where Legacy was more violent, but she doesn't say anything about him ruling the world or of Young Legacy dying.
I’m thinking of both the quote and art on…um, blanking on the name, but Precognition for the environment. While the quote might be ambiguous, it depicts Iron Legacy clearly. There are some other clues around, too, like Visionary’s backstory mentioning the fall of the United States.
As fir things we don’t know for sure, consider me to be suggesting and documenting a hypothesis. Can you edit the image? You’re welcome to.
Prophetic Vision is the card name you're thinking of.
And I agree, that The Visionary's background sounds like an Iron Legacy might have risen to power, but it's also possible that it's not OUR Iron Legacy, or indeed an Iron Legacy at all, it could just be repeatedly-being-tricked-out-of-lunch-money-as-a-child-making-him-angrier Legacy that lived in The Visionary's timeline.
And we have no idea what events made Dark Visionary "Dark", we have no information on that timeline at all. So it's not impossible that our The Visionary is confusing her memories with Dark Visionary's memories, I have a far easier time of believing that a harder version of The Visionary would arise in a world policed by Iron Legacy than of the one who came back to save herself.
Sure it could be that way. But I think theres more than sufficient evidence to support the former theory. And it works as a comic satisfying tie-in and foreshadow. I can't think of any particular reason not to believe it's true at this point.
Then that's good evidence to believe Omnitron X didn't come from this timeline. You also have to figure that in whatever timeline Omnitron X originated from he was never blown up by a future version of himself either. Omnitron X self-destructing himself and our version of Omnitron-1 probably severely altered the trajectory of Omnitron's character. If so it would make sense that when X does eventually comes back (due to weird timey-wimey shenanigans that allowed him to keep existing), he doesn't even recognize what his former self in version.4 has become. Take this a step further into version.5 and Omnitron X's knowledge has been assimilated back into the fold and would totally be something a future version.10 would have known about, and you get a pretty good idea that Omnitron X's past versions are not what we have come to know in the core timeline of the comic.
Well, the way I always thought the game made it sound was Visonary traveled back in time to stop the IL future, and the act of doing that started causing a few breaks in time to occor (which is how IL made his way to the "regular" timeline)
It was the cracks in time that allowed the Visionary to travel back in time (and pick up an alternate version of herself in the trip).
Was it the cracks in the timeline that allowed The Visionary to travel in time or was it her overall badassery?
I think it was her overall badassery that let her slip into those cracks in the first place. The only other character with that kind of power to rip open those cracks forcefully without specifically built time travel tech (or who just accidently fall into a crack) is Iron Legacy. And he is the badass standard of the multiverse.
That's not how I read his story at all.
I read it as there are cracks and Iron Legacy is extending his rule to include other corners of the multiverse where he doesn't rule. It's not purposeful time travel, it's just that's where the cracks lead.
Same, i just took it as him stepping through these cracks and trying to take wherever (and whenever) it took him. which happened to be the "regular" timeline
That could very well be. I'll have to go re-read the story now
Shortly after Vengeance is when Pauline died, so Visionary would have travelled back years after her death, and the fall of the US to Asian forces after super criminals weakened it doesn't sound like Iron Legacy's reign of terror. Frankly the Pan Asian forces that take down the US with the Freedom 6 + Visionary sounds very Baron blade-esque.
I think it is a memory of a different Legacy than we know of, or maybe the memories of the other Vanessa, perhaps Dark Vis is from Iron Legacy's Timeline.
Also, the Dreamer suddenly goes crazy with energy after nothing for her first 6 years of life, I wonder if the same thing triggered her and the cataclysm?
I lnow another way I heard it was that between the time travel between Chrono Ranger, Visionary, and Omnitron-X (at least two of which presumibly came from different timelines) cause a bunch of ripples time, and IL managed to get caught in one of the ripples, which is how he managed to find his way into a different timeline.
Hold up, in a Q+A with the Christopher, I think he said the CON from the final wasteland was at least part Golem Unity... but Golem Unity only exists in the Iron LEgacy timeline as far as I'm aware, so doesn't that mean the the Final Wasteland timeline does actually occur after the Iron Legacy one (or at least thats ONE of the timelines it could potentially occur after)
He said that Con was a "lil bit Unity"
Nothing was mentioned about Golem Unity.
