Geek Timelines

DC Universe

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DCEU / Snyderverse

  • Wonder Woman (2017) — The DCEU's most enjoyable origin story: Diana leaves Themyscira, arrives in a WWI trench, and crosses no man's land alone while everyone shouts it won't work. It worked — spectacularly.
  • Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) — Diana digs up a wishing stone, gets a Steve Trevor "reincarnated" into some random guy, and the world loses its mind over an infomercial-style businessman who wants to become a god. Ambitious, a bit messy, dripping with 80s nostalgia.
  • Man of Steel (2013) — The film that rebooted Superman into Zack Snyder's serious, melancholic tone — Clark Kent decides to become a hero by destroying half of Smallville and Metropolis in the process. Polarizing to this day.
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) — Batman is a loose cannon, furious over the destruction of Metropolis, so he decides the solution is to fight Superman — spoiler, "Martha" fixes everything. It's also where Wonder Woman and the Justice League teaser show up.
  • Suicide Squad (2016) — A bunch of prison villains get recruited by Amanda Waller for a suicide mission, with a classic rock radio soundtrack playing the whole time. It became more famous for Jared Leto's Joker and reshoot chaos than for its plot.
  • Justice League / Zack Snyder's Justice League (2017) — After Superman's death, the team unites to face Steppenwolf — the 2017 version is lean and full of infamous CGI mustache removal; the 4-hour Snyder Cut is the full epic Zack Snyder wanted to make before leaving the project due to a family tragedy, with Joss Whedon taking over reshoots.
  • Aquaman (2018) — Arthur Curry discovers he's the heir to the throne of Atlantis and must stop his half-brother Orm from declaring war on the surface world — complete with ridden hammerhead sharks and a maximalist visual style.
  • Shazam! (2019) — A 14-year-old kid gains adult superhero powers by shouting "SHAZAM" and spends the movie having more fun than actually saving the world. The light, funny tone the DCEU desperately needed.
  • Birds of Prey (2020) — Harley Quinn breaks up with the Joker and decides she's now going to protect a teenage jewel thief while assembling a gang of women smashing the patriarchy. Visuals, sound, and editing all in chaotic-glitter style.
  • The Suicide Squad (2021) — James Gunn sends the team to the fictional island of Corto Maltese to face a giant project literally named "Starro" — violent, funny, and genuinely moving in parts, with Idris Elba's Bloodsport and Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag stealing the show.
  • Peacemaker - Season 1 (2022) — Christopher Smith (Peacemaker) survives the Starro mission and gets his own series, mixing ultraviolence, slapstick humor, and an unforgettable metal/rock soundtrack with that dance opening sequence that instantly became a meme.
  • Black Adam (2022) — Dwayne Johnson finally brings his dream anti-hero to life after more than a decade in development — Teth-Adam awakens after 5,000 years imprisoned, and the Justice Society (including Aldis Hodge's Hawkman) tries to contain him.
  • Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) — Billy Batson and his adoptive superhero family face the daughters of Atlas (angry Greek goddesses) — the film tried to repeat the first one's formula, but with less heart and a much colder reception.
  • Blue Beetle (2023) — Recent graduate Jaime Reyes finds an alien beetle that fuses with his body and becomes biomechanical armor — the DCEU's first Latino lead, with plenty of focus on family and warm humor.
  • The Flash (2023) — Barry Allen tries to save his mother by going back in time, breaks the multiverse, meets two different Batmen (Michael Keaton and a George Clooney cameo), and accidentally erases the continuity of the universe he lives in — a bit of a metaphor for what Warner was doing to the DCEU itself.
  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) — Arthur Curry faces Black Manta, armed with an ancient weapon capable of destroying the planet — the DCEU's final and coldest-received chapter, ending the Snyder/pre-Gunn era with little fanfare.

New DCU (DC Studios)

  • Creature Commandos (2024) — Amanda Waller assembles a squad of disposable monsters (including Frankenstein's Monster, the Bride of Frankenstein, and Weasel) for dirty missions — violent, funny, and surprisingly emotional for an adult animated series.
  • Superman (2025) — James Gunn's reboot throws us straight into a world where Superman has already been a hero for years, without repeating the origin story yet again — a more colorful, hopeful, deeply optimistic tone compared to the emotional weight of the Snyder era, with Krypto the dog stealing the show.
  • Peacemaker - Season 2 (2025) — Christopher Smith returns, now navigating the consequences of existing in Gunn's post-reboot universe — mixing the show's already-known chaotic humor with a deeper dive into the new DCU's multiverse/timeline.
  • Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2026) — Milly Alcock dons Kara Zor-El's cape in a harder-edged, more cosmic space adventure than Gunn's Superman, loosely adapting Tom King's acclaimed comic "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" — featuring Jason Momoa as the anti-villain Lobo.
  • Clayface (2026) — A washed-up Gotham actor makes a desperate deal with an experimental compound that turns him into the shape-shifting villain Clayface — directed by horror maestro Mike Flanagan ("The Haunting of Hill House"), promising to be the new DCU's scariest film yet.

Nolanverse

  • Batman Begins (2005) — The origin story that reinvented Batman for a post-Batman & Robin audience (yes, the one with the nipples on the suit) — Bruce Wayne trains with the League of Shadows and returns to Gotham determined to become a symbol of fear for criminals.
  • The Dark Knight (2008) — Heath Ledger's Joker turns Gotham into an experiment in moral chaos, and the film becomes one of the most acclaimed works of the genre to this day — almost a crime thriller disguised as a superhero movie.
  • The Dark Knight Rises (2012) — Eight years later, a retired, limping Bruce Wayne must return to active duty to face Bane, who literally breaks Gotham (the bridge included) in an anarchic revolution plot — closing the trilogy on an epic scale.

Classic Superman (Christopher Reeve)

  • Superman (1978) — The film that basically invented the superhero movie genre as we know it: Christopher Reeve convinces the world (and makes you believe a man can fly) that you can be kind, unshakeable, and square and still be incredibly charismatic. Lex Luthor tries to sink California into the ocean just to boost his desert real estate.
  • Superman II (1980) — General Zod and his Kryptonian goons arrive on Earth ready to conquer everything right as Superman decides to give up his powers for love of Lois Lane — terrible timing, great movie, with the iconic battle leveling half of Metropolis.
  • Superman III (1983) — The franchise pivots into comedy with Richard Pryor as a bumbling programmer manipulated by a greedy businessman into creating synthetic kryptonite — the bizarre result includes an "evil," drunk Superman trashing a bar and fighting himself.
  • Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) — Superman decides, on his own initiative, to throw every nuclear weapon on Earth into the Sun — Lex Luthor creates Nuclear Man to stop him, with special effects that aged extremely poorly. A melancholic end to the Christopher Reeve era.
  • Superman Returns (2006) — Bryan Singer treats the film almost as a direct spiritual sequel to Superman II, ignoring III and IV — Superman returns from five years wandering the remains of Krypton to find Lois has moved on (and has a mysterious son). Nostalgic, reverent tone, slow pace.

Classic Batman (Burton/Schumacher)

  • Batman (1989) — Tim Burton takes the campy Batman of the 60s TV show and turns him into a gothic, shadow-drenched Gotham — Michael Keaton (cast amid furious fan backlash) faces off against Jack Nicholson's scene-chewing Joker. It redefined the genre forever.
  • Batman Returns (1992) — Tim Burton doubles down on the dark, fetishistic side: Danny DeVito's Penguin crawls out of the sewers to run for mayor while Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman completely steals the film in a hand-stitched latex suit that became legendary.
  • Batman Forever (1995) — Joel Schumacher takes over and cranks up the neon: Val Kilmer debuts as Batman against Tommy Lee Jones's Two-Face and Jim Carrey's full-throttle scenery-chewing Riddler, with Robin (Chris O'Donnell) officially joining the dynamic duo.
  • Batman & Robin (1997) — George Clooney dons the cape in a Gotham that looks like a neon theme park, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger's ice-pun-spouting Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy — the campy excess that nearly killed the franchise for almost a decade.

Elseworlds

  • Watchmen (2009) — Zack Snyder adapts Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's "unfilmable" comic almost panel-for-panel: in an alternate 1985 where Nixon remains eternally in power, retired vigilantes investigate the murder of one of their own and unravel a conspiracy that questions whether heroes actually help humanity.
  • Green Lantern (2011) — Ryan Reynolds dons the neon-green power ring as Hal Jordan, a test pilot recruited by the Green Lantern Corps to face the giant Parallax — dated CGI, a muddled script, and a clear (failed) attempt to launch a cosmic DC universe before its time.
  • Joker (2019) — Arthur Fleck, a failed comedian neglected by everyone and everything in Gotham, has a mental breakdown that turns him into an unwitting symbol of social revolt — a Scorsese-style character drama, almost devoid of superhero elements.
  • Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) — Arthur Fleck, now in Arkham awaiting trial, falls for Lee Quinzel (this continuity's version of Harley Quinn) in a musical drama that split — and annoyed — most of the audience expecting more chaos and fewer melancholic musical numbers.

The Batman (Reeves-verse)

  • The Batman (2022) — Matt Reeves turns Gotham into a rain-soaked, grimy neo-noir: Robert Pattinson is a Batman still only in his second year, more obsessive detective than brawler, hunting the Riddler (Paul Dano), who's exposing the city's rooted corruption one ritualistic murder at a time.
  • The Penguin (2024) — Colin Farrell, unrecognizable under hours of prosthetic makeup, expands his Oz Cobb from The Batman into a pure mob miniseries: with no Batman in sight, it's all dirty ambition, family betrayal, and the ruthless rise of a gangster in the ruins of a post-flood Gotham.