Benjamin, thanks for posting your very interesting tentative timeline. I found yours after I'd started my own. It's quite a maddening task, and I think I may have to give up, coz it's just not working for me. At one point when I'd followed a path that led to Miracle Mesa having to happen the NIGHT BEFORE what you call Day 7 and I called "Hurricane Gloria", I realized I couldn't make it work.
So I thought I'd just make some random and somewhat half-arsed observations from my own "research" and a couple of comments on your chronology:
In Bulleteer #2, Helligan doesn't actually say that Miracle Mesa happened "one week earlier" - she tells Solomano that "the Nebula Man returned LAST WEEK and killed a new team of soldiers". So maybe you've got some wiggle room there.
Also I just can't accept that all of Bulleteer #2 and #3 takes place on ONE DAY (the day after Day 7). I see how you arrived at that point, but I think it's a stretch for the story. Here's how it plays: late on the night of Day 7, Helligan is bitten by Gloriana (Shining Knight #2) in LA, and (off-panel) gets a tetanus shot, receives information on the Shelly Gaynor missing person investigation and links it with her case, flies to NYC, collects the Iron Hand from the Manhattan Museum of Superhumanity, and (now Day 8 and on-panel Bulleteer #2) meets some FBI agents and Alix, whom she briefs on Miracle Mesa. With Alix, she goes to the Pen to confront Solomano, rushes across town to stop her sister's wedding, and ... dies. Alix goes home to pack for the convention in Zenith City. (How far away is it and how does she get there?) That's a pretty full diary for Helligan and Alix.
In Bulleteer #3, Alix keeps up the pace (this may be why she drinks black coffee): foiling the first poisoning attempt on Suli Stellamaris, attending a panel and an awards dinner, questioning Thumbelina, listening to Mind Grabber Morrison's whining, being shot at by Spyder, and racing back home to NYC to get in a fight with Sally Sonic. These two issues cover a lot of stuff for just one day!
I want to say that the convention takes place the NEXT day (what would be Day 9 in your scheme). Unfortunately the fan's remark, "Vincenzo Baldi was found dead at his home this morning. It was on CNN.", throws a spanner in those works. As we know from Shining Knight #3 and Zatanna #3, the Don died (permanently) sometime late on the night of Day 7/morning of Day 8. But can't we just assume that the Don wasn't FOUND dead by the authorities until Day 9? (It's a big secluded estate in the Hollywood hills, and the neighbours didn't notice anything out of the ordinary ... explosions and gunfire throughout the night, an army of spear-wielding fairies, a ghost bus, a big starry guy with a cauldron, two women fleeing on a flying horse ...)
OK, enough with the Bulleteer stuff! Some random thoughts:
Why is the story in Zatanna #3 entitled “Three Days of the Dead” when it appears to take place over no more than a day and a half? DON'T TELL ME it's poetic license!
If anyone knows when the “7th day of Arachne, the secret 13th month” falls in the regular calendar, and can establish when Zatanna's séance (Zatanna #1) took place, we can tie the whole thing in to real time …
The rain brought on by Hurricane Gloria features quite nicely in several stories and is often a good way of correlating times.
I thought that the “Johnny Frankenstein” who rode with Greg in 1875 (Seven Soldiers #0) would turn out to be “our” Frankenstein. Unfortunately Frank's fight with Melmoth on the train takes place in 1870 (Frankenstein #1, page 1), and then he's buried until 2005. Maybe that 1870 caption is wrong - after all, the other time captions were messed up in that issue. Or maybe Johnny Frankenstein is just somebody else.
Incidentally, we know how Frankenstein got to Mars, but how did he get from Uglyhead's town (“in the Northwest”) to New York? Characters in Seven Soldiers seem to be able to cross the continent at will.
The movements of the supporting characters help in establishing the timeline, or perhaps wrecking it. Etta was in LA for Zatanna's support group meeting (with Misty, Mind Grabber Man and Gimmix) (Zatanna #1), and was there to hear Z's story of the events of Zatanna #4, right before Misty flies in for, presumably, the lead-in to Seven Soldiers #1. But at some point Etta's on the convention panel in Zenith City in Bulleteer #3.
Does someone want to try tracking (heh) I, Spyder's movements, or those of Vigilante('s ghost)?
A lot of stuff relies on that page in Mister Miracle #3 showing where Klarion and Jake were at the time. But, as Benjamin points out, that produces a lot of problems for Shilo's story. I'm going to say that the timeline in Mister Miracle may be kind of arbitrary if it turns out (wild speculation) that Shilo is actually Captain 7 trying to escape from Ali-Ka-Zoom's cabinet …
Anyway.
I love the idea of all the miniseries starting at different times, interweaving, and lining up in time for Seven Soldiers #1, but it's a big ask that their internal continuities be watertight.
Besides, we always have the fallback of the Seven Unknown Men and their ability to work the narrative machinery to their own ends. I hope that Morrison hasn't relied too heavily on this continuity escape clause though, and that he brings it all home in a satisfying manner. |
