History ComicBook / SupermanAndBatmanGenerations

* AdaptationNameChange: Wonder Woman's close friend Etta Candy has her surname changed to Sweetgulper.

* OnlyTheLeadsGetAHappyEnding: [[spoiler: In the distant future, a now virtually immortal Superman, Batman and Lana Lang leaves the galaxy to explore the universe content and happy with their legacy, and completely ignoring the enormous bodycount of the series, not counting the end of the world that was undone via time travel. Lois Lane, Joel Kent, Kara Kent, Steve Trevor, Dick Grayson and countless others die horrible, painful deaths and no one seems to care in the end]]

* RetCon: At the end of the first volume, Superman tells Knightwing the truth about his parentage, and he's astonished. In ''Generations II'', we see Clark Wayne taking the Knightwing identity, and he says it's because he learned the truth about his parentage on his own.

* TakeAThirdOption: In the 1959 chapter, Superman and Batman are "tested" by Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite to see who's the strongest, and therefore which one will be taken deep into space to help some aliens in need. [[spoiler:They pretend to be killed, which causes the aliens to take Mxy and Bat-Mite instead.]]

** [[spoiler:Dick Grayson's vengeful spirit tries to kill the Joker, but Alfred's spirit talks him down before he condemns himself to Hell.]]

* TogetherInDeath: [[spoiler:Bruce Jr. rejects the chance to live even longer, saying that he's kept Kara waiting for over 300 years. The sight of their spirits departing to the afterlife together is enough to make even Batman shed a tear.]]

* TwinTelepathy: Supergirl (Kara Kent) and Wonder Girl (Stevie Trevor) were born at practically the same moment, so they exhibit a degree of empathy, which is how Wonder Girl finds the captive Supergirl, Robin, and Kid Flash when they're captured by the Rogues.
* TheUnfavorite: Joel thinks he's this due to not having powers, [[spoiler:something Luthor gladly encouraged for the sake of his revenge plot. His equally powerless son is given to Bruce Wayne Jr. to raise, in order to prevent little Clark from going the same route as his father.]]
* UnfinishedBusiness: After the Joker kills Dick Grayson, he begins haunting the psychotic clown and comes very close to killing him, until the ghost of Alfred manages to talk Dick into moving on.

* WeddingSmashers: [[spoiler:BJ and Kara's wedding is interrupted when Joel attacks with a suit of PoweredArmor, and Luthor takes advantage of the situation to murder Lois.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:Said by the Justice League to Batman III (Bruce Wayne Jr.) when his crime-fighting methods become increasingly violent and dangerous. He denies it until he nearly kills Alan Scott and has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment.]]

* YourMindMakesItReal: The Guardians eventually reveal that the Green Lantern Rings' weaknesses are all psychosomatic: regular [=GLs=] are weak to yellow objects because they're told to be, while Alan Scott assumed his ring was weak to wooden objects after a thug clocked him with a baseball bat. Hal Jordan, who figured this out on his own, can use the ring without any such hindrances.

* AntiHero: Batman III (Bruce Wayne Jr.), owing primarily to his unresolved rage over [[spoiler:his wife's murder]].

* BigGood: [[spoiler:After Ra's al-Ghul's death, Bruce Wayne takes over his organization and turns it good, simply by turning the "front" organizations legit. He passes it on to Bruce Jr. so he can go back to being Batman.]]

** Later, however, it was revealed that Ultra/Lex had come up with a formula that did restore Kryptonian powers ''without'' killing whoever drank it, as Superman and his grandson Clark Wayne (Knight-Wing) had found out.

* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:Joel Kent is the Cain, having been stripped of his hereditary Kryptonian powers while in the womb and mistakenly thinking he's TheUnFavorite; Kara is the Abel. They even play this up to the point where Joel kills Kara.]]

** In ''Generations II'', [[spoiler:Kara tells BJ about her Supergirl wig, saying that it won't come off unless she removes it on purpose or she dies.]] This is of course a reference to ''Generations I'', [[spoiler:where Kara's wig falls off her lifeless body after Joel murders her.]]
* CanonDiscontinuity: [[spoiler:''Generations III'' writes ''itself'' out of existence: when the heroes destroy Darkseid once and for all, reality "shatters". The last page shows Kal, Bruce, and Lana in space as per the ending of ''Generations I'', with Kal and Bruce commenting that something feels off and hoping that they haven't forgotten anything important.]]

* KilledOffForReal: Many characters are killed off permanently, thanks to the aversion of ComicBookTime and SnapBack. Some of the more noteworthy casualties include Dick Grayson, Superman's first wife Lois Lane, Superman's children Joel and Kara Kent and several of Superman's close friends and their families, most of these being directly by the hand of Luthor[[spoiler:'s body with the Ultra-Humanite's brain]].

* KilledOffForReal: Many characters are killed off permanently, thanks to the aversion of ComicBookTime and SnapBack.

* KilledOffForReal: Many characters, thanks to the aversion of ComicBookTime and SnapBack.

* HappilyAdopted: [[spoiler:Clark Wayne, Joel's biological son, is given to Bruce Jr. to raise following Joel's death. He finds out some time later after learning Vietnamese, but it never really changes how he feels about BJ.]]

* [[CharacterAgedWithTheActor Getting Too Old For This]]: Batman thinks this word-for-word when dealing with Mr. Mxyzptlk in 1959. Alan Scott also goes through this, mainly because Hal Jordan declined to take up the Ring, forcing Alan to stay on until Kyle Rayner entered the picture.

* ComicBookTime: Averting it and having things age and develop in a relastic passage of time is the central conceit of the series.

* ComicBookTime: Averting it is the central conceit of the series.

* NeckSnap: [[spoiler:How Luthor kills Lois Lane.]]

* RelatedDifferentlyInTheAdaptation: Barbara Gordon is Jim Gordon's ''grand''daughter rather than daughter, to get the fact he's a Golden Age character and she's a Silver Age one to line up. Tony Gordon, Jim's son in both the Golden and Silver Ages, is her father, rather than brother.

* YourMindMakesItReal: The Guardians eventually reveal that the GreenLanternRing's weaknesses are all psychosomatic: regular [=GLs=] are weak to yellow objects because they're told to be, while Alan Scott assumed his ring was weak to wooden objects after a thug clocked him with a baseball bat. Hal Jordan, who figured this out on his own, can use the ring without any such hindrances.

* JustForTheHeliOfIt: In the 1939 chapter, Bruce Wayne illegally lands his autogyro on the grounds of the World's Fair to help cement his image as a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob.

* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Examined. [[spoiler:Darkseid's new Parademons have the ability to think and reason for themselves, whereas the originals were mindless drones. When Lara learns of their sentience, she makes sure that none of the other heroes find out (which includes [[KickTheDog snapping a Parademon's neck]]) for fear that this trope would come into play and they wouldn't be able to fight anymore.]]

* SkunkStripe: [[spoiler:Bruce Wayne has one after gaining immortality from the Lazarus Pit.]]

* TheNeidermeyer: Joel Kent is this to his troops in Vietnam. [[spoiler:They even gets [[UnfriendlyFire fragged]] when he orders them to [[MoralEventHorizon kill women, children, and the elderly]].]]

** With a single unusual exception: [[spoiler:Bruce's wife sends him and Bruce Jr. on an adventure, requiring the aged BJ to partake of the Lazarus Pits and become Robin again, despite having been Batman himself. At the end they find out it's because his wife felt bad about never letting BJ be Robin to Bruce's Batman.]]

** ComicBook/RasAlGhul appears in the story, so of course he deserves a mention. [[spoiler: He also discovers that if two people enter the Lazarus Pit at the same time, one will die and his life force will be transferred to the other, making him immortal. He and Bruce Wayne enter and Bruce emerges, restored to his prime. He eventually discovers that he ages one year for every century he lives. ''Generations III'' further reveals that that single Pit was permanently changed, conferring this immortality on anyone who bathes in it.]]

** The 24th Century chapter of ''Generations III'' goes back to 2008, with Bruce describing a past adventure to Wonder Woman.

** B.J. looks very similat to the Bruce Wayne Jr seen in the Silver Age "Imaginary Stories" featuring "the second Batman and Robin team", only with blond hair instead of red.