DC Comics has changed the face of the DC Universe. With 'The New 52,' we are seeing several changes while others aspects have remained the same. Each week as the new #1 issues roll out, we've been dissecting the stories trying to figure out what changes may have occurred.

The explanation for the tweaks to the DCU can be attributed to Flashpoint. Basically Barry Allen messed up the timeline. While attempting to fix things, we saw the image of a mysterious glowing woman. She told him the timeline had been splintered and weakened. Barry could help repair things but at a cost.

Now we have a new Universe. It looks the same but there have been some differences in characters' origins and the inclusion of Vertigo and Wildstorm characters. The big question is, who is this glowing pink lady? She has been appearing in every single #1 issue this month. Does she have an existing connection to the DC Universe or is this the first time we're seeing a character of this nature?

People have been discussing this since it was noticed she appeared in one panel in Justice League #1. With each one-panel appearance, she has silently stood, unnoticed by all and in complete silence. Her behavior is reminiscent to the Watcher in Marvel comics. The difference is, a Watcher pops up when a major event is unfolding.

This woman has been seen at random, sometimes uneventful, moments. We are left with the question of who is she and what are her motives? Did she have good intentions in guiding Barry to fix the timelines or could there be some devious plan now set in motion?

There could be something to the words she first said to Barry in Flashpoint #5 when Barry asked why there were three timelines. That is when she replied.

Because the history of heroes was shattered into three long ago. Splintered to weaken your world for their impendingarrival. You must all stand together. Thetimelines must become one again.

The three timelines could just be a reference to the Vertigo, Wildstorm and DC Universes but I don't buy that we're supposed to believe these three publishers were always supposed to have existed in the same timeline. Also, the mention of three got me thinking. Didn't we recently have three timelines involving the Legion of Super-Heroes? During Final Crisis, we had the Legion of Three Worlds miniseries. The Legion has a lot of history in the DC Universe but do they have enough of a presence to be involved in this big mystery? The other connection to the Legion is that this woman is slightly reminiscent to the Time Trapper.

The Time Trapper made his first appearance in 1964's Adventure Comics #318 (or 1958's Wonder Woman #101, if you include the connection to the Ty M. Master character).

Time Trapper is clearly a guy and the color choice of the hood could just be a coincidence but with the numerous stories and tweaks made to the character, there could be a connection.

The Time Trapper was an enemy of the Legion and prevented them from traveling into their future. Eventually it was revealed that the Time Trapper was a member of the race of Controllers. The Controllers were from Maltus. The Maltusians evolved into the Controllers, Oans (Guardians of the Universe) and Zamarons. These three races are all powerful players in the DCU and even though we haven't really seen other Time Trappers, it could be possible they exist. The Controllers have appeared as recently as Final Crisis and Blackest Night. A female Controller could be hiding behind the pink hood.

The Time Trapper was also responsible for creating a pocket universe. Because Superman had never been Superboy, he created a pocket universe containing a Superboy the Legion would visit when traveling back in time in order to try to manipulate them. This shows a level of the type of power the Time Trapper contained. When was the last time you created a pocket universe?

The connection to the Legion, the mention of three timelines and the fact that it was Geoff Johns that wrote Legion of Three Worlds could be the connection with this mystery woman. Also in Legion of Three Worlds, we saw the Time Trapper somehow was an older version of Superboy Prime.

It was also during this battle with Superboy Prime and the Time Trapper that another theory came up. The Time Trapper could actually be a sentient alternate timeline!

We still don't know the full official background of the Time Trapper. Parts of what we've seen has been retconned or erased. There could be others in the same race as the Time Trapper that has been hassling the Legion. This woman could be another or the sentient timeline now taking a female form.

While re-reading the Final Crisis issues, another possible theory evolved. This woman could actually be the Monitor of Earth-6, Weeja Dell.

The Monitors are said to watch over all of the Multiverse. That would fit with this lady and her brief conversation with Barry. When a Monitor, Nix Uotan, was banished for failing to protect Earth-51 from being destroyed, his Monitor lover, Weeja Dell was outraged. While Nix was banished, it was the thought of Weeja that kept him going and allowed him to recall being a Monitor. Nix gained power and was reinstated among the Monitors after defeating his transformed father, Mandrakk and Darkseid's scheme to destroy the Multiverse. The Multiverse was saved, except it meant the end for the Monitors. Nix and Weeja said their final goodbye. Nix was reborn as a human in Metropolis and has been said to be the only Monitor left. Could it be that Weeja somehow found a way to survive and now has a hand in the 'New 52' universe?

Of course this mystery lady could be someone completely new. The three mentioned in regards to the timeline could just be referring to the Vertigo, Wildstorm and DC Universe. That would be too easy. There has to be a bigger connection. It would be disappointing if this woman was just a new character created to usher in 'The New 52." What we do know is she will continue to make appearances in the rest of the #1 issues. We can bet that we won't find out her full story in the next month or two. As soon as this new universe is established and we learn how our favorite characters have changed, we're sure to see a major crossover. This woman will be at the center of it. It might just be us readers that can see her. We shouldn't be surprised if characters begin seeing her very soon as well. Then again, maybe she's really Stephanie Brown. She likes pink, doesn't she? (That was a joke. Really).

Here's most of her appearances until now. Click to enlarge.

Gallery

Gallery

Now it's up to you to voice your theories. Do you agree with either of mine or do you have one of your own?

I don`t know who is she, but she is interesting...

if she is a mystery woman let her remain a mystery

She's a contingency...in case the New 52 fails...they'll just use this mysterious woman to go back to the way things were. :P

@Mr. Kamikaze said:

She's a contingency...in case the New 52 fails...they'll just use this mysterious woman to go back to the way things were. :P

QFT, seconded lol

looks like shadow weaver from she ra to me.

she look like raven

@Mr. Kamikaze said:

She's a contingency...in case the New 52 fails...they'll just use this mysterious woman to go back to the way things were. :P

That was my first thought, too.

I wondered how long it would take for G-man to do something on this...

i read red lanterns and could not find her. it is like where's waldo! i see her now!

I've never been a big DC reader, so I'm not in the best place to comment but: When the woman in pink first appears in flashpoint, we see 3 distinct groups of heroes in the background. Presumably these represent the 3 timelines, so does anyone recognise them as being distinctly Vertigo/DC/Wildstorm, or anything else? Second, the woman refers to the timeline being divided to prepare the way for 'Them', is this a refernce to the heroes, or is it some unknown threat? The woman says that they'll have to "Stand together"- possibly a lead in to some new Big Bad?

she looks like a dude in a couple of them and has weirdly long arms in Batman & Robin, not to mention the bizarre extra long fingers in one of the shots I don't recognise.

I interpreted the 3 timelines thing as golden age, silver age, modern age; in other words merging the 3 ages into a singular universe. But I'm a noob, so that probably too obvious.

@The Poet: I was going to as soon as Justice League came out. I was hesitant but finally felt I should get my theories out.

I like this lady that keeps showing up because I like long form story telling.

Nice breakdown. Will be interesting to see if G-Man's detective skills are on par with Batman's.

I kind of wish she wasn't some sort of meta-entity. I'd like it more if they made it somebody with a connection to the DC characters, like Barry's Mom split out of time or Goldstar (Booster's Sister) stepping up as a Time Master. However, I guess both of those would be a stretch to explain, so the Controller/Monitor thing might be for the best.

@uroboros: The shot of "her" with long fingers is in Resurrection Man #1. I put "her" in quotes because I agree that the character looks male in some drawings. Could this be a whole team, or even race, of pink glowy people who like to stand around in comics?!

Unless those fingers are a mistake (which would be pretty unforgivable), it's a really important characteristc, and would possibly rule out a new Time Trapper or Monitor. It does seem like we're seeing more of this character (closer, full body shots) this week as opposed to last, so maybe we'll slowly be given more info to figure out who this person is as the weeks go on.

For now, my bet's on a pink version of this guy.

I'll grant that my knowledge of current events in the comic industry aren't as polished as my knowledge of everything pre-Zero Hour...but, the last I knew, Rok Krinn was eventually revealed to be the Time Trapper.

Was this wiped out with one of Superboy-Prime's punches?

@ravisher: That's what I thought, except in pink and slightly manish looking in some panels...

I think it very well could be more than one controller. If you look at the pictures you can see that each "hooded person" looks like they could be girls of guys. Like Resurrection Man's looks more like a guy. But then again it could be the artists drawing them differently. But I'm leaning more towards that.

She remind me of The Living Tribunal

Interesting theory.

I think it's Barry Allen's mom. Idk why, I just do.

@Mr. Kamikaze said:

She's a contingency...in case the New 52 fails...they'll just use this mysterious woman to go back to the way things were. :P

100% agree

I had only seen her on Superboy

I agree that she's a backup plan. In case the new 52 is a failure or doesn't do as well as DC hopes they'll use her in some big story to bring things back to normal save for the things in the new 52 that they have found to have worked.

Wow I did not notice her in Batgirl until now! Thanks Tony :)

My friend and I have been referring to her as Time Hoody. The "Them Time Hood referred to could also be whatever threat the Giant Eye alien in the moon was talking about in Stormwatch. The alien said that it had come to prepare the world through a baptism of fire sort of thing.

Saw her in Batman and Robin and realised I'd seen her from somewhere, so I skimmed back through all my #1s and saw her a few times.

At first I thought it was Raven, because they haven't really revealed too much on her, but after reading this - I'm thinking otherwise.

@Mr. Kamikaze: SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her appearance in Resurrection Man bothered me because she was TOO obvious, and if you didn't know about her, she'd be misleading, easily misinterpretable as foreshadowing something only part of Resurrection Man's story.

Some suggested on the DC Boards that it was either;

Donna Troy, tapping into her multiverse role along with the Harbinger sphere we havent seen since Infinite Crisis.

The other was Raven, tapping into Marv/George's original idea of a woman that was like the Phantom Stranger.

My bet is the evil counterpart of Void in Wildacts.

I thought it was the monitors as well but im thinking that these people who are showing up could be the next threat to earth. or the threat is already here and these people are like the watchers from the marvel universe, they observe and do not interfere. 
 
 with the way they are dressed and the "aura" they seem to emmit would suggest that they are creating a sort of temporal or dimensional distortion. if anything we will need to keep an eye on flash #1 as we might get our first connection to this from there. Barry was the only one who seemed to interact with them it only seems possible that he again would be able to talk to them.

In all truth I thought she may have been Destiny of the Endless for a moment. But that cannot be because she has not put anyone through any trials yet like Destiny did to Superman in the eighties. I do see how this could be Time Trapper though I will point out that the way she's drawn in some of the other pictures shows that there's maybe more than one Controller/TT in the mix here. In all honesty I'm a little humbled to admit that I had not noticed this mysterious figure before in the New 52 titles I have thus gotten, but in all fairness I also have not even touched one bit of Flashpoint thus far (economic reasons). I see this Time Trapper connection as a plausible theory here. But here is something that I'm also going to put out there in addition to my above assertion of Destiny; is it possible that who we are looking at with regard to all these strange appearances is indeed the Over-Monitor? I recall we have only heard of this entity in words only and that it has never been drawn before. But is it possible that this character is the Monitor-Prime/Over-Monitor over which all existence in the DCU was created, in effect making this character "The One Above All" for DC's multiverse? That's are my two theories...either its Destiny or the Monitor-Prime. Great article though!

@uroboros said:

she looks like a dude in a couple of them and has weirdly long arms in Batman & Robin, not to mention the bizarre extra long fingers in one of the shots I don't recognise.

i was thinking this too

This is great. I'm getting a free "Where's Waldo" with every issue!

@Gambit1024 said:

I think it's Barry Allen's mom. Idk why, I just do.

i think thats a good idea.

this whole thing is genius though! great work from dc to make the reboot even more fun. especially since they havent said anything about her yet.

What do you bet it is the coming of the New Gods, reborn on Earth, that the timeline was broken to prepare for?

@Mr. Kamikaze said:

She's a contingency...when the New 52 inevitably fails...they'll use this mysterious woman to go back to the way things were. :P

i hope you dont mind me changing things around to make it even more true.

Holy Ravioli, G-Man. I am impressed with your knowledge about all these stories and characters and how they may tie in.

could be the new Spectre or maybe a rogue Monitor 

Have to say i miss her in couple comics well nice job

I was wondering about this one too. The reasoning is sound and like always they also come up with more questions when you think of it even further. lol

props to you gman

I read JLA,batgirl,suicide squad,jli,and mr terrific so far and did not notice here at all

I had to go back to find her

very interesting indeed, but I too agree she is a backup plan if sales start slumping

She's Jim Lee's avatar. She's been sent into the DCnU in order to make sure everyone is wearing the right costumes. And their boobs and muscles are featured prominently.

Finally Black Orchid returns to the center stage.