The new history of the DC Universe will be Hercules’ work to help a single writer separate, even if he is a well-known comic veteran like Mark Wade. It is not only a book designed to understand all the confused DC Canon revisions that began at the Flash Point and continued through the dark crisis of the Infinite Earth, but it is also a book that seeks to reconcile the DC Canon that existed before and after the crisis on the Infinite Earth. These eras are even less compatible with DC Canons that emerged after flashpoints.
At best, the new history of DC Universe #2 remains a very simple read, and is very new reader-friendly with the gorgeous artwork of Michael Allred and Brad Walker that bring back both the Silver and Bronze Ages of DC. New casual readers can follow it without needing to know anything about DC Canon past or present. However, it is debate whether readers find it really useful as a “guide to DC Omniverse.” This will likely be true once new casual readers actually start reading the book’s reference stories.
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But the group that will be the most difficult to sell with this latest revision is more experienced fans than have read DC Comics for decades. Some people accept books about what it is to fit the flow, while others only get frustrated by the latest batch of unnecessary litcons. One example of this occurred in the first issue, shortly after the 1955 US Senate hearing, by establishing that the Judicial Society had disappeared in Ragnarok, as originally happened, rather than the end of the 1985 Infinite Earth Crisis.
Issue #2 continues this trend with the Justice League: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee events on New 52, occurring as part of DC’s Silver Age history, and even as part of Bronze Age history. This also means that it is happening before the event of a crisis on the infinite earth that is recognized in this issue. This change begins with the fact that Justice League: Origin occurs as a direct result of a Flashpoint event, and is recognized later in the series.
Justice League: Origin is also the storyline that officially marks the beginning of DC’s new 52 era, notifying DC Canon for the next five years. Another reason this change is pointless is the fact that the new 52 origins of Justice League are directly linked to the origins of Earth 2 in this same era, which quickly brings problems to the characters of Huntress (Helena Wayne) and Power Girl. Apart from the fact that Huntress and Power Girl are two characters whose history was quickly compromised by the crisis over the reboot of the Infinite Earth in 1985, the Apocolips War was also the reason they were caught up in a temporary Earth after the Flash Point.
If the new 52 Origin from Justice League is happening much earlier than planned, this now directly affects Earth 2 history before Huntress and Power Girl. This is especially problematic for the latter character. Because there are two versions of Earth-2 Power Girl that are currently in existence. In other words, the original, living in Pre-Earth with a confusing new status quo, is a new 52 iterations that returned to Earth-2 in 2014.
At best, Justice League: Origin will be moved to DC’s Silver Age to save Cyborg’s New 52 Origin, but I’m not sure this change will actually benefit the characters as he has always been a teenage Titans character and not a founding member of Justice League. Above all, this is a change that could have been easily relegated to post-flashpoint continuity, instead of wearing shoes as part of DC’s Silver Age history. This is especially true when the new history of the DC Universe reaches this era in Issue 4.
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It is understandable that a new history of the DC Universe is necessary to streamline the current confusion, the post-mortem metal continuity, but unfortunately the book does not do that at all. Instead, they repeat the biggest mistakes that have hurt the DC Canon since the crisis in the Infinite Earths finale. It is a trend that constantly modify DC Canon to make every era of DC work within the constraints of a single Earth continuity. Not only did this create more confusing revisions that didn’t really match DC’s true publication history, but the confusing revisions promoted the endless cycle of Letocon that creators see in their different DC era. Unfortunately, the new history of the DC Universe does not break this trend.
The consistent issue featured in all revisions is not to truly streamline the event, but to be completely subjective to both the individual creator and the needs of the DC editorial. Both crisis and flashpoint reboots were created, and instead of meaningfully addressing the issues that actually repair damage, the unfortunate status quo was created that had no clearly defined Canon in the DC Multiverse. Instead, Canon becomes what writers and editors need for their new stories to work. This has been the current situation since the crisis.
At some point, DC must acknowledge that past times that flourished in the multiverse never function as part of the continuity of a single Earth. A main example of this is to place the heroes of DC’s Golden Age on Earth-2 and their successors on the same Earth as their counterparts in the Silver Age (Earth-1). The latter raised particular questions for the consistent publication of Helena Wayne Huntress and Power Girl mentioned above. This was also a problem for the daughter of Earth 2, Wonder Woman, anger.
After 40 years, DC will need to stop modifying continuity and get closer to working on a single Earth timeline through an entire multiverse full of competing norms. What’s more, if this single Earth is not rebuilt from scratch with a new history that can actually make sense and easily follow. A more convenient approach to books of this nature is to simply document the history of DC that actually happened, rather than revising its history to what creators and editors want it to.
Leave all ERAS of DC’s continuity completely unharmed without confusing, and all of DC’s old stories can be made new and leader friendly. Also, books like the DC Universe’s New History serve as a true guidebook of DC’s rich history, allowing readers to better identify which stories belong to the DC era. This is a task that Mark Waid can easily accomplish, given his extensive knowledge, love and passion for his past DC era.
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In this case, the new history of DC Universe #1 had to simply document the existence of DC as a multiverse between 1935 and 1985, and there was a crisis in which the infinite Earth would destroy this multiverse and merge the surviving Earth into a single Earth. Issue #2 had to focus on how the crisis reboot changed DC history from 1986 to 2011, when Flashpoint rebooted DC Multiverse for the second time. The only important event that needs to be recognized in a post-crisis era was Zero Hour in 1994, as the first revision of post-crisis history, and the infinite crisis of 2006 reaffirms the pre-crisis multiverse. Similarly, 2007’s 52 should be recognized as a regeneration of the DC multiverse.
The new history of DC Universe #3 was also able to document the post-Flashpoint era (aka The New 52) similarly, as DC Universe Rebirth regained a portion of its post-crisis history after its emergence between 2011 and 2016. The only story that needs to be acknowledged here is the Apocolips War, which served as the origin of both the Justice League and the Justice Society of Justice (Earth 2) of this era, the 2020s. In issue 4, WAID was able to simply let readers know how the DC universe is shaped by both software and major reboots over the course of DC’s publication history, leading to today’s DC Universe.
The latter premise appears to be the goal of the new history of the DC Universe (establishes what a post-Canon metal is), but this is achieved with unnecessary litcons. In this case, events such as the Infinite Earth Crisis, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, Flash Point, End Clock, Dark Night: Death Metal, and the Infinite Earth’s Dark Crisis must be framed very early on as events that have significantly shaped the DC Multiverse over time. Otherwise it must be unrelated to current universe history. This means that these events should not be treated as fixed points in the history of DC’s universe, but as events that only the reader knows, rather than as characters themselves.
In its current form, the new history of the DC Universe becomes irrelevant as soon as the next crisis event revises DC Canon again. For example, such a potential future lettercon is a writer who restores Fury’s true origins as the daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, not as the daughter of a random character (Helena Kosmatos), created for her parents as a post-crisis replacement. Given the problematic trend, this may turn out to be a waste of effort even further down, as the new history of the DC Universe is not broken.
“The New History of the DC Universe” #2 repeats past mistakes
New History of DC Universe #2
Mark Waid and Mark Russell reveal the Silver and Bronze Age eras of DC in the new history of DC, but do not repeat past mistakes.
Mark Waid makes texts easy to follow new readers.
The artwork of Mark Russell and Bloodwalker creates a powerful classic DC feel.
Waid repeats past mistakes as unnecessary litcons.
Waid misses the opportunity to streamline DC’s history.
