In celebration of 90 years of DC, super fan and writer Mark Waid turns back time to the very beginning of the DC Universe in a four-issue miniseries drawn by some of DC’s greatest artists and told by the newest chronicler of time, Barry Allen, the Flash! In our debut issue, Barry takes us from the very birth of the DC Universe to the rise of the Justice Society. The Golden Age of heroes begins here! New History of the DC Universe #1 takes us from the beginning of creation to Superman’s escape from Krypton.

New History of the DC Universe #1 is an attempt to compile a single, clear, timeline of the DC Universe from the beginning to who knows when. While not so much a flowing narrative, Waid treats the series like an updated guidebook. Years ago, we regularly got guidebooks giving fans loads of information about characters and more. This feels more like that breaking down key moments and the characters involved. And it’s a deep dive that delivers a large amount of obscure characters and events. Waid does a solid job of bringing together recent editions to DC’s mythos for what had already been established decades before.

The art by Todd Nauck and Jerry Ordway is good. With color by Matt Herms and John Kalisz and lettering by Todd Klein, the comic looks good and it’s interesting to see the designs over the years and all of the characters. This isn’t a comic full of action but each page has interesting visuals and layouts showing off the history and key players and events. It’s not flashy but it is intriguing.

Where New History of the DC Universe #1 really stands out is what comes after the tour through time. A definitive timeline is laid out including what comics you’d find references or events themselves. That’s written by Dave Wielgosz with research by Wielgosz and Waid and a special thanks to John Wells. Here’s hoping DC takes advantage of this listing to give readers an easy way to explore every reference highlighted.

While it’s nice to finally get a definitive history of the DC Universe, New History of the DC Universe #1 is just one slice of an existence spanning breakdown of DC’s history. If you really want to know the history now, it’s worth checking out but this is one that’s probably best to wait for the likely eventual beautiful hardback collection. New History of the DC Universe #1 is an interesting debut overall but is a rather bland presentation of the history that’s really only for the diehard fans invested in continuity.

Story: Mark Waid Art: Todd Nauck, Jerry Ordway
Color: Matt Herms, John Kalisz Letterer: Todd Klein
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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