This year is a year of new beginnings for DC. The whole DCU movie reboot, the All In and all the Absolute books, there are truly so many points for new readers and longtime fans to jump back in. Although, whenever you have reinventions and reboots, it’s bound to contradict something that’s already been written, and that’s even more likely when you have over 80 years of comics lore. Therein lies the task for New History of The DC Universe: to streamline the history of this enormous world and condense all that information into 4 books, to be read by new and old fans alike. So, let’s revisit bygone eras and the first caped heroes by jumping into the first issue.
In the Beginning…
Let’s get something straight:
This book has an unusual format.
It’s divided into two parts. One is essentially a scissor-reel of events from DC’s past, narrated by Barry Allen, who is writing an in-universe account of history. After that’s done, we are then given a more thorough reading list, giving more details on stuff Barry missed, for example Bruce Wayne popping up at different times, as seen in The Return Of Bruce Wayne. This list also shows the exact issues in which events occur, if anyone was looking to look deeper into any specific event.
Because this book doesn’t have a traditional structure, it’s very difficult to review in a traditional manner. I can’t really talk about elements of the story I like because, there’s not really any story, just a rearranging of old ones. This issue also tackles a period of comics that I don’t particularly enjoy. Aside from the creation of the universe with the Endless and The New Gods, we mainly get to see a lot of World War 1 and World War 2 era stories, so a lot of JSA, Sgt. Rock and The Losers, amongst other things. Essentially, it covers the Golden Age whilst shifting the debuts of most of our modern heroes down the line, which brings me to my next point.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
The biggest problems I have with this book are with the decisions being made in regards to what is canon and what isn’t. For instance, something I’ve never been a big fan of, is saying that the Wonder Woman of the Golden Age isn’t Diana, but is Queen Hippolyta instead. Little things like this do irk m3, but like I say, I’m not a massive fan of this era, so for better or for worse, I’m impartial to most of it.
To finally move away from the story, and to take a look at the art! Instead of having a singular art style, Nauck and Ordway emulate the work of other artists. You can see the Kirby influence on the New Gods, you can see Sam Keith with the Endless. It is all injected with some personal flair though, which definetly works to their favour.
Recommended If
- The DC timeline is in need of cleaning up
- You’re a new fan who wants to catch up on the history
- Revisiting the Golden Age seems like a fun time
Overall
A bit of an odd one, but off to a good start. If you’re not on board with the format from the beginning though, I don’t think this book will hold you very much. While reading, I couldn’t help but think that this is exactly the type of thing that should be released as a one-shot, rather than a monthly. The next issues will tackle territory I’m more familiar with, so I’m very much looking forward to where this is going.
Score: 7/10
DC Comics have provided advance copies of books for review.
English (US) · 