Strolling Down Memory Lane — Reviewing ‘New History Of The DC Universe’ #1

After eight decades, with numerous reality altering crises along the way, it’s safe to say DC Comics history is messy. Retcons, reboots, and a whole universe of stories will do that.

Barry Allen, formerly the Flash, doesn’t enjoy messy history. This leads to the birth of New History Of The DC Universe from Mark Waid, Todd Nauck, Jerry Ordway, Matt Herms, John Kalisz, and Todd Klein.

If you’re going to essentially create a visual history book in comic book form, tapping Waid, the DC History repository himself, was a good choice. Pairing him with Nauck and Ordway was an even better choice.

Together Nauck and Ordway have very charming, classic, but still somewhat modern styles. This reaches into the overall feeling of wonder that these characters evoke, to bring moments from eighty years to bold montage sequence life.

Every page is pretty much a full page spread with various elements worked into the overall scheme. There are moments upon moments, overlapping and leading into the next. Fitting, since this is more a sequence of events story than an actual full-on story. That’s because these stories have already been told, and now the dots are being firmly connected.

There isn’t a ton of space to be really bold or innovative, but it’s not needed. We know these moments and these characters, some more than others depending on your DC knowledge. Those we don’t are here, and the flashes we get can whet the appetite for more.

Similarly, the lettering follows the same pattern with a bunch of caption boxes, shifting between prose and just names for the moment. This keeps to a style and format befitting a history lesson and also keeps Barry’s narration voice quite consistent.

There is a sense of wonder and joy found in those words, though. Klein lets it sink in, as Waid provides that wonder. There is a reason that Waid is the guy who is tapped to handle a lot of projects tapping into DC Comics’ past. Hell, most of his current work at the publisher is books featuring stories flashing back to, connecting to, or refreshing the past, all with modern sensibility and writing style to keep it friendly for audiences of today.

While this isn’t a comic to hand a comic book newbie, it can be one used to shore up gaps later on. A nice little side dish to the main dish that is the ongoing comic book narrative itself.

The New History Of The DC Universe #1 is now available from DC Comics.