A Series Of Events — Reviewing ‘New History Of The DC Universe’ #2
by Scott Redmond
Summary
Maybe this just hits differently this month, with life coloring my opinions. Either way, this just wasn’t getting there. It’s just page after page of throwing characters and moments at us without even a breath. I kept going deeper and deeper thinking “Okay this has to be the end, right?” until I could release a relief sigh as the narrator Barry Allen reached the moment of his own death.
Overall
8/10Grab a notebook and pen. Class is back in session as the complete history of the DC Universe deepens. History, as a subject, can drift between deep intriguing stories and lists of potentially dry facts.
New History Of The DC Universe #2 brings in iconic faces as it begins to delve too deep into throwing names, dates, and moments on a timeline at the audience. This lesson is cultivated by Mark Waid, Brad Walker, Mike Allred, Trish Mulvihill, Laura Allred, and Todd Klein.
It’s kind of amazing how a mind or mood can seem to rapidly change, even about the same thing. One month, a “visual history book in comic book form” is “charming, classic, but still somewhat modern” with little need to be “bold or innovative.” The next, it’s like realizing that you’re chapters deep into a history book, being bombarded nonstop.
I still commend Waid for how he tackles stitching together over eight decades of conflicting, constantly changing continuity (say that five times fast). On the other hand, this was kind of a dry read. Perhaps it’s the fact that most of this is history that I’m more intimately familiar with when it comes to DC Comics. Not that I’ve read most of old DC, but I’m very in tune with and aware of these incidents and their placement in DC lore.
Dual artistic visions are at play here. Walker and Allred are very different in their artistic approaches, but the big spreads still have some power to them. Once more, it’s a lot of those splash page montages of characters and moments all pushed together. Nothing is overly dynamic or innovative, but it works and gets the point across.
There is charm and familiar whimsy very apparent in the artwork. Boosted by the colors that Mulvihill and Allred are delivering. They give everything a very natural feeling with splashes of the more vibrant boldness we expect with these characters. Moreso than the last issue because we’re not in the era of even more flashy costume wearing figures than some of the first issue history covers.
Once more Klein does well with what is here. There isn’t much space to be innovative or fun with the captions as they are there to relay information. Just pages of lore being poured upon the reader. There is some play in how it’s delivered to give some suspense and energy. At least Barry has a consistent voice from start to finish in most respects.
New History Of The DC Universe #2 is now available from DC Comics.