Bullet Review: New History Of The DC Universe #2

When The New History of the DC Universe was announced, I figured I would be covering some bits of it. When I read the solicits for The New History of the DC Universe #2 and saw it would cover the Crisis, I figured there would be some pieces in it worth a spot here.

So far writer Mark Waid has been rolling out the timeline in a rather straightforward way. This isn't a story after all, There isn't a plot that needs to be resolved. These are events which have happened. Waid is just trying to make sense of it all.

And frankly I am trying to make sense of it all. Because it is hard to put it all together in my mind.

Some of it reads like there has always been just one universe. At times it reads like there is a multiverse that became a universe. Sometimes the timeline feels condensed as the arrival of characters and major events unfolding seem a bit strange.

But if we are creating one timeline out of the many MANY DC universes and reboots, I shouldn't have been surprised. So, for example, Cyborg was part of an early JLA that fought Darkseid (that's new 52 JLA) but then was put into some stasis for years until he re-arrives to be part of the New Teen Titans? Strange. And that early fight with Darkseid? That is just an early manifestation of the JLA. The Appelax meteor story is still considered the first JLA adventure. 

Got it? Maybe?

Anyways, let's see how Supergirl fares.

We hear how she arrived at or around the same time as the original Teen Titans. That is a long tenure. I suppose given her interaction with Robin in World's Finest, it makes sense but it also means she is older than Dick Grayson which doesn't necessarily jibe with being a new hero or even how she is being portrayed in her current book. 

The newer bit of her history - her being technically older than Kal but arriving later - remains intact.

What I find a little interesting is the costume, the original blue shirt/blue skirt look from Action Comics #252. 

Not the Michael Turner belly shirt when she arrived that time. Not the New 52 one piece.

Mike Allred draws a great Supergirl.

We get all the way up to the Crisis. 

Now we hear that there is a Multiverse, a place of wonder. But the Crisis happened. 'For a time' there was one single reality.

During that Crisis, Supergirl dies, 'whose loss was felt perhaps most profoundly'. Waid is a Kara fan.

And Barry, our narrator, dies too.

This is a headband wearing Kara, cradled by Superman. So Kara's death in Crisis is now in continuity! Which means the Crisis happened after this 'new Supergirl' arrived. 

It also means she comes back ... unless somehow when the multiverse is recreated in this reality, she comes back in a new way. We don't know that story. Will we learn it? And does her coming back explain the time gap form being a contemporary of the original Titans?

Don't know how I feel about Supergirl having died in this continuity. It is a great comic moment. But how do you jibe it?

Interesting.

Great page by Brad Walker.

For those who don't know, I am a huge Creeper fan.

So I had to include the Mike Allred Creeper, the weird, wild, unbridled menace to the underworld.

I am enjoying this series as a deep dive but not as much as I thought. I wish I could explain why. 

I do love the appendix in the back with issue numbers like footnotes is pretty cool.