There were still some surprises, though, like the complete canonization of the Milestone imprint. For those who don’t know their DC history, the Milestone imprint was created by a coalition of African-American creators like the late great Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Chistopher Priest, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle and published by DC. The Killing Joke is now a hundred percent canon as well, as is the controversial Identity Crisis. The issue also brings up the return of Supergirl from Superman/Batman in the early ’00s, but doesn’t explain how Kara came back, since her death in Crisis is also canon. Waid does a tremendous job of laying out the history of DC from 1986 to 2011, putting the right spotlight and emotional resonance to various events.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Pros
Cons
Some surprising events are canon
Jurgens’s art is a bit too shiny and happy for some of its imagery
Waid is able to give readers a great narrative for a history book
The art is fantastic, especially Mahnke’s pages
New History of the DC Universe #3 Uses Two of DC’s Most Underrated Artists
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
One of the best parts of New Universe of the DC Universe so far is the art. Each page combines multiple events in big, beautiful splashes, and this issue brings in two of ’90s/’00s DC most underrated artists for its images. Dan Jurgens is the writer/artist who killed Superman and has one of the cleanest styles in comics. Jurgens’s pages are excellent; Jurgens has drawn basically every DC character at some point or another, and he does a fantastic job of giving readers the various modern looks of DC’s greatest characters. If I have any complaints about Jurgens’s pages, it’s that his style is a little too shiny and happy for some of the darker events he draws, but it still looks amazing.
Doug Mahnke, co-creator of the Mask, got his first DC big break with Major Bummer and since then has drawn multiple gorgeous runs on various DC characters. His pages in New History of the DC Universe are darker and grittier than Jurgens’s pages, and it definitely works for what he’s given. The last few pages he drew deal with post-Infinite Crisis DC and he perfectly captures the events of Final Crisis, “The Sinestro Corps War”, “Batman and Son”, “Last Son of Krypton”, Blackest Night, et cetera, and are some of the best images in the entire book. I’ve always loved Mahnke’s style, and his pages in this issue are my favorite.
New History of the DC Universe #3 Is Everything You Could Want
New History of the DC Universe is a guidebook more than a story, but Waid is able to do a great job of actually making a story out of the book. New History of the DC Universe #3 is another example of why this book has been so good; Waid is able to use his encyclopedic knowledge of DC to create a narrative that tells the story of the company in a way that will definitely pull readers in. The art is fantastic, Jurgens and Mahnke bringing their A-game to every image. This is DC at its best, and yet another fantastic issue.
New History of the DC Universe #3 is on sale now
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