DC Comics reviews 9/24/25 – Absolute Wonder Woman 12, JLU 11

New History of the DC Universe 3

In the first two installments of the series, writer Mark Waid had a difficult challenge of tying all of the various reboots and retcons of the DC Universe into a cohesive narrative. Waid has been the architect of enough DC events and books that he was easily up to that task. With issue 3, the series provides a different challenge as Waid has to create a narrative around a litany of new characters and an abundance of special events.

The first two issues only had Crisis on Infinite Earths as the big event. In this installment, Waid has to incorporate Legends, Invasion, the Death and Return of Superman, Knightfall, Zero Hour and Final Night to name a few. In between those events, Waid has to cram in brief origins for dozens of new heroes like Kyle Rayner, Impulse, Jesse Quick, Hitman, Starman II and III, Renee Montoya, Connor Hawke, Tim Drake, Steel,

There are some fun aspects here such as the official inclusion of the Milestone Universe as part of the mainline DC lore.

Joining Waid for this issue is fittingly Dan Jurgens (with inker Norm Rapmund), an architect for so much of the major 90s moments in DC and Doug Mahnke, who had significant runs on Justice League of America and Green Lantern. The tag team approach to the art keeps the issue from becoming a glorified Who’s Who entry. John Kalisz and David Baron provide strong, consistent colors that pair smoothly with the lettering from Todd Klein.

This was a tough challenge for Waid and really any writer trying to condense so much DC history and crossover after crossover into one issue. Waid does end the issue on another exciting cliffhanger that might lead to an even greater test of his writing in making sense of the end of the Post-Crisis/Post Infinite Crisis reality that heads to the New 52 and the Rebirth era.

Rating: 8 out of 10