New History of the DC Universe

by Mark Waid, Jerry Ordway (Illustrator), Todd Nauck (Illustrator)

In celebration of 90 years of DC, super fan and writer Mark Waid turns back time to the very beginning of the DC Universe in a four-issue miniseries drawn by some of DC’s greatest artists and told by the newest chronicler of time, Barry Allen, the Flash! In our debut issue, Barry takes us from the very birth of the DC Universe to the rise of the Justice Society. The Golden Age of heroes begins here!

Barry Allen takes us through the storied history of the DC Universe, one chapter at a time in this brand new four issue mini series by legendary creators Mark Waid, Jerry Ordway, and Todd Nauck! Starting from the very earliest days of the Justice Society of America in the Golden Age of the DCU and racing through each major era thereafter, The New History of the DC Universe is a genre-defying, definitive look at the world’s most popular superheroes.

Collects The New History of the DC Universe #1-4

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book

144 pages, Hardcover

Published January 20, 2026

About the author

Mark Waid (born March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America.

Reviews

[Joseph Crook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t believe how silly the DC universe is. I had no idea.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid read for any longtime DC fan and it covers a lot of different continuities giving a good recap of everything.

[Jacob Shaffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good at giving you the short burst summaries and if you wanna learn more you certainly can go right ahead. My oldest son is at the age where a Sourcebook is a pretty good thing, so we’ll see how this one plays out for him

I love Barry as a framing device it’s really smart and makes perfect sense

Also thrilled to see the Endless and Lucifer represented here, terrific

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really impressive undertaking, and useful for keeping all the big events of the DC Universe in order the further out we get from them. There were a couple times where I thought “oh, that’s how we’re choosing to describe that going forward?”, mostly involving events from the 2000s through now, because that’s what I’m most familiar with. I guess these things are not for me to decide, and I understand that in order to fit so much history into such a comparatively short book, they can’t get into the context behind every statement. I think the thing I struggle with the most is that we’re still going with the version of events that set Cyborg’s origins as a Justice League character instead of a Titan first and foremost… not my favorite.

[Max Martin-Udry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issue one: really cool art, and a nice frame around it so that its sort of a narrative. But a lot of this stuff is confusing, most glaringly Superman debuted in 1938 but in the DC universe he doesnt arrive on earth until after WWII… around the 20th century the history seems to get really garbled and I dont really get whats going on. But this is a fascinating series purely for the unbelievable amount of research and editing that has to be done. If DC continuity holds together as told in a 4 issue summarizing arc, that remains to be seen

[Colin Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly my kind of thing, basically an animated encyclopedia of DC history. The art is gorgeous, especially the contributions from the Allreds and Hayden Sherman. The whole package is well put together. The detailed timeline with citations to key issues is something I’ll be referring to quite a bit, and I very much appreciate the inclusion of most - if not all? - of the excellent variant covers from the single-issue releases. There are some really fun riffs on the different eras of DC’s publication design.

[Krzysztof Maja Bożejewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jako komiks broni się głównie warstwą graficzną, bo fabularnie to mało powalające: najpierw stało się to, a potem tamto. Natomiast ogromną wartość dodaną stanowi aneks, który jest próbą chronologizacji najważniejszych komiksowych wydarzeń z całej historii DC i pokazuje ogrom pracy, jaką włożono w skompilowanie tej miniserii.

[Caleb Stallings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Waid is a walking encyclopedia, and his compilation and summation of all this material is astonishing. But harmonizing this much disjunction makes it all feel kind of trite.

We must reject the contemporary obsession with comics canon and continuity if we want to enjoy this medium. Taking it so literalistically and seriously undermines its mythic and aesthetic joy.

[Cameron DeHart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun overview of the heroes and villains over DC history, including several minor character I didn't know about. The 4th volume was a bit confusion, perhaps because I'm not up-to-date on recent runs. But still a enjoyable 4-piece.

[Jaq Greenspon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the four individual issues and they’re rather well researched but not a story. Also, the art is inconsistent at best.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

my main takeaway from this is that superhero comics are absolute nonsense (I wouldn't have it any other way)

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Waid takes on the thankless task of trying to force DC Comics continuity to make sense and does about as good of a job as you could hope for.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not even Mark Waid can make the past ten years of "DC CRISIS ALERTS!" matter to me, or make sense. At this point, stop caring about canon and just use *s when needed.

[Julian Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard to read a book like that and to not feel repetitive. Serves as a DC blueprint and would be pretty nice for a first time reader.

[Jadcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Waid es una enciclopedia de DC con patas, y lo amo por eso

[Benjamin Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A resources that should be on every dc fans shelf. A little more skimmy than I was hoping for but I would imagine those appendices with all the sources make up for excited to go through those when I get this in hard copy. I just heard that they are making a new history of the dc universe:Dakota incident to go more in depth on those retcons I assume. I really hope this is a start of a trend if this is just a series of miniseries from here on out that go more into depth on the rougher events or more confusing contradictions that would be sooooo cool. Only works if the writers use it and I hope they do!