New History of the DC Universe (2025-) #4

New History of the DC Universe (2025)

by Mark Waid, Hayden Sherman (Artist), Howard Porter (Artist)

Barry Allen’s documentation of the history of the DC Universe reaches the present day, beginning with the world-changing events of Flashpoint. Heroes face new threats like Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs, and the next generation of heroes, like Jon Kent, Wallace West, and Jackson Hyde, begin to emerge from the ashes of crisis-level destruction. All leads to Darkseid’s death and a glimpse at what’s to come in the future. You won’t want to miss this final installment!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes

Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2025

About the author

Mark Waid is an American comic book writer widely known for shaping modern superhero storytelling through influential runs on major characters at both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Raised in Alabama, he developed an early fascination with comic books, particularly classic stories featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, whose imaginative scope and sense of legacy would later inform his own writing. He first entered the comics industry during the mid 1980s as an editor and writer for the fan magazine Amazing Heroes, before publishing his first professional comic story in Action Comics. Soon afterward he joined DC Comics as an editor, contributing to numerous titles and helping shape projects across the company. After leaving editorial work to focus on writing, Waid gained widespread recognition with his long run on The Flash, where he expanded the mythology of the character and co-created the youthful speedster Impulse. His reputation grew further with the celebrated graphic novel Kingdom Come, created with artist Alex Ross, which imagined a future DC Universe shaped by generational conflict among superheroes. Over the years he has written many prominent series, including Captain America, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Superman: Birthright, bringing a balance of optimism, character depth, and respect for comic book history to each project. Waid has also collaborated with notable artists and writers on major ensemble titles such as Justice League and Avengers, while contributing ideas that helped clarify complex continuity within shared superhero universes. Beyond mainstream superhero work, he has supported creator owned projects and experimental publishing models, including the acclaimed series Irredeemable and Incorruptible, which explored moral ambiguity within the superhero genre. He later took on editorial leadership roles at Boom Studios, guiding creative direction while continuing to write extensively. In subsequent years he expanded his involvement in publishing and digital storytelling, helping launch online comics initiatives and advocating for new distribution methods for creators. His work has earned numerous industry awards, including Eisner and Harvey honors, reflecting both critical acclaim and enduring popularity among readers. Throughout his career Waid has remained a passionate student of comic book history, drawing on decades of storytelling tradition while continually encouraging innovation within the medium. His influence extends across generations of readers and creators, and his stories continue to shape the evolving language of superhero comics around the world today through enduring characters imaginative narratives and thoughtful reinventions of familiar myths within popular culture and modern graphic storytelling traditions.

Reviews

[Brandon Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clears up the timeline

I didn't realize this was book 4. So I went through it quickly and will have to catch up later.

[Roland Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are several issues I have with this. Overall it’s a solid read. Some elements of recent continuity could have been erased. Especially everything Scott Lobdelll did with Teen Titans

[Rory C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comic Book Reading Wrap Up for Nov 17th-23rd 2025

Loved this!!! (I'd read the previous instalments but have yet to log them)

This epitomises what makes the DC Universe great in my opinion, the history and legacy of the characters. The more they are able to hand over to the next generation, the stronger it is, although there is the inevitable resistance from older fans to this happening. I prefer that to the messy reboots that have happened in the last decade that Mark Waid has done his best to smooth logically into the DC timeline.

Great text section in the back of these further footnoting the DC History with references to the actual issues they take place in, and I have to make special mention of how much I love the Hayden Sherman pages in this. New favourite artist for me this year!

[Mocassin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une étoile de plus que d'habitude parce que c'est quand même un sacré défi que d'écrire une chronologie cohérente des quinze dernières années, ce que Waid fait... Pas trop mal ? Ça a le mérite d'alléger un peu ce bordel, mais je ne pense pas que ce soit très compréhensible pour qui n'a pas suivi tout ça en temps réel.

[Murphy C · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/22/26

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

concluding a four issue story given a brief history of DC Comics from the early days to current days.

It tries to give you enough information to cover stories you may or may not have missed.

[Phillip Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

New History of the DC Universe #4 | Comic Review

I finished New History of the DC Universe # 4, and I’m going to be honest in that I had very little idea what was going on.

So much of this felt way over my head. I’d never heard of many characters.

I’d never heard of so many of these characters or stories. Obviously, I haven’t kept up with comic stories over the years, but I was struggling to wrap my head around some of the brief descriptions of events.

Dick Grayson heard a third persona? Agent 37?

The Omega Titans?

Wally West has kids, and they’re both superheroes!

I’ve got a lot of reading to do if I ever want to learn about all of this. Let’s do it!

Dr. Manhattan?!?!?

I’m going to seek out this specific arc now. I can’t wait to see more about how they included Dr. Manhattan in with the greater DC world.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fully honest my review probably shouldn't count as much as others. I will still be adamant that this is an impressive endeavor, and I loved the ending page basically assuring us that history will continue to be influx and constantly changing. And it was funny to see Barry walk into a comic shop with a clear nod to DC and even the comic event where he died, crisis on infinite earths, sitting on the rack. But I did skip over this issue a bit. I loved looking at Hayden Sherman's art and seeing everything they touched on. But from someone starting at the DC all in point and back reading a lot of stuff, this is the kind of stuff I still want to experience myself and read for myself. So other than just looking over all the great art to see what they hit on, I skimmed. Sue me, lol.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the four books in the series I found this last one the weakest in terms of art and events. It starts great with the Black Lantern event into Flashpoint, but the later events where heroes turn into animals and the mess with Waller neutering the heroes powers were silly if not awful. I was never a fan of Bendis’ LSH either or some of the drama with Jon Kent and the lame Batman/Catwoman non-wedding.
Art was better in the first three issues though still decent enough.
Overall, a nice read from DC. Interesting as well with Waid writing the last Marvel history a few years back.

[Paloma Montecino · Rating 4 out of 5]

En realidad son 3.5⭐️, pero como es más tirando al lado positivo le pongo 4.
Qsy…hay algunas cosas que me ofende que sean 100% canon ahora y que no podamos fingir demencia. Banco igual que hayan organizado todo porque ahora x ahí es más fácil entender ciertas cosas.
Agradezco esos tres paneles donde salieron mis personajes favoritos.

[luciddreamer99 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little boring, though the illustrations are interesting. Maybe because some of the events described are pretty recent; I found this issue semi-pointless, though the Absolute characters are shown in shadow. Read it you read the other issues.

[Ryan MacLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it all. Always cool to see the generations of stories somewhat compiled into a timeline, however hard that is to do with so much history.

[Lizzy DeMarco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite interesting compilation of the history. Glad to see the Bat Cat engagement got included!

[Daniel Bingham · Rating 1 out of 5]

This series was a slog to get through. I had hoped it would make me want to read more into various characters I haven’t yet explored. But it just isn’t detailed enough to be interesting

[Joseph Crook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and great art but it’s a lot for someone who knows nothing about DC.

[Ryan Gässer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just okay.

[Jerry Aguirre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good way to finish the new history of DC. I knew a lot of what happened here and it was nice to go back through memory lane.

[Vijay Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that DC has been continuously struggling to recover from all the New 52 retcons for almost TWO WHOLE DECADES is both hilarious and a little sad

[Mark Cubillos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was happy to get caught up on the new timeline and the updated version.