Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part XII: History of the DC Universe

Trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2002 (contents: 1986)
Borrowed from the library
Read July 2013

History of the DC Universe

Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: George Pérez
Inker: Karl Kesel
Colorist: Tom Ziuko

History of the DC Universe spins out of Crisis on Infinite Earths; the book here is meant to be written by Harbinger following the death of the Monitor. Even though it was published before Legends concluded, it clearly takes place between Legends and Millennium; indeed, in an early part of Millennium we see Harbinger load this history into a pod to launch it into space, her work complete. It's not exactly a comic book, more a picture book.

A lot of this history was superseded by changes DC made after Crisis on Infinite Earths, in Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, and the like, and obviously after Flashpoint it's all completely "wrong". Still, it holds up for the same reason it's not very interesting: there are so few pages that everything is covered in the most cursory detail. It was probably illuminating immediately after the Crisis, but there's not enough information to make it interesting now, or even in 2002 when this collected edition was published.

What does work-- and will always work-- is the glorious George Pérez artwork. You get to see the man draw every hero in the DC universe (again) here, unfettered by panels, and it is fantastic. There's barely a page in here I wouldn't want as a poster or print. The two-page spread representing the Crisis on Infinite Earths is in particular amazing. I wish it had actually happened in the Crisis!