The New History of the DC Universe is the first time in years that DC has out and out told the story of its canon history to readers. The original History of the DC Universe came after the multiverse-destroying Crisis on Infinite Earths and was a handy guide for fans who wanted to know which comics mattered and which ones to forget. Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time published a handy timeline events as well in the mid ’90s, but since then, DC hasn’t printed any guide about their history. This makes sense — DC Comics’ history is full of all kinds of retcons and reboots and that would mean that a group of writers and editors had to sit down and come up with a concrete map of the DC Multiverse’s history. The New History of the DC Universe lays out the events of DC metahuman history, and also shows which retcons are canon and which ones aren’t.
Videos by ComicBook.com
One of the most controversial DC retcons involves the narrator of The New History of the DC Universe, Barry Allen. This retcon came after the resurrection of Allen in Final Crisis #2 and was laid out for readers of The Flash: Rebirth, by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. This book was meant to make Barry Allen the most important Flash again after over two decades of being replaced by his former sidekick Wally West. The retcon changed the nature of the Speed Force, the energy which powers DC’s speedsters, and is one of the most controversial changes to the Flash — that Barry Allen was the engine that created the Speed Force. Now, DC is finally righting that wrong.
Geoff Johns Was Trying to Make Barry the Best Flash Again
The Speed Force was a latter day creation of writer Mark Waid in The Flash (Vol. 2) #91. It allowed writers to bind all of the DC’s speedsters closer together, and was able to show why speedsters were able to break the laws of physics. Barry Allen was the fastest Flash and was able to reach the speed of light, but not pass it, and he died because he was moving to fast, the resulting energy destroying the Anti-Monitor’s anti-matter cannon. However, the Speed Force — its existence first hinted at in the amazing “The Return of Barry Allen” by the speedster Max Mercury — would allow Wally to become the fastest Flash. With the help of speedsters like Mercury, Jay Garrick, and Johnny Quick, Wally was able to master the Speed Force, gaining superspeed powers that Barry could only dream of having. Wally could even pull a being out of the Speed Force, freezing them like a statue forever (he did his to inertia, who killed his former sidekick Bart Allen) and feed off the speed of others, making himself faster. Wally became one of the most powerful heroes in the DC Universe. Writer Geoff Johns, who wrote Wally for years and was the mastermind of the return of Silver Age heroes like Hal Jordan, didn’t like the fact that Wally was both more powerful and more important than Barry. So, in The Flash: Rebirth, Johns revealed that when Allen was struck by lightning, covered in chemicals, it created the Speed Force. However, it was already established that the Speed Force was an important component of the DC Universe that had existed since the beginning of time, so this change made no sense. Johns had a work around for this — that once the Speed Force came into existence, it retroactively came into existence across history and the multiverse.
Basically, Barry created the Speed Force and every time he ran, he created more of its energy, pumping it across time and space. Allen was not only creator of the Speed Force, but he was the engine. There was something that felt childish about this change. Wally West had become the best and most important Flash in the DC Universe, because of the Speed Force. The Barry fans that were running DC at the time, namely Johns and Dan DiDio, didn’t like the fact that their favorite Flash wasn’t the best anymore, so they changed it. However, The New History of the DC Universe is being written by Waid, the person who created the Speed Force, who decided that this change was unnecessary and in the second issue of The New History of the DC Universe, he changed it back, with the lightning strike and chemicals allowing Barry to tap into the Speed Force, not having him create it.
The New History of the DC Universe Fixes a Pointless Retcon
The Flash: Rebirth is not the fan favorite that other Johns-written Rebirth books are and there are multiple reasons for that. Van Sciver’s art is nowhere near as good it was on Green Lantern: Rebirth (which also isn’t all that good when looked at nowadays). It also made some strange decisions with the Flash lore, and the Speed Force change was the most maligned. Barry Allen was already an important character — his sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths is one of the most important moments in DC history and he had become the patron saint of the superhero community. Making him the engine of the Speed Force was basically just telling fans that his favorite Flash was better than their favorite.
Waid fixing this retcon takes away one of the more confusing aspects of the DC Multiverse. It doesn’t take away the prestige of Barry Allen or anything like that, it just plain makes more sense. Waid is the exact right person to make this change, and it’s made many DC fans rather happy.
The New History of the DC Universe #2 is on sale now.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios.
