DC Retcons Comics Canon For ‘Superman’ Synergy, ‘New History Of The DC Universe’ Reveals Man Of Steel No Longer Earth’s First Public Superhero
In an ostensible attempt to bring their comic book continuity more in-line with James Gunn’s plans for both Superman and the larger DCU, the first issue of New History of the DC Universe series has seen the eponymous publisher retcon their own canon in such a way that, rather than introducing the world to the concept of superheroes and inspiring generation after generation of future crimefighters, the Man of Steel’s public debut is a relatively uneventful blip in history.
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Written by Kingdom Come scribe Mark Waid with a rotating team of DC all-stars on art duties, the New History of the DC Universe Vol. 1 aims to properly iron out the various continuity hiccups that have arisen across the the publisher’s current ‘Earth Prime’ timeline in the near 15-years since it was first established as a result of Barry Allen’s Flashpoint misadventure.
“It’s a chance to realign all of DC’s sprawling continuity into one master timeline, and to be joined by some of comics’ greatest artists to make it shine,” said Waid at the time of book’s announcements. “With new information for even longtime fans, plus Easter eggs galore, this series will be an essential read for DC fans.”
More than just a dry, encylopedia-style recap of Earth Prime’s history, this new record is framed as an in-universe work compiled by none other than Barry Allen, who after losing his powers during the course of last year’s Absolute Power event and leaving the Flash mantle solely to Wally West has chosen to occupy his time by addressing the fact that the DCU’s history is too “malleable” for his own liking.
As one could expect, the first issue kicks starts off at the literal ‘cosmic beginning’, with the former Fastest Man Alive kicking things off a recap regarding the creation of the universe’s primordial forces, which initially included Perpetua, the Monitor, the Anti-Monitor, the World Forger, and the Endless (as originally introduced in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman).
Moving along in sequence, Barry proceeds to dig deep into the DCU’s past, touching upon not only major events like the creation of the Green Lantern Corps and the debut of the Justice Society of America, but also relatively obscure ones like the Starheart’s arrival in China centuries before its discovery by Alan Scott or the Haunted Tank’s deployment on the frontlines of World War 2.
Ultimately, having gotten through the ‘ancient’ and ‘modern’ periods of Earth Prime’s existence, the hero closes out this first issue by turning his attentions to the ‘contemporary’ era, the final page of the book recalling how said era could be demarcated by three specific events: The agreement by Dr. Niles Caulder, Will Magnus, Professor Martin Stein, and Simon Stagg to work on the government-sponsored Supermen Project (the Watchmen-era program dedicated to forcibly creating superhumans, as first introduced in 2018’s Doomsday Clock), the Martian Manhunter being forcibly beamed to Earth by a Colorado scientist, and a baby Kal-El’s last-minute ejection from his exploding home planet.
As the more dedicated DC readers out there may have already recognized, the issue’s confirmation that heroes and groups like Icon, Dr. Occult, and even the aforementioned JSA were active prior to even Krypton’s destruction represents a stark change to the current Earth Prime canon.
While it would later be confirmed some costumed heroes had been active either before traditional in-universe records were kept or operated in secret, as far as Earth Prime is concerned, Grant Morrison’s New 52 relaunch of Action Comics Vol. 2 confirms that the existence of metahumans, much less the concept of a ‘superhero’, was not a matter of public information until Superman was captured on film by one Jimmy Olsen.
(It should be noted that while, at one point the aforementioned JSA and their operation during WW2 was an explicit part of regular canon, they were temporarily erased from history by Doctor Manhattan thanks to his Doomsday Clock-manipulations of the DCU.
Further, while some WW2-era heroes had been confirmed as being operational during Earth Prime’s past following the New 52 reboot, particularly those that comprised the All-Star Squadron, the Seven Soldiers of Victory, the Freedom Fighters, these teams are currently also assumed to have been manipulated out of the timeline by the Watchmen antagonist.)
As noted above, while an argument can be made that this change to Superman’s history was made in service of integrating all of DC’s various properties into one single timeline, one cannot help but raise an eyebrow towards the fact that it brings Big Blue’s comic book incarnation far more in-line with the cinematic DCU’s.
According to the Superman: Welcome to Metropolis prequel novel, which markets itself as being “inspired by the film”, not only does the appearance of the Justice Gang – the name proposed by Guy Gardner for the fledgling team consisting of himself, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific) – predate Superman’s debut by a significant-but-unspecified amount of time, but the Last Son of Krypton will only have a handful of public appearances under his belt prior to his encounter with the trio.
In other words, rather than the shining ideal of justice that all other DC costumed heroes seek to emulate, it instead looks like the DCU Superman will be the ‘new upstart’ whose optimistic way of thinking leads others to open their minds to alternative ways of superpowered problem solving.
All in all, just how Gunn will choose to play this version of Clark will be confirmed when Superman lands in theaters on July 11th.
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