Ray: Uniting one of the top DC writers of all time with two of its most long-running artists, this book takes on an incredibly ambitious goal – retelling the entire history of the DCU according to the new all-encompassing timeline. The framing device finds Barry Allen, now retired as the Flash ever since he lost his powers due to Amanda Waller’s machinations, collecting his notes for this book. After all, he’s done the most traveling through time and the multiverse, and he knows it like no one else. And when we say it starts at the beginning, we mean it – this narrative begins long before superheroes, and long before Earth. The first few pages explain the history of some cosmic concepts like the Guardians, the Endless, the Parliament of Trees, and the New Gods – and how they’re jockeying for power while Earth is still a smoldering ball and goes through several doomed civilizations at the very start.

And then, time speeds up. We cover millions of years in the first half of the book, and a few hundred in the back half as we see the first DC heroes emerge – first in the age of Camelot, as Shining Knight and Etrigan emerge from myth; and then in the Wild West as figures like Jonah Hex step onto the dusty plains. Characters like this are really more guardians than heroes, and the true superheroes we know don’t really emerge until World War II – which is, of course, the era when the DCU as we know it really began. This issue takes us into the formation, rise, and fall of the JSA – and then uncertainty that comes after. But it stops right before a certain rocket arrives from Krypton. From now on, we’re probably going to be seeing a lot more familiar moments, but this issue was a fascinating primer. It’s definitely a sourcebook, but one with brilliant art and some very interesting insights.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.

Source: geekdad.com