New History of the DC Universe #3: This Used To Be My Playground

New History of the DC Universe #3 covers the events that took place in the DCU post-Crisis On Infinite Earths through Barry’s return from the dead during Final Crisis (2008). Picking up with the fallout from Crisis, Waid introduces those characters that joined the ranks of the DCU stable, such as Booster Gold, the BWAHAHA Justice League and Justice League Europe, to name a few.

In the main part of the issue Waid alludes to the linewide events that marked the late 80s / early 90s such as Cosmic Odyssey, Millennium, Invasion, Armageddon 2001 while others like Underworld Unleashed and War Of Gods are only mentioned in the backup peice by Dave Weilgosz. There seem to be glaring omissions in Waid and Weilgosz’s timeline such as the omission of events such as Eclipso Darkness Within, Bloodlines (aside from mentioning Hitman), the omission of storylines such as Prodgial (Dick takes over as Batman for the first time), Amazons Attack, The Lightning Saga and other memorable story arcs that defined this time period.

Waid deftly weaves in borh the Vertigo and Milestone characters as to organically fit into the larger story being told. There is also a bit of retconning that happens as Johnathan Kent’s birth is placed following the events of Infinite Crisis which left Clark depowered for a short stint (instead of the Convergence pocket Universe origin).  Barbara Gordon’s post Killing Joke role.

Coverage of the major happenings is handled well such as Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, the corruption of Hal into Parallax and the death and return of Superman. Waid, justifiably so, mentions his JLA Tower of Babel arc, which is perhaps the best and defining story of the JLA run. The boiling down of Final Crisis to the essential points is handled well and provides a nice ending point for the issue.

The artwork by Jurgens and Mahnke captures the spirit and essence of this period to a tee and will probably cause those readers who grew up reading these comics have a feeling of nostalgia and wanderlust for the days of yore.