Written by John Ridley
Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Andrea Cucchi
Colors by Jose Villarrubia
Published by DC Comics
The Other History of the DC Universe is a clever idea with some creative artistic work throughout (layouts by Giuseppe Camuncoli with finishes by Andrea Cucchi, color by Jose Villarrubia) as well as a fascinating perspective on DCU history, told here from the point of view of various minority characters.
Specifically, this book collects 5 previously published comics dealing with, respectively, Jefferson Pierce, Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher-Duncan, Tatsu Yamashiro (山城 タツ), Renee Montoya, and Anissa Pierce.
John Ridley, the award-winning author and screenwriter, is the man behind the series which, despite its deep ties to DC comic book stories of the past, eschews the traditional format of the medium to become basically a text-heavy illustrated novel.
Hm…what could we call this type of book? I know!
A GRAPHIC NOVEL!
Joking aside, it actually is pretty graphic, as far as both its vocabulary and violence. It’s also realistic, as near as I can tell. I’m a mid-western city boy raised as lower middle-class. The concepts inherent in African-American society, Asian society, and Latino society were as foreign to me growing up as those of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian society or Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Most of what I thought I knew, I got from blaxploitation movies or martial-arts flicks.
But Ridley brings an element of authenticity as he retells portions of familiar DC plotlines with other heroes including Superman, Batman, the Justice League, the Outsiders, and the Teen Titans. Familiar, and yet with new surprises when seen from new, alternative viewpoints.
The Titans bit is particularly telling as the tragic story of Tara Markov (Terra) is at last related with the unfortunate young lady herself a victim of sex trafficking, something many fans have said for years, while apologists for DC’s Terminator, Slade Wilson, have chosen not to see it.
Representation is important, and one goal of this book seems at least to retroactively add some to DC.
Black Lightning’s is the running back story, opening with his new history and ending with that of his daughter. In between, the female Question, Katana from the Outsiders and, one of the best chapters, the always underrated, underused, and under-respected (to say nothing of multi-identited) Mal Duncan and his eventual partner, the Bumblebee.
If you’re a long-time DC reader, there are so many familiar callbacks, many of them here geared to make you look at them quite differently. If you don’t have that background, you get just enough of what you need to keep up.
Overall, The Other History of the DC Universe tells a long overdue DCU story that needed to be written, even if old fans like me never realized it. At least John Ridley did, and we readers are all the better for that.
Booksteve recommends.
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