LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES (1986), art by George Pérez and Karl Kesel, published in HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE #1 - scan from DECIMITE

Pages are air brushed by Bill Wray.

History of the DC Universe Color Reproduction Page art by Perez, air brushed by Bill Wray.

IMO: Dominos
01.06.03
By John Byrne

(excerpt)

And the end result of all this? At DC, it was Crisis on Infinite Earths (a job I turned down, when it was just called The History of the DC Universe) -- and to this day there are people who say Crisis did not go far enough, or Crisis went too far -- or, somewhat after the fact, that Crisis wasn't really "necessary."

And still the dominoes fall. Crisis begat Man of Steel, and Man of Steel begat a whole syndrome. Now it seems a writer cannot begin a run on an existing series without blowing it all up and starting over. (Mea culpa? Not really. I would have been perfectly happy to do the reboot slowly, over several months, within existing continuity.)

So now we find ourselves where we are -- with DC on the verge of "needing" another Crisis, according to many fans (simply ignoring bad stories being no longer an option, apparently), and the current regime at M*rv*l trundling as fast as their pudgy little legs will let them toward the kind of morass that makes the "need" for the original Crisis seem like smoke and fairy dust.

Re: History of the DC Universw
12/30/02 04:49:10 PM

Wow, I don't remember it being 3 issues at all, but I do have a vague memory of the timeline. Why that went away, who knows? Originally, the History was supposed to be the last two issues (11&12) of Crisis (The History of the DC Universe was Crisis' original name, by the way). But Crisis expanded in size - though not content. It just took more pages than originally planned to tell the story I had previously outlined for ten issues. By the time we realized that we'd need all twelve issues and that History would have to be a separate book, Crisis was selling so well the approval of the History spinoff was instantly approved.

As for why the timeline never happened, as I say, I don't remember.

Subject: History of the DC Universw
12/30/02 12:04:23 PM

Love the site Marv. Now on to business. When DC originally solicited History of the DC Universe, I remember it was to be a three issue series that featured, among other promised content, a fully painted time-line by George Perez. Could you shed some light on how the book changed from three issues to two, and what content changes were made? By the way, as much as I love HOTDCU, I am very annoyed by the inevitable retroactive changes that have occured since it's writing...sigh.