- Writer: Marv Wolfman
- Penciller: George Pérez
- Inker: Karl Kesel
- Colorists: Bill Wray, Tom Ziuko, and Bob Le Rose
- Cover Artist: George Pérez
- Editor: Mike Gold
Cover: Each of the letters making up the title contain a character or scene. With the exception of Superman, Swamp Thing, and Batman, the characters are the same as Book One.
HISTORY contains Superman; Uncle Sam; gorillas from Gorilla City; Kal-El’s spaceship leavin Krypton; Amazing Man (with Sargon the Sorcerer above him, Atom to the top left, and Plastic Man’s neck stretching from top to bottom); Etrigan the Demon; a meteor crashed in Tibet.
OF contains Hourman; THE contains Swamp Thing; DC contains Black Condor.
UNIVERSE contains Batman; Jonah Hex; Taj-Ze of Nanda Parbat; the Changralynians; Hawkman and, beneath his foot, Hawkgirl; Starfire at the top with her father Myand’r and, possibly, her mother Luand’r on the right; the skies during World War II; Dr Occult.
Page 1: As a counterpoint to Page 1 of Book One showing the creation of the positive matter universe, here we see the creation of the anti-matter universe; the rocky world is Qward.
Page 2 – Panel 3: Harbinger, one of the main characters from CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS who is recording the History of the Universe as we read it.
Page 3 – Panel 1: Judomaster on the right with his assistant Tiger in white in the background.
Page 3 – Panel 2: Immortal Man (note the glowing amulet) in World War II.
Page 3 – Panel 3: Tsunami in the top right, Neptune Perkins in the bottom left.
Page 4 – Panel 1: The Guardian on the left and, left to right, are the Newsboy Legion: Gabby; Scrapper; Tommy Thompkins; and Big Words.
Page 4 – Panel 2: The Haunted Tank with (probably) Jeb Stuart manning the gun. Above them is the ghost of J.E.B. Stuart.
Page 4 – Panel 3: At the top of the panel are the Creature Commandos, from left to right: Medusa; Vincent Velcoro; Wolfpack; Patchworkl and G.I. Robot. Below them is the Viking Commando.
Page 4 – Panel 4: Overlooking the other characters is the Unknown Soldier. In front of him, left to right, are Control; Falcon; Fleur; Mademoiselle Marie; Dina; Sorcerer; Gravedigger. Most of these are members of the Office of Strategic Services.
Page 5 – Panel 1: The Boy Commandos left to right are Jan; Ally; Percy; Brooklyn; Tex; and Percy. Overlooking them is Captain Rip Carter.
Page 5 – Panel 2: The masked man in the foreground is Kana; I’m uncertain if the soldier above him is either the same man without a costume or another character. If you know any different, use the Contact Me page and let me know.
Page 5 – Panel 3: The Losers at the top of the panel. Left to right are Gunner; Sarge; Flying Cloud; and Captain Storm.
Page 6 – Panel 1: Shown above, the Seven Soldiers of Victory (called the Law’s Legionnaires in the text) battle the Nebula Man. Right to left are Wing; Vigilante (on the motorbike); Nebula Man; Stripesy; Shining Knight; and the Star-Spangled Kid.
Page 6 – Panel 2: The Crimson Avenger mourning the death of Wing.
Page 6 – Panel 3: The first Black Canary on the left and Merry, Girl of 1000 Gimmicks on the left. The text mentions them both having crime-fighting children: Canary’s daughter would become the second Black Canary; Merry’s son would become the hero Brainwave.
Page 7 – Panel 1: The Justice Society of America disband. Left to right are Dr Mid-Nite; Green Lantern; Black Canary; the Atom; Hawkman; and the Flash.
Page 7 – Panel 2: Rick Flag of Task Force X, later to be known as the Suicide Squad.
Page 7 – Panel 3: The Kryptonian ship carrying the baby Kal-El flies toward Earth.
Page 8 – Panels 1 to 4: The ship crashes in a corn field near Smallville, witnessed by Jonathan and Martha Kent in their truck.
Page 8 – Panel 5: Tom Curry on the left, with Atlanna holding their son Arthur who would become Aquaman.
Page 8 – Panel 6: The young Arthur Curry beneath the waves spies Atlantis.
Page 8 – Panel 7: The murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, leaving young Bruce an orphan. To the right the killer, Joe Chill, runs off.
Page 9: The Phantom Stranger.
Page 10 – Panel 1: Captain Comet.
Page 10 – Panel 4: The Martian Manhunter is teleported to Earth and appears before Professor Saul Erdel.
Page 11 – Panel 1: The creation of Diana, who would grow to be Wonder Woman, held aloft by her mother Hippolyta.
Page 11 – Panel 2: Dan Garrett discovers the scarab buried with the Pharaoh Kha-ef-re (as seen in the previous issue) and, as the text says, would later become the first Blue Beetle.
Page 11 – Panel 3: The demon Trigon and Arella; their offspring would be Raven of the Teen Titans.
Page 11 – Panel 4: Harbinger as a young girl, saved by the Monitor.
Page 12: The “greatest hero of all time“.
Page 13 – Panel 1: Batman.
Page 13 – Panel 2: Robin, the Boy Wonder.
Page 14 – Panel 1: Barry Allen, the Flash.
Page 14 – Panel 2: Hal Jordan becomes Green Lantern following the death of Abin Sur.
Page 14 – Panel 3: Ray Palmer becomes the Atom.
Page 14 – Panel 4: Hawkman and Hawkwoman, both police officers from the planet Thanagar. As an aside, the Hawks’ continuity following CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS would become something of a mess and take decades to put right.
Page 15 – Panel 1: Aquaman now fully grown.
Page 15 – Panel 3: Captain Atom in his original costume/appearance. It would be a couple of years after the publication of HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE before his silver look would debut.
Page 15 – Panel 4: Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow. In the background is the Bug, all purpose craft belonging to . . .
Page 15 – Panel 5: . . . the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord.
Page 16 – Panel 1: The Guardians of the Universe, leaders of the Green Lantern Corps.
Page 16 – Panel 2: Cave Carson in the top left of the panel, then right to left are the Challengers of the Unknown: Red Ryan; June Robbins; Rocky Davis; Ace Morgan (the blonde in the top right); and Prof Haley.
Page 16 – Panel 3: Adam Strange, hero of the planet Rann.
Page 16 – Panel 4: Myand’r on the left and Luand’r on the right console each other as their daughter Koriand’r is enslaved by the Citadel.
Page 16 – Panel 5: In the centre of the panel is Dolphin while around her are the Sea Devils; top left are probably Dane Dorrance and Biff Bailey; bottom right are Judy Walton and her brother Nicky.
Page 17 – Panel 1: The Justice League of America shown above. Left to right are Green Arrow; Martian Manhunter; Aquaman; the Flash; Batman; Atom (beneath Batman); Green Lantern; and Hawkman.
Page 17 – Panel 2: The first iteration of the Teen Titans. Kid Flash; Aqualad; Wonder Girl; Robin.
Page 17 – Panel 3: The creation of the Metal Men. Dr Magnus is silhouetted on the left; behind the screen are Gold; Platinum; Mercury; Lead; and Tin. On the table is Iron.
Pages 18 and 19: While not strictly a two-page spread (none of the art crosses into the other page) it’s close enough that I’ll treat it as such. Working clockwise from the top left are: Ultra, the Multi Alien and Elongated Man; B’wana Beast; Robby Reed (of Dial H for Hero); the Question; Prince Ra-Man; Eclipso holding a black diamond; Deadman with Taj-Ze of Nanda Parbat to the right, and Animal Man to the bottom left; the Creeper; Son of Vulcan; Metamorpho; Mera; Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt above her feet; Ragman; and Zatanna with Zatara in the background.
Page 20 – Panel 1: On the left is King Faraday, on the right Sarge Steel.
Page 20 – Panel 2: Both the Suicide Squad and the Secret Six are shown here. Left to right are the Suicide Squad of Karin Grace; Rick Flag Jr; Hugh Evans (with the pipe); and Jess Bright. The Secret Six are Carlo di Rienzi (kneeling); Mike Tempest; King Savage; Lili de Neuve; August Durant; and Kit Dawn.
Page 21 – Panel 1: The Doom Patrol, both living and dead members. The ghostly forms are the Chief; Negative Man (with his negative energy form behind him); and Elasti-Girl. Standing before the graves are the young Beast Boy with his adopted father Mento. On the graves the name Caulder is for the Chief; Trainor for Negative Man; Farr-Dayton for Elasti-Girl; and Steele for Robotman who isn’t shown here.
Page 21 – Panel 2: The Monitor’s satellite above the Earth.
Page 21 – Panel 3: The Monitor watching the remains of Robotman
Page 21 – Panel 4: Harbinger.
Pages 22 and 23: The New Gods of New Genesis and Apokolips. The image below is numbered but instead of going left to right, I’ve broken it up into sections with the key below the image.
At the top of the page, in the middle: 1) Highfather 2) Darkseid
Panel at the centre of the left page: 3) Big Bear 4) Vykin the Black 5) Mark Moonrider 6) Serifan 7) Beautiful Dreamer; together these are the Forever People and they can combine to form 8) Infinity Man
Panel at the centre of the right page: 9) Big Barda 10) Mr Miracle
Figures fighting in the foreground at the centre: 11) Orion 12) flying above them is the Black Racer 13) Kalibak
For the rest we start on the left in the air, dropping down to the ground working left to right, and then back up the right.
14) Metron 15) Esak 16) Shaligo 17) Bekka 18) Kanto 19) Virman Vundabar 20) Doctor Bedlam 21) Mantis 22) Glorious Godfrey 23) Devilance the Pursuer 24) Forager 25) Desaad (with Steppenwolf just to the left of him as we look at the page) 26) Granny Goodness 27) Lonar 28) Himon 29) Mokkari 30) Simyan 31) Lashina 32) Fastbak 33) Lightray
There are a handful of characters either being blown up or laying dead and I’m unsure if they’re named or not. If you can identify any, use the Contact Me page to let me know.
Page 24 – Panels 1 and 2: The creation of Brainiac and his “head ship” – Brainiac would go on to become a major Superman villain.
Page 24 – Panel 4: The blue skinned warrior is Mallor and, I have to admit, none of my usual internet sources have any more information about this character other than what is here and the hint that future Legion of Super-Heroes member Shadow Lass is a descendent.
Page 25 – Panel 1: Dr Will Magnus, last seen on Page 17, recovers Robotman’s remains.
Page 25 – Panel 2: The new Doom Patrol (shown above) with Tempest in the top left; Negative Woman below him; Robotman in the centre; Negative Woman’s energy form to the right of him; and Celsius in the bottom left.
Page 25 – Panel 3: The “terrifying” Thorn, a vigilante operating in Metropolis.
Page 25 – Panel 4: Black Lightning.
Page 25 – Panel 5: Swamp Thing.
Page 26 – Panel 1: Manhunter.
Page 26 – Panel 2: Working clockwise from the bottom left are Christopher Chance aka the Human Target in the blue suit; Jonny Double in the trench coat; Harvey Bullock in the blue hat; Jonni Thunder in the white suit; and Jason Bard with the cane. Behind them is the Thunderbolt, an energy being linked to Jonni Thunder.
Page 26 – Panel 3: Peacemaker.
Page 27 – Panel 1: At the top is Firehawk, below her is Firestorm.
Page 27 – Panel 2: The Warlord of Skataris.
Page 27 – Panel 3: Jemm, Son of Saturn.
Page 27 – Panel 4: Gardner Grayle, the Atomic Knight.
Page 27 – Panel 5: Baron Winters, mystic and (at this time) leader of the Night Force.
Page 28 – Panel 1: Amy Winston who has adventures in Gemworld as Amethyst.
Page 28 – Panel 2: Azarath, the land where Raven of the Teen Titans was born. It’s possible that the hooded figure looking at Azarath is Raven herself.
Page 28 – Panel 3: Halo, possessed by one of the Aurakles beings.
Page 28 – Panel 4: Shade, the Changing Man.
Page 29: Captain Marvel and, in blue behind him, the face of Shazam, the wizard who gives the Captain his powers. The text mentions an attack by Darkseid upon “the very soul of heroism” – these events form the LEGENDS crossover.
Page 30 – Panel 1: On the left are Starfire at the top, Speedy below her.
Page 30 – Panel 2: Azrael at the top; Omen below him; the green bird is Changeling, and he appears below that; then Cyborg, Nightwing and Wonder Girl below him.
Page 30 – Panel 3: Raven at the top, with Kid Flash beneath her.
Page 30 – Panel 4: Running left to right are Hawk; Kole; Jericho; Terra; and Robin.
Page 30 – Panel 5: On the left is Aqualad; on the right Aquagirl.
Page 31 – Panel 1: The Outsiders. From left to right are Black Lightning; Halo (above him); Katana; Geo-Force; Looker; and Metamorpho.
Page 31 – Panel 2: The Justice League Detroit, shown above. Top right is Batman, then working down is Elongated Man; Martian Manhunter; and Zatanna. Then from left to right are Steel; Gypsy; Vibe; Vixen; and Aquaman.
Page 32: This is the sort of page that makes my annotations obsolete. The Global Guardians are pictured here, each one numbered with a key at the bottom of the page so there’s no point me adding anything.
Page 33: This page is similar, with the three panels on the left and those on the right each being labelled with the characters depicted within them. In the centre are Harbinger and the Monitor, and in the bottom right the Anti-Monitor.
Pages 34 and 35 main spread: Shown above is the Crisis on Infinite Earths, pre-Crisis, hence Harbinger’s mention of multiple Earths.
The image is numbered working left top right, top to bottom in approximate rows:
1) Star-Spangled Kid 2) Metamorpho 3) Jade 4) Beast Boy 5) Anti-Monitor 6) Harbinger 7) Hourman 8) Tin 9) Superman 10) Wonder Girl 11) Firestorm 12) Cyborg 13) Hawkman 14) Hawkgirl 15) Elongated Man 16) Lady Quark 17) Blue Beetle’s Bug 18) unknown 19) Captain Marvel 20) Halo 21) Captain Atom 22) Katana 23) Geo-Force 24) The Question 25) Pariah 26) unknown 27) Nightwing 28) The Creeper 29) Hawk 30) unknown 31) Power Girl 32) Batman 33) unknown 34) Martian Manhunter 35) unknown 36) Black Condor 37) The Atom 38) Vixen 39) Green Arrow 40) Uncle Sam
There’s a handful of unknowns in there – if you can identify any, use the Contact Me page and let me know.
Pages 34 and 35 bottom right: Left to right are the Monitor; Lori Lemaris; Tomar-Re; Dove; Kole; Immortal Man; Prince Ra-Man; Starman; Aquagirl; the Flash; and Kid Flash. All except Kid Flash are mentioned in the text box as having died during the Crisis; for some reason, Kid Flash appears instead of Sunburst.
Page 36 – Panel 1: Left to right are three disembodied heads of the Guardians of the Universe; Arisia; John Stewart; Ch’p (standing in front of John); Hal Jordan; Kilowog (towering over the others); Katma Tui; and Salakk. The “mysterious prophecy about mankind” that’s mentioned would be revealed as part of the MILLENNIUM crossover event.
Page 36 – Panel 2: Lady Quark on the left, Pariah on the right.
Page 36 – Panel 3: Yolanda Montex takes over the role of Wildcat.
Page 36 – Panel 4: Harbinger’s head in the bottom left; Booster Gold; then Dr Light.
Page 37 – Panel 1: The Spider Guild invade the Vegan worlds.
Page 37 – Panel 2 (main panel): The Omega Men shown numbered on the right: 1) Harpis 2) Nimbus 3) Tigorr 4) Auron 5) Primus 6) Kalista 7) Shlagen 8) Green Man 9) Darkfire 10) Ynda 11) Doc 12) Artin 13) unknown (partially hidden by rock) 14) Broot 15) Oho-Besh 16) Uhlan 17) Felicity 18) Zirral
Page 38 – Panel 1: The Justice Society of America facing the flaming giant Surtur. Those in the sky, left to right, are Hourman; Starman; Johnny Thunder riding his Thunderbolt; Green Lantern; Hawkman; Hawkgirl; and in the top right, the Spectre. On the ground are Dr Mid-Nite; Sandman; Sandy the Golden Boy; the Atom; Wildcat; the Flash; and in the bottom right, Dr Fate.
This was to be the final fate of the Justice Society, post-Crisis: to fight an eternal battle against the fire giant. They would not return to the DCU until 1992’s ARMAGEDDON: INFERNO mini-series.
Page 38 – Panel 2: Infinity Inc, the children of the Justice Society. Left to right are Brainwave Jr; Obsidian; Jade; Nuklon (behind Jade); Skyman; Fury; Northwind (behind Fury); and Silver Scarab.
Page 38 – Panel 3: The newer members who joined Infinity Inc post-Crisis: Dr Midnight; Hourman; and Wildcat.
Page 39: The head of Darkseid and, in front of him, the Phantom Stranger. The text refers to the events of LEGENDS.
Page 40 – Panel 1: (shown above) The newly formed Justice League following the events of LEGENDS. In the middle at the top is Captain Marvel; clockwise are Martian Manhunter; Mr Miracle; Dr Fate; Blue Beetle; Batman; Black Canary; Guy Gardner; Dr Light; and Captain Atom.
The text claims that “Forevermore this … team would be called The Justice League” The first issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE debuted three months after this issue and, in issue #7, became JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL. A couple of years after that, with #26, it became JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA. So much for “Forevermore“
Page 40 – Panel 2: The Suicide Squad who emerged following LEGENDS. Left to right are Bronze Tiger; Enchantress; Deadshot; Rick Flag Jr; Captain Boomerang; Nightshade; and Nemesis.
Page 41: Wonder Woman who would make one of her first post-Crisis appearances in the pages of LEGENDS. The “dead cavewoman” mentioned in the text refers to Hippolyta, Wonder Woman’s mother, whom we saw on Page 9 of Issue #1.
Page 42 – Panel 1: Harbinger, still recording. The text mentions the “Terrorist Triumvirate” but I’m unsure what that is. If you know, use the Contact Me page to tell me.
Page 42 – Panel 2: Jonah Hex whom we saw being transported through time on Page 29 of Issue #1
Page 43 – Panel 1: For some reason, the art on this page lists the characters, making most of my notes redundant. For the sake of completeness, the Star Rovers left to right are Karel Sorensen; Homer Gint; and Rick Purvis.
Page 43 – Panel 2: In the middle of the panel is General Horatio Tomorrow, on the left, finding the young boy in Command D who would then grow up to become the General’s adopted son, Tommy Tomorrow. The boy, in the pre-Crisis world, would have been Kamandi, the last boy on Earth. This altered future was first revealed in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #12.
Page 44 and 45: Shown above is the Legion of Super-Heroes; the image is numbered and the key is as follows: 1) Wildfire 2) Magnetic Kid 3) Bouncing Boy 4) Quislet 5) Cosmic Boy 6) Colossal Boy 7) Mon-El 8) Dawnstar 9) Princess Projectra 10) Chameleon Boy 11) Sun Boy 12) Phantom Girl 13) Ultra Boy 14) Timber Wolf 15) Lightning Lass 16) Shadow Lass 17) Element Lad 18) Blok 19) Shrinking Violet 20) Starboy 21) Saturn Girl 22) Lightning Lad 23) Matter-Eater Lad 24) Tellus 25) Tyroc 26) Dream Girl 27) Brainiac 5 28) White Witch 29) Invisible Kid II 30) Polar Boy 31) Duo Damsel 32) Chemical King 33) Ferro Lad 34) Invisible Kid I 35) Karate Kid
Page 46 – Panel 1: The Heroes of Lallor, left to right, are Duplicate Boy; Evolvo Lad; Gas Girl; Life Lass; and Beast Boy.
Page 46 – Panel 2: The Wanderers, left to right, are Dartalon; Immorto; Quantum Queen; Celebrand; Elvar; Psyche; and Aviax.
Page 46 – Panel 3: The Khund warrior race with their champion Kharlak in the center.
Page 46 – Panel 4: The silhouette of Darkseid; he and the Legion fought in the Great Darkness Saga.
Page 47 – Panel 1: The small pink creature beside Space Ranger is Cryll, his companion.
Page 47 – Panel 2: Hal Jordan appears here as he was occasionally summoned to the future where he was made to believe he was Pol Manning, the hero of this time.
Page 47 – Panel 3: Abra Kadabra who would battle the Flash.
Page 47 – Panel 4: The Time Trapper, long standing enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Page 48: Harbinger, having completed her History, seals it within the Universe Orb which is sent out in to space. Unfortunately, it would later fall in to the hands of the Manhunters and the knowledge within used against the heroes during the events of MILLENNIUM.
Crisis on Earth-Prime 