This was another immensely powerful issue and I really cant wait for the next chapter. Read Full Review

The Other History of the DC Universe# 3 is equalparts glorious and disturbing. What Ridley and his team are doing in this series is long overdue. This one feels like I watched a PBS documentary about my favorite song only to realize Ive been singing the wrong words all along. Read Full Review

The Other History of the DC Universe #3 is the most visually arresting issue of a series that has never been less than beautiful, but it's married with a story that works perfectly, overcoming my worries about alterations to Katan's back story . Read Full Review

The Alternative History of the DC Universe #3 hits the mind-'80s with Batman and the Outsider' s member Katana cast as this issue's narrator. Another solid and substantial issue that re-evaluates the nostalgia-tinted stories of yesteryear from the hard-hitting perspective of minority characters. Read Full Review

"The Other History of the DC Universe" #3 is an unflinching look back on the life of an important DC hero. Read Full Review

The Other HIstory of the DC Universe is that important. Book three about Katana is a wonderful addition to this storyline. I can't wait to see the next issue. Read Full Review

Camuncoli and Cucchi deliver some beautiful art throughout the issue. There are great visual moments that harken back to great eras in comic history. Read Full Review

Outside of a small lack of comfort in the issues as compared to the previous issues, and a slow start, Ridley still barrels forward with a complete re-envisioning of the DC Universe that is incredibly important for our time. Read Full Review

While this series from John Ridley has been one of DC's best books for its first two issues, this installment loses its footing a bit due to one major sin"too much ambition. Read Full Review

It is clear that Katana and Asian American characters at DC Comics deserve better stories and representation than they have received, but this one issue only makes that need seem more evident in 2021. Read Full Review

Easily my favourite ongoing comic book series right now. I have never read anything like this. John Ridley has given us such a unique experience for a comic book series. I love how this dives into history and shows things from Katana's perspective. Thank you Ridley for such an amazing series. I always save this title for last when doing my weekly comic book read. :)

This was a class about Katana and Asian-American history, and it was one of the best classes I have ever taken. The vocabulary is great, in this issue Ridley used more words than any other DC writter has used in the last years. The art by Camuncoli is the perfect mashup of 80s and 2000s. Read this, You'll not regret it.

YOOOOOOOOOOO

John Ridley was spitting on the Deathstroke part with Tara. Too many DC writers and fans have given Slade a free pass for years because he's "badass". Drag his ass, it's well overdue.

What an Issue!

Other History is not a classic superhero book. Tatsu narrates years of her life. Just like the prior Issues the narration style offers a unique insight into DC's long publishing history.

Ridley doesn't shy away from calling out creative decisions, which he addresses as the in-universe choices they ultimately end up being.

Two of the major topics of the Issue are Asian hate throughout the 80s and 90s as well as victim-blaming. The latter he addresses by showing several DC occasions while the conflicts between Asians, Whites, and Black Americans showed through real-world events.

Especially the first half of the book felt like a gut punch to me.

Again, a really good issue that takes forever to read. I feel like the historical aspects weren't interwoven as well in this issue. They kind of stuck out.

LOL they straight up called out Deathstroke for being a pedophile. The Comicsgaters are gonna be maaaaad.

This was, like the first in this series, excellent. (I didnt read the second one but might come back around)


Katana is the focus here, and Ridley proves himself highly capability of writing "real" characters. His voice for Katana just like it was for Black Lightning is crisp, concise, realistic, flawed even. You'll disagree with Katanas views in this book sometimes. But that's ok because Katan is telling HER story.

Because of this nature, this book serves as an EXCELLENT primer on who this character is. You can go in never having even heard of Katana and by the end of the book, you'd know her well enough to call yourself a fan. This aspect is by far the strongest point of the book.

As for the actual narrative. It isnt quite as cohesive as Black Lightning was, but the is still a very fascinating character study that takes you from Katanas origin up til the modern day. Interspersed with this, as Katana learns about the American culture she was not born into, we are recounted stories of haye and racism that defiend her worldview. The thing about these stories is they ARENT fiction. All of these actually happened. Showing a fictional characters interact with real world acts works absolute wonders in this series. I had never even heard of Vincent Chin before this. His story is one I won't soon forget though. Shuddered me to the core.

And its that visceral reaction, that real reaction to something that actually happened in our world devoid of superheroes, that provides the best foundation for the recounting of Katanas life.

The art is gorgeous. Full stop. Gritty, detailed, vibrantly colored, with a format like this not every artists could make it work. The finished inks by Andrea Cucchi homage iconic images of the past with a skill of imitation but a life of its own, as if we were seeing things from Katanas own eyes.

One complaint with the book is one of uncertainty. Katana here implies that her soultaker sword is not a soul taker at all, but that she has allowed legend to replace the real thing for rhe sake of striking fear into her enemies. My main concern is wondering if this impedes on established canon or not, and admittedly removes some cool factor from the character, but regardless this story is more canon-adjacent anyways so I cannot fault them much.

Like I said, this one is slightly less cohesive, it jumps around them periods several times. Could be a result of the character simply having less exposure than Black Lightning. Could be that Ridely really wanted to include the real life stories he included and couldn't devote any more page time to filling in the blanks. Its my biggest complaint but its a minor one.

This is a thorough read, mostly prose like before, which feels like a short story. It took me about 44 minutes to finish and I'll definitely be revisiting. Well worth the money. Dont miss this one more

I had been waiting for this issue since this series was announced. I was dissapointed at the presentation. Felt like I was reading a storybook or a comic book encyclopedia more times than not. And taking away the mythology of Kitana's kitana, left me crestfallen. I'll never look at Kitana the same way again, but it doesn't mean I come away from this book with any less respect for her than I already had.
I wish more time could have been spent on her. The Outsider talk could have been abridged, given the time already spent on the team in Black Lightning's issue. And the Death of Superman talk, well I sat through the Snyder Cut twice and have been reading about the event since I was a pre-pubescent, that could have been saved for another character.
Also I wanted more original art. This is Kitana, for pete's sake! There was a large missed opportunity here with images that just looked like re-prints from past books.
But it was all worth it, just to see Kitana lose her shit at a Sade concert and pull a reverse seppuku. Plus I didn't know that girl who essentially sparked the South Central riots threw a punch at the clerk that shot her. John Ridley got me to where I want to review that tape. And that's what this series is all about - to spark the conversation of hidden history. The read was raw, I just wanted it to be more looser.
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