how do i know what dc comics to read? new 52 and dc rebirth
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Back in 2016, DC announced a relaunching of their entire publishing line, branded every bit DC Rebirth. Gone was the highly controversial "New 52" that they had been publishing for the by five years; now we were in the Rebirth era! I use the past tense because as of December 2017, DC dropped the Rebirth branding from their books and they're but…regular comics. Rebirth, as an initiative, is over, but nosotros've yet inherited the new hybrid continuity information technology created. But what exactly does that mean? And what is the best DC Rebirth reading society if you're just getting started with these?
What is DC Rebirth?
To reply this, we need a brief history lesson on DC'southward by reboots. DC history roughly divides into 4 major eras:
Pre-Crunch: Starting with the debut of Superman in 1938, this includes all comics through the mid-'80s, earlier rebooting was a glimmer in whatever Television executive's centre. Every bit you might imagine from near fifty years of comics, the Pre-Crunch era was one of sprawling, contradictory continuity. Some of its distinguishing characters included a vast multiverse of parallel universes, and a Superman who arrived on Earth with his powers fully matured and who identified primarily as Kryptonian.
Somewhen DC decided that their universe was a chip too messy and some business firm cleaning was in guild. Thus in 1985 they published the first major rebooting story, Crisis on Infinite Earths, which literally eradicated those parallel universes and tidied up many characters' backstories and ability sets, leading to…
Post-Crisis: This era ran from 1986 to 2011 and is dearest past Gen 10 and Millennials, yours truly included. Distinguishing characteristics include a single universe (…mostly), Wally West as the Flash (…more often than not), and a Superman who adult his powers during puberty and primarily identifies as Clark Kent. Also, many legacy characters (a new Green Lantern! a new Greenish Arrow! a new Batgirl! etc.), many of whom were created in the '90s and many of whom were characters of color or in some other way less privileged than their predecessors.
In 2011, DC decided to tear it all downwards and starting time fresh, using the Flashpoint miniseries to kick off a new era, known variously every bit…
Post-Flashpoint/The New 52: Thus named because it launched with 52 series (almost 22 too many to be financially sensible, ahem), the New 52 was securely controversial. Where the Post-Crunch era had used a modified Pre-Crisis as its base, the New 52 erased all previous continuity (except for that of Batman and Greenish Lantern, who were being written by Of import White Dudes at the fourth dimension and could not be tampered with (unless we're talking nigh female characters, who were quickly disappeared)). Many of the aforementioned legacy characters of colour disappeared from continuity to be replaced by their white male person predecessors. DC's new lineup was overwhelmingly white and male grapheme-wise, and even more than so backside the scenes—they infamously had only 2 women working on those 52 books, a drop from an embarrassing 12% to a shockingly bad 1%. Fans protesting these changes were publicly berated at conventions past co-publisher Dan DiDio.
To be fair, I know a lot of fans who jumped on board with DC because the New 52 offered them a logical entry indicate. I as well know a lot of fans who walked abroad in 2011 and never came back. Yous tin can probably tell from the paragraph above that I'm still pretty mad.
But that era is at an end, because now we are living in…
Rebirth: In May 2016, every bit I said at the start of all this, DC relaunched their unabridged publishing line nether the Rebirth imprint. To explain the shift from New 52 to Rebirth, they published a single 80-page issue called DC Universe: Rebirth Special.
Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it equally a jumping off point. For the Rebirth Special to make whatever sense at all, you accept to know that before Flashpoint, the Flash'southward nephew Wally West was white, and after Flashpoint, he's black. Rebirth establishes them as two separate characters, first cousins with the same proper name (…certain), simply that Wally has been MIA since Flashpoint. He alone remembers the universe the way it used to be, and he lone knows that a darker force has acquired the remainder of the universe to forget their pre-Flashpoint lives.
Over the grade of 80 pages, Wally zips around the universe, glimpsing other characters and hinting at the plots of their new Rebirth series. Finally, he reconnects with Barry, who abruptly remembers everything he's forgotten. But he doesn't just render to the Postal service-Crunch continuity, because all the New 52 stuff is existent too.
In other words, Rebirth is a melding of post-Crisis with New 52. Some of the stuff that happened in the mail-Crisis universe is canon. Some of the stuff that happened in the New 52 is catechism. Simply there'south no overarching miniseries explaining what information technology is. Instead, each private serial begins with its ain Rebirth special explaining what y'all need to know about that particular graphic symbol.
In other words, you want to read about Batgirl? Start with Batgirl: Rebirth, and then Batgirl #ane (2016) (or pick them all up in the Batgirl: Rebirth, Volume 1 collection). Call up of Batgirl: Rebirth as #0 or #-1—information technology's simply the beginning of that item serial.
For that reason, I also wouldn't recommend the DC Rebirth Omnibus, which merely collects the Rebirth special of all the ongoing Rebirth series. It's the equivalent of watching the first episode of 28 different Television shows.
No, my suggestion if you want to read Rebirth is to pick a character who interests you, and start reading whatever book says both "Rebirth" and "Volume 1" on it. Each ane is intentionally set upwardly to allow you lot to start there. It's that unproblematic!
(Still, if you exercise want to follow the main plot line hinted at in DC Universe: Rebirth Special, you lot should read Superman: Reborn, Batman/The Flash: The Push button, and Doomsday Clock, which explains the underlying events that accept contradistinct the DC universe, as well as bringing the Watchmen characters fully into the DCU. Again, I wouldn't advise information technology, this fourth dimension because I'grand former enough to remember when we all considered DC's continued use of Watchmen characters to be sketchy as hell. And I don't even like Watchmen! Only you do yous, kids.)
If you're looking for specific Rebirth books to check out, I haven't read them all, just hither are a few that I actually enjoyed:
Detective Comics
Light-green Pointer
Dark-green Lanterns
Justice League Dark
New Super-Human being
Super Sons
Superman
Teen Titans
Wonder Woman
And that'southward it! Really, I'd give yous more guidance on the reading lodge if I could, but I actually call back the way DC designed Rebirth—to let readers to pick upward the volume they were interested in and but read it—is wonderful. Detect a character you dig, selection up their latest adventures, and enjoy!
At to the lowest degree, until the adjacent reboot.
Source: https://bookriot.com/dc-rebirth-reading-order/
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