DC Universe Rebirth: Whose Hand Is That?

While many questions were answered by DC’s DC Universe Rebirth presentation at WonderCon last week, just as many still linger, or were created by the presentation.

One of the big ones — and likely the first that will be answered, on May 25 — is just whose hand that is, sticking out of a cloud on the cover of DC Universe: Rebirth #1.

There is, of course, a long history of DC’s Crisis-level events being influenced by a hand in the sky, poking through from seemingly nowhere. Usually, though, the hand itself is much larger than this one…which suggests that this isn’t just another case of The Anti-Monitor or The Spectre or whomever trying to reinvent the universe/multiverse/hypertime.

There were some fairly vague hints during the presentation, and so we’ve cobbled together a few ideas as to just who it might be.

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THE PRE-CRISIS FLASH

Following the events of Convergence, a quartet of significant DC Comics figures from defunct universes made a trek back in time to change the course of the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The success of the post-Crisis/pre-Flashpoint Superman, Parallax Hal Jordan, taken at the height of his power during the Zero Hour crossover, and the pre-Crisis versions of The Flash and Supergirl changed history and created the post-Convergence multiverse.

…But while Superman has popped up as the hero of Superman: Lois and Clark, and Parallax has been the villain in both Telos and Green Lantern, we haven’t seen hide nor hair of The Flash and Supergirl, whose deaths in the Crisis the other two traveled back to prevent.

Meanwhile, one of the series where creators could say virtually nothing at the Rebirth announcement, becuase there was a character in it who plays a big role in DC Universe: Rebirth, was The Flash.

Combine that with Barry’s propensity to pop in and out of reality during Crisis-level events, and you’ve got a pretty good suspect to start us out…!

THE MONITOR

The Monitor’s an interesting choice.

First of all, the image of the Anti-Monitor’s hand poking through a hole in time, a cluster of stars in his palm, was one of the defining images of Crisis on Infinite Earths. To have a hand poke out of a hole in space — seemingly one that’s friendly — and be The Monitor’s could make a kind of sense.

He’s also a character who hasn’t yet appeared since the Flashpoint reboot…but his opposite number, the Anti-Monitor, has been appearing pretty consistently in the Darkseid War storyline in Justice League.

Could it be time to see what The Monitor has been up to since Flashpoint?

THE NEW 52 SUPERMAN

Whatever happened to the New 52 Man of Tomorrow?

Well, it’s hard to say. He’s nowhere to be seen in the solicitations for June product, and it seems as though he may have died in this week’s Justice League of America.

…Although we really, really doubt it since the Super-League story is just about to kick off.

Anyway, with the tease that somebody, or multiple somebodies, might come back from the dead in Rebirth, it seems worth at least considering the possibility that it’s the New 52 Superman — or at least the New 52 Clark Kent — who we’re seeing reaching out to his pre-Flashpoint counterpart.

Some of our readers on Facebook also pointed out that a very similar image of the post-Flashpoint Man of Steel could be seen (above) in an issue of Justice League, foreseen by a Themysciran oracle as part of the return of Darkseid.

BATMAN BEYOND

…Or you know who else it might be, speaking of resurrections? Batman Beyond.

Terry McGinnis will reportedly return from the dead to take up the mantle in Batman Beyond‘s post-Rebirth relaunch, so it could be either Terry — somehow back from the dead and reaching out to us from the world of The New 52: Futures End — or Tim Drake, making his way back to his time (or thereabouts) from the world of Batman Beyond.

WAVERIDER

When the pre-Flashpoint Booster Gold was dying due to prolonged exposure to chronal (time) energy, his son Rip Hunter and the post-Flashpoint Booster teamed up to toss the elder Booster into the heart of Vanishing Point and revive him as a being composed entirely of chronal energy.

The new Waverider, Booster played a key role in resolving the Convergence crisis but then vanished into time and hasn’t been seen since.

Who better, then, to show up and play a pivotal role in a time-and-space-bending story like Rebirth?

And, plus, Geoff Johns told us recently that there are big plans for Booster Gold, and we’ll see some of them soon.

Don’t be too surprised, whether or not the hand turns out to be Booster’s, if either Booster or Waverider (or both) turns out to be a player in Dan Jurgens’s Action Comics. Jurgens, who created Booster, has said that there’s a mysterious player pulling strings in the first issue…which sounds a lot like what the older Booster was doing throughout most of Jurgens and Geoff Johns’s run on Booster Gold ten or so years ago.