DC Comics has had an amazing glow-up in the last year. DC All-In #1 set the DC Multiverse on a new course, giving readers some of the best DC books in years. On top of that, the publisher dropped the Absolute books on the world, which have stayed at the top of the charts since their debut. It’s a great time to be a DC fan, but this isn’t the first time readers have felt this way. DC is known for their line-wide reboots being successful at first and then fading away. The best example of this is the New 52. This 2011 reboot of DC’s line used the same idea as the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot — restarting the DC Universe from scratch using characters and ideas from before — and was extremely popular. Well, at first at least.
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The New 52’s early success eventually turned into sour grapes for many readers. DC hadn’t taken the time to rebuild their universe, jumping into the New 52 without a road map for the sales, as revealed in retrospectives on the reboot. DC eventually switched course with DC Rebirth, and has seemingly been trying to get further and further away from the New 52 even since. However, things have started to change, as DC has been using more ideas from the New 52, especially in The New History of the DC Universe. DC K.O. #1 has referenced the New 52 again, and it feels like it’s time to take a second look at this once maligned reboot.
The New 52 Is Due for Re-Evaluation
I’m not going to mince words — there are a lot of bad comics in the New 52. Teen Titans, Superboy, Supergirl, and most of the teen hero titles weren’t great. Multiple runs on characters like Superman were mediocre. There were some ideas that weren’t exactly great — like the Superman and Wonder Woman relationship — and most of the event comics from the New 52 weren’t good (honestly, the only good one is Forever Evil). However, one thing that gets forgotten about the New 52 is how far DC went to try to diversify their universe.
Demon Knights, All-Star Western, Blackhawks, I, Vampire, Men at War, and many others showed the breadth of the DC Multiverse. DC brought back Vertigo books like Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and John Constantine: Hellblazer, bringing them into the mainline DC Multiverse. There were two titles set on Earth-2, Earth-2 and World’s Finest. The publisher brought in characters from the then defunct Wildstorm line. The Legion of Superheroes got two books, and a lot of C and D-list heroes were given their own titles for the first time in years. There was honestly a little something for everyone, and it made those early months of the New 52 exciting.
There were also some amazing runs from some of DC’s best characters — Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman, Morrison’s Action Comics, Geoff Johns on Green Lantern and Aquaman, Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason’s Batman and Robin, Grayson by Tom King, Tim Seeley, and Mikel Janin, and more. The Justice League was made into a big deal again, with five different series across the New 52. The last gasp of the New 52, called DCYou, actually has a lot of great titles and runs, like Action Comics, Batgirl, Black Canary, The Omega Men, and more. The Multiversity was the best alternate universe story until the Absolute Universe started. DCYou was too little, too late, but it’s better than it gets credit for.
DC Comics has a reputation of excellence, and if I’m being completely honest, the New 52 didn’t always meet the high bar that the publisher set for itself in prior years. The New 52 wasn’t nearly as great as the post-Crisis reboot. It wasn’t as good as the post-Infinite Crisis one. DC had even made readers excited again after Blackest Night and had seemingly set itself up for greatness that was cut short by the New 52. However, this idea that the New 52 was completely terrible isn’t correct. There are some best of all time stories there — I will go to my grave screaming how amazing about Morrison’s Action Comics — and it’s about time fans gave it another look.
The New 52 Isn’t Perfect but It has More Greatness than It’s Given Credit For
The New 52 was a huge success in its first year, but that success would fade away as time went on. There were definitely still successful titles, but DC’s lack of a plan and fans wanting to know what was canon and what wasn’t turned a lot of people off. As things got better down the road, there were a lot of fans who had felt burnt by the New 52 and ignored it. Overall, the New 52 is definitely a mixed bag, but there are some amazing titles.
DC K.O. retconned the creation of the New 52 for the second time (revealing that Doctor Manhattan created it partly because of Darkseid’s victory) and New History of the DC Universe has used many of its ideas. DC is no longer as ashamed of the New 52 as they once were and, honestly, that’s a good thing. The New 52 was ambitious and while the publisher choked on a lot of that ambition, that doesn’t change how great a lot of it was.
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