5 DC Retcons That Prove the New 52 Was Actually Great (Including Cyborg’s Big Promotion)

DC Comics did their first major retcon back in 1956 with Showcase #4, beginning the Silver Age while leaving behind the Golden Age history of the majority of their heroes. In 1985, the publisher would put out Crisis on Infinite Earths, a story that would completely reboot the DC Multiverse, transforming it into a singular universe and starting from the beginning. The publisher gained a reputation for rebooting its universe from scratch and it’s one that that they have reinforced many times in the minds of their readers. Over the years, there have been several major DC reboots with the most controversial being the New 52 reboot of 2011. They tried to copy the success of the Crisis reboot, creating a new DC Multiverse for five tumultuous years.

However, in the long run, the changes to the publisher’s histories and characters did more harm than good. Fans got turned off and it’s honestly take a decade to get them back through the door. The changes of the New 52 would fall to the wayside, but if we’re being honest, some of them are actually pretty great. In fact, some of them are better than what came before and have actually been carried over into the current continuity. These five New 52 retcons show that it was actually cool, with the big changes to Cyborg headlining the list.

5) Leftist Superman Is Bestest Superman

Superman in the New 52 was a mixed bag for numerous reasons. It felt like the Superman office never really knew what they wanted to do with the character, which is strange when you remember that the Man of Steel had the perfect start in this bold new DC Multiverse. Grant Morrison was given the reins of Action Comics and, along with artists Rags Morales, Andy Kubert, Ben Oliver, Gene Ha, and Travel Foreman, rebooted the first DC hero for the millennium. Morrison is a student of classic DC and decided to reach back to the beginning of the Last Son of Krypton for their new take on the character.

Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster made him for the Great Depression, making him into a leftist progressive character who was just as likely to fight corrupt policeman, business owners, and government officials as he was alien invaders or supervillains. Morrison did the same with Superman, changing the Reagan era origin retcons to the character. Morrison returned the character to his leftist roots and it was an amazing new beginning for the hero. Some readers have gone so far as to head canon in the events of Morrison’s run (which is 19 issues that tell one long story) to the official Superman origin. It was the perfect retcon for the greatest superhero of them all.

4) Retconning Red Hood’s Resurrection So It Makes Sense

Jason Todd was the second Robin and has always been something of a failure. It didn’t matter what DC did with the character in the ’80s, fans just didn’t want to like him. He was killed in “Death of the Family”, by reader vote no less, and was replaced by the much more popular Tim Drake. Eventually, the publisher would resurrect the character in the mid ’00s, bringing him back as the villainous Red Hood. They left how he came back a secret, revealing it during Infinite Crisis in Batman Annual #25. It was revealed in Infinite Crisis Secret Files and Origins #1 (the old “Secret Files and Origins” comics were awesome) that Superboy-Prime punched the walls of reality, which caused things to change and that was how Todd was resurrected.

This was nonsense, even in comic books, and fans had no problem calling it out, but the New 52 would change it. It established that Talia retrieved the body of Jason and put him in a Lazarus Pit, bringing him back to life. She nursed him back to health and retrained him in combat, making him even more potent than ever and allowing him to become the Red Hood. It was honestly the way they should have resurrected him from the beginning.

3) Alan Scott Coming Out as Gay

Alan Scott is a DC icon, having debuted as the Green Lantern back in 1940. He was one of the greatest Golden Age DC heroes and has since become something of an elder statesmen in the superhero community, working with the younger heroes and helping them to become legends. He’s been a key part of the Justice Society for decades and has long been one of the most popular characters who debuted in the Golden Age not named Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, or Captain America. Over the years, he’s been a steady presence in the DC Multiverse, but the New 52 dropped a change on him that would allow him to become a much better character.

The first issue of Earth-2, the home of the Justice Society in the new DC Multiverse, established that Alan Scott was a gay man. This would carry over to the next iteration of the DC Multiverse, with World War II Alan established as a homosexual as well, which resulted in the fantastic Alan Scott: Green Lantern #1-6 and gave him his own arch-nemesis, the Red Lantern. Making Alan a closeted gay man in the decades before, with his friends all knowing but not saying anything, was a perfect addition to the character and has made him even better than he used to be.

2) Darkseid As the Justice League’s First Enemy

One of the things about the New 52 that excited readers off the bat was that it felt like the publisher was trying to rebuild the fabric of the DC superhero community, starting with the Justice League. It was shown as the center of the community, with its birth becoming the official start of the age of superheroes in the New 52. The origin of the League in the New 52 was made to be the biggest possible story by adding one crucial ingredient – Darkseid. The lord of Apokolips had become the big bad of DC Comics over the decades, so having him be the threat that brought the group together made more sense than the original origin, especially for the modern day.

Before, the League first appeared battling Starro, with even the post-Crisis retcon starting there. It was a cool beginning, but there’s something more thematically satisfying about Darkseid being the first enemy of the multiverse’s greatest defense force. It also helped sell Darkseid as the ultimate bad guy for this new iteration of DC. It was a retcon that worked so well that it’s become the canon origin of the team, with 2025’s The New History of the DC Universe enshrining it as part of the continuity.

1) Cyborg’s New Origin

Speaking of the Justice League retcons, it’s time to talk about Cyborg. So, the original founding line-up of the League was Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Martian Manhunter. One of these things is not like the other and that was Martian Manhunter. For the New 52, it was decided that he wasn’t going to be a founder and he would be replaced by Cyborg. The former Teen Titan had become massively popular over the decades and fans had been begging for him to get a call-up to the big time for years. The big changes of the New 52 was the perfect opportunity to push the hero.

His origin was changed – he was caught in Darkseid’s attack and bonded to a Mother Box, creating the cybernetic body that would make him a hero. He helped defeat the God of Evil and became a member of the team, staying there until Dark Knights: Death Metal in 2020 retconned DC history again. His New 52 origin was so beloved by fans that DC kept it as canon, only slightly modifying it; this time, he first appeared with the League and then was put into hibernation, with his father Silas Stone experimenting on him for years in order to perfect his cybernetic form, leading to his return during the events of New Teen Titans #1.

What’s your favorite New 52 retcon? Do you hate any of the ones I have here? Sound off in the comment section below.

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