DC Had Huge Potential With Rebirth (So What Went Wrong?)

DC Comics is going through something of a renaissance right now, with their mainline and Absolute books examples of the greatest superhero comics being published. However, DC’s recent publishing history has been fraught with times that seemed good and fell apart. DC is known for widescale reboots to fix their sales problems, starting with Crisis on Infinite Earths. Crisis on Infinite Earth‘s game-changing aftermath was extremely successful, but DC learned the wrong lesson from it. DC would go back to the reboot well with the New 52, an all-new DC Multiverse that was actually pretty successful when it started out. However, the New 52 had a lot of problems right from the start, and that led to its end, which came with the blockbuster hit DC Universe Rebirth #1. This led to the Rebirth publishing initiative, a return to an older version of DC continuity that fans were excited for. However, that excitement couldn’t buoy the line forever.

DC Rebirth came out of the gate strong, much like the New 52 had before it, but it’s gone down as something of a failure. DC Rebirth did a lot of stuff right, but there were cracks in its facade from the beginning, and they would spread as time went on, leading DC Rebirth to a death that is tragic as it was inevitable. DC Rebirth had tons of potential, yet by the time it ended, fans were kind of happy to see it go.

DC Rebirth Was Built Around Big Ideas but Couldn’t Clean Up the Mess of the New 52

The New 52 lost the fans rather quickly. While there were some good books, the biggest problem with the New 52 was that DC didn’t listen to the fans. DC kept doubling down on the decisions that fans didn’t like with the New 52 — for example the lack of Wally West and Donna Troy, Superman’s relationship with Wonder Woman instead of Lois Lane, and tons of other little things — and it destroyed the sales of the books. DC Universe Rebirth #1 was the publisher’s way to fix all of that. The book gave readers Wally West back, brought back the post-Crisis Superman and Lois Lane, as well as their son Jon, and put the DC Universe on a collision course with Doctor Manhattan. The amount of hype surrounding the book was incalculable and that hype led into the reboot of DC’s entire line, starting with “Rebirth” issues and then all-new number ones. DC brought back the post-Crisis flavor that fans preferred to the New 52, and it made a lot of DC fans very happy. There were a lot of great books — Superman, Action Comics, Titans, Wonder Woman, Superwoman, Batman, Detective Comics, Green Arrow — but there was a problem with this reboot and it’s one of the two biggest problems with DC Rebirth.

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Instead of doing away completely with the New 52, DC kept much of that universe’s ideas and continuity going. Most fans assumed that this would change, especially by whatever Watchmen crossover that was being planned down the line, but the fact that DC kept so much of it was a massive problem for a lot of fans. The New 52 drove away a lot of fans, and they returned for DC Rebirth, all because they were sold the return of the DC they liked. However, DC wasn’t ready to give readers that and it hurt things. DC continuity was always wonky, but no one really knew what counted and what didn’t in DC Rebirth. However, the main problem with DC Rebirth was Doomsday Clock. A lot of fans had problems with DC crossing over their superhero line and Watchmen, but that wasn’t the problem that doomed DC Rebirth, because a lot of us were actually pretty excited. The problem was Doomsday Clock‘s delays. There was a plan in place for DC Rebirth, one that was supposed to come to fruition because of Doomsday Clock. However, writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank’s book was constantly late, and that led to whatever plans that Doomsday Clock was the key to having to be completely changed. DC Rebirth had been building up to Doomsday Clock, and without Doomsday Clock, plans had to be changed on the fly. These two problems — the lingering stench of the New 52 and Doomsday Clock’s delays putting everyone on hold — completely buried DC Rebirth.

DC Seems to Have Learned Their Lesson from DC Rebirth

DC Rebirth was sold as a return to the DC Universe that fans wanted, and it definitely did that for a while. Readers got the best Superman back, Wally West and Donna Troy had returned, and it seemed to all be leading somewhere. However, DC couldn’t let go of the New 52 — I’ve always suspected that then-DC head honcho Dan DiDio, who was the main force behind the New 52 reboot, didn’t want to give up the New 52 — and that angered a lot of fans. While things were definitely better, they weren’t exactly what fans wanted. However, there’s a chance fans would have overlooked that if it wasn’t for Doomsday Clock.

Doomsday Clock and the ideas leading up to it were controversial, but there’s a chance that it all would have worked out if it wasn’t for the huge delays that forced the rest of the DC Universe to move on instead of paying off the ideas it introduced in DC Universe Rebirth #1. However, it’s honestly a good thing that DC Rebirth failed because it showed DC that doing things in half-measures was never going to work. Since DC Rebirth, the publisher has went out of their way to bury the problems of the New 52, and bring back the kind of DC Multiverse that fans had been wanting to read. DC learned from the failures of DC Rebirth, and we’re all better for it.

What did you think about DC Rebirth? What did it do right? What did it do wrong? Sound off in the comments below.