The Robins’ roles were much smaller, serving under Batman for one year rather than as longtime wards. Superman and Lois Lane were no longer an item. Relationshipsīy rebooting the universe, the New 52 wiped away a lot of the relationships between characters. These key decisions helped appease fans of both the New 52 and comic readers who did not like the changes the reboot made. “Rebirth” refers to the forgotten history of the Pre-52 returning in the minds of DC’s characters (and its readers). So Rebirth continues the timeline from the New 52 but over time characters are recovering their memories and discovering the hidden history from before the timeline reset. This doesn’t mean that the events of the Pre-52 didn’t happen, it just means that all the characters forgot them. In these ten years, all of the events in the Pre-52 DC universe could have taken place.
Here’s an explanation!ĭC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH reveals that a force removed ten years from the DC timeline. READ: The MCU just set their timeline straight. They decided the answers lay in the New 52 timeline. DC creators had to find a way in the story to make it so that the Pre-52 and New 52 realities coexist. Additionally, while many people complained about the New 52’s flaws, it still had numerous redeemable qualities that fans didn’t want to lose (notably Scott Snyder’s BATMAN and Geoff John’s JUSTICE LEAGUE). The easiest way to return Pre-52 storylines would have been to reboot the universe once again completely, but fans were sick of total reboots of the universe they had grown attached to. But how would they do this? Many of the stories in New 52 directly contradicted storylines from beforehand. Rebirth sought to reconcile its Pre-52 comics with its New 52 ones. Now that most of Rebirth’s comic launches have reached their 25 th issue milestone, let’s gauge how much the relaunch succeeded in reviving the legacy of the DC universe. Rebirth would attempt to incorporate both Pre-52 and New 52 storylines into its continuity. DC just used Rebirth as a course correction for their line of comics. In this way, Rebirth did not start with a clean slate the way that the New 52 did. One plan of Rebirth was to bring back some of this history however, DC also wanted to continue storylines from the New 52. Many comic fans thought that the New 52 relaunch disregarded legacy by erasing and often changing decades of integral history of their characters. Legacy in this context refers to any truth that is essential to the telling of a character because the readers are so sure that it is the reality. DC’s chief creative officer, Geoff Johns, said he wanted Rebirth to restore legacy to the DC universe. Instead, they branded it as a retooling of the universe. Unlike six years ago with the New 52, DC comics did not want Rebirth to be a complete reboot. It’s been more than a year since DC relaunched its entire line of comics with Rebirth.