What Order Should I Read the Rebirth Comics in
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Dorsum in 2016, DC announced a relaunching of their entire publishing line, branded as DC Rebirth. Gone was the highly controversial "New 52" that they had been publishing for the past five years; now nosotros were in the Rebirth era! I use the past tense considering as of December 2017, DC dropped the Rebirth branding from their books and they're just…regular comics. Rebirth, as an initiative, is over, but we've still inherited the new hybrid continuity it created. Simply what exactly does that mean? And what is the best DC Rebirth reading guild if you're just getting started with these?
What is DC Rebirth?
To reply this, nosotros need a cursory history lesson on DC's by reboots. DC history roughly divides into iv major eras:
Pre-Crisis: Starting with the debut of Superman in 1938, this includes all comics through the mid-'80s, before rebooting was a glimmer in whatever Television set executive'due south eye. Equally you might imagine from most l years of comics, the Pre-Crisis era was one of sprawling, contradictory continuity. Some of its distinguishing characters included a vast multiverse of parallel universes, and a Superman who arrived on Earth with his powers fully matured and who identified primarily as Kryptonian.
Eventually DC decided that their universe was a bit also messy and some business firm cleaning was in guild. Thus in 1985 they published the first major rebooting story, Crisis on Infinite Earths, which literally eradicated those parallel universes and tidied up many characters' backstories and ability sets, leading to…
Post-Crunch: This era ran from 1986 to 2011 and is dearest by Gen X and Millennials, yours truly included. Distinguishing characteristics include a single universe (…mostly), Wally Due west as the Wink (…generally), and a Superman who adult his powers during puberty and primarily identifies as Clark Kent. Also, many legacy characters (a new Dark-green Lantern! a new Light-green Arrow! a new Batgirl! etc.), many of whom were created in the '90s and many of whom were characters of colour or in some other style less privileged than their predecessors.
In 2011, DC decided to tear information technology all down and showtime fresh, using the Flashpoint miniseries to kick off a new era, known variously as…
Post-Flashpoint/The New 52: Thus named because it launched with 52 series (almost 22 too many to exist financially sensible, ahem), the New 52 was deeply controversial. Where the Postal service-Crisis era had used a modified Pre-Crunch as its base, the New 52 erased all previous continuity (except for that of Batman and Greenish Lantern, who were existence written by Of import White Dudes at the time and could non be tampered with (unless we're talking almost female characters, who were rapidly disappeared)). Many of the aforementioned legacy characters of color disappeared from continuity to be replaced by their white male predecessors. DC's new lineup was overwhelmingly white and male person character-wise, and even more so backside the scenes—they infamously had only 2 women working on those 52 books, a drop from an embarrassing 12% to a shockingly bad one%. Fans protesting these changes were publicly berated at conventions past co-publisher Dan DiDio.
To be fair, I know a lot of fans who jumped on board with DC because the New 52 offered them a logical entry point. I also know a lot of fans who walked away in 2011 and never came back. You tin probably tell from the paragraph above that I'chiliad yet pretty mad.
But that era is at an end, because now we are living in…
Rebirth: In May 2016, equally I said at the start of all this, DC relaunched their entire publishing line under the Rebirth banner. To explain the shift from New 52 to Rebirth, they published a unmarried 80-page issue called DC Universe: Rebirth Special.
Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it every bit a jumping off point. For the Rebirth Special to make any sense at all, you take to know that before Flashpoint, the Flash's nephew Wally W was white, and afterward Flashpoint, he's black. Rebirth establishes them as two separate characters, outset cousins with the same name (…sure), merely that Wally has been MIA since Flashpoint. He solitary remembers the universe the way information technology used to exist, and he lonely knows that a darker strength has caused the rest of the universe to forget their pre-Flashpoint lives.
Over the class of eighty pages, Wally zips effectually the universe, glimpsing other characters and hinting at the plots of their new Rebirth series. Finally, he reconnects with Barry, who abruptly remembers everything he's forgotten. Simply he doesn't but return to the Post-Crunch continuity, because all the New 52 stuff is real too.
In other words, Rebirth is a melding of post-Crisis with New 52. Some of the stuff that happened in the mail service-Crisis universe is canon. Some of the stuff that happened in the New 52 is canon. But there's no overarching miniseries explaining what it is. Instead, each individual serial begins with its ain Rebirth special explaining what you demand to know about that item graphic symbol.
In other words, yous want to read about Batgirl? Start with Batgirl: Rebirth, and then Batgirl #one (2016) (or option them all upwardly in the Batgirl: Rebirth, Book 1 collection). Retrieve of Batgirl: Rebirth every bit #0 or #-ane—information technology'south only the beginning of that item series.
For that reason, I also wouldn't recommend the DC Rebirth Omnibus, which just collects the Rebirth special of all the ongoing Rebirth serial. It's the equivalent of watching the first episode of 28 different Goggle box shows.
No, my proposition if you want to read Rebirth is to pick a character who interests yous, and kickoff reading whatsoever book says both "Rebirth" and "Volume 1" on information technology. Each one is intentionally fix to allow you to first there. It's that simple!
(However, if you practise desire to follow the primary plot line hinted at in DC Universe: Rebirth Special, you should read Superman: Reborn, Batman/The Flash: The Button, and Doomsday Clock, which explains the underlying events that have altered the DC universe, besides as bringing the Watchmen characters fully into the DCU. Again, I wouldn't suggest it, this time because I'm quondam enough to remember when we all considered DC's connected use of Watchmen characters to be sketchy as hell. And I don't even similar Watchmen! But yous do you, kids.)
If you're looking for specific Rebirth books to check out, I oasis't read them all, but here are a few that I really enjoyed:
Detective Comics
Green Pointer
Light-green Lanterns
Justice League Dark
New Super-Human
Super Sons
Superman
Teen Titans
Wonder Woman
And that's it! Really, I'd give yous more guidance on the reading guild if I could, just I actually think the way DC designed Rebirth—to permit readers to pick up the book they were interested in and just read information technology—is wonderful. Find a character you dig, pick upwards their latest adventures, and enjoy!
At to the lowest degree, until the adjacent reboot.
What Order Should I Read the Rebirth Comics in
Source: https://bookriot.com/dc-rebirth-reading-order/
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