DC Universe: Rebirth - It's Real, All of it

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MrMazz

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Edited By MrMazz

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Written by Geoff Johns - Pencils by Gary Frank, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Phil Jimenez - Colors by Alex Sincalir, Brad Anderson, Hi-Fi, Jason Wright, Gabe Eltaeb, - Inks by Matt Santorelli, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, -Lettering by Nick J. Napolitano

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DC Universe: Rebirth is meant to start the next chapter of DC comics. But in order to take that next step, writer Geoff Johns has to reconcile the New 52, an era of ups and downs. As a comic reader the New 52 is what got me into monthly comics, but as it went on the cynicism and uniformity of style drove me away compared to the stuff I read in trade. There have been high points: Snyder-Capullo Batman, Morrison Action Comics, Stewart-Fletcher Batgirl, and others but their totality isn’t enough to make up for the fundamentals lost in transition. As the mysterious narrator, revealed to be Post-Crisis Wally West, states at the beginning “I look down at it and know without question: I love this world. But there’s something missing”.

With the return of a Post-Crisis Wally West, writer Geoff Johns argues for a more humane, empathetic, view of DC’s pantheon. Not the atonal grim and girt that has saturated DC since the New 52 and earlier. Consider this his final statement on the soul DC comics, for now. Rebirth will be the last comic book Johns writes for quite a while as he enters a new stage in his career at DC and Warner Bros at large. In DC, the story is he has become something of a master showrunner for the line working with the creative teams for the Rebirth titles to get to the essence of these fantastic characters; hopefully the creative teams (not all of them super exciting) fulfill the promise of Rebirth and make these characters sing. At Warner Bros. he along with Jon Berg will attempt to right the ship as it relates to DC and Warner Bros. cinematic efforts, as well as his usual involvement in television.

Wally has been trapped in the Speedforce since Flashpoint and without a tether will become one with it. With Wally as his avatar, Johns journeys through the DC universe criticizing what has been taken away from them in the 10 years since Flashpoint. There is no other character, Johns could pull out of his hat that is as impactful as having the first Wally West back. No other character represents all the elements that were lost in the New 52. And true to his word, the other Wally West, also Iris’ nephew and African American, is still around and going to be the Kid Flash! Nothing is lost in the Rebirth, things are gained.

What was lost in transitions? On a macro level it was Institutions, like the Justice Society of America or the original Teen Titans – now just the Titans. Teams can be reformed but when the New 52 made it as if they never existed in the first place something more was lost. Friendships, Love, Legacies the things that made DC comics unique and different compared to their marvelous competitors. Wiped out. A story universe is not its institutions but the characters who man them, their relationships are what make them more then cold works of cement and steel. Stop them from being cynical approximations of what fans want to read.

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On his journey for someone to remember him, Wally sees a heartwarming moment between Aquaman and Mera, as the latter proposes to her. I don’t even read Aquaman and that moment is filled with such care and love. Love, Wally realizes was what was stolen from them. That proposal also breaks an old (abdominal) editorial edict from co-publisher Dan Didio about how their heroes shouldn’t be married – and by extension happy. That’s gone now, happiness can return and maybe Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer will finally get married! It's a moment that makes his reunion with former wife Linda Park all the more heartbreaking.

And then there is the culprit who stole all of this from them. When the revelation was leaked online, in the abstract it sounded sacrilegious. The empty hand that altered the timeline was none other then Doctor Manhattan from ‘Watchmen’. Bringing him, and assumedly the other Watchmen, into the DC fold properly sounds desperate. But it’s setup and execution are sound and it fits the story Johns is telling. Johns uses the formal ticks of ‘Watchmen’ the 3x3 grid and references events from the book all leading up to that reveal. Wally warns Barry that a war is coming between “hope and despair, love and apathy, faith and disbelief”. ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ represent that latter of those pairings. I appreciate those seminal works that absolutely belong in the canon of great works, but I am so god damn sick of that shit seeping into the mainstream of super heroism. They are Elseworld titles not meant to supplant the mainstream but support and comment on them. And now Geoff Johns has set the table for a meta-war about the soul of DC Comics.

What kind of a task is it to create something like DC Universe: Rebirth? It must serve so many masters at once: act as the launching pad for a legion of new books, be if not a retcon a redefining of years of DC continuity, all while telling the audience a story worth reading. Like the best of comics (and narrative media in general), it is simultaneously complex and simple. This complexity is perhaps lost when various revelations and plot points leaked well ahead of the books release. Rendered down to those bullet points of revelations and plot, DC Universe: Rebirth sounds like the work of madness. But everything sounds like madness when stripped of its context and execution. In execution DC Universe: Rebirth works amazingly well, that’s likely do to what kind of a fan I am. I’m someone who thinks the ending to LOST is poignant and beautiful, disregarding all the mystery and questions a segment of the fandom made their bread and butter on to tell a final story on the power of shared experiences and trauma.

To obsess over these things, to cherish the events, characters, and continuity is to be a fan. But to over obsess about plot points and revelations to the detriment of how they are being told and executed is to disregard the complex artistry at work. In the tradition of past rebirths, Geoff Johns has written something that manages coherence out of years of contradictory or bad storytelling without throwing it all away, filled it with bold proclamations towards the future, and make the DC Universe seem like the coolest damn thing in superhero comics. It’s not perfect, some of the revelations beg further questions but to get bogged down in those tangible details is to miss the message of hope Johns and the army of artist supporting him have come together to give the audience.

This is a strong step towards the right direction. And you shouldn’t expect this to be wrapped up in six months, according to interviews by co-publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee, the revelations of how/what Dr. Manhattan did to the universe will take place in the background over the next couple of years. That’s good, the how/why doesn’t matter it’s all macguffery, what matters is this new legion of books establishing themselves and putting forth the character’s audiences liked to read at one point or another.

I am Michael Mazzacane you can follow me on Twitter and at ComicWeek.org

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deactivated-5988def3424a7

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Awesome blog bro. It seems as though not only will Wally make his return to Rebirth, but he will play an extremely important role in as well, which I am so happy for!!!

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Stormdriven

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#2  Edited By Stormdriven

I really liked this. In the spirit of Rebirth, I hold out hope for DC to return to what made me love their characters so much.

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Chichen_Nuggeg

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Disagree on the part wherein gritty should not be part of mainstream comics.

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MrMazz

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@chichen_nuggeg: Never said they had no part in the mainstream of (superhero) comics, just that it is not the only tonality the genre can and should play with.

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GC8

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Ugh. How many damn times are they going to reboot. They went 50 years before rebooting with COIE. Now it seems like every summer they're rebooting.

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MrMazz

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@etragedy: I feel like that's an earned perception, but a wrong one. They only really rebooted the line with COIE & Flashpoint. Zero Hour is kind of that but let's just all decided to forget that. Rebirth though isn't a reboot, it's more a meta apology for the last 5 years being mostly shit and a retconning of Flashpoint as a full reboot.

It's more like Marvel launching a new line of books coming out of event X, or just decide ding to launch with a bunch a new number ones (Marvel's doing Marvel NOW...again).

Never gotten this grousing over reboots an stuff, retconns have always-will always be apart of superhero comics this just continues that tradition.

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@mrmazz: I started reading a bunch of New 52 when they started and they definitely had a "this is the beginning" feel to them. They have gotten better about being sneaky and not making them seem like all-out reboots. My problem is not with the idea of rebooting at all - I think it's good to clear out the dead wood, once in a while. My issue is with the frequency with which reboots (and company-wide crossover events in general) happen. Once a decade should be plenty.

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MrMazz

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@etragedy: DC has actually been pretty good with doing Line Wide crossovers, they only really did Forever Evil. I don't think the September gimmick issues count as a crossover. DC does those family crossovers but they aren't that often but man it lead to a couple of low tier family books being seemingly caught in crossover hell for months on end (again a perception that might now bear out by the numbers) And well don't expect them to down on Marvel's side of things that's their bread an butter. Since thisnt a reboot so much as a mass stitching of the entierity kf the DCU I'm fine with that.

I kind of care about the continuity implications but as a this issue as a mission statement an promise of what the DC line will be like going forward I'm happy. Continuity is only a problem when the stories are bad. Marvel Post-Secret War hasn't really had the complaints of New 52 because the stories being told are good

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Gracetrack

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Great blog! I don't exactly agree with all of it, but you make some good points.

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darkdetective27

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You make some great points. Though personally I wasnt really a fan of it.