Nearly five years ago, DC Comics, in one of their annual summer event series, did away with decades of comic book publishing history, continuity and brilliant stories with the unthinkable.
To both the horror and the delight of fandom, the company ended every title they published, starting them up again with brand new #1 issues. Over a span of weeks, fifty-two new titles would be released, an unprecedented move in the industry, designed to start everyone – characters and readers alike – from scratch.
It must be said, for every great new title, there was also a handful that underperformed.
Nearly five years later, in lieu of declining sales and market share, the committee of editors, writers and artists that make up the captaincy of DC Comics, decided something was missing from their line of publications.
Today, we get the big event that will fix it all. Today, we get DC Universe: Rebirth #1.
Follow me after the jump for the whys and wherefores, which I’ll keep spoiler-free!
DC Universe: Rebirth #1
Written by: Geoff Johns
Illustrated by: Various
Published by: DC Comics
And BANG! Just like that, a whole new comic book universe is created.
Well, you know comic books. Just like that, BANG! comic book universes are destroyed. All in the name of heightened sales and fresh starts. It started with the Crisis on Infinite Earths series in the mid nineteen eighties. World would live, worlds would die, and the DC universe would never be the same. That particular tag line rang true for a time. There was a larger meaning behind Crisis, still the high water mark in event comic book storytelling.
It seemed that every summer, the two major publishers, DC and Marvel, would take their monthly titles and wrap them under a crossover blanket. Over the years at DC readers got: Millennium, Invasion, Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and Flashpoint amongst many others. Some were good, some were awful and some were downright bad for the industry.
With waning sales, DC stuck its neck out and took a leadership role, shaking things up good and proper. With the advent of the New 52, five years ago, readers had brand new first issues and perfect jumping on points no longer encumbered by decades of character continuity. But something was amiss. DC realized that important aspects to characters like Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, the Justice League, the Justice Society of America and so many others, were now missing.
Hallmark traits like legacy, love and hope – in stories and with readers and fans – had been lost in the DC Universe. And things had to change once again.
Writer extraordinaire Geoff Johns, one of the main forces behind DC direction over the last decade, is at it once again. This time he’s joined by a who’s who of artistic talent in illustrators Phil Jimenez, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis and Gary Frank. It’s undoubtedly a heavy arsenal. Can they begin the process of bringing DC Comics and their stable of fan-favourite characters back to being the apple of every fanboy’s eye?
DC Universe: Rebirth #1 is an over-sized beginning at 80-pages with a price point of a regular-sized comic book. Tying in story elements through the pantheon od DC Comics publishing, it aims to intermingle the past, present and future of the DC Universe in one fell-swoop – with loads of surprises and controversy along the way!
Long lost characters, plot threads and directions are in the offing – make the run to your local comic book shop today – be there for a new DC dawn!
Let’s all see if this one will take!
