This weekend DC Comics announced all the details of the upcoming Rebirth event at a highly-anticipated panel at WonderCon 2016.
The atmosphere in the packed-to-capacity room was surprisingly optimistic, despite fans having some serious problems with New 52 and Convergence. The DC higher ups took the right tone: when talking about DC’s recent history Dan Didio even said “sometimes you lose your way a little.” He said “something was missing” from New 52. The direction of Rebirth (on paper anyway, I’m a skeptical person) seems to be one of legacy characters, a re-commitment to fans, twice-monthly titles, and all books dropping to 2.99.
See below for more highlights, photos, artist lineups, and the full video of the panel.
Here’s the full video: it’s an hour and a half, so if you’re short on time we’ve got highlights and our thoughts below.
(Despite being a cynical person, I still got a kick out of the video that opened the panel, that was nicely done.)
The biggest idea that everyone at DC wants to convey is: this is not a reboot. (In Jim Lee’s Friday panel an audience member asked about the DC reboot. Jim Lee had him rephrase the question to not use the word “reboot.” They’re taking that pretty seriously.)
Some titles will pick up exactly where they left off in numbering, others will be relaunched and renumbered. Geoff Johns said it will be a chapter in the DC Universe, just as New 52 was a chapter. It’s similar to the Flash Rebirth and Green Lantern Rebirth, but on a bigger scale. It will keep the continuity, but “reveal secrets” that work into the existing history: returning some lost characters and revealing the deaths of others.
Nothing will change as drastically as New 52, but there will be definite alterations here and there. Many existing storylines and history will be unchanged though, so this may be the pick-and-choose “fixing” of titles that some fans have wanted since the beginning of New 52: keep the things that worked, ditch the stuff that didn’t, bring back the things we missed.
The crowd was enthusiastic about a lot of the talent lineups behind the new books and some of the cover images shown. Below is a gallery that shows the artists and writers behind the upcoming books, many more images of covers and interior art can also be seen in the video.
Some other highlights from the panel:
Nightwing will be back in black and blue. Green Arrow is keeping the goatee.
Greg Capulo is taking a short break from Batman, John Romita Jr and Scott Snyder will take on All Star Batman.
Scott Snyder has signed an exclusive contract with DC.
With the renumbering, Action Comics will be the first book to hit number 1000.
The new Super-Man book, with a new character, will take place in Shanghai.
Zor El, Cyborg Superman (Supergirl’s dad) will appear in the new Supergirl book.
Greg Rucka is coming back to DC for Wonder Woman.
The Justice League will have two new Green Lanterns.
Due to another lightning storm, the new Flash book will have “dozens of new Speedsters.” And also Godspeed.
The new Green Lantern will include John Stewart.
Cyborg will try to figure out where the machine ends and the man begins, and goes to a dark place in his life.
Titans will include legacy characters, including Donna Troy.
In Justice League number 50 we may find out the Joker’s real name.
Harley Quinn was described as “the fourth pillar that supports the DC Universe.”
Damian Wayne wants to lead the Teen Titans, but the Teen Titans aren’t keen on the idea.
The 80-page Rebirth special will still be 2.99. The cover to the special (with a very Michelangelo Creation of Man feel) is below.
What do you think? Are my interpretations correct? Are you skeptical about Rebirth or cautiously optimistic? Shout out in the comments, we want to hear from you!
As posted at dcomics.com, the lineup of releases is:
June:
Rebirth Specials:
AQUAMAN REBIRTH #1
BATMAN REBIRTH #1
THE FLASH REBIRTH #1
GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1
GREEN LANTERNS REBIRTH #1
SUPERMAN REBIRTH #1
TITANS REBIRTH #1
WONDER WOMAN REBIRTH #1
New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):
AQUAMAN #1
BATMAN #1
THE FLASH #1
GREEN ARROW #1
GREEN LANTERNS #1
SUPERMAN #1
WONDER WOMAN #1
New Issues (Shipping twice monthly):
ACTION COMICS #957
DETECTIVE COMICS #934
July
Rebirth Specials:
BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY REBIRTH #1
HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS REBIRTH #1
THE HELLBLAZER REBIRTH #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE REBIRTH #1
NIGHTWING REBIRTH #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS REBIRTH #1
New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):
HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
NIGHTWING #1
New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly):
BATGIRL #1
BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY #1
THE HELLBLAZER #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS #1
THE SUPER-MAN #1
TITANS #1
Fall
Rebirth Specials:
BATMAN BEYOND REBIRTH #1
BLUE BEETLE REBIRTH #1
CYBORG REBIRTH #1
DEATHSTROKE REBIRTH #1
EARTH 2 REBIRTH #1
SUICIDE SQUAD REBIRTH #1
SUPERGIRL REBIRTH #1
TEEN TITANS REBIRTH #1
TRINITY REBIRTH #1
New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):
CYBORG #1
DEATHSTROKE #1
HARLEY QUINN #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #1
SUICIDE SQUAD #1
New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly):
BATMAN BEYOND #1
BLUE BEETLE #1
EARTH 2 #1
GOTHAM ACADEMY: NEXT SEMESTER #1
SUPERGIRL #1
SUPERWOMAN #1
SUPER SONS #1
TEEN TITANS #1
TRINITY #1