Reading DC Universe Rebirth Comics

Recently I have started reading a few comics from the new DC Universe Rebirth line of comic books. I read DC Universe Rebirth issue #1 before starting to read the Rebirth solo comics. On June 8th I picked up Wonder Woman Rebirth, The Flash Rebirth, and Superman Rebirth. I had like a four minute debate on whether I should get Batman Rebirth or Superman Rebirth. Mind you, if I could afford both at the time, I would have gotten both. However, I'm a college student on a budget, so I had to pick. I ended up opting for Superman Rebirth because I was more curious to see what parts of the continuity they were going to keep for Superman and the explanation behind the new Superman that exists within this continuity. Later the next week I was able to pick up Batman Rebirth. I got the variant covers for all of them because I wanted them all to match and for the most part liked the designs better.

So far, I love what they have done with the new continuity for DC Comics for Rebirth. I use the term "new" loosely because Rebirth has taken elements from the old pre-New 52 continuity and elements from the New 52 and combined them. Personally, I disliked a lot of the things they changed in the New 52. Essentially they erased the legacy of any long standing characters when the New 52 reboot occurred. Lois Lane and Clark Kent weren't an item. Dick Grayson, who has always been very well associated with various characters in the DC Universe essentially had no significant friendships or relationships of any sort. Characters that historically had origin stories that were well known and remained unchanged for decades suddenly were unrecognizable. A good example of this is Beast Boy who in the New 52 continuity was red instead of green at some point and was related to Animal Man erasing any trace of his original origin story with the Doom Patrol. There were other changes I resented because it was a downgrade for some characters. Starfire was a character that lost a lot of her personality and was pathetically sexualized in the New 52. This was something I really hated. Even within DC's animated universe has issues when it comes to consistent storytelling. A lot of their films including Justice League vs Teen Titans and Batman vs Robin have scenes that cater to a younger audience and then have subsequent scenes that aren't appropriate for children due to dialogue or thematics. It's like DC couldn't decide who they wanted to market to.

Without giving too much away, I'll say that Rebirth has given us an explanation as to why a lot of the characters in the New 52 are much younger than their pre-New 52 counterparts and why beloved characters like the original red-headed Wally West are missing from this timeline. Some characters and relationships pre-New 52 fans miss are back, which I'm sure many will be happy about (as I am). I'm looking forward to the rest of DC's new Rebirth line. I've read all of the Rebirth one-shots that have come out to date and am excited for future solo series like Nightwing #1 that hits shelves this July 2016. I probably won't be reviewing these titles on this blog, but I wanted to give my opinion so far for any comic book fans that read my reviews. Definitely recommend all Rebirth titles to any DC fan that hasn't picked them up.