“Rebirth” is a word that has shown up multiple times in the history of DC Comics. One of the most iconic publications in the Green Lantern franchise was a six-issue miniseries by Geoff Johns titled Green Lantern: Rebirth. Previous to the release of this series, the main character, Hal Jordan, had been cast out of the spotlight to make room for a new main character, Kyle Rayner. The series was still enjoyable, yet it was lacking its magic spark without the regular protagonist. Green Lantern: Rebirth brought back Hal Jordan as the main character, and brought back other elements of the original comics that fans were missing.
Another instance of DC doing this was a miniseries of the same concept titled The Flash: Rebirth. Johns also wrote this one, and it reintroduced the original protagonist Barry Allen, who had previously been replaced by a different main hero named Wally West. This “rebirth” concept was quite popular; taking the original foundation of a superhero lore, what made a series special, and bringing it to the modern comics without totally ditching the newly established characters and story.
Without these two miniseries, Kyle Rayner would be the most well-known Green Lantern. He would be the star of all the Green Lantern movies and television shows. But it is Hal Jordan instead. And without these miniseries, Wally West would currently be the most famous Flash, and he would be the protagonist of the ongoing The Flash show, and the star of the upcoming The Flash film. So it goes without saying that the Rebirth miniseries were extremely impactful.
Geoff Johns, the creator of both series, is presently the head of DC Comics. Last year, he announced something called DC Universe Rebirth. He provided very little description of this event initially, and fans were concerned that it was a reboot. DC is known for rebooting its entire universe, and essentially undoing years of quality stories to pave the way for new ones. But this event turned out to be something different. A one-shot Rebirth comic book was released for every one of DC’s ongoing comic book series, as well as new series that were set to begin soon. These one-shots were the prologues to bigger stories that were about to begin for all of DC’s iconic characters. They introduced new adversaries and challenges. When this occurred, the issue count started over at “Issue 01” on every series. So it certainly seemed like a reboot was about to take place… but it did not. The established continuity of the DC Universe was left untouched. But in the issues that succeeded these Rebirth one-shots, aspects of the original comic books were reintroduced in logical fashions. This entire event was all one bold move by Geoff Johns and the head creative team at DC to bring back all of what made DC Comics great many years ago.
As someone who is actively reading several titles in the current DC Universe, this event certainly has certainly had a positive outcome. Just about everything be released by DC currently is in good shape, and any comic book fans will enjoy reading these issues. And now is also a great time for non-fans to jump in and start reading a series, beginning with the Rebirth issue. In modern times, there is a lot of pressure for comic books to keep up to date with all that is going on in the world, and adapt to everything new. But with DC Universe Rebirth, the classic parts of DC Comics have been brought back for long-time fans to enjoy, and all is well.
