UPDATE:
DC Comics has released their spoilers filled preview of Titans Rebirth #1. More here.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Spoilers for DC Comics Rebirth / DC Universe Rebirth follows.
Around the time the DC New 52 was launching, I wrote about my anticipation of a few series, but I also spoke about the loss of legacy as a big negative since legacy was such a huge part of DC Comics prior to Flashpoint.
As such, I was pleased when reading DC Universe Rebirth #1, and seeing the series launching from it, we had DC Comics fixing its legacy lost errors with:
- Titans Rebirth – The original team of Teen Titans have all grown up with their very own team book in Titans. Wally West rejoins them and, sadly, Donn Troy still has no viable code-name (yet).
- Wally West Rebirth – While I applauded DC Comics attempts to diversify the line, on one hand I liked that there was going to eventually be a bi-racial Kid Flash.
On the other hand, I mourned the loss of the original ginger Wally West who grew into manhood as a working class Flash for a generation.
His return and being a linchpin of the Titans was welcomed and writer Geoff Johns was able to allow both version of Wally to co-exist in the DC Rebirth. Their cousins named after the same great-grandfather.
- Justice Society (JSA) Rebirth – While I was a BIG fan of writer James Robinson’s Earth 2 series, chronicling an alternate Earth’s version of the classic JSA characters, I still longed for the legacy based Justice Society post Crisis of Infinite Earths.
The first super-hero team on THIS main DC Earth that inspired future generations. While the future of the Earth 2 ongoing series is unclear, we do know that there was a Justice Society on the main DC Earth as we got a taste of that in DC Universe Rebirth #1 as well on its variant cover.
- Legion of Super-Heroes Rebirth – While the DC New 52 had two ongoing LOSH series in Legion Lost and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and I was a fan of both particularly Legion Lost, neither caught fire.
The Legion of Super-Heroes do form part of DC’s generational heroic legacy as they are effectively DC’s world-wide international Justice League International concept at a planetary, cosmos scale; yes LOSH pre-dates JLI (which was also in the new 52) publishing wise, by the conceptual explanation still works.
I’m curious how DC will make the LOSH viable, but they have started with a Legion Lost type story line, evoking the Cosmic Boy mini-series Legends-related of the 1980’s, with what appears to be a stranded Saturn Girl on the DC Earth in modern-day not the future.
- Super Sons Rebirth – This was a bit of a surprise for a new ongoing series for DC during Rebirth, but it fits with DC Comics Silver Age legacy for Super Sons alternate history stories featuring the sons of Batman and Superman. So, we firmly have Damian Wayne as DC Rebirth’s Robin and Jon White Kent as DC Rebirth’s Superboy.
- Teen Titans Rebirth – DC Rebirth’s Teen Titans will be helmed by a newly 13-year old Damian Wayne as Robin. That has pushed Tim Drake, the New 52’s Red Robin, to another team book in DC Rebirth’s Detective Comics. And, we finally have DC’s bi-racial Wally West as Kid Flash among other teens set to try to cleanse our pallets of the dreadful New 52 Teen Titans series.
Young Justice Rebirth Afterbirth?
While DC Comics has fixed many of its legacy problems with DC Rebirth, or in some cases started us on the road to fixing them, it seems to come at the expense of at least three core characters from DC’s Young Justice series: Superboy (Kon-el), Impulse / Kid Flash (Bart Allen) and Wonder Girl (Cassandra “Cassie” Sandsmark).
While Young Justice’s Robin (Tim Drake) has grown into Red Robin in DC Rebirth (in the New 52 he was never Robin, always Red Robin instead, but we’ll see if that is fixed in Rebirth), he is part of a team book in DC Rebirth as part of Detective Comics. So, while he doesn’t have the same profile as Damian Wayne’s Robin in DC Rebirth, he has more profile than three of his founding Young Justice peers.
The New 52 was not kind to Superboy (Kon-el), Kid Flash (Bart Allen) and to some extent Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark).
I’ve tried to wipe my mind of their renderings in the New 52, but I believe Superboy turned out to have been a killer mind-controlled clone, Kid Flash was a killer from the future and Wonder Girl originated as a thief. And, in the New 52 they come together in battle; with Red Robin, they actually take on Superboy. Definitely not the hope and optimism that DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Office Geoff Johns describes as the DC Rebirth comics landscape nor, to be frank, anything close to resembling the fun of Peter David and Todd Nauck’s Young Justice.
I imagine Bart Allen will return at some point as Impulse; Kon-el as well as some part of the Superman Family. I imagine their damaging portrayals in the New 52 will be undone or fixed, but I don’t know if they will be immediate priorities for DC. It is more likely we’ll see Wonder Girl pop up somewhere sooner, possibly in the pages of the Wonder Woman series; despite being poorly handled in the New 52 she certainly didn’t have the same level of botching as Kon-el and Bart Allen. Cassie Sandsmark’s road to Rebirth seems a whole lot less bumpy.
While DC Comics has revived and/or fixed many of its legacy problems from the DC Comics New 52 launch with DC Comics Rebirth they seem to have been at the expense of DC’s core legacy Young Justice line-up: Red Robin (Tim Drake) and Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) to lesser extent though than Superboy (Kon-el) and Kid Flash / Impulse (Bart Allen).
What say you? How do you find DC’s efforts to fix the legacy lost problems of the last few years? And, are the small number of Young Justice snubs in DC Rebirth worth the price of getting almost all of their other legacy problems fixed or at least on the road to being fixed?
