Although comic book movies and entertainment are enormous fads today that make billions of dollars, comics themselves are struggling, and have been for a while. To help combat the ever-reducing sales numbers, on Feb. 18, DC Comics announced their new initiative, “Rebirth," that will begin on May 25.
With a one-shot titled “DC Universe: Rebirth,” this new comic revamp and relaunch was written by chief creative officer Geoff Johns and illustrated by superstars Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Gary Frank and Phil Jimenez, all of whom have extensive experience drawing big comic book events and have worked with Johns many times. With “Rebirth,” the entire line of current comics will either be cancelled and replaced, or “relaunched” with a new “#1” issue after the special in May. The only two exceptions to this are the two longest running titles at DC, “Detective Comics” and “Action Comics,” which will pick back up their original numbering with issues #934 and #957 respectively.
This certainly isn’t the first time DC has relaunched their entire line. In fact, the last time they did this was just 5 years ago in 2011, when they launched 52 new series in August, with what is now known as “The New 52.” It has become a trend in recent years for DC and Marvel to end a series and start it over with a new #1 the next month, sometimes with a new creative team. Like it or not, the evidence insists that more people will buy a #1, and more people are likely to start reading a series that only has a few issues already out.
Before “The New 52” in 2011, DC had four series over 700 issues long, and many more that were near or past the 50s. DC generally had 11 series that were selling over 40,000 copies a month. When “The New 52” launched, it garnered 29 issues that sold over 40,000 copies, including six that sold over 100,000 — an extraordinarily high number for comics in this day. Their portion of sales in October jumped from 32 percent the previous year to 42 percent.
However, with “The New 52” almost five years old, many of the original titles that launched — not coincidentally — will be hitting issue #52 the month that “DC Universe: Rebirth” releases, and the sales have steadily declined to the same as before the 2011 relaunch. Like the large issue numbers, many of the problems that “The New 52” tried to address are either gone or are arguably much worse than they were in the “pre-Flashpoint” universe (the continuity before “The New 52.”)
According to Geoff Johns, however, DC's "Rebirth" will be facing these problems head on. DC may no longer be looking to gain new readers as much as they want to regain their fans’ trust and love for the medium and universe.
Johns said that the “DC Universe: Rebirth” special opens with the line, “I love this world, but there’s something missing.”
For years there have been complaints over many things fans loved about the old DC Universe being either drastically changed or completely missing. Whether it was the absence of Wally West, the third Flash after Barry Allen, or the entire timeline being streamlined to just five years, there have been a number of problems with continuity.
Perhaps in response to this, in June 2015 DC had another initiative named “DC You,” which aimed to create comics that did not have to stick to the continuity of other books and could stand on their own. DC encouraged diversity, not only within the comics, but also in terms of art and storytelling. Although a few titles were met with critical acclaim, DC either thought that the plan had run its course or the sales just were not good enough to keep it going.
Now it seems that Johns and company will be taking the opposite approach: re-establishing what sets apart the DC Universe and making it great again is its top priority. Slowly they have been integrating more and more of the old DC Universe, including an infinite multiverse and even some old characters. They promise that this “Rebirth” will not be a reboot of the continuity, so it is still very much in the air over how they will be able to incorporate “new” old things into the universe. However, if we can trust anyone to do the job, it is Geoff Johns and his amazing group of collaborators.