Dr. Manhattan, from Watchmen, is the hand all the characters are trying to reach in the cover. It seems that he was the creator of the New 52. Apparently this all ties into the Before Watchmen mini-series he had.

Also, Wally West, the original caucasian one, returns in the book

I hate the fact that this got spoiled. I know for a fact that the people at DC have been working extremely hard to revitalize their image after WB has made them shit on their own characters for the past 5 years. For those that don't know, Warner Bros are more responsible for the whole New 52 than the people who actually run DC Comics. The bean counters over there have been the ones pushing for all these changes that mostly didn't work. These have been the same people who gave Zack Snyder full control of the DC Cinematic Universe and now are regretting it. Like I said, DC has worked really hard in making Rebirth #1 and these idiots are spoiling it for everyone.

I haven't read the full story cause my store has not received the book yet, but from what I saw, I somewhat like the surprise. For years, DC has talked about the Multiverse. Well Watchmen should be and is part of that Multiverse. Same as the DC Animated Universe, same as WildStorm and Vertigo were. Dr. Manhattan is a character with a lot of potential, one that should be explored whether Alan Moore likes it or not. By the way, Alan Moore is not the single creator of that series. Dave Gibbons is too and he has been more than willing to play ball with DC Comics and the comic book industry than Moore is.

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for what Alan Moore has done for the business. I love most of his work. Still, I'm not a fan of what he has said in the past 10-15 years. He's basically become a curmudgeon. He keeps saying the the industry hasn't had any good books in the past 25 years yet contradicts himself when he says that he loved The Sandman (published for the most part during the past 25 years). I understand that Moore doesn't like the politics and rules of the Big 2, but those are the companies that made him become famous. His Swamp Thing run, plus Watchmen and other stories, is what made Moore be the superstar that he's today.

Last, but not least, Fuck the guy on DC Comics who sent these books to reviewers one week before shipping. Fuck the guy on Reddit and most of all, Fuck Rich Johnston and Bleeding Cool. These type of spoilers hurt the industry. People who were on the fence on buying a $2.99 will now maybe not purchase this book because of the spoilers. Even thought the industry has gone up in the past several years, things like this still hurt the business overall, and most of all, the comic book retailers. It doesn't affect Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Books-A-Million or any other big retailer, it affects the small comic book business/retailers. Johnston and Bleeding Cool are the type of people that I simply wish they leave the whole business. Their only purpose is being trolls, much like the old school comic book guys have become.

One of the purposes of Rebirth, much like the New 52, is to bring new readers including kids. How the hell are kids going to understand who Dr. Manhattan is? Because to understand and find out who he is, they have to go ahead and read or watch Watchmen, a book suitable for people 13+.

Incorporating Watchmen into the DCU multiverse comes across as both lazy and desperate. This gets people talking, but it's mostly just among the aging comic fan demographic. Kids or potential new readers are not going to care who Dr. Manhattan is, or that he was behind the New52.

Alan Moore did an interview , saying how DC ran out of ideas and they were relying on his old stuff to keep them afloat, by citing Before Watchmen and The Blackest Night event, which was inspired by his Green Lantern Corps back up story "Tygers." I thought he was just being bitter, because much of his mainstream stuff is rooted in piggybacking on previous writers' work. That's how continuity works in the Marvel/DC universes.

But now, it really does look like DC is using Moore's work as a crutch. Now a Watchmen character is responsible for this reboot/event, and they're bringing those characters into the regular DCU.
Maybe the ABC characters will soon be making an appearance alongside Superman and Wonder Woman.

DC Comics, Jim Lee, Dan Didio and Geoff Johns have been promoting for the past 2 months that Justice League #50 is going to reveal the Joker's real name. Well, I just read the book and it doesn't reveal the real name at all. The only thing that the book reveals is that there are 3 Jokers in the DC Universe.




What a fucking bait and switch!!! Complete bullshit. People at my store are going to be extremely pissed about this. If the company is promoting something so big as revealing Joker's real name and they don't deliver, then it's on them. All the shit that will fall on them because of this is completely on the company. No excuses.

I was expecting something like Joseph Kerr, but finding out there were/are 3 Joker's is pretty intriguing. I haven't bought DC for years since they raised the cover price, reduced page count, and was killing off characters left and right (RIP Ted Cord, Sue Dibny, etc), but some of the new stuff sounds pretty fun. And the art is much better these days.

At least 3 Jokers would explain how the guy has managed to cheat death so often.
I don't need a James Howlett-style revelation to enjoy a story. The mystery and the journey is the fun part.

Normally, I'd say this is a bullshit, but this other reveal seems like it's one of the few times it's justified. This way, the surprise is magnified. You think, like Hal, that you're getting the Joker's real name, but instead you're finding out something crazier, that's there's three of them. What does that mean? Three different identities, clones, alternate Earth's, what??

This happened with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The producers were hyping up the fact that a character was going to die. The way the story was going it seemed obvious that it was going to be Cameron, and maybe since there were some problems getting Season 2 green lit, Summer Glau didn't renew her contract and signed on to a different show.

I really thought they were going to destroy Cameron, and the last minute they don't. Turns out some FBI agent friend of one of the supporting characters was killed. The producers were pretty deceitful, playing it up like that, but they were doing it for effect, to build up tension, since usually, threats to the main characters are never taken seriously. But it worked beautifully, and that remains one of my favorite episodes, partially due to how they promoted it.

Isn't that what makes him interesting? I grew up first reading The Killing Joke and watching Tim Burton's Batman, so he had two origins for me, but the comic one was the real one. It wasn't till I saw The Dark Knight, saw the Joker telling a different explanation for his scars, and then reading in an online forum how it coincided with TKJ's portrayal.
"If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice"

If he has a definitive name and past he loses that mystique.