Keep in mind my bias. I'm almost 50 and have been reading DC comics for more than 40 years. Yes, individual stories from Dark Horse and Image and others are "better" stories, and have been since the 1980s. But it's not just the story, it's 40+ years of continuity in comics and animation and TV and movies that make the core DC universe ingrained in my very soul.

So after the last 15 years or so of DC having more misses than hits, it was nice to read an event story that knocked it out of the park imho.

Agree with trevor, this is a love letter for long term DC fans. I felt like my 30 years of reading DC culminated to this issue. And since Wally was my Flash growing up, it had even more emotion to it.

I get the bias thing and it was an enjoyable read, but really, they could have just titled the comic "You know all of the things that you miss from the old continuity? They're back. And Watchmen too." It wasn't much of a story. More like an apology/teaser of things to come. Which I suppose is the point, but I'm still not confident anything much will come from it. Certainly not anything that demands forking over $4 an issue.

I know I sound like a cynic, but as soon as I got to the end of the story and saw the ads for the however many new #1's, any excitement I may have had completely melted away. Unless DC starts a digital subscription service, I'll just wait a couple of years to cherry pick whatever people say is good.

I will say, I haven't bought any single issues in awhile, and mainly have been buying trades of stuff from the 80's. But I am seriously considering going to the comic store to pick this up out of curiosity. I don't know if it will get me back into comics again but I will give it a shot.

By the same token though, I heard about what happened with Captain America and it makes me not want to get back into comics again.

Rebirth issues are only $2.99 now ...twice a month. So technically, it's over $6 per title each month.

But only certain titles are twice a month, right? And the page count hasn't been reduced? Plus I imagine they won't stay twice a month forever.

Ugh, okay, I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but what's the word on which regular books we should keep an eye on?

That's the spirit! I think starting next Wednesday every main title gets a Rebirth #1 issue, then they precede with new numbering (except old legacy numbering for Action and Detective, so we'll see issues #1000 in a couple years).

It appears that Flash and Batman may be key series to sort of follow-up on the events of Rebirth.

I now regret not buying the DCBS 60% off bundle of all this month's Rebirth issues.

I was considering making some subs on Comixology. I'm not doing paper comics anymore unless it's something special like the Sandman prequel.

Titans is also a key book. Wally is investigating what happened to the DCU.

And everyone should pick up Wonder Woman. Rucka is back!


Yeah. Only certain books are. Page count remains the same.

Wow, those DCBS people are awesome. I emailed them my regret and they let me add the 60% off bundle to my current order!
I do most of my purchases through Comixology now, but can't bring myself to pay more than a buck or so for a comic. Wait six months and you can get everything for a buck at Comixology (assuming the frequent sales and annual B1G1F events hold steady).
Thanks, I'll make sure I try an issue or three of that one too.

So it sounds like Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Titans are important to the rebirth storyline? And any buzz on just the best overall books to look into? I stopped with the New 52 after a year.

Batman always gets a buzz. Tom King is stepping in as writer for Batman now. Personally, I've never read anything of his but The Vision over at Marvel (which he wrote) is getting a lot of buzz. DC just made him an exclusive to them for the twice-monthly Batman.

Rucka on Wonder Woman should not disappoint. He's telling two (interconnected) stories each month - Odd numbered books are present stories while even numbered books are essentially Wonder Woman: Year One. It may be the other way around but it still sounds interesting.

With Action Comics, Jurgens is back on Superman and it's the Pre-Flashpoint version (still married to Lois and now with a son). Plus, it's back to Legacy numbering.

There's also Superman, Superwoman (New 52 Lois Lane), New Superman (Chinese Superman) and a revised Super Sons (Damian Wayne and Jon Kent). I'm giving each one a shot.

I'm looking forward to Green Lanterns by Sam Humphries which will feature the two newest Lanterns (Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz).

I'm going to give The Flash and Titans a run to see how they tie into the overall Rebirth arc.

Wonder Woman definitely sounds good. Not sure if I'll bother with too many of those Superman books, maybe just AC and Superman. Green Lanterns could be good as well.

I just read Rebirth #1. I assumed they'd be reverting the universe in that issue, but I guess that's just the setup. Nice of Johns to acknowledge how shitty the New 52 has been though.

But wasn't he in charge of that?

I saw a preview of Wonder Woman: Rebirth. The art and setting looks FANTASTIC. Much better than the Azzarello version.

Maybe I have this wrong, but I was under the impression that the New 52 was mandated by corporate interests, not creative concerns.

Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. FlashPoint was supposed to be a regular event, and I think the higher ups were pressuring them to do something bigger. The Watchmen Prequels, and FlashPoint tying into the New52 was a result of that. I remember a lot of supposed insiders were saying that whole relaunch was rushed, which explains a lot.

Johns had originally written Flashpoint as a normal crossover until corporate wanted an entire reboot for the Universe, which is why it didn't include the big send-offs to the classic characters we had gotten to know, which many felt were missing. I think Johns has even said he would have written a different Flashpoint if he had known in advance it would permanently end the old continuity, much like Crisis had a proper goodbye for most of the retiring characters.

I finally read Rebirth #1 and really liked it, though I am a pretty big fan of Johns' writing. He delivers several powerful emotional moments in the book, all of which I liked. If anything, the book felt too compressed from a much longer tale. Which is weird considering how most books these days are heavily decompressed. It's an excellent read for older DC fans and fans of DC's legacy characters.

Some of the hints for what a potential Rebirth universe will look like are very interesting.

I don't believe DC owns Peter Cannon. Dynamite published a series for the character recently and Wikipedia says his creator's estate owns the character.

Speaking of not getting a proper send off, I read Superman #52 before Rebirth and it is atrocious. First, it feels like it's 6 pages long, second, Superman has the most unceremonious, uninteresting end to a major character in a comic book I've ever seen. It doesn't help that it looked to me like DC was recycling elements from All-Star Superman.

As for Watchmen, I think putting those characters in the regular DC universe completely dilutes them and robs the original story of its impact. DC should be ashamed of themselves, but they have no idea what shame feels like.

If you want to talk about randomly killing off a character...

For the most part, I enjoyed Rebirth #1, although either I missed something over the last couple of years of not reading the new 52 or DC let a mistake slip through as I also loved the meta aspect of the narration as it can apply as much to how DC has handled their characters over the last 10 years as it can in-universe.

Aren't there a bunch of new readers who started with the new 52 who are going to be turned off by this? or was that overstated at the time?