Thursday, May 26, 2016

DC Rebirth #1 - A review with some SPOILERS

So we're starting all over again.  Well, maybe not so much re-starting from scratch, but cleaning out some of the crap from the stalls that has accumulated over the past decade.  Sadly, some of the dumber stuff, IMHO, is continuing but it looks like they are making an attempt.

Beware, as I'm giving away a lot of stuff: SPOILERS AHEAD 

Writer/demi-god Geoff Johns takes the lead with this issue, beginning with the event that lead up to this (New 52 Superman is gone and presumed dead) and setting up the events that that will lead to a newer DCU. The older pre-52 Superman, along with his wife, Lois and son are now in place here on Earth-1 or Prime or whatever it is called. Batman, thanks to events in some earlier story line now knows the Joker's name.  Of course, since things can't be that simple as it appears that there are actually three Jokers running around.  I'm guessing that they must know each other, or at least be aware of the others, but that isn't made clear. It also seems that Wonder Woman actually has a brother who had been secreted away after his birth and Darkseid (dead, but reborn) may have had something to do with it. As if that wasn't enough....

Wally West is trying to escape the Speed Force, which in someways resembles what we have seen on the TV series, THE FLASH, and events in the CW/DCU may begin to reflect things in the print versions and the other way around.  At least, some of the things that Johns has Wally reveal seem to imply that to me.  Then again, I've not been reading much of the DC output for the past few years, quitting well before Flashpoint, which seems to be where this Wally left us.  I admit to being confused.  Wally is trying to find his long-lost love, Linda Park, but like everyone else he encounters she has no memory of him.  We see a number of characters who had interacted with Wally from the time he was Kid Flash, but nobody recalls him and his connection to our world seems to be slipping away, until... I'll let you find that one out, as it nearly brought me to tears and somethings should not be spoiled.

Ted Kord is back and he is trying to help out Jamie Reyes the new Blue Beetle, who would like nothing better than to be rid of the scarab that gives him his powers.  At this point we get a visit from Doctor Fate who tells Ted that both of them are mistaken when it comes to the origin of the scarab.   We get brief glimpses of a number of other DC characters, from a new Green Lantern, Arthur Curry/Aquaman, and Johnny Thunder (the original), plus a couple of folks from the supernatural side of the DCU, other than the good Doctor.

Most of that seems on the good side, although DC editorial still believes that Bruce's sociopath son, Damien still needs to be hanging around. Never a good idea in my opinion and one I've never understood the need for.  If ever there was someone who should be written out of continuity it is that little psycho.

Finally, I've debated whether to reveal something that I really do hate and that spoils much of this whole thing from the beginning.  DC has decided that characters created decades ago as part of a stand-alone series and not a part of the DCU are now not among the characters of this Earth, but may have been the cause of much of the past decade's events that many fans have disliked.  Nah, find out for yourself and judge how you feel.

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