Open Mike Night: DC Rebirth #1

DC Rebirth #1

Written by: Geoff Johns
Art by: Gary Frank, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Phil Jimenez, Matt Santorelli
Colored by: Brad Anderson, Jason Wright, Hi-fi, Gabe Eltaeb
Lettered by: Nick J. Napolitano

Published by: DC
Cover Price: $2.99

Mike Weaver: Wally West returns from the Flashpoint era and attempts to find someone in the New 52 that will help him return to existence and undo some of the things that New 52 did to the universe.  On paper, that feels like an extension of the DC formula that’s been going on for a while now...Crisis to reboot timeline, then when desire for nostalgia sets in, a kind of counter-Crisis to move back towards the old status quo.

That viewpoint isn’t totally wrong.  It feels like DC thinks of New 52 as a failed experiment and is ready to sweep it under the rug.  I’m not going to editorialize on whether that’s a good idea or not because I don’t have a strong opinion on New 52.  Of note in this issue is an emphasis on bringing love back into the DC Universe, which I know was one of the chief complaints about New 52.  Aquaman proposes to Mera, Black Canary and Green Arrow look like they’re getting back together, Wally tries to rekindle things with Linda (although it’s hard to do since Linda forgot he existed).  There’s a strong emphasis in here on reintegrating camaraderie of various other sorts too, whether it be legacy heroes (long a staple of the DC universe) or putting some old colleagues back together, like Saturn Girl showing up to look for Superman.

The scope of this comic was really wide.  There’s cameos from dozens of characters, most of them easily recognizable to anyone with vague knowledge of the DC Universe, but a couple more obscure ones like Johnny Thunder.  With a story this big, I feared that it would lose focus and get hard to follow, but it didn’t.  A good framing sequence and pacing made it work really well.

Mike Maillaro: I really enjoyed the comic, and I was surprised by the in-continuity reasoning why the DC Universe had become such a dark and dreary place. When Thomas Wayne and Barry Allen were looking to return things back to normal after Flashpoint, some powerful cosmic figure reached in and basically snatched ten years out of the universe.  Somehow this took all the hope and joy with it.  In the end, it’s shown that this was part of a “war” against the DC Universe being waged by the Watchmen.  Somewhere, Alan Moore just choked on his beard….

There was a lot of great little details in this comic, like those Weaver mentioned.  I was also really happy to see the return of Kaldur’ahm.  I really liked New Aqualad, and he was such an underused character.  He was great in the Young Justice animated series, and he finally is back!  But the absolute best part of this comic was the reunion between Wally and Barry,  I actually teared up reading it (mostly because I thought DC was about to kill Wally for good) and then when I re-read it before we started working on this review.

Weaver: I thought for sure Wally was a goner.  It’s a Crisis.  That’s never good for the Flash.

I’m not sure how I feel about the integration of the Watchmen.  It’s been a while since the movie and the miniseries that had Alan Moore in a dither, I thought we could just let him be cranky at his cave walls for a decade or two.  But no, we have to go poke that hornet’s nest.  And in a way...I hate to say it...but I somewhat agree that they shouldn’t be integrated, especially not in the core universe plotline.

Watchmen doesn’t work as a G-rated concept, or even PG.  It really has to have the volume turned up to max in order to work, plus a confusing pirate comic.  I think you unnecessarily prune down your target demographic just by including them, because you either make them family friendly and lose basically all their continuity and existing fans, or you integrate them as they are and potentially lose the elements of readership that strive for more family friendly fare.  I guess I’d side towards making them more PG because a lot of the existing fans are going to protest that happening while they buy the issues in secret.

Maillaro: I hope that the Watchmen elements will be only lightly touched upon, but you make a lot of real valid points about that.  And let’s face it, the comic industry is far from subtle.  We already see Doctor Manhattan,and I assume Ozymandias.  Plus, I am thinking it is possible that one of the three Jokers could be Comedian.

But I will also say that this comic was written with such a love and respect for the history and the characters (something that seems to have been missing from DC for a while), that I am willing to give them some leeway on using Watchmen.  

Weaver: I’m also going to assume the use of Watchmen was editorially mandated, potentially as a way for DC to try to integrate their failing movies into a movie that didn’t completely bomb and lose money hand over fist.  Yes, I know that’s an exaggeration and most if not all DC movies actually make back most of the money spent on them, but they’re not doing a great job of establishing a brand people want to support, outside of Suicide Squad.

Batman has the Comedian’s button in one panel, so I assume that he’s related to the Jokers.  Also, Ozymandias is at bare minimum addressed verbally.  I don’t know.  We’ll see how that gets handled.

Maillaro: I actually think Superman’s stalker Oz might be Ozymandias too.  

For scores, I am hard pressed to go lower than 5’s.  I loved the story, and you get gorgeous art throughout.  There were a variety of artists and inkers, but they managed to create a real solid coherent book.  Plus, extra points for this book being 80 pages and 3 bucks.  Hopefully, DC Rebirth will continue the excitement I felt reading this one.

Weaver: I wanted to argue with two 5’s, but I can’t.  It was a greatly executed book.

Summary: DC does a terrific job getting everything back on track here.  The return of a lot of characters and elements that have been missing from the DC Universe for far too long (Wally West, JSA, Legion, and a sense of hope).  While there were a lot of artists on this one, they still managed to create a beautiful and consistent book, under the careful writing of Geoff Johns.  And you get an 80-page giant for 3 bucks.  Hard to complain about anything in this one.  

Final Scores