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DC Comics New 52 Continuity

The DC Universe has been reborn, but there are a few things we want to carry over from the old universe. Check out our take on DC Comics New 52 continuity.


It's been rough adjusting to a post-Flashpoint DC Universe, not only for fans of the Wally West Flash-who doesn't exist anymore-but for those of us still wrapping our brains around the timeline of this universe.

See, Action Comics and Justice League are both set five years prior to the rest of the other titles. Hence why Green Lantern follows Sinestro and The New Guardians is a post-Brightest Day/Blackest Night setting. But this brings up more than a few continuity problems with classic events that are kept somewhat alive in the New 52. The biggest one? The Killing Joke is still canon, but Barbara Gordon was rehabilitated and not paralyzed by the gunshot. Still may've been molested by the Joker, but hey! She can walk!

So let's take a look at what we need to consider in this new reboot in order to not completely trash the last 30 years of continuity.

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DC Comics New 52 Continuity
Credit: DC Comics
9

Superman Must Die

There's no question about it: Superman has to die again. After all, it was the death and rebirth of Superman that set into motion the creation of the "modern" Superboy, Connor Kent, Steel, Hank "Cyborg Superman" Henshaw and set off one of the most shocking events in the early 90s: the destruction of Coast City.

All because Superman died. But now, did he still? Was there even time? Superboy still exists as a CADMUS-ish type clone, but for what reason, if Supes Proper never died in the last five to ten years in the new universe? That also means Hank Henshaw never partnered up with Mongul to make a new Warworld; Steel wouldn't have a reason to do what he did and there was never a war of the Supermen.

In fact, what happens when one of the most notoriously dangerous villains (Doomsday) has been nerfed? We're not sure how it should happen, but Supes definitely needs to die at some point in the new 52-even if we know it's coming. It was such a powerful moment in comics that we're not sure how so much can exist without it having happened now. Further still, without the destruction of Coast City, Hal Jordan didn't destroy the Green Lantern Corps and become host to Parallax.

This brings us to another problem we were thinking about.

DC Comics New 52 Continuity
Credit: DC Comics
8

Lantern War

The Color War managed to not only inspire a few hundred Power Ranger jokes (especially when the Emotional Spectrum Entities came into play) but it managed to turn out an interesting premise of what inevitably happens when a group of space cops meets space escalation. Still, there's a tiny problem we're going to run into when the New 52 has to condense all of the last 20 years into five in-universe; that indludes how the New 52 dealt with the Blackest Night, Deadman coming back to life and the fact that Brightest Day paved the way for Swamp Thing's return.  But with no Donna Troy, Bart Allen or even Wally West, then who would there be to come back from the dead with Nekron?

In fact, does that mean Underworld Rising never happened? If there's no Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardiner or John Stewart then how could a lot of that stuff happen? How could Sinestro inevitably become a Green Lantern again? Without the War of the Lanterns, there's such a huge plot hole that we're not even sure a Mother Box could figure it out.

Or, could there be hope for the Color Wars yet-maybe ignoring the White and Black entities and focusing on a straight up war between the rings that ended in a stalemate and need for new Guardians after the War of the Green Lanterns.

DC Comics New 52 Continuity
Credit: DC Comics
7

The Final Night

Before we had a revamped Crisis every year, the most significant thing to happen to the late 90s/early aughts DC Universe was a ball of gas being extinguished by a nigh-unstoppable force known only as The Sun Eater (pictured above from All-Star Superman). As continuity-wide events go, it seemed rather innocuous.

This gave us the return of Parallax and one of the more awesome moments in Hal Jordan canon: he restarted the sun with the power of his will and kept the Earth in check while he did so.  More importantly, it helped lead Hal Jordan to become The Spectre and it also brought Green Arrow back from the dead for the first time. Without Hal being The Spectre, he couldn't have beaten Parallax during Blackest Night and if we have to use anymore red string to figure out certain causes and affects we're going to start wearing a cheese cloth over our face and a blue fedora.

Final Crisis
Credit: DC Comics
6

Crisis of Infinite Crises

As the unknown purple veiled woman informs the Flash at the end of Flashpoint, the "three" timelines are converging (i.e. Wildstorm, DC Proper and we assume parts of the Silver Age). But there's one event we have to keep-in fact, more than one.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths can't be ignored and we're at a point where we can agree with Marv Wolfman when he laments about all the different turning points and lame tie-ins you find now with yearly events (War of the Green Lantern Corps, War of the Thor Hammer Corps, Deadpool Corps, Captain America Corps, Corps Corps-which hasn't happened yet but still). If this is really a new chance at revamping and reorganizing multiple timelines and universes, we should make it the last one for a while.

Let's agree to retire everything else and stop the Crises after the original and Final Crisis, purely because that lead to the world's tripiest take on Batman we've ever seen (and hope is still canon).

DC Comics New 52 Continuity
Credit: DC Comics
5

Hawk and Monarch

Hawk and Dove's first issue sold out in record time. Which is fitting when you remember that Hawk is destined to become one of the most powerful, destructive villains in all of DC's time-line due to his messing up the White Entity's plan in Brightest Day.

Or so we need to assume since the events behind BD are a mystery in the new re-launch. As we said above, the Color War needs to happen. But we're not sure about the extent to which it did and that could be a very confusing thing. It also leads us back to one of the more famous screw-ups in comic history when Hawk became the last minute reveal of Zero Hour's destined hero-turned-villain Monarch.

Here's the thing though: Hawk is destined still to become Extant/Monarch and kill everyone. The White Entity knew that in Brightest Day and tried to have him sacrifice himself to "purify" his body. But he didn't. And now Rob Lifield draws him, so we know it's only a matter of time before his muscles grow muscles on top of pouches and we're left with the angriest god of war since Kratos.