DC Comics' Reboots Explained!

DC Comics is infamous for rebooting their universe, but I'm here to break them down.

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Doc's Comics & Games, Bonnie Davies, Senita Mahoney, David Adler, Ralph Braganzan, Ethan Dannen, Yoav Haimovitz, Skylar Lewis-Shirley, LookWhosFhtagn, Red Deity, Andrew Shaffer, Talentless Hack, Vydal

Tags: #DCComics #ComicBooks #Comics

[OwenLikesComics]

DC may be either Pre-Crisis or Post-Crisis, but I like to think of myself as being mid-Crisis.

[camerongrow]

I stopped caring about continuity after Rebirth. I mostly go by the old school Star Wars expanded Universe rules now: It's canon unless it contradicts something else. Otherwise, I just like enjoying good superhero stories

[god_of_none]

Crisis on Infinite Earths: reboot
Flashpoint: reboot
Rebirth: soft reboot

[foldabotZ]

Meanwhile, over at Marvel, their timeline has gone uninterrupted. Meaning the entire 54 years of continuity since 1961 to prior to 2015's Secret Wars are all still canon due to their Sliding Timescale/Floating Timeline which moves the timeline so the that Marvel's Present Day will always take place parallel to our Present Day, whenever that is. In fact, Secret Wars still didn't change much, it just gave Marvel the opportunity to eliminate the various parallel universes and transplant popular AU characters into the main Marvel Earth of 616, as well as retcon some events. Ooh, idea! How about a video on Marvel's Sliding Timescale to explain how time passes in-universe.

[djalexander]

Me:I think I finally understand the continuity
DC Comics:REBOOT TIME!

[StatusClick]

I like a few DC Heroes, but my biggest problem with DC's continuity is how they "Reboot" but keep things the same. I think of Rebirth as a Reboot. The New 52 reboot didn't effect Green Lantern and kept its history from before Flashpoint. Batman also kept his history from before Flashpoint, but now it all happened in the span of 5 years.
THIS is my problem with DC. It's hard to keep track of What has happened in different titles.

[dontunder]

All this started because a writer thought it would be funny if the new flash was inspired by the old flash comics.

[firesnakex]

Post crisis will always be the golden era of DC comics for me. So many amazing stories came from that time and my two favorite heroes Wally West and Kyle Rayner got their time to shine as the Flash and Green Lantern.

[comixproviderftw_]

Itsjustsomerandomguy Iron Man: Your characters are so isolated from each other, I’m starting to think DC stands for “Ditch Continuity”.

[robertfalk]

Ok, when Comic Drake sighs before explaining something, you know you're in for a wild ride.

[zachryder]

It sucks that the "DC Universe" relaunch (the one after Rebirth) doesn't have its own distinct name or Wikipedia page.

[e-male]

Lets go its been so long since you've put out any Dc explained videos

[ashleytuchin]

I'm still waiting for the next Crisis event: Mid-life Crisis. I mean, Batman already drives fast cars and hangs around younger women.

[HOTD_]

Am I the only one that gets massively put off reading main continuity DC comics because of crisis events? Not necessarily because it's annoying to have things reset, but from a sympathetic level, as in I feel so bad seeing characters that I love get their literal existences and lives rewritten and warped like they do. It's the small moments that really make up our lives, and DC characters essentially face a fate force than death in the event of a crisis, and I just can't cope with reading that.

[mohamed-degkayse]

"This is truly a crisis" - Dr Manhattan

[cartoonrewrite]

Meanwhile the marvel video is 1 second long and the word “no”

[nathancarter]

You should talk about Dial H for Hero.

*SPOILERS*

The Multiverse is actually a giant dial?! How insane is that?!

[xanderg.]

I hope after Dark Nights: Death Metal, we can finally get a clear continuity, stories, origins that have a proper mix influence of New Earth and Prime Earth, and instead of being in one or the other it can be a different earth like Rebirth Earth or Central Earth. But that’s my thoughts.

[DoctorMinjinx]

Everything was, in my opinion, very straight forward until they began to mix New 52 with Pre-52 (Post Crisis). Unless I'm just uninformed or mistaken, I just find it very confusing. Dr Manhattan reverting Prime Earth back to New Earth would have been the easy fix, but that's not the case (I don't think). So I find myself a little confused, especially after Doomsday Clock's ending. I'm confused as to what exactly changed, besides the stuff shown in the issue (But I'm sure much more than that changed.)

[derby]

Good explanation.
Wonder Woman's Silver-Age (Earth-1) stories begin with Wonder Woman #98 and all previous comics with her are considered to be Earth-2 stories, but you're right that no explanations of this were ever given in the comics. The fact that Wonder Woman's comics did a "salute to the Golden-Age" sporadically from issues 156-169, and it mimicked the TV show's continuity from issues 228-242 makes figuring out which "Earth" any particular story was set on difficult at best.