It's been 3 years since rebirth...

[Restingvoice]

Okay, well there you go.
So WW's backstory is entirely new
Superman's is essentially the same as pre-Flashpoint
Batman's is a mix of pre-Flashpoint and New 52

So how in the hell am I supposed to buy into there being a coherent shared backstory for these three? Let alone the rest of the universe?

By viewing them as a new continuity/history where events of past versions of history happened, but they don't happen exactly the same way, or even with the same chronology.

I mean the real answer is they don't care about coherency because DC's priority is to get money back by dangling familiar things to old fans, Snyder's priority is continuing his New 52 Batman lore, Jurgens priority is to bring back Post Crisis Superman, Rucka's priority is to bring back the familiar Wonder Woman, Johns' priority is to continue his New 52 Justice League lore (I think), King's priority is to do a character study on Batman (I think)... so they all kinda do their own thing... but if you want to try buying it, that's the closest thing I can sell.

Does a coherent shared backstory matter if the current present stories are good (not saying they are good, just asking if they were good or great would the continuity not referenced in the story really bug you that much)?

To me, they matter if the present story relies on history. Like if they just move on and create stories set in the present day then I don't care, but if they started saying "5 years ago, a few days after my origin, I made a mistake that causes this villain to take revenge on me today, and it affected how I picked my sidekick" then yeah, it matters, coz now you bring it up, and you change history as I knew it, then I want to know what you changed.

[Celgress]

I think Rebirth had a lot of positive momentum and good ideas at the inception that all got bungled by flawed execution and DC editorial shifts.

Pretty much how I feel as well. Maybe they'll get it right next time, then again probably not.

[Celgress]

As a fan of New 52 Superman, not happy with it. Especially the way they tried to "fix" the marriage issue by "merging" the two Supermen. I get that the marriage was more popular than having him be single. And I don't have a problem with it. But they could not have screwed that up worse if they tried. It's like they just didn't want to deal with it so they just said "Eh, we'll just merge them and move on". But of course it's not a real merger. It's just the pre-Flashpoint Superman who wore the armor for all of five minutes in his career. Nothing of New 52 Superman remains. The convoluted continuity really doesn't interest me. Especially since New 52 Superman had one of the best origins Superman ever had. Which, of course, is now gone.

Yup, New 52 Superman in truth got absorbed rather than fused. In a true merge there is a blending to create a happy medium, not so here.

[comeatmebro]

I loved New Super-Man and liked Red Hood but not much of the rest of their output over the time

[Cowtools]

Does a coherent shared backstory matter if the current present stories are good (not saying they are good, just asking if they were good or great would the continuity not referenced in the story really bug you that much)?

You know, it didn't used to matter when I was getting into comics (2007ish) but after Rebirth followed so close after New 52, it was like a switch flipped in my brain.

The first 'historical' run that I really fell in love with was Gail Simone's Birds Of Prey, and in retrospect one thing I loved about it was how it took characters done wrong like Barabara Gordan and Dinah Lance and built good stories for them, over a long time and with no quick fixes. It was a run that used the long continuity of comics to its advantage.

So I lost that with the New 52, but okay, I loved the Batgirl of Burnside series, and I was also a fan of Spoiler and Cast Cain, and I loved how they were reintroduced in the New 52.

But then along comes Rebirth and all that is shunted to the side. I don't know if Stephanie Brown and Cass Cain are now supposed to be their pre-52 versions or what. Was Barbara Gordon ever Oracle or not? She no longer has a long-standing relationship with Huntress, but does Dick?

I read the Rebirth Birds Of Prey book for a while, but it felt hollow. Like it was just going through the motions. That's how a lot of DC comics feel to me these days: like they are all copies of copies of copies.

All in all, I feel like these successive reboots have been the worst for readers like myself, who are fans of fringe characters more than the Big Guns, because those characters' backstories are what make them who they are. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc are iconic figures who can withstand multiple reboots, but my fave books were always seeped in a consistent lore.