Best and Worst of DC Rebirth

[Jim Kelly]

It used to be I would hear about a great run and, if I wasn't already reading it, I would know to pick it up or get the TPB. But that hasn't happened in a long while. I guess I'm too out of it now, but has there been a recent series that's really caught the attention of fans and is a must read?

[Adset]

I think Bored gave a pretty damn good rundown.

I also enjoyed Seeley's Nightwing. It's not "definitive run" stuff, but I thought it was solid the whole way through. One of the biggest headscratchers of the Rebirth era is Seeley and Sam Humphries swapping books -- Humphries had a good thing going on Green Lanterns, but his Nightwing was so-so (and short-lived) and Seeley's Green Lanterns was extremely forgettable. That switcheroo wrecked both books.

I think I liked Venditti's Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps more than most? I thought it was a welcomed breath of fresh air after the crossover-happy N52 era. Yeah, a lot of characters were crammed in there. I'm a big believer in the necessity of a Green Lantern Corps book so I get that too many characters were crammed into one title, but I thought the 4 Earth GL's all had their chance to shine over the course of 50 issues. I was hesitant about the book going in -- Venditti hardly wowed anyone on his N52 run -- but free of editorially-mandated crossover events, I thought he did quite well.

[noisebloom]

Currently reading Grant Morrison's GL run (read the first two issues), and while I'm not the biggest fan of him, I am really liking it. Very much a breath of fresh air even though I loved a lot of Johns' stuff.

[Uncanny Mutie]

Currently reading Grant Morrison's GL run (read the first two issues), and while I'm not the biggest fan of him, I am really liking it. Very much a breath of fresh air even though I loved a lot of Johns' stuff.

You know, so far, some of the issues of Morrison's Green Lantern have been great to me. But then others just leave me like, "WTF did I just read?!?"

Seems like you're not going to find anybody willing to say anything bad about it right now, but I'll just say it's hit or miss for me.

[Vordan]

It used to be I would hear about a great run and, if I wasn't already reading it, I would know to pick it up or get the TPB. But that hasn't happened in a long while. I guess I'm too out of it now, but has there been a recent series that's really caught the attention of fans and is a must read?

Mister Miracle? I love Priest’s Deathstroke run personally. Rucka’s WW run was great. Tomasi Superman gets a lot of love. Abnett Aquaman, Seeley Nightwing, Lobdell Red Hood, Percy Green Arrow, Tomasi Super Sons, and Glass Teen Titans all get some love. Willamson is the last standing creative from the start of Rebirth besides King so he’s doing something right on Flash.

[noisebloom]

Seems like you're not going to find anybody willing to say anything bad about it right now, but I'll just say it's hit or miss for me.

I've actually heard quite a bit bad about it. He's always going to be a polarizing writer that generally creates works that people love or hate.

[Jackalope89]

Mister Miracle? I love Priest’s Deathstroke run personally. Rucka’s WW run was great. Tomasi Superman gets a lot of love. Abnett Aquaman, Seeley Nightwing, Lobdell Red Hood, Percy Green Arrow, Tomasi Super Sons, and Glass Teen Titans all get some love. Willamson is the last standing creative from the start of Rebirth besides King so he’s doing something right on Flash.

Lobdell is still on Red Hood.

[Jekyll]

The first couple TPBs of Tomasi & Gleason's Superman are fantastic, as is Super-Sons. Unless you are a big fan of 90s era Superman, I'd avoid Jurgens's Action Comics, as that book was mostly relegated to doing continuity clean-up from the New 52.

Tom King's Batman run has been divisive, but you should check out the first TPB to see if it clicks with you. Detective Comics was essentially a team-up book with Tim Drake, Batwoman, Spoiler, Cassie Cain & Clayface, so if you were a fan of the extended Batman Family, it's the book for you.

Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman was a mixed bag. The stuff with Liam Sharp was beautiful, but ending up just being more continuity cleanup to explain away the unsalvageable New 52 incarnation. The Year One arc with Nicola Scott was much better and established her new origin moving forward.

Williamson's Flash has been reasonably popular, but his Barry has been too much of a sad sack for my tastes, and there's been too much Speed Force related nonsense and characters I simply don't care about.

Venditti's Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps was also a mixed bag because it was trying to serve too many masters. It needed to focus on Hal while also giving enough for John, Guy & Kyle to do, which mostly left the alien GLCorps members underserved. It did a very good job of resetting the GL mythos after how badly it had been mismanaged following the end of Johns's run, but it largely felt like pandering to disgruntled fans, with no real depth. Green Lanterns, which focused on Jessica & Simon, was inconsistent, but Sam Humphries ended his run really strongly with the First Lantern arc. After that, it was utterly forgettable.

Bryan Hitch's Justice League was breathtakingly dull. Titans was a bore. Teen Titans was a creative misfire. Suicide Squad was a dud with some Jim Lee art. Avoid all these.

Priest's Deathstroke has been very well received, and also sometimes features layouts by the incomparable Larry Hama.

Harley Quinn was still Conner & Palmiotti's Harley Quinn. Sam Humphries took over from them and did a good job of explaining how all the craziness of that series actually fits into the DCU proper.

That's the main ones I can think of. Overall, Rebirth did a good job of course correcting a lot of the mistakes made during the New 52/DCYou era and the twice monthly shipping gave them enough momentum to win back a lot of lapsed fans like myself. There were some definite missteps and disappointments, but the DCU is in a much stronger place now than it was prior to Rebirth.

Your analysis of The Flash is spot on and the main reason that I dropped it.


The best was definitely Venditti’s Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps title.

[Pohzee]

IMO the worst part about Rebirth wasn't anything truly terrible, it was all the mediocre stories shielded by returns to superficial iconography. Not too many series actually ended up turning out to be that notable.

Prieststroke is of course the notable exception here.

[Flash Gordon]

Aquaman was the best of the best for me, throughout Rebirth.

Superman was prolly the worst. Unreadable until Bendis came on.

[Dark-Jacket]

I like a lot Superman and his family , Superdad is great.

Bryan Hitch is absolutely not a good writer and JLA was at best 'meh'. And his art though magnificient is too much dark and cinematographic it didn't felt like a comics and that was sad. Worst part is the dialogue...

I also raged quit Flash because 1/ They are making him Wally without him being Wally and the "player" bit is uninteresting for me. 2/ They stuffed a woman in the fridge early on...

[Sam]

I like a lot Superman and his family , Superdad is great.

Bryan Hitch is absolutely not a good writer and JLA was at best 'meh'. And his art though magnificient is too much dark and cinematographic it didn't felt like a comics and that was sad. Worst part is the dialogue...

I also raged quit Flash because 1/ They are making him Wally without him being Wally and the "player" bit is uninteresting for me. 2/ They stuffed a woman in the fridge early on...

Who did they stuff in a fridge? I have absolutely no memory of that in Flash.

[G-Man27]

I think Dark Jacket means Meena, the female speedster that Godspeed "killed" earlier in the book, though if I recall correctly she was later revealed to still be alive and an agent of Black Hole.

[Sam]

I think Dark Jacket means Meena, the female speedster that Godspeed "killed" earlier in the book, though if I recall correctly she was later revealed to still be alive and an agent of Black Hole.

I guess so, in which case, yeah, she not dead.

[Rod G]

A lot of Rebirth turned out to be Meh at best and an absolute mess at worst.

Don’t get me started on the nihilism of Dark Nights Metal and the pointlessness of Doomsday Clock.