Is another reboot coming?

[711R]

I'm not paying much attention for what is happening on DC Comics right now, but everything i read about seems to imply they are making another reboot. Is this true?

[Vordan]

A New 52 style reboot? No. An Infinite Crisis type continuity rejig? Probably.

[superduperman]

We don't know. With the new management, it's possible but signs suggested there was a new one in the works even before then. Now? Who knows. Even they may not know anymore. What little we do know is that they're moving away from the direct market and more towards things like book stores and Wal-Marts. So we might see them move away from what we consider continuity.

[Robanker]

*Shakes Magic 8-Ball*

"Outcome unclear."

We don't know. It's a rumor but hasn't been confirmed.

[Robotman]

It looked like one was on the horizon, but with the word of major cut backs and firings, who the hell knows. DC has been desperately in need of a reboot or a post Infinite Crisis revamp. So sort of direction.

[SiegePerilous02]

One can only hope.

What do we even have to hold onto at this point?

[Laufeyson]

If there is a reboot, then the outcome will be clear. The heroes will be Robin to Batman and the heroine will be Sirens to Harley Quinns. There is no in between the two. DC and WB know where the money goes and they will make sure this happens. So expect Batman found a young Clark Kent and adopt him as his Robin.

[Sacred Knight]

Before the Implosion the word was Death Metal was just going to try to fix the continuity issues currently existing. Meaning they were just going to screw everything up even more. How and if the new hierarchy might change that I don't think anyone at this stage really knows.

Personally, at this stage I think things are even more broken now than they were in 2011. But I don't see them wanting to do the full reboot route again, although I'd support it fully if they planned and executed it better this time.

[Restingvoice]

Technically they already started with Wonder Woman but so far only Wonder Woman since the reboot is interrupted with Didio's firing, and the one doing the reboot, Wally, is interrupted by Batman Who Laughs. Who knows what we'll have once they're done.

Personally, at this stage I think things are even more broken now than they were in 2011.

Oh yeah. I tried making a timeline based on what Rebirth has said but they don't work together

[Buried Alien]

It's not that DC hasn't done some pretty nifty continuity reboots that worked fairly well...it's just that DC abandons them five minutes later.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Lee Stone]

2010 was not a good time for a reboot. A relaunch, perhaps, but not a reboot.
2020 looks like it’s in more of a position requiring a reboot than 2010 ever did. But because they already played that card ten years ago, they may be forced to do another soft reboot that inadvertently breaks two or three non-Batman franchises.

[Lee Stone]

It's not that DC hasn't done some pretty nifty continuity reboots that worked fairly well...it's just that DC abandons them five minutes later.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

So very true.
They had the means to fix everything for good four times now: Convergence, Multiversity, Rebirth and Doomsday Clock.

Any one of those four could’ve put things into order with a narrative hand wave.
Instead, they’ll all amount to a bunch of nothing and leave no trace that they ever happened.

[Buried Alien]

So very true.
They had the means to fix everything for good four times now: Convergence, Multiversity, Rebirth and Doomsday Clock.

Any one of those four could’ve put things into order with a narrative hand wave.
Instead, they’ll all amount to a bunch of nothing and leave no trace that they ever happened.

DC throws away perfectly sensible reboots whenever it has a corporate mood swing, which appears to happen roughly every two years since the turn of the millennium.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[bat39]

I think we'll likely get some kind of reboot/continuity rejig in line with what they were originally planning with 5G...albeit way more toned down.

We'll likely end with the JSA fully restored to continuity as a WW2-era superhero team, a process which has already started. DC seems a lot more invested in the JSA now (between the Stargirl TV show, the Black Adam movie and the recently announced animated film, they're building quiet the media presence) so that's a cinch. Now how much of JSA's post-Golden Age history and legacy will be restored? Your guess is as good as mine.

Golden Age Wonder Woman is definitely going to be in-continuity too, if for no other reason than to tie in with the movies. And of the Trinity, she's the one where it makes the most sense to tie her origin story to the past.

As for the rest of that timeline - I seriously doubt Batman and Superman will have been around for 35 years, or that its actually the mid-90's in the DCU (or however that timeline was supposed to work). I think we'll end up with a 20 year timeline, with a lot of Pre-COIE and Post-COIE history fully restored. And the New 52 stuff will be retconned as being the last few years of a longer timeline. Whether timey-wimey shenanigans will be used to explain stuff in-universe (much like they vaguely were during Rebirth) is up for debate.

Also, in general, I feel that DC will start to move away from the idea of a 'mainstream continuity' to some extent. They've embraced the Multiverse approach with films and TV, and I think they're headed that way with the comics as well. They'll never abandon the idea of a 'Prime Earth' altogether, at least not in the near-future, but it'll no longer be, well, so 'prime' anymore.

[Bikkun]

So very true.
They had the means to fix everything for good four times now: Convergence, Multiversity, Rebirth and Doomsday Clock.

Any one of those four could’ve put things into order with a narrative hand wave.
Instead, they’ll all amount to a bunch of nothing and leave no trace that they ever happened.

Convergence was purely a filler story that had the likely unintended at the time side effect of bringing in another Superman while they were moving offices. The fandom blew that one's importance and exact nature up. Multiversity also didn't really have any big impact, aside from exploring the multiverse.

Rebirth, Superman Reborn and Doomsday Clock were fully intended on getting things back that New 52 threw away, but the everpresent problem of Dan DiDio, who created New 52, still being around and pulling the strings kept things from reaching their intended points. Wally is back, but DiDio won't let him have a good storyline in Titans. Things like the Birds of Prey abruptly ended when Johns stepped down from Chief Creative Officer. Doomsday Clock was said in Death Metal #1 to have not fully stuck (mind, this issue was definitely finished before DiDio was fired).

With him gone, Death Metal's "Anti-Crisis" it's building up to will likely be the firmware patch that hasn't been allowed to finish installing for the past decade. We know it HAS to have massive ramifications because of... *gestures at everything happening in it* and Scott Snyder has confirmed that it won't be ending the way DiDio wanted it to. I am expecting a VERSION of the timeline that was leaked a while back but with a different format and without DiDio's specific biases in what does and doesn't count.

Edit: To head off a possible response, Convergence was filler in the sense that it was a relatively low maintenance event that allowed them to put everything on hold in the main universe. It was a very entertaining nostalgic trip through past stories, histories and worlds but that's really all it was intended to be. I do think it had the added benefit of DC gauging what fans responded to and acting accordingly, with them bringing back the Kent family down the line.