Rank DC Line Wide Relaunches From Worst To Best

[Timothy Hunter]

Post Crisis on Infinite Earths
One Year Later
New Fifty Two
DcYou
Rebirth
Infinite Frontier

I'm not sure whether or not to include Zero Hour because it changed the pasts of most characters just like Crisis had done 8 years earlier, the changes in status quo weren't as dramatic aside from Hawkman, Legion of Superheroes and new titles like Fate and Starman.

[Dr. Poison]

My ranking:

Rebirth
One Year Later
Infinite Frontier
Post-Crisis
New 52
DCYou

[Shadowcat]

Worst: New 52
Zero Hour
DCYou
Final Crisis
Infinite Frontier
Convergence
Brightest Day
Rebirth
Post Infinite Crisis
Post Crisis

[Ascended]

1. Zero Hour. A solid attempt to iron out the remaining wrinkles of early post-Crisis. The "fade to white" final pages in each book were clever and felt momentous (even if DC did cheat me out of a few pages of actual content). It felt like the new DC era was really coming together, with Clark and Bruce back and new faces like Impulse and Kyle. Many of the books that launched off of it were excellent (Starman, one of the greats). The tighter continuity at the time made things feel more real. Hal's involvement brought personal stakes into it. But I think nostalgia might influence me here, it was my first big Event.

2. Post-Crisis. I think they deeply screwed up Clark and Diana, to such extent neither character has recovered. And that does a lot to kill my buzz on the biggest relaunch in DC history. But we got guys like Booster Gold out of it, a bunch of titles that had been struggling caught a second wind (and Superman was riding high despite what I now consider a bad treatment), and the clutter earth, which made a lot of things possible.

3. Infinite Frontier....Future State? What are we calling the current thing, that started last year when content created post-Didio finally reached the shelf? So far I am extremely satisfied with a lot of DC's current output. More than I have been in years, anyway. Action and Nightwing are better than they've been in ages, we're getting a lot of self-contained, Elseworlds type stuff, and if the line is still far too focused on the big name franchises and the Bat too far above all others, there's still been room for some quality niche stuff like Nice House and Last God.

4. DCYOU. Say what you will, it was creative. Definitely *too* creative in some ways, but DC swung big and I respect that. We got some really fun books out of it like Burnside Batgirl (it wasn't Babs, but it was fun, and what the character needed at the time) and Harley and Bizarro & Jimmy and Prez and Dial H. The major franchises were all a mess but the little guys were out in force and DC was fearless in what it'd publish.

5. Brightest Day. So much potential. Great mix of new and old elements, known and lesser known characters. Shame it was killed for the New52.