(credit: DC Comics)
Any comics fan will tell you: DC has a reputation for rebooting its line often. With its headline-grabbing “New 52” initiative as recent example, the company seems to enjoy starting their stories from the beginning and discarding previously established continuity. Critics point to the company’s massive, universe-shattering crossover epics as prime examples: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, and most recently Flashpoint, which ushered in that controversial New 52 era. This happens so much, many readers now treat the next reboot as inevitable.
It may come as a surprise, then, to hear the DC Universe (DCU) has never been rebooted. While the company has absolutely tweaked its continuity, there’s never been a full reboot on the entire universe. Not once. Geoff Johns, DC’s Chief Creative Officer, recently remarked that the DCU has “an umbilical cord that goes all the way back to “Action Comics” #1, that connects the whole DC Universe.” And that wasn’t just a catchy marketing phrase: it’s a fact.
This summer as DC rolled out its latest “Rebirth” line, which purports to restore lost connections to the past, it’s a good time to dive into the history of DC’s continuity and see how accurate Johns’ remarks are. Has it really been one big story all along?
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Source: Ars Technica – The saga of DC’s never-ending universe