Every DC Comics Reboot, Explained

DC Comics has been an industry leader in comic books since the 1930s, with key events like the creation of Superman serving as turning points in the superhero genre’s history. In order to keep its continuity fresh for new generations of readers, the company has routinely pursued a series of reboots and relaunches, each of which have aimed to simplify things.

For better or worse, each of these has been a success in their own right, typically – but not always – revitalizing sales figures, as readers flock to stores to see whether the new direction is for them.

DC’s reboots can be a tad confusing, especially for new readers who want to understand the publisher’s history. It is worth a primer on these critical events for readers, so new fans can recognize the best jumping on points, and get a better sense of what each era of DC has to offer.

8 The Dawn Of The Silver Age (1956)

Start With: Showcase #4 – Written By Robert Kanigher; Art By Carmine Infantino

When DC Comics was founded in the 1930s as National Publications, its continuity was the loosest that it’s ever been. In fact, it took years for some characters, including Batman and Superman, to ever even meet. While the universe did become more interconnected throughout the late 1940s and early ’50s JSA stories, it wasn’t until the dawn of the Silver Age in 1956, when DC created Barry Allen and moved towards a new age of interconnected stories, that readers had a better understanding of a shared continuity. This was particularly true of the main Justice League of America series.

While the Silver Age was marked by the creation of Barry Allen, it wasn’t until 1960’s The Brave and the Bold #28 that DC laid out its full vision, finally uniting its best heroes under the Justice League banner.

7 Crisis On Infinite Earths (1986)

Start With: Crisis On Infinite Earths #1 – Written By Marv Wolfman; Art By George Perez

Crisis On Infinite Earths was created with a single goal in mind: to simplify DC’s continuity and pave the way for a new generation of readers to jump in. The series was a ringing success, resulting in the publisher folding its parallel Earths into one, doing away with variants of iconic heroes, and even incorporating newly-acquired Charlton heroes into continuity. When the limited series ended, DC relaunched almost every title, to allow for new readers and creative teams across the board.

Crisis On Infinite Earths has remained a key chapter in DC history due in large part to the death of Barry Allen, allowing for the creation of Wally West. Just as a new Flash had heralded the dawn of the Silver Age, a new Flash also signaled the birth of the Modern Age of Comics, and West remains a fan-favorite among readers. Not only was this one of the first true events in comics, but it offered a clean slate across the board for readers.

6 The New 52 (2011)

Start With: Flashpoint #1 – Written Geoff Johns; Art By Andy Kubert

In 2011, DC Comics launched its Flashpoint event, which followed Barry Allen in an alternate timeline he inadvertently caused by saving his mother’s life. After the event concluded, DC launched its New 52, the hardest reboot of its universe since the Silver Age. Every core title reverted to a first issue, including legacy books like Action Comics, and origin stories were retold. From a young Superman learning the ropes of being a hero to a revised Wonder Woman origin, the 2010s for DC reeled in thousands of new readers through darker stories than ever before.

The New 52 had its share of excesses, from unpopular character redesigns to full erasures of heroes like the Justice Society members. All of these problems ultimately paved the way for DC’s Rebirth event, and the disdain readers had for the DCYou initiative sealed its fate. The event was by far the most ambitious in DC history, and this was shown by the company’s line-up of talent, but the direction wore thin with readers.

5 Rebirth (2016)

Start With: DC Universe Rebirth One-Shot – Written By Geoff Johns; Art By Ivan Reis, Phil Jimenez, & More

Following the decline in popularity of the New 52, the company reoriented its creative direction and tone back to what it had been during the 2000s. With DC Universe Rebirth, the company paved the way for its line-wide reboot, with the return to form signaled by the reversion of series like Action Comics and Detective Comics to legacy numbering. This change was viewed by many as something of an apology to fans for missteps like drastic and unpopular character redesigns and bad characterization for heroes like Superman.

Rebirth gave readers some treasured changes, such as giving Superman a family in Lois and their son, Jon Kent, as well as the restoration of ’90s-era Lobo. Virtually every creative step seemed perfect for the new era, and readers were handed modern classic runs on heroes like Green Arrow, Superman, Green Lantern and Flash.

Doomsday Clock #1 – Written By Geoff Johns, Art By Gary Frank

In 2018, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank teamed up to bring readers the long-demanded sequel to Watchmen, Doomsday Clock. The series follows Ozymandias fleeing a dying Earth in his universe to travel to Earth-Prime, where he attempts to find Doctor Manhattan to save his world. However, he travels to a regular DCU suffering the effects of Manhattan’s alteration of history, going so far as to erase the Justice Society of America.

While not as hard a reboot as the New 52, Doomsday Clock basically erased the 2011-2016 continuity, returning the DC universe to its more popular post-Crisis vision. The Justice Society of America was restored to its former glory and Dooctor Manhattan undid all the changes he’d made to the timeline since Flashpoint; in other words, this wasn’t so much a hard reboot as a clean-up, taking Rebirth to its natural conclusion and explaining away the return of the original timeline.

3 Infinite Frontier (2021)

Infinite Frontier #0 – Featuring Stories & Art From DC’s Top Talents

Following the period after Doomsday Clock when DC’s continuity reverted to its post-Crisis norm, there was some confusion left as to just what was and wasn’t canon. In an effort to please everyone, DC unleashed its “Omniverse” through Infinite Frontier, an era where the publisher tried to have its cake and eat it by suggesting everything was, to some degree, canon.

The event was spearheaded by the Infinite Frontier miniseries, which followed the Justice League Incarnate in their war against Darkseid. This eventually culminated in Dark Crisis On Infinite Earths – written by Joshua Williamson, art by Daniel Sampere – which again led into a new era. Once again, this wasn’t so much a reboot as a soft relaunch, not dissimilar from the post-Infinite Crisis relaunch in 2006. However, this period was cut short by DC’s later efforts to, once more, simplify the continuity and refocus on iconic heroes through Dawn of DC. The publisher’s latest soft relaunch, All-In, continues this effort to revitalize key titles.

2 Elseworlds (2024)

Start With: Gotham by Gaslight: The Kryptonian Age #1 – Written By Andy Diggle, Art By Leandro Fernandez

In 1989, DC Comics launched their Elseworlds imprint, a line of non-canon comics styled after Marvel’s What If…? series, casting heroes in fully reimagined universes. While some of these stories were complete makeovers, others incorporated DC heroes into works of classic literature, from the stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs to Robert Louis Stevenson.

In 2024, DC revived the Elseworlds imprint after two decades; just as the original imprint launched with Gotham by Gaslight, the reboot of the imprint gave the seminal story a sequel in The Kryptonian Age. Since, everything from Batman the Barbarian to continuations of stories like DC Vs Vampires has been announced. Not only did this relaunch bring back Elseworlds, it also did what everyone expected in folding the stories of Black Label into the imprint, such as a Dark Knights of Steel sequel.

1 DC’s Absolute Universe (2024)

Start With: Absolute Power #1 – Written By Mark Waid; Art By Dan Mora

In 2024, DC Comics announced the creation of a parallel line of continuity, the Absolute Universe, modeled after Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. Focusing on a full-blown reimagining of key heroes like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash, this new line of comics is slated to serve as its own pocket universe, fully free of the continuity of Earth-Prime. While this reboot doesn’t directly affect regular DC continuity, it did spin out of the Absolute Power event.

DC’s Absolute Universe promises to take the original potential of the New 52 to an even greater extreme, abandoning core aspects of lore to allow for endless possibilities for its heroes. This allows creators like Scott Snyder to leave their mark on key heroes in a way that the New 52 didn’t, considering that it was still tied down to DC Comics’ character histories. At the same time, DC is running with All-In, which offers jumping on points for series in regular continuity. With Absolute Batman leading the pack, readers can expect the most dramatic alterations to their favorite heroes in years.