“Yeah, one of these days we should fix that.” – Marv Wolfman
For better or worse, everyone has a different idea of what DC continuity should be. But Marv Wolfman was the first to try and redefine what that meant 40 years ago with the continuity-altering event, Crisis on Infinite Earths. In 2025, legendary writer Mark Waid is also redefining what is canon to the post-Death Metal DCU with New History of the DC Universe. In a perfect world, New History of the DC Universe would be an easy primer for every reader who wants to get into DC Comics. It’s also a book that was desperately needed since 2011’s Flashpoint reboot, which could have saved both the publisher and readers five years of grievance had everything been mapped out beforehand.
While New History of the DC Universe is promising in concept, in execution, it’s accomplishing the exact opposite of its intended goal. Rather than truly streamlining every DC era to make it more accessible to readers, it’s continuing the trend of revising and contradicting its own publication history. This is understandably frustrating many fans, with some expressing that the miniseries is making nonsensical retcons to even recent canon. Others are arguing that the miniseries is not complicated to follow, and that fans should just accept that the stories they’ve previously read no longer happened the way they were published.
But that is exactly the problem.
Changing and erasing the canon fans already know and forcing them to revise in their minds DC’s own published stories is not the point of storytelling. Nor is it a sustainable model for growing and maintaining an audience. The whole point of continuity is to inform characters’ storylines and development, not ensure that the larger universe itself has a well-defined history. This is the reason DC’s trend of revising its own canon over the past 40 years has been consistently controversial. And it all started with the publisher’s original sin of erasing 50 years of canon with the aforementioned Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985.
Not only did Crisis on Infinite Earths unwittingly create the very continuity problem Wolfman wanted to “fix” by breaking it in the first place, but both Wolfman and the DC executives responsible for that decision failed to understand what continuity truly meant in the interest of storytelling. As a consequence of that, none of DC’s characters have a well-defined history anymore, and there is no sign that this trend will end any time soon. This seems to suggest DC stories will forever be locked in an endless cycle of history revision. But it doesn’t have to be so stuck.
Crisis on Infinite Earths is DC Comics’ Original Continuity Sin
Courtesy of DC Comics.
In Wolfman’s defense, the concept of having every DC character exist on one Earth with a streamlined history to make them more accessible isn’t actually a bad idea. In theory, Crisis could have succeeded in its goal had the new DC Universe been more carefully mapped out at the editorial level before greenlighting the story. It’s also an idea that required keeping (and aging) the Golden Age versions of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman to better preserve this era of DC, and especially their direct successors: Helena Wayne (Huntress), Kara Zor-El (Supergirl/Power Girl), and Lyta Trevor-Hall (Fury).
Preserving the Golden Age Trinity would have also resulted in a much smoother transition to the Silver Age characters as the second generation. Likewise, aging each generation of DC characters would have easily facilitated the debut of later generations and getting their time in the spotlight. It also would have entailed merging duplicate characters, which would have still required rewriting the more contradictory details of their histories. But those retcons could have still happened on a much smaller scale. By all accounts, it was possible to have every character exist on one Earth without radically changing what fans knew and loved about them. But, as every DC fan already knows, this was not what actually happened.
In the rush to boost dwindling sales in the 1980s, DC’s executives greenlit Crisis on Infinite Earths without first briefing every creative and editorial team on the project’s ambitious goals to work out the details of the aftermath. Instead, these discussions took place while the story itself was being worked on. Editors and creators were also predictably divided over the idea of retconning 50 years of stories in service of restarting the DC Universe from scratch. Wolfman has even gone on record to say that “(Crisis) would simply end with the rebirth of the Earth and all the heroes would start the next month and not one of them would ever know that the Crisis had ever happened.”
Wolfman ultimately lost the battle with editors and creators who objected to the wholesale rewriting of DC canon, and never wrote the ending he actually wanted – a decision editor Dick Giordano reportedly later regretted. Though this decision ultimately rendered Crisis a haphazard reboot that invited 4o years of frustrating canon revisions and nostalgia-driven retcons, it also spotlighted the biggest reason this initiative was doomed to fail from the start: By focusing on “fixing” the DC universe (or multiverse), Wolfman negated the fact that fans and creators invest in characters, not the larger world they inhabit. The multiverse should serve the heroes, not the other way around.
DC’s Reboots Lost Sight of Why Characters and Stories Matter to Fans
Courtesy of DC Comics.
Generally speaking, consumers of media do not give much (if any) thought to a larger universe having a well-defined history. More often than not, audience members care more about their favorite characters having a consistent history, meaningful development, and storylines that align with those established histories. Storytellers respecting the histories of the characters they’re working with and using those established histories to inform consistent characterization and thoughtful storytelling is the extent of audience members’ investment in continuity.
The larger universe history only becomes a big deal when the storytellers decide that it is, or decide it’s an important character in the story, as is often the case with sci-fi and fantasy fiction. In the case of DC Comics, however, by making the universe itself the more important “character” than its inhabitants, this led to the publisher erasing and changing characters without regard to why people love them in the first place. By radically changing some characters while leaving others intact to fit the new history of the DC Universe, this understandably upset fans who were invested in the earlier versions of those characters.
If characters were especially subjected to both erasure and hard contradictory revisions (as has been the case with the Huntress and Hawkman), this also doomed their long-term success by sharply dividing their fanbases. This problem, of course, could have been easily avoided had DC used its characters’ well-established histories to shape the new universe instead of opportunistically revising those histories to what creators and editors felt best serviced the new universe. The consequence of prioritizing the larger universe over DC characters saw the non-tent-pole characters stripped of all their depth and reduced to their bare-bones concepts. In some cases, it rendered them completely unrecognizable to their fans, like in the Huntress’ case.
Not leaving DC characters’ well-defined histories intact has understandably been a source of frustration for different generations of fans, and this problem was further compounded by the Flashpoint reboot that led to The New 52 era. It’s also the reason the publisher has fallen into a pattern of canon revisions that only further frustrate fans. Ironically, DC’s highly successful Absolute Universe is fulfilling the goal of both the Crisis and Flashpoint reboots by not repeating the mistakes of those initiatives. Likewise, a 10-year-old DC event offered the best solution to preserving its classic canon without the confusing retcons of 2016’s DC Universe Rebirth.
Speaking of Absolute…
How DC’s Absolute Universe Succeeds Where Past Reboots Failed
Absolute Batman #5 variant cover by Draper Ivey. Courtesy of DC Comics.
DC Comics’ unprecedented success of 2025 is undoubtedly its Absolute line of comics. For almost a year, DC’s Absolute line (along with Marvel’s new Ultimate line) has been dominating comic sales, and even outselling the comics set in the primary DC Universe. It’s also not hard to see why: In contrast with both the Crisis and Flashpoint reboots, DC’s Absolute line is completely reimagining DC’s most iconic characters for a new generation.
The fact that the Absolute Universe is being built from the ground up means that nothing from previous continuities are carrying over into this new universe. That means this brand-new continuity is being built through the characters themselves, instead of tailoring the characters to fit the larger universe. It’s also not erasing and replacing the universe that came before (Prime Earth), which is allowing readers to give this “Absolute-verse” a real chance. The third and most important reason it’s succeeding is that it didn’t skip the most important step of carefully mapping it out before launching it.
Because the Absolute Universe is more carefully planned and is not being used to erase Prime Earth and its iteration of characters, this is relieving the Absolute versions of DC characters of the burden of needing to uphold the same standards of their post-Crisis counterparts. Instead, they get to fully exist as characters in their own right. This allows storytellers to truly explore bold new ideas with these characters that would otherwise upset fans who prefer the more “classic” takes.
In this new universe, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash (Wally West) are truly starting out for the first time. This also means they don’t have confusing predecessors like the Justice Society of America to complicate their status quo as their world’s first superheroes. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that these characters don’t exist in this universe, but they may no longer be tied to the early 20th century like their classic counterparts. They could still emerge as modern-day heroes like how they were imagined on Earth-2 during The New 52 era. Just as important, the creators working on DC’s Absolute line are reimagining these characters in ways that subvert their more iconic histories, but without losing sight of who they are as characters.
For instance, Absolute Batman presents a working class version of Bruce Wayne with one living parent, but who still becomes Batman due to the senseless murder of his father, Thomas Wayne. He is also still intelligent and resourceful despite his lack of wealth. In Absolute Superman, readers are introduced to a version of Clark Kent who grew up on Krypton alongside his biological parents, but is still the son of farmers. It explores the character’s alien origins without sacrificing his humanity. Likewise, Absolute Wonder Woman re-imagines Princess Diana as the sole surviving Amazon, but who is still raised and mentored by a powerful woman, Circe. Absolute Wonder Woman is also still driven by love and compassion despite having been raised in Hell.
The main takeaway that’s making the Absolute Universe a huge success is the focus on developing its characters as human beings and not as brands, and shaping the history of this new universe to their existence. Though the Absolute Universe is not yet a year old, it already feels large and lived in. But even with the Absolute line outselling the main DC continuity in its first year, the publisher already has the perfect solution for the latter – and the publisher came up with it a decade ago.
DC Already Presented The Best Solution For This Continuity Confusion
From the Convergence event. Courtesy of DC Comics.
As controversial as the Flashpoint reboot was, The New 52 wasn’t unsalvageable – it just needed to refocus its initiative to what truly mattered to fans, and ultimately, the longevity of DC characters themselves: What makes this character truly unique? Why did fans fall in love this character the first time? How can stories build on the qualities fans already love, while taking them in exciting new directions that draws in new readers? The devil is always in the details.
Readers, for example, should be able to pick up any comic featuring the Huntress and still feel like they’re reading about the same character. Fans who pick up Justice Society of America: The New Golden Age and Huntress: Crossbow at the Crossroads should feel like they’re reading about the same Helena Wayne Huntress that appears in The Huntress: Origins. If the Helena Wayne featured in all three stories reads like a completely different character each time (and she does) despite being billed as “the main version” at one point, there is a problem.
Part of the reason Batman has endured for as long as he has is that he wasn’t subjected to erasure and hard reboots the way his canonical daughter was time and time again. If fans pick up a pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, or post-Flashpoint Batman story, there is no doubt what character they’re reading about despite the tonal differences of these eras. They all feature a wealthy Bruce Wayne who saw his parents murdered as a child, and is driven by that trauma. For the main DCU canon, editors and creators need to get better at approaching every character with the same reverence they afford Batman.
Like Batman, every DC character has a well-defined classic history already, and this needs to remain constant. Of course, thanks to both the Crisis and Flashpoint reboots, many DC characters have followed the Donna Troy and Hawkman path of having a radically new origin every couple of years. So how can the publisher repair the colossal continuity headache the main DCU characters have become across two reboots without breaking things further? The answer is surprisingly simple: fully restore the classic histories each of these characters lost. In fact, DC already had the perfect solution to this 10 years ago with Convergence.
From the Convergence event. Courtesy of DC Comics.
Though the battle royale-style event was originally done to keep sales flowing in the months of April-May 2015 (when DC was moving offices from New York to California), Convergence still put every DC era back on the table. With a stronger storyline and an even better ending, it could have repaired the main DC continuity in one of two ways. The first way Convergence could have salvaged the main DCU in 2015 was to simply use the event as a launching pad for an official DC Multiverse line of graphic novels.
By continuing the adventures of DC’s classic heroes from the pre-Crisis and pre-Flashpoint continuities in this format, this would have alleviated the (then) post-Flashpoint versions of the burden of needing to live up to those same standards. Like the Absolute Universe characters, they would have been able to truly exist as their own characters, and the post-Flashpoint canon could have just been built entirely from scratch. This would have especially been feasible if Future’s End had placed the Prime Earth heroes on Telos in addition to the Earth-2 heroes who survived Earth-2: World’s End.
With the previous continuities fully restored in the DC Multiverse, Convergence’s finale could have then sent both sets of New 52 heroes to resume life on Prime Earth. Such a finale would have especially serviced the Earth-2 heroes, since they no longer had an Earth to return to post-Convergence. Putting them on Prime Earth would have resolved the problem of a missing Justice Society, and would have avoided the controversial “Doctor Manhattan erased them” retcon from DC Universe Rebirth. Likewise, putting The New 52 Earth-2 heroes on Prime Earth would have avoided the problem of having two Earth-2 Power Girls existing on this same Earth at different times.
Of course, the risk of continuing the stories of DC’s classic heroes in a DC Multiverse line was making the post-Flashpoint continuity less profitable. But Convergence had a solution for that, too, which gets us to the second way it could have saved The New 52 era: Had DC put all of it’s post-Flashpoint heroes on Telos, and had them interact with their classic counterparts, Convergence could have ended up with merged sets of characters, with their classic histories replacing their problematic New 52 histories. This was what was done with Superman and Wonder Woman during DC’s Rebirth era; DC needed to apply the same formula to all of its characters before putting them back on Prime Earth, resulting in a proper DC Universe Rebirth.
Does DC Need a More Carefully Planned Reboot for Prime Earth?
From Justice League Unlimited #9. Courtesy of DC Comics.
At this point, it is too financially risky for DC to attempt a third reboot after the first two proved highly controversial between three generations of DC fans. But the solution to ending its “continuous canon renewal problem” lies in restoring the classic histories every DC character lost as a consequence of poorly planned reboots. For the most part, DC has been doing this for the majority of its iconic characters. But there are still characters being rebooted from scratch in the current decade like Helena Wayne’s Huntress, and others – like Power Girl – being reinvented to make them more compatible with the post-Crisis canon. This is exactly what DC needs to stop doing.
To be more specific, the publisher needs to stop being selective about which character histories matter more and which ones they can afford to keep rewriting. As mentioned, DC has literally been doing this for four decades, and it’s a proven formula for failure. A lot of what fans know and love about DC characters is always tied to their classic histories. No amount of revisions à la New History of the DC Universe is ever going to meet or exceed the standards these characters already set the first time. The only thing left for DC to do at this point is to fully go back to what truly worked for these characters in the first place. DC needs to let their characters’ established histories inform their stories instead of constantly “fixing” them to make them fit the larger universe.
For instance, Helena Wayne’s Huntress does not work as the future time-displaced daughter of the Prime Earth Batman and Catwoman. Her classic history presents her as the original Huntress who is also a lawyer, a second generation Justice Society hero, and a cofounder of Infinity, Inc. (due to her parents being the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman). This is who she needs to be in order to have a life and identity in the main DC canon. Likewise, Power Girl doesn’t work as the “AU Supergirl named Paige Stetler” who exists as an adjacent family member of the Prime Earth Superman. She’s Karen Starr, the CEO of her own business (Starrware), the successor of the Golden Age Superman, and has a shared history with Helena Wayne’s Huntress. That is her strongest hook as a character.
From 2025’s Justice League: Dark Tomorrow Special. Courtesy of DC Comics.
Though DC missed its biggest opportunity to permanently fix its main canon a decade earlier, it’s still not too late to put an end to its continuity renewal crisis. Since Justice League Unlimited’s “We Are Yesterday” event broke Prime Earth’s timeline, there is a new opportunity for DC to use Hypertime to fully restore every character’s classic history. But it doesn’t have to be done as an event comic. Instead, it needs to be a storyline that meaningfully addresses the changes DC characters underwent as a consequence of continuity-shattering events like Crisis on Infinite Earths and Flashpoint. But the story should ultimately end with the characters reclaiming their classic histories, and moving forward from there.
The key here is for DC to not see its characters as “broken” — they aren’t by any stretch of the imagination. As mentioned, they already have well-established histories for writers and editors to work with, and continuity needs to be based on that. Attempts to “fix” characters and their respective histories to service the larger DC Universe does more to break continuity than it repairs any perceived imperfections. This problem is not only making it harder for older fans to stay invested in DC Comics, but it’s especially making it difficult for DC to meaningfully grow its readership with a strong flow of new readers.
By restoring the rich history that was lost, DC can finally stop seeing its characters and multiverse as “broken” and in need of repair. Instead, fans can just enjoy the magic of heroic friends and their long, rich lives.
