In 2011, DC Comics rebooted their entire universe through the New 52, an initiative designed to offer a new generation of readers a clean slate to start at all-new first issues and origins. While some characters were only slightly tweaked for the new decade, others were fully reinvented, leaving many readers with a love/hate attitude towards the publisher. As much as the era has gone down as unpopular in the eyes of the average reader today, there are plenty of comics still worth a read. 4i4t4d

Brainiac has always been one of Superman's greatest enemies, and his reinvention in the New 52 continuity came with a secret identity nobody could have predicted. With his reboot, Brainiac infiltrated a part of society that everyone takes for granted, and proved that the villain still has a place in modern comics.

Superman’s New 52 reboot was a controversial one, but Clark Kent’s origin in that universe is the perfect summation of why the character still matters today. Superman is someone who cares about all the world’s problems, not just Justice League-level threats, and he’s someone who’ll go to the bat for humanity while inspiring us to do better.

Warning: contains spoilers for WildCATs #1!DC’s new WildCATS title is proving that the publisher’s New 52 reboot failed its WildStorm characters. In 2011, the publisher used the New 52 initiative to integrate the characters into their universe - to mixed results. Whereas the WildStorm line had once been the vanguard of cutting-edge superheroics, the New 52 did away with this, favoring more conventional approaches, but 2022's WildCATs #1 changes that, showing the best way to incorporate these characters into continuity.

There's a lingering enigma from the New 52 that the Justice League desperately needs to solve. The Question, DC's notable faceless detective, got an update that created a mystery that has yet to be solved, and it may be putting the universe in peril.

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Dark Crisis: Worlds Without A Justice League - Green Arrow #1.DC Comics' Dark Crisis event seems to have brought back the original Green Arrow, whose final fate following the creation of the Post-Flashpoint DC Universe in 2011 has never been explained. This comes as something of a surprise, despite the nature of reality in the DC Universe being in a state of flux because of the Dark Crisis creating and merging various DC Comics' alt realities. It makes sense, however, given the story's theme of true love conquering all, and Green Arrow's status as a romantic hero by any definition of the word "romantic."

While the Flash'sNew 52 take on the Reverse-Flash was certainly different, he may have earned the name in a way Eobard Thawne hasn't. The origin story for Barry Allen's revamped nemesis revealed how the villain took the opposite gimmick to its most obvious extreme.

In 2011, DC's event comic Flashpoint ushered in the company's groundbreaking revamp and publishing initiative, The New 52. Gone was the Post-Crisis history that existed for nearly three decades, replaced with a fresh, new continuity for any reader, new or old, to jump onboard. Despite DC's best efforts to get fans invested, elements of the reboot rubbed readers the wrong way. For instance, continuity snafus and the total disappearance of fan-favorite characters upset readers.

When DC Comics announced a total renumbering and reinvention of their comic titles in 2011, critics and readers were intrigued. The focus of this reboot was to simplify and streamline the decades of Crisis contradictions and confusing storylines. And from a sales standpoint, the New 52 was a rousing success.

Major spoilers ahead for Invincible and Doomsday Clock!