The New 52 was one of DC Comics‘ most visible and controversial reboots. While it did temporarily raise sales across the company—and even across the comic book industry—it proved a major stumbling block for DC Comics in hindsight. The reboot wiped out decades’ worth of continuity surrounding the publisher’s most viable characters. While doing so removed a major hurdle to attract new readers, it did so at the cost of the relationships and history fans had grown to love.
This isn’t to say The New 52 was without its successes. While the move cleared away much of what comic book fans had come to enjoy, it also created the possibility for something new to grow in its place. This wasn’t always the case, as there were certainly more than a few failures throughout the relaunch. However, some storylines have had major impacts on the DC Comics line as a whole going forward.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Demon Knights
Long before Jason Aaron introduced Avengers 1,000,000 B.C., it was actually Paul Cornell and Robert Venditti who used the notion of a group of superheroes from the distant past to great effect. Set in the medieval period, Demon Knights follows a group of heroes, anti-heroes and even future villains as they battle the forces of darkness threatening the land. The team included Etrigan the Demon, Madame Xanadu, a female Shining Knight and even Vandal Savage among several others.
With such a premise, Demon Knights shines because it takes full advantage of the characters’ larger-than-life personalities, often having them clash with one another all while fighting in the midst of a brutal time period. The book also succeeds because it fully embraces the weirder side of sword and sorcery. The team must go up against the likes of Morgan Le Fay, Lucifer and even a monstrous version of King Arthur. Unpredictable yet enjoyable, Demon Knights was a welcome change amid The New 52‘s constant controversy.
Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn‘s solo title began considerably further into The New 52 relaunch than other books on this list, but regardless, its impact on Harley as a whole can’t be overstated. Written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Chad Hardin, Harley Quinn succeeded in etching out a solo title for the popular character. While this is far from the first solo title, the book effectively kick-starts Harley’s transformation from tragic henchwoman to anti-heroine.
The madcap nature of Harley Quinn on her own undoubtedly influenced both the Birds of Prey movie as well Harley Quinn’s own popular streaming series on the late DC Universe (and subsequently HBO Max). In fact, several familiar characters are introduced in this run—including Harley’s elderly cybernetic roommate Sy Borgman. Much of the story features Harley adjusting to her new life, taking a job with a particularly violent roller derby team. Simply put, Harley’s continued dominance of the multimedia landscape owes a huge debt to Conner and Palmiotti’s run.
Justice League Dark
One of the most compelling elements of DC has always been its magical side. The role of magic has been greatly expanded upon in classics such as Swamp Thing and Books of Magic. However, The New 52 brought a team of DC’s greatest magicians directly into the big leagues with Justice League Dark, written by Peter Milligan and illustrated by Mikel Janin. The team features the likes of Zatanna, Madame Xanadu, Shade the Changing Man and Deadman. By far the standout of the team is John Constantine, whose long-running Hellblazer Vertigo series ended just before The New 52 relaunch.
While John Constantine had made sporadic appearances in the DC Comics universe proper dating all the way back to the first Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was rarely a major player in a superhero book. That all changed with Justice League Dark, and his snarky cynicism and overall reluctance help sell the book on numerous occasion. Add in frequent appearances from other fixtures of the DC magical universe such as the House of Mystery, and it’s no wonder Justice League Dark has been circled for an adaptation for quite some time.
Batwoman
Though Batwoman appeared long before her New 52 reboot, it wasn’t until the 2011 series that the character became a cemented part of the Batman legacy. The new book, written by W. Haden Blackman and J. H. Williams III and illustrated by Williams, features Batwoman investigating both a rash of disappearances as well as her family’s own dark history.
The book was also celebrated for the romance between Batwoman’s alter ego, Katherine Kane and Detective Margaret Sawyer. In addition to being one of the few lesbian romances in comics at the time, it was also a nuanced and balanced relationship. The two were even supposed to get married. Unfortunately, part of the New 52 reboot was the insistence that superheroes across the board be unmarried. This editorial edict ultimately doomed this relationship, leading both creators to leave the book. However, as DC enters its Infinite Frontier with high-profile LGBTQ+ couples like Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, it’s possible that this romance could return to the forefront eventually.
Batman
While The New 52 has its fair share of ups and downs, one of the most consistent highlights of the era was Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman. Though Snyder had proven himself on the Dark Knight before the line-wide reboot, Snyder’s run on the character defined the writer as a major player in DC Comics. It’s no surprise considering the writer has consistently turned the DC Universe on its head, something he first did with the Dark Knight during The New 52.
Snyder and Capullo kicked off their run with the introduction of the Court of Owls, a sinister cabal of socialites who have been engineering the history of Gotham City since its inception. The Court of Owls would go on to make frequent appearances in both future Batman stories as well as other media such as Gotham. They are even rumored to appear in The Batman feature film. Capullo and Snyder followed this up with the divisive Death of the Family, which saw the Joker try to drive a wedge between the Caped Crusader and the various sidekicks he believed were slowing Batman down. Snyder and Capullo would eventually return for both Dark Nights: Metal and its follow-up Death Metal. However, none of it would have happened without the pair’s opening salvo during The New 52.
