10 DC Comics Stories That Changed Everything

DC's most current soft reset to their canon is Rebirth. It's so current, in fact, that at the time of this article's composition, it's still going on.

The overall fan reception of DC's editorial direction following Flashpoint and into the New-52 was lukewarm at best. Due to this, DC's golden boy Geoff Johns was faced with the daunting task of returning the DCU to its pre-Flashpoint state, while keeping the parts of the New-52 that fans did enjoy.

Rebirth didn't just modify characters and canon, but DC's publication schedule as well. DC's most popular titles (Action Comics, Detective Comics) became bi-weekly, most of their poorer performing books (Secret Six, Omega Men) were cancelled and a few new titles emerged (Super Sons, Superwoman).

Being a universe-wide event that's lasted more than a year at this point, there are just too many reworked plots and histories to cover here. What we do know is that someone is "stealing time" from our heroes in order to weaken them. All of the revamped continuity since Flashpoint seems to be influenced by Dr. Manhattan, of Watchmen fame.

Until recently, Watchmen has been considered a self-contained story existing in its own universe. That doesn't seem to the case anymore though, as the iconic smiley face button stained with The Comedian's blood found its way into the Batcave to be discovered by Bruce and Flash.

All signs point to the near omnipotent Dr. Manhattan playing a large part in the DCU's most recent upset.