10 Reboots That Changed Comic Books Forever
1. Showcase #4
Back in the 1930s and forties, comic books were in their infancy, but their primary focus was superheroes. This was the time when all the major characters of DC and Marvel were introduced: Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Namor to name a few. After the Second World War, superheroes took a back seat to Westerns and other genres, but it wouldn't last forever.
When DC decided to retool some of their older heroes, they put out a book titled Showcase #4 in 1956. That book not only relaunched The Flash as a newly developed character, it began what came to be known as the Silver Age of Comic Books.
The Silver Age was an important era in comic book publishing thanks to its reignition of superheroes. We would likely never have gotten the likes of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, or the Green Lantern had it not been for DC's return to superheroes.
The Silver Age was easily the most important reboot ever attempted in comics... and it worked. The newly created Green Lantern Corps and changes to familiar superheroes have stuck with the industry since they landed and it all came from a single book published back in 1956.