The New 52 Tells Us That Actually, Continuity Does Matter (Kind Of)
DC Comics
The New 52's problems were myriad and fundamental, but let's start at the beginning, and with arguably the most important point: that, ironically, in a bid to freshen things up, DC actually restored their characters to a new kind of status quo.
The new universe conceived by Johns and Lee did away with much of the backstory for certain characters and reset numerous relationships back to square one. This also had the effect of making some characters near enough unrecognisable. Superman and Lois Lane were no longer married, as was the case with numerous other iconic couples, while Green Arrow also suffered the misfortune of losing not only his iconic Van Dyke beard, but his relationship with Black Canary (a key change DC made a point of reversing for DC Rebirth).
Figuring what to keep and what to change also rendered the entire New 52 reset somewhat pointless. The idea was to entice new readers with a streamlined continuity, and yet numerous events from the old universe remained intact, despite the fact the "present" version of the timeline was only five years old.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
