Welcome to the DCnU52 universe continuity free and a new beginning, right?
It is fair to say DC books were loaded with continuity and if you waited long enough the universe would reboot once a year making anything your favorite character did extremely pointless. Then we had the crisis of the crisis that was infinite, final and the final 52 of final crisis; which pretty much painted them into a corner and screwed up continuity so much nothing made sense anymore. So to cure all the problems DC hatched a plan to totally reboot the (or is that relaunch) the entire DC universe with a new continuity and make it accessible to new readers; we are now two weeks into the DCnU52 universe so did it work?
Lets see, first book of the DCnU52 was Justice League #1 where all the events take place five years before the current time, Superheroes were seen as menaces and the League didn't even exist. It worked, it set the tone that we would be seeing origin stories and a gateway into what DC was planning. This book was a pure jumping on point for new readers.
The next week we see a bunch of books set in current DC time and not in the Justice League five years previous. Then we had Action Comics that details Superman's origins which are set before the JL five years previous as he isn't wearing the armor he was wearing in the JL comic. Okay mildly confusing, but okay not all the books are running concurrent I can roll with that. Justice League International refers to events with the Justice League in sort of past tense, although the new JLI is based in the Hall of Justice without any explanation what the Hall of Justice is. Yes, of course I know what it is but do new readers?
Then we have the Batbooks… Batgirl refers to events in the Killing Joke when she was crippled by the Joker, that's okay we have some past history which I shall assume is in the JL five years previous. Batman in Detective Comics isn't regarded as a pest, but still has cops shooting at him as he operates in an odd grey area of the law. In Batman & Robin, Damian, son of Bruce refers to working with Dick as Batman and the story is linked to events in Batman Incorporated – which is a pre-DCnU52 book as is Batwing. So now I need to know about Batman Incorporated to figure out some of the story elements in the new rebooted continuity free Bat books, errmm was this supposed to be new continuity?
Continuing on this theme Hal Jordan has already lost his ring in his Green Lantern book which makes no sense to anyone who jumped in after watching the movie. Hawk & Dove leans heavily on its old back story about the Don the first Dove. Legion is just a mess unless you know the characters you are lost and it is incomprehensible. Even Static Shock, the DC Spider-man book doesn't even treat us to the characters origins… I thought Superheroes were supposed to be a new phenomenon in this new universe?
Instead of a series of origin books that reset the universe and launched the DCnU52 proper making it completely new; we are two weeks in with a bunch of books that lean on the old continuity and in places totally fail in their task to recruit new readers. Really Hal Jordan with no ring? We have books running in a different time period either in JL five years previous or what time period Action Comics is in – which suspends the sense of peril because you know how it all turns out. I'm not convinced that this relaunch is going to save DC from their old problems, I feel we are just on a 52 countdown to another reboot, a return to the older universe and it will be just a little more broken. Which makes DCnU52 a total fail, right?
