DC Daily Planet: Countdown to Rebirth

It’s official. We are 3 weeks out from the start of Rebirth, the event that has given me an essentially nonstop tension headache since, like, February.

I’ve been a lot of things about Rebirth since it’s announcement, both here and on social media — anxious, angry, hopeful, deeply stressed, excited — but now, as it actually creeps steadily over the horizon I find myself hitting a sort of strange, zen-like calm. Something about the knowledge that Rebirth is real, happening, and just around the corner is almost cathartic. At least the wait and anticipation are almost over. At least the speculation phase is almost completely done.

Counting blessings, looking on the bright side, etc, etc. You know how it goes.

Finishes pages, covers, and teaser images have started cropping up for various Rebirth titles, here’s a little round up of everything we’ve seen so far:

Now, for some SPOILERS from this week’s comics. Proceed with caution!

Also, in the conclusion of the five-part cross title event The Last Days of Superman, which took place in Batman/Superman #32, we got a pretty concrete origin story for Kenan Kong, the new title character of Rebirth’s New Super-Man, written by Gene Yang.

batman superman part 5 2
Batman Superman #32

It looks like Kenan is a child of the Mother of Champions, who was a featured character in Peter Tomasi’s pre-New 52 Nightwing story arc, Freefall (Nightwing 143-146).

nightwing 146

It looks like our new Chinese Super-Man won’t be Kryptonian at all, but a superhuman child of Wu Mei-Xing.

I think that’s a pretty interesting origin, honestly. I’m excited to see where Kenan goes from here. I spoke with Gene Yang very briefly at Wondercon this year and he said to expect Kenan to feel a little bit like the sort of off-putting Silver Age version of Clark Kent — “he’s kind of a jerk”, Yang said, and then followed up by explaining that Kenan’s arc will be focused on learning humility.

This Saturday, May 7, is Free Comic Book Day! DC will be offering two books: a preview of DC Super Hero Girls’ first graphic novel, and the first issue of New 52’s Suicide Squad.

I’m excited to pick up the Super Hero Girls sneak peak, and I’m really glad they’re focusing their all-ages offering towards little girls, but I’m a little unimpressed by Suicide Squad #1 being the other offer. With Rebirth right around the corner, I would have much rather seen something more relevant put forward. But, I guess that’s what happens when you’ve got your next big movie release to promote.

What are your plans for Free Comic Book Day? Are you as nonplussed by those Rebirth variant covers as I am? Have any strong feelings about Kenan Kong not being Kryptonian? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

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Mason Downey

Mason Downey

Mason is a midwestern transplant to Los Angeles but he feels most at home in Gotham City. He loves Robins (of the sidekick variety), robots (of the "in disguise" variety), and spending too much money on his pull list every week.

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