In 2016, the nightmare for DC Comics fans finally came to an end. 

Okay, that’s dramatic, but no one can deny that DC’s 2011 company-wide reboot the New 52 annoyed as many people as it interested, squandering any goodwill and high sales initially generated by the initiative. But all that changed with Rebirth, an anti-event that put DC on the path to its current success by doing the exact opposite of a reboot, opening space for all the stories instead of cutting them out as non-canonical.

One could argue that the seeds of Rebirth were planted alongside the New 52, as the relaunch didn’t actually reboot the entire universe, allowing Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern and Grant Morrison’s Batman to continue more or less without interruption. And Rebirth was preceded in 2015 by Convergence, an event that saw various characters from DC’s history brought together for a multiversal story. And then there was the special DC Universe: Rebirth #1, released on May 25, 2016, which set the stage for the initiative. 

But we didn’t really see what made Rebirth so special until a few weeks later, when the first individual series of the program started with a collection of one-shots published between June and August of that year. Books such as Batman: Rebirth, Superman: Rebirth, and Green Lanterns: Rebirth didn’t just begin exciting new arcs; they changed the way we thought about superhero stories in a long-running shared universe.

I set DC Universe: Rebirth outside of this period of creativity largely because it does the thing that most other Rebirth books avoid so well: wastes time explaining continuity. Written by Geoff Johns, with art by some of the big names of the era—including Gary Frank, Ivan Reis, and Ethan Van Sciver—brings back Wally West, a character written out of existence with the New 52 reboot, to exonerate his mentor and put the blame elsewhere. 

In DC Universe: Rebirth, Wally tells Barry Allen that his attempt to put things back together after the Flashpoint storyline was disrupted by Doctor Manhattan of Watchmen, who wanted to study a universe with better superheroes. Thus, the Special spends most of its time explaining how this was all Doctor Manhattan’s fault, while finding ways to explain away absences of fan-favorites and tease upcoming stories. In short, it was a story about continuity to explain previous continuity and set up the next continuity.

Fortunately, most of the Rebirth one-shots aren’t about continuity. Take Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1, written by Johns and Sam Humphries and penciled by Reis and Van Sciver. The issue recounts the backstories of protagonists Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, but largely to establish their personalities. Instead, most of the space goes to telling how Baz and Cruz butt heads while dealing with a Manhunter and getting their new assignment as the co-defenders of Earth.

Likewise, Batman Rebirth #1 by Snyder and King, with art by Mikel Janin, spends a little time recounting the basics of Batman’s milieu and his relationship with Duke Thomas, the man who becomes sidekick Signal in this issue. But it serves as an excellent jumping on point for new readers, combining the best of Snyder’s gonzo style with King’s contemplative writing.

Of course, they aren’t all perfect. Superman: Rebirth #1, written by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, with art by Doug Mahnke, may lead into one of the best Superman runs of all time, but the one-shot itself is all continuity with no story. And much of the early Rebirth era sets up what was to be the defining storyline of the initiative, Doomsday Clock by Johns and Frank. Doomsday Clock simultaneously homaged Watchmen while blaming it for the dark DC Comics stories that followed, shoving the responsibility on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons instead of Johns, Frank, and other people who actually made those dark stories.

Fortunately, these are outliers in what was indeed a renaissance for DC Comics. Even before Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Death Metal miniseries, and (to give credit where credit is due) Doomsday Clock, declared everything to be canon, Rebirth knew that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel (er… bullet?) to get people interested in DC Comics. You just need good, fresh stories.

Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Alberto Ponticelli
Letterer: Pat Brosseau
Colorer: José Villarrubia

As much as I like to condemn the New 52 as a failure—and, to be clear, it was—it wasn’t completely devoid of value. Some great books came out of the initiative, such as Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman to Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman’s Animal Man (the Brian Azzarello Wonder Woman gets no respect on my watch, despite Cliff Chiang’s unimpeachable art). However, the most underrated, still-hidden gem of the bunch is Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. by Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli.

A continuation of Grant Morrison’s Frankenstein comics from the Seven Soldiers series, Frankenstein gives Victor Frankenstein’s monster the Hellboy treatment. Here, the monster has long outlived his maker and taken on his name, while retaining the verbose nature he developed in the Mary Shelley novel (a quality dropped in most film adaptations, in favor of the grunting simpleton played by Boris Karloff). 

Frankenstein now works for the Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive, an organization responsible for stopping super-human threats before they get out of hand. On the orders of S.H.A.D.E. director Father Time, who has recently reincarnated in the body of a little girl, Frankenstein must investigate a manifestation of monsters in a small town. Joining Frankenstein on his mission are the new Creature Commandos, which include the mummy Khalis, the fish-woman Nina Mazursky, the vampiric Vincent Velcoro, and wolfman Warren Griffith. Worse, the mission may have killed the last agent investigating, Frankenstein’s wife, the Bride.

In the wrong hands, Frankenstein would be derivative nonsense. But Lemire grounds the supernatural espionage of the Morrison story with nuts and bolts plotting, while Ponticelli’s wispy, detailed artwork strikes a balance between old issues of Classics Illustrated and a Bernie Wrightson horror story. Together, they make Frankenstein into something that transcends superhero and monster books into something inexplicably unique.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. lasted only 20 issues, getting cut short—as did most of the series debuting in the New 52 launch. But it embodied what the initiative did best, finding bold new ideas in the cupboard of characters DC has been stocking for decades.

🐶 Given the popularity of Superman’s Krypto, the time is right for more super-pets to invade the cinematic universe.

🐦 Scott Snyder has been tinkering around with ways to incorporate Robins Damian Wayne and Carrie Kelley into the Absolute Universe.

😈 Hellboy is about to revisit one of the darkest chapters in his entire comic book career in the two-issue limited series Hellboy in Hell: Nothing But Blood.

💥 Marvel Comics is officially teaming up with USA Today to bring about a new-reader-friendly experience with a weekly comic.