At an annual comic book retailer meeting in Portland, Oregon; DC comics finally released the first details on “REBIRTH”, a reboot of sorts for its comic book line.

“At DC we believe in superheroes, and what makes them great,” said Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC Entertainment. “REBIRTH is designed to bring back the best of DC’s past, embrace the stories we currently love and move the entire epic universe into the future,” continued DiDio.

Back in 2011 DC rebooted its comic book universe with “The New 52″. They streamlined the number of comics they released weekly, and simplified the origins of certain characters. Before The New 52, readers had to know years of continuity beforehand because the superheroes had been around for decades with hundreds of issues and experiences. The New 52 brought in many new comic readers (including me) by making it easy and accessible to read their comics.

“I love this world but there’s something missing,” Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns said. “As someone who absolutely loves the DC Universe, to me it’s maybe lost some things,” Johns clarified.

The “something” missing Johns is mostly likely referring to is legacy. In The New 52, because the heroes are fresh and in their prime, it doesn’t feel like the characters are aging or progressing. In the old continuity, it felt like you could see characters like Batman grow old and get new sidekicks over the years. In The New 52, everyone’s too young and in the beginning of their career to show that. Johns hopes that Rebirth can help that problem, while still keeping the comics accessible to new readers.

“If you look at the new Star Wars — it’s kind of a rebirth, right? It goes back to the classic tropes of Star Wars, but it introduces new characters. New threats,” Johns said.

In recent weeks more news about REBIRTH has broken out. Johns has said that he will stop writing Justice League and move onto a different comic, not mentioning a specific one. Geoff Johns will be writing a 80 page one shot which will kick off REBIRTH. After that, every comic will be starting back at issue #1, that includes Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, and many more.

However, Detective Comics and Action Comics will be going back to their original numbering pre- New 52. “Even though most of the books are relaunching at #1, the fact that ‘Action’ and ‘Detective’ are returning to their original numbers says something about the tone of what this is,” said Johns. Detective will start at issue #934 and Action will start at issue #957. Finally, DC announced that comics will be going back to a $2.99 price for each issue, after being $3.99 and sometimes higher in recent years.

“This is good, because people who are just getting into comics can start a new series without having to read anything else,” junior, Ron Yitzhak said.”I think it’s really cool that DC is rebooting their universe and I’m pretty excited to see how they do The Flash and Superman,” senior, Omar Faroouqi said.

Rebirth will start rolling out in June, although DC hasn’t mentioned a specific date.

Photo courtesy of: DC comics.