The New 52 is no more in ‘Justice League’ #35

Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

Back in September 2011 DC Comics revamped their entire line with a fresh start to all their characters. Dubbed the “New 52” a variety of creators came together to tell origin stories and fresh starts for their characters who now resided in 52 parallel universes, with New Earth being in one of them. DC had a good run with “New 52” as today’s Justice League #35 changes that forever.

If you haven’t been following along Lex Luthor has been helping Perpetua rise to power after being locked away for eons. She recently gained near full power and in issue #35 we see that first hand as she destroys an entire universe. That’s right, the new 52 is now just 51! It starts with Perpetua looming over Earth-19 quite disgusted with how the multiverse has grown since she was locked away.

As you can see the Earth-19 Batman is calling on the Justice League of his universe, but alas it won’t matter. Batman is fearless as ever, but you can’t stop a god-like Perpetua as we see in this epic double page layout from Francis Manapul. Fans of Gotham by Gaslight should note Mike Mignola’s iconic Batman is now no more.

It’s confirmed in the next panel as she tells Lex and Morbius that they can all feel the universe is dead. There’s no telling if there will be a triumphant way to save Earth-19, but at this point, it appears it’s gone forever.

Next, Perpetua remarks she’s nearly at full power which is a good thing for our heroes since at full power she can likely kill more than one universe at a time.

It’s more obvious than ever the Justice League needs to strike now since Perpetua is getting closer to full power and can already destroy entire universes. This is only a fraction of the story though and I highly recommend you read the whole thing.

What do you make of this act by Perpetua? Is this a sign DC Comics is moving on from the “New 52” and going to blow up the last reboot for something new? Let us know in the comments!