Can anyone explain what the current cannon for me? Like when it starts and what books/series are cannon and which series aren’t.
“The New 52” was a slate cleaning nearby full blown canon wipe in 2011. Most titles starting then don’t acknowledge anything which came before, with the exceptions of the Batman and Green Lantern titles.
Then, in 2016, DC launched “Rebirth,” which began to reintroduce a lot of stories and concepts pre-New 52 back into continuity, and phase out less popular changes from the New 52 era.
This is to say that DC continuity as a whole is a bit soft, and ultimately I’d say it’s ultimately up to the reader to choose what they “believe” is the true order and state of events.
Or, as Alan Moore put it: “This is an imaginary story. Aren’t they all?”
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Very well said
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HCQ is correct. Basically, nothing is official, but what he said is as close to official as anything, but even before the latest reboots, comics continuity has always been a bit squishy with writers getting a large berth to reinvent canon as they choose.
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I believe that there are canonical sources and ideas.
Did Supergirl and Barry Allen die in Crisis on infinite earths, yes.
Does “The Batman “ from Gotham by Gaslight” exist in “standard continuity”? No, that was an elseworld
As for is a current state canonical? Only time will tell.
I think Marv Wolfman put it best. “You get to take these characters off a shelf and play with them. You just have to be careful not to break them.”
If you want to “break” a character, that’s what elseworlds are for.
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Too bad Tom King and Dan Didio weren’t told breaking characters was for Elseworlds only. They proceeded to break Dick Grayson and Wally West.
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The person above is saying what so many of us are thinking
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But I like Ric Grayson and Killer Wally 
Doomsday Clock SPOILERS ahead
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Last Chance!
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In Doomsday Clock #10, we learn that Dr Manhattan has been messing with the current universe for some time, just to watch what happens. We also learn that the multiverse kind of ‘fights back’ whenever there is a change that is too large. In his journey, he sees a Superman in 1938 and one in 1956 and 1986 and on and on - the universe itself is always adapting. Dr M. calls it a ‘metaverse’.
When DC Rebirth was announced, one of the taglines was ‘It’s not a reboot. It never was.’
To me, this implies that everything that has ever happened in a DC comic actually happened. It’s all part of canon no matter how hard Superboy Prime is punching the universe. It’s just that the multiverse is in a constant state of change - just like the comic industry and well, life if you want to take it that far.
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When I realized that they were effectively saying that Dr. Manhattan was Harry Donenfeld and Julie Schwartz and Paul Levitz and Dick Giodarno and Dan DiDio all rolled into one, I about hit the floor laughing.
Or, to quote a well known character from another franchise, “It’s all true, all of it.”
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Note, I do know how to spell Giordano, just not before coffee 
There’s a chain of pizza restaurants called Giordano’s.
I went to one once. Good pie.