@Roscoe Coaltrane
In some ways, Pandora felt like a scapegoat from the beginning—taking on the blame for the changes to continuity that readers may not have liked almost preemptively. That said, I actually enjoyed Pandora's character. I liked her design. I liked her power set. I liked her character arc. While Doctor Manhattan's destroying her in DC Rebirth #1 is symbolic of putting "The New 52" (or more specifically, its faults) in the past, I am a bit disappointed that we won't see her again simply because I enjoyed what I got from her when she had substantive appearances. I can't really speak on anything "unnoticed."
I think DC absolutely knew Rebirth was coming by the time they introduced the DC You line of titles. Those comics had too many small things that set up the Rebirth event or Rebirth-era lore (easier to tell in retrospect). But honestly, I would wager that DC knew it planned for some cosmic changes sooner, at least since the Futures End one-shots that came after issues #34 for most titles at the time. The Booster Gold one-shot from that event tied into Convergence a half-year later, and Convergence very much so spoke on the "cracks" of reality touched upon during "Darkseid War." DC's "omniverse," essentially was in trouble, not being able to handle many more "crises." That sort of fragmentation has continued through Rebirth and through Death Metal and really only got (largely) resolved by Dark Crisis, which gave us some multiversal balance (thankfully).
@AllOfThePeople
It was over 14 months, not just a handful! Hah. Though, If I excluded the months I took "off" from this goal, I'd say I completed it in about eight months of solid after-work reading time.
@Kyletheobald
My thoughts on Blackhawks were fairly lukewarm. The stories didn't feel as disconnected as some of the first wave of titles to get the ax after issue #8, but my heart wasn't set on fire. I wouldn't mind seeing more Andrew Lincoln as the current Blackhawk, but I want Zinda Blake as Lady Blackhawk again. She could easily appear in this current era, having been restored at the start of the Infinite Frontier era and us readers not knowing because no writer saw a need to use her just yet. Oh well.
Sword of Sorcery felt like a gem to me. The art was so bright during a time when most comics seemed to use dark colors more often than not. I liked that. The New 52 Amethyst was a different take than the original pre-Flashpoint version. The initial Amethyst limited series is fantastic, one of the best of the 1980s. Middle-school Amy Winston mystically transforming into her 18-year-old self and having adventures was great, as we got the Shazam-style juxtaposition between a younger person's shorter lived experience (but idealism) going head-to-head with an adult's responsibilities. Plus, the time dilation was an interesting storytelling wrinkle. The ongoing title was good, too, up until the original creative team left.
By the time the new folks had Amy become a Lord of Order and abandon her entire original personality to become this enigmatic being … in addition to the new creative team undoing and defacing her original origin and lore, it was a more than a slap to the face; they spat on the character and her creators. I've seldom been more furious at comic writers than those who ruined New Earth Amethyst for me. And just about all of her appearances thereafter were in cameo fashion, so DC never undid the mistake that was assassinating her original portrayal.
The New 52 version was more than fine for me. While this new universe simply had her begin as an 18-year-old princess, I was fine with her no longer having the younger-to-older angle because she felt human again, which was a big deal for me. Moreover, she was a little sharp-tongued, though Constantine deserved it. Even her Futures End version was kinda badass, bonding with Hawkman and Frankenstein in that saga. Her solo series established that some Gemworld families had different abilities based on the stone, which was cool. I liked that because of one of her parent's lineage, she had that scarf-like accessory that could become intangible or solid at will, and then she had crystal construct creation as a result of her Amethyst blood.
The Rebirth-era Amethyst is different enough that I suspect much of her New 52 history had been retconned away. She's younger. She has purple hair. She's not a bad character, and if I can't have her on a Titans team, it was cool to see her on a Young Justice roster. But yes, in any event, Amethyst is a character who doesn't seem to have one "true" portrayal set in stone just yet.
