10 Reasons Why The New 52 Did Not Work
9. Cherry Picking What To Keep From Past Continuities Was A Failure
After 2006's Infinite Crisis and 2008's Blackest Night events, there were multiple directions that the DC universe was poised to follow that held a lot of promise. This is not to mention the exciting new direction that stories such as Batman Inc. and the Justice Society were taking before the universe started afresh in the early 2010s.
Unfortunately for the New 52, it made the grave error of discarding years of continuity (and hence stories) in order to start from scratch. But in a rather baffling move, it retained certain elements from the previous era that ended up feeling rather jarring when placed next to the newer stories and settings.
As seen with the Batman and Green Lantern titles, retaining certain parts of the pre-New 52 felt like a pandering move to readers that did not make sense, especially as far as the timespan is concerned (something that will be touched on in detail later).
DC's attempt to have it both ways is a prime example of how a non-committal approach to storytelling rarely, if ever, works out.