THE OLD 52: Imagining A New Pre-Crisis DC Comics

I don't remember any of the details (like whose idea it was or where the idea appeared), but some time back, someone in one of the online DC Comics groups I frequent challenged fellow fans to come up with a Pre-Crisis DC Comics New 52. That is, a hypothetical slate of 52 comic book series set in the DC Comics continuity that existed prior to the 1985-1986 mini-series Crisis On Infinite Earths, a series which wiped out the multiple universes that had been DC's playground up to that point. Worlds will live! Worlds will die! And the DC Universe will never be the same!

The idea here was to create a new DC line-up based in the old DC continuity. One of DC's latter-day relaunches was called The New 52, so this would be the new Old 52, drawing on characters and concepts that DC had before the Crisis. I liked the idea, and started jotting down possibilities. I wound up with way more than just 52.

I mean, way, way more than just 52.

Rather than attempt a self-edit--because really, what fun would that be?--I figured I'd just list the whole mess right here:

Action Comics

Action Heroes

The Albatross

Adventure Comics

All-American Western
All-Star Comics

All-Star Squadron

Ambush Bug

Angel And The Ape
Aquaman
The Atom
Bat Lash

Batgirl
Batman

Beowulf: Dragon Slayer
Beware The Creeper

Black Lightning

The Black Orchid

The Black Spider
Blackhawk
The Blue Beetle

Blue Devil
The Brave And The Bold

The Bronze Tiger

Bulletgirl
Captain Atom And Nightshade

Captain Thunder
The Challengers Of The Unknown

Claw The Unconquered

The Crimson Avenger
DC Comics Presents

DC's Imaginary Stories

Deadman

The Demon

Dial H For HERO

The Doom Patrol

Doorway Into The Unknown

Dr. Fate

Firestorm

The Flash

Forbidden Tales Of Dark Mansion
Freedom Fighters

G.I. Combat

Green Arrow And The Black Canary
Green Lantern
Hawkman

Hercules Unbound

Hourman
House Of Mystery

The Human Target

Ibis The Invincible

Inferior Five

Jason's Quest

Jimmy Olsen

The Joker

Jonah Hex

Judo Master

Justice League Of America

Kamandi

Kid Eternity

Kobra

Legion Of Super-Heroes

Lois Lane

The Maniaks

The Martian Manhunter

'Mazing Man

Metal Men
Metamorpho
Mister Miracle
Mystery In Space

Nemesis
The New Gods

Newsboy Legion

Ninja The Invisible

Nubia Of The Amazons

OMAC
Our Army At War
The Peacemaker

The Phantom Stranger

Plastic Man 

Plop!

The Question

Ragman

Rima The Jungle Girl

Robin
Rose And The Thorn

Scribbly And The Red Tornado

Secret Origins

The Secret Six
Secret Society Of Super-Villains

Seven Soldiers Of Victory
Sgt. Rock

Shade The Changing Man
Shazam!

Shazam's Squadron Of Justice
Showcase

Slam Bradley

Son Of Vulcan
The Spectre

Spy Smasher

Stanley And His Monster

Star Hunters
Star Spangled War Stories

Starfire
Strange Adventures

Sugar & Spike

Suicide Squad
Super-Team Family

Supergirl

Superman

Swamp Thing

Swing With Scooter

The Teen Titans

Thriller

Tomahawk

The Trident

The Unknown Soldier

The Vigilante

Vixen
Warlord

Weird War Tales

Wildcat

The Witching Hour

Wonder Woman

World's Finest Comics

Young Love

Zatanna

As a Silver and Bronze Age kid, my specific yearning is for the DC Universe as it existed in the '60s and '70s, but I also included some '80s titles, as well as the 1960s Action Heroes that DC bought from Charlton Comics in the '80s. Given my druthers, this line would also include some licensed titles, from The Adventures Of Jerry Lewis through Tarzan, The Shadow, Hot Wheels, and Captain Action. Plus the former Charlton book E-Man, which DC never published nor had rights to publish, but what can I say? I like E-Man! But that's all well outside the parameters of this exercise.

In my imagination, these are written and drawn by creators like Nick Cardy, Jim Aparo, Tony Isabella, Trevor Von Eeden, Murphy Anderson, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, Terry Austin, Joe Kubert, Nestor Redondo, Michael Uslan, Bob Rozakis, Curt Swan, Ramona Fradon, Bob Haney, Mike Grell, Steve Skeates, Dick Giordano, Sal Amendola, Paul Levitz, Mark Evanier, Dan Spiegle, Jack Kirby, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Alex Toth, Mike W. Barr, Don Heck, Wally Wood, Don Newton, Gray Morrow, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Martin Pasko, Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Kurt Schaffenberger, Arnold Drake, Irv Novick, George Perez, Dave Cockrum, Frank Robbins, Rich Buckler, Berni Wrightson, Gene Colan, Mike Kaluta, Joe Orlando, Bob Oksner, E. Nelson Bridwell, Marv Wolfman, Joe Staton, Walt Simonson, Archie Goodwin, Carmine Infantino, Dick Sprang, Michael Netzer, Gil Kane, Steve Ditko, Marvel Comics stalwarts John Romita and John Buscema, latter-day lights such as Steve Rude and Darwyn Cooke, and a long list of more. Many of these creators are no longer with us. But if one is going to fantasize, one should shoot for the stars.

A few points to clarify. Starfire is the '70s DC sword and sorcery heroine, not the 1980s Teen Titan. The Albatross was an aborted 1975 back-up series that would have been written by Martin Pasko, who hated the idea and did his successful best to sabotage it. Ninja The Invisible, Vixen, and Captain Thunder were all era-appropriate DC books that were proposed but never realized, with the latter writer Roy Thomas' idea for an Earth-1 reboot of the original Captain Marvel as an African-American hero. 

Batgirl, the Black Orchid, Black Spider (a Batman villain), Bronze Tiger, Bulletgirl, Dr. Fate, Hourman, Nemesis, Nubia, the Question, Robin, Rose and the Thorn, the Seven Soldiers of Victory, Shazam's Squadron of Justice, Slam Bradley, and Wildcat (I'm thinking this would be the Earth-1 Wildcat) were DC properties that never starred in their own pre-Crisis DC books. The pulp-reminiscent Crimson Avenger was chosen here as a substitute for The Shadow. Jason's Quest and The Maniaks had appeared in DC's Showcase in the '60s. There was never a book called DC's Imaginary Stories, nor a Charlton characters team-up series called Action Heroes, but there should have been. I also wanted to have genres beyond my superhero favorites, hence the inclusion of humor, horror, science fiction, Western, war, and romance titles. If I could have justified throwing in a 100-Page Super Spectacular, I woulda, but even flights of fancy need some sense of tethering.

(The need for tethers didn't prevent me from listing The Trident, a World War II-set comics series I submitted to DC in the '80s. The perks of having your own blog. The Trident came about when I asked myself the question, "What if Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had created a two-fisted black superhero in the '40s?," and then attempted to answer that rhetorical query. You're free to ignore the Trident; DC certainly did.)

So that's the director's cut of my Old 52, imagining a new pre-Crisis DC Comics. It's not worth the effort to try to whittle this down to a mere 52, and I betcha everyone from Sargon the Sorcerer to Super-Turtle to the Mind-Grabber Kid is queuing up to expand the line after successful appearances in Showcase. Bigger worlds live. Nobody dies. A new old DC universe. Just imagine.

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