This thread is to express appreciation for the DCU as it was from the mid-1950s until the start of the Bronze Age in 1971. I'm calling this the “early” Silver Age because many use “Silver Age” to refer to everything from Barry Allen's debut in 1956 to the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985; as I already have a thread discussing the latter half of this period, I want to focus solely on the former half here.

As mentioned above, this era is traditionally considered to have started with the first appearance of Barry Allen in Showcase #4; though as with most eras, the lines are blurry: Superman's adventures as a teen in Smallville, a staple of the Silver Age, were in publication as far back as 1945, as does the first retelling of his origin, though Superman's adventures in Metropolis can be said to have started being chronicled somewhere in the mid-50s; and the Silver Age didn't truly take off until the 1960s, as more Golden Age heroes and concepts were reimagined and new concepts.

During this era, the Superman mythos was built up to epic proportions (as were Superman's powers), adding the Phantom Zone, the bottled city of Kandor (including its champions, the original Nightwing and Flamebird), Supergirl, Krypto, the Legion of Superheroes, and many others.

Batman started this era fighting crime alongside not just Robin, but also Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Ace the Bat-Hound, and occasionally Bat-Mite. This lasted until 1964 when Julius Schwartz dropped most of them from the books. A few years later, a new Batgirl was added to the roster, inspired by the live-action TV series. In addition, the tone of the Batman comics started to shift in response to the show.

This was a bizarre era for Wonder Woman: from 1961 to 1965, it featured the Wonder Woman Family, which was none other than Wonder Woman at three different ages (child, teen, and adult) somehow coexisting in one time along with Hypollyta, known in this context as Wonder Queen. Then from 1968 to 1973, Diana retired her costume, opened a boutique shop, and adventured as more of a secret agent than as a superhero.

The Wonder Woman Family would have a lasting impact on the DCU through the Teen Titans: conceived as the teen counterparts of the Justice League, the team eventually included Wonder Girl. When the Wonder Woman Family was retired, it left the writers of the Teen Titans in a predicament: who is Wonder Girl? In a story of the same name, they turned their Wonder Girl into a separate character in her own right, and Donna Troy made her debut.

What else made this era special and unique?