Since none of us are probably old enough to remember, it'd probably be best to start with Carmine Infantino, who was responsible for bringing Jack Kirby over from Marvel, and putting Julie Shwartz in charge of the Superman & Batman titles after the success he'd had with The Flash, Green Lantern, and Justice League.

If I recall correctly, Infantino was followed by Dick Giardano, who not only brought Frank Miller and John Byrne over from Marvel to revamp Batman & Superman, but also helped Karen Berger start recruiting British comic creators like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison.

Next up was Mike Carlin, who got the job after the phenomenal success of his Superman titles that culminated in the Death of Superman event. He was largely responsible for the DC legacy era of young new characters who took up the mantles of older heroes.

And, finally, we have Dan Didio, who is responsible for as many homeruns as he has been for spectacular failures thanks to his enthusiastic but chaotic management style.

Of course, none of these guys can get all the credit, nor all the blame for their respective tenures as head of DC's editorial. Infantino had to deal with higher ups at National like publisher Jack Liebowitz, Giordano worked closely with publisher Jannette Khan, who also had to answer to the corporate whims of Warner Bros. Carlin also had Paul Levitz, as did Didio, who then answered to Diane Nelson. With Nelson on a leave of absence, I have no idea who Didio and Jim Lee report to now.

Among these guys, who do you think was the most successful given the market they were dealing with? Obviously sales were much higher in the past, but the situation now is also much different with so many different kinds of media competing for attention, so specific sales numbers aren't really indicative of each editor's relative success. I'm thinking more in terms of who produced the best work and helped push the industry forward in the best, most creative ways. Who was the most creative? Who treated their creators the best? Who started policies that made the biggest difference?