If you could change ONE thing back to Pre-COIE days, what would it be

[Dred]

I'll break the rules, choose Final Crisis, and pick The Flash Family. Final Crisis is amazing but it ushered in the end of the thing in DC I liked most.

Actually sticking to the comic at hand, I would probably pick Donna Troy's origin. I really, really like Donna and wish she got her due more. 90% of her mess is due to having to change her because they wanted to reboot Wonder Woman after COIE. Very few characters have suffered more for ancillary things than Donna has.

[bat39]

If I'm limited to just one thing, this would be it.

But it isn't just the Legion (which is a big part of it; don't get me wrong).

Superman's career as Superboy always meant, on Earth-1, that he wasn't the first superhero by a matter of months (as he was on Earth-2), but he was actually the first superhero by more than ten years. Thus, although he might have been about the same age as his fellow JLA members, he had more experience as a hero, and through his Legion membership, more experience working with a team. All of that fed into him being Earth's premier hero.

In a world in which the JSA had been the first superheroes some decades back, and then had been banned, Superboy could have served as a bridge between the "Golden Age" and "Modern Age" of heroes. Let a kid wearing no mask (and possibly no costume, like Kon-El after 2003) be a superhero for a decade, perhaps (because he has no mask) not violating any "anti-vigilante" laws, and he could be the impetus behind a change in the law and the birth of a second superhero age.

That, in a nutshell, is why I think Superboy could have worked well on "post-Crisis" Earth. And his experience as a superhero and his team experience would still give him additional reasons for being Earth's premier "Modern Age" superhero.

That's an interesting notion. But then you have the fact that Superboy is the great harbinger of a new era of superheroes, not Superman.

Incidentially, I don't think Earth 1 continuity ever actually played up the fact that Superboy was the 'first' superhero. In fact, I guess its possible that Wonder Woman preceded him chronologically - if you go by the fact that she rescued Donna Troy as a Toddler. Also, I think Wildcat and a bunch of other Golden Age heroes had Earth 1 counterparts who'd been around for a while.

[Anthony Shaw]

If I'm limited to just one thing, this would be it.

But it isn't just the Legion (which is a big part of it; don't get me wrong).

Superman's career as Superboy always meant, on Earth-1, that he wasn't the first superhero by a matter of months (as he was on Earth-2), but he was actually the first superhero by more than ten years. Thus, although he might have been about the same age as his fellow JLA members, he had more experience as a hero, and through his Legion membership, more experience working with a team. All of that fed into him being Earth's premier hero.

In a world in which the JSA had been the first superheroes some decades back, and then had been banned, Superboy could have served as a bridge between the "Golden Age" and "Modern Age" of heroes. Let a kid wearing no mask (and possibly no costume, like Kon-El after 2003) be a superhero for a decade, perhaps (because he has no mask) not violating any "anti-vigilante" laws, and he could be the impetus behind a change in the law and the birth of a second superhero age.

That, in a nutshell, is why I think Superboy could have worked well on "post-Crisis" Earth. And his experience as a superhero and his team experience would still give him additional reasons for being Earth's premier "Modern Age" superhero.

I agree with everything in this post.

[DrNewGod]

IMO, the three DC entities that have never recovered from what happened after COIE is:

1) Katar and Shayera Hol
2) Donna Troy
3) Legion of Super Heroes

While the JSA and Wally West are currently being screwed around, they had many years of excellence over the last 20 years.

Eh I find Donna to be debatable, she had some good stories post-COIE but had a messed up history.

It seems like she was a trend setter for the current DCU.

I agree with caj, but I'd add Wonder Woman as a 4th.

[bretmaverick2]

A Batman that’s not crazy. Batman was best one he was the dark Knight detective who wasn’t suspecting of his friends would go crazy and try to take over the world. When he was a friend of Superman. I didn’t look at the justice league is possible enemies. That man who was not bat crap crazy.

[Buried Alien]

A Batman that’s not crazy. Batman was best one he was the dark Knight detective who wasn’t suspecting of his friends would go crazy and try to take over the world. When he was a friend of Superman. I didn’t look at the justice league is possible enemies. That man who was not bat crap crazy.

...and give his Robins reasons to want to fight him.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[DrNewGod]

A Batman that’s not crazy. Batman was best one he was the dark Knight detective who wasn’t suspecting of his friends would go crazy and try to take over the world. When he was a friend of Superman. I didn’t look at the justice league is possible enemies. That man who was not bat crap crazy.

...and give his Robins reasons to want to fight him.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Yup. You're completely right. Batman's a hero, not Magneto.

[Frostbite883]

I would want Sonik (Will Parker) to be brought back in a new slammin' costume.

[BatmanJones]

I'll break the rules and say don't let the Crisis happen or at least don't let it combine the earths.

To adhere to the rules, if I only get one thing, leave Earth-Two out of it and preserve the JSA's relationship with main Earth/Earth-One.

[OBrianTallent]

Just one is hard. I have two.
1-Earth 2 would have remained as it was. I loved having the JSA characters on the main earth, but I would prefer them having their own. This gives us back the All-Star Squadron, Infinity Inc. and all the variations (the REAL Helena Wayne Huntress!)
2-Wonder Woman debuted farther back which solves the Donna Troy issue.

[bat39]

Just one is hard. I have two.
1-Earth 2 would have remained as it was. I loved having the JSA characters on the main earth, but I would prefer them having their own. This gives us back the All-Star Squadron, Infinity Inc. and all the variations (the REAL Helena Wayne Huntress!)
2-Wonder Woman debuted farther back which solves the Donna Troy issue.

As far as Wonder Woman is concerned, I've always assumed that she'd debuted years before the rest of the Justice League.

It doesn't even have to be that long before. Donna Troy is around the same age as Dick Grayson. Dick was 8 when he became Robin, and Bruce probably started out as Batman the year before. Donna was probably around 2 or 3 when Diana saved her. If we assume that saving Donna was one of Diana's first acts as Wonder Woman, then that means Wonder Woman showed up at most around 5 years before Batman did.

[j9ac9k]

Set the Legion of Super-heroes back to what they were pre-Crisis.