The sliding timeline of superhero comics keeps the characters and their origins fresh and relevant so that new audiences can connect with them, but there's something to be said for the idea that some characters are often better suited to specific periods of time than they are to the present day.

This isn't to say that any of the following characters can't work in a modern setting, because there are countless stories in which they've worked just fine set in today's world. I'm simply talking about my personal preferences.

Superman has often been knocked for being a hero that feels outdated because he harkens back to an older sensibility. I think this is one of the reasons that the Donner Superman is so fondly remembered, because it leaned into the idea by having him come from an idealized America that never really was, then skip over the tumultuous 60s and 70s, to arrive in the much more cynical and jaded America that existed in the late 1970s. Stories like Superman Smashes The Klan have also highlighted how wonderfully the character works in his original time period, in which he can more directly face the corruption and fascism he was clearly created to oppose. Again, this isn't to say you can't tell those stories now, but I think they land better if they're set in the past. Your mileage may vary.

Batman is even more complicated, given the enormous inherited wealth the character has and that his entire shtick is extrajudicially enforcing his own justice upon the underclass. If the news suddenly broke that Elon Musk or Donald Trump Jr. were running around New York City in body armor beating up poor people and "anarchists" with the explicit approval of the NYPD, I don't think most people would view them as heroes. The more realistic you make Batman, the more morally abhorrent he becomes, particularly today. However, I think the character works like gangbusters in the 70s and 80s, during which street crime in New York was a particularly big problem, rather than the modern NYC that has largely solved street crime by making the city unlivable for anyone who isn't rich. I think you can also lean into the superhero of it all, as Batman Universe did, and sidestep the problem, but if DC is intent on taking a realistic approach to Batman, they've got to figure out how to not make him someone Fox News would love.

Wonder Woman's origin works much better for me set in the past when women had far less social status and during a global war because it more directly connects to the characters two most compelling aspects, her feminism and her mission of peace. This isn't to say that either of these two goals have been accomplished, but the idea of a powerful female champion arriving in Man's World lacks the same oomph today after all the gains that feminism has managed to win, then it does in the early to mid 20th Century, when women had just barely been granted the right to vote and held no positions of political power.

With The Flash, you've got so many different ones, so there's less of a problem. Jay Garrick is a man of the 40s, but I think he's been a more effective character as a mentor in the present than he ever was in his prime. While Barry Allen is very much a creation of the 1950s, I think he works just as well today. Wally West's heydays were in the 90s, but his old status quo as a celebrity superhero would work just as well today.

The Green Lanterns are similar. I love the new wrinkle of Alan Scott as a closeted man from the 1940s. I look forward to how that gets explored, particularly how his marriages are handled (which will be pretty tricky). New Frontier proved pretty definitively in my mind that Hal Jordan works best in the era of the Space Race that spawned him, when test pilots and astronauts were the coolest human beings around. John Stewart was very much a 70s creation of a black hero born out of the good intentions of white creators. I think he's grown since then, largely thanks to the work of the late great Dwayne McDuffie, but I think the character works in any time period. Guy was very much a Reagan era hero, but loudmouthed hot heads are timeless. Kyle is, unfortunately, a very, very '90s character and I don't think anyone has managed to figure out what to do with him outside of that time.