pre-Crisis appreciation

[Lee Stone]

From DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #3. Apologies for the poor quality. My digest is pretty worn and I don't think it would've survived being flattened on the scanner.

Makes you wonder...
If they had named the Earths in reverse, with Earth-1 being the Golden Age JSA and Earth-2 being the Silver Age JLA... they could have had an Earth-3 that spawned out of Crisis featuring a new generation. It would continue the concept of each new Earth having heroes first appear 25 years after the prior one.
Hmmm... and technically the New52 would fit as Earth-4.

[Buried Alien]

The Pre-COIE Multiverse was very well-organized. I don't know if the writers/editors specifically designed it that way, but it's hard to argue with the results. There seemed to be a proper compartment for everyone and everything that just intuitively made sense. DC has tried to improve upon this original model with the Post-COIE DCU and the New 52 DCU, but never really has.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Lee Stone]

The Pre-COIE Multiverse was very well-organized. I don't know if the writers/editors specifically designed it that way, but it's hard to argue with the results. There seemed to be a proper compartment for everyone and everything that just intuitively made sense. DC has tried to improve upon this original model with the Post-COIE DCU and the New 52 DCU, but never really has.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Imagine this...
What if the Post-Crisis Earth was really the new Earth-3, influenced by Alexander Luthor and replacing the one that was destroyed, featuring the Byrne Superman, Perez Wonder Woman, Miller Batman and JLI (25 years after the Silver Age JLA formed), while Earth-1 and Earth-2 still existed but were in suspended animation.
And then in 2011, Earth-4 (New52) materializes, 25 years after the end of Crisis.
Meanwhile, the in-story characters that originally named Earth-2 and Earth-1 didn't know they had the numbers backwards. Earth-2 was first.

[andersonh1]

The more I read pre-Crisis DC, the more I wonder why they ever felt the need to change it. It works very well, and I certainly don't find it confusing.

[Pharozonk]

The more I read pre-Crisis DC, the more I wonder why they ever felt the need to change it. It works very well, and I certainly don't find it confusing.

It was false propaganda built by DC in order to justify a reboot that might let them catch up in sales to Marvel.

[andersonh1]

It was false propaganda built by DC in order to justify a reboot that might let them catch up in sales to Marvel.

Of course, I had forgotten the real-world sales considerations. That makes sense then, from that perspective. From a fictional perspective, the multiverse concept is dead simple.

[The Darknight Detective]

It was false propaganda built by DC in order to justify a reboot that might let them catch up in sales to Marvel.

All reboots are based on sales, but they can't say that because it shows weakness on their part.

[Thor2014]

Superman was at his best pre-Crisis. He was still at planet pulling strength at the time of Crisis iirc. Superman wasn't ashamed of being Superman, he was proud of it unlike Byrne-Man.

Earth-Two and its inhabitants were so awesome before they were shoe-horned into the same earth as the modern-day heroes. Earth-Two was more progressive than the status-quo of Earth-One. Things that couldn't happen on Earth-One would happen, one wonders how Earth-Two would've progressed past 1985 if given the chance.

Wonder Woman had a spirit of fun and adventure, her pre-Crisis book wasn't serious, grim and depressing. Roy Thomas's short run was well-done, he created a new villain in Silver Swan, Circe was wreaking havoc as well. Thomas's successor, Dan Mishkin was severely underrated. Personaly Gerry onway was my favorite WW writer of the Bronze Age.

[Jon-El]

Gerry Conway did a lot of fun books. One of my favorite Superman writers.

One thing about Pre-Crisis was the variety of stuff out there. Horror titles. Western titles. Oddball series like 1st ISSUE SPECIAL, SUPER TEAM FAMILY, DC SUPER STARS & such. These featured everything from Dr Fate, Metamorpho, & Phantom Stranger to team ups like Supergirl & the Atom and Flash & the New Gods. There were books like FREEDOM FIGHTERS, ALL STAR COMICS, & SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS. Plus the team up books DC COMICS PRESENTS & BRAVE & BOLD. I got exposed to nearly every super hero growing up.

The 80's brought the direct only mature line so you could have comics aimed at a variety of audiences. What a concept!

[Thor2014]

Gerry Conway did a lot of fun books. One of my favorite Superman writers.

One thing about Pre-Crisis was the variety of stuff out there. Horror titles. Western titles. Oddball series like 1st ISSUE SPECIAL, SUPER TEAM FAMILY, DC SUPER STARS & such. These featured everything from Dr Fate, Metamorpho, & Phantom Stranger to team ups like Supergirl & the Atom and Flash & the New Gods. There were books like FREEDOM FIGHTERS, ALL STAR COMICS, & SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS. Plus the team up books DC COMICS PRESENTS & BRAVE & BOLD. I got exposed to nearly every super hero growing up.

The 80's brought the direct only mature line so you could have comics aimed at a variety of audiences. What a concept!

Conway's work on Superman seems to be overlooked. It's been a while but I really dug his Wonder Woman run back in the day. A couple years ago I finally delved into the New Teen Titans of the 80s and it was pretty solid.

[Thor2014]

Earth-Two's Finest

[SiegePerilous02]

The pre-Crisis continuity had been dead for a few years by the time I was born, so I obviously didn't grow up with it. But looking at and being able to compare it to what came after, it really does seem far preferable. It is honestly the only time the DCU has ever made sense, and it was clearly capable of producing great books when the writing delivered (NTT, Swamp Thing, Legion). Reading those now does not cause any of the headaches later books do. There are obvious benefits to the post-Crisis era: there were some fantastic individual runs like Morrison's various projects, Ostrander on Suicide Squad, and of course the Sandman, and the obvious benefit of more diversity being introduced as time went on. That being said, many of the stories and characters introduced later really could have existed without CoIE with very little tweaking. The changes to the Superman mythos could have been done ridiculously easily and they would have been easier to reverse later on when they outstayed their welcome. Wonder Woman would have been a little bit more of a challenge because she'd been messed with a LOT by that point, but still Perez's reboot contributed to the problem.

They really had something unique before, and they got rid of it in a quick cash grab and an attempt to be more like Marvel. I would seriously not be the least bit bothered if they ditched everything and brought back Earth-1 as it was immediately before the Monitor and Harbinger made their obnoxious presences known. This would cost us a lot of great characters that came after (some of whom are favorites of mine), but they could always be re-worked in down the road and have the benefit of a clean slate as well.