Earth X is the only one that hasn't delivered a major DC brand...

[Air Wave]

I'm not sure - maybe it has to do with when I got into DC, but it seemed that due to the cartoon Plastic Man eclipsed Elongated Man as "DC's stretchy guy."(Plas also does more than just stretch, he can shape-shift) It might've evened out a bit until Morrison brought Plas back in a big way during his JL run since I guess they just preferred Plas to E-Man.

Plastic Man can fly?

[Air Wave]

Now, the Blue Beetle who's getting his own film and who's become such a big deal is a product of the modern DCU, but the Blue Beetle legacy started with Earth 4/Charlton Comics.

And Fox Comics before that.

[bat39]

All acquisitions seem to go through a period of heightened interest during early adoption, before a period of prolonged disinterest.

The first acquisition is the All-American line. For a period of time (about two years), their books were still getting a lot of play, but by 1950, they were all dying off. Even though Wonder Woman stuck around, she still lost her place in SENSATION COMICS, as well as ALL-STAR COMICS (plus the earlier loss of COMIC CAVALCADE which converted to the funny animals format). Most of the All-American characters fell into limbo before finally being revived on Earth-Two in the 1960s.

Quality Comics is an odd one. After buying up a lot of properties, they only continued G.I. COMBAT, HEART THROBS and BLACKHAWK. At first glance, you'd think they would have continued PLASTIC MAN but the later Quality issues were mostly just reprints of earlier comics. Jack Cole had left for other things and would die in 1958, so there probably was no talent they could hire from Quality to maintain the quality. Even when they did revive PLASTIC MAN in 1967 it only lasted for ten issues--and then in 1976 it had another ten issues. For many people the genius of Plastic Man is Jack Cole--this would be like reviving the Spirit without Will Eisner.

While most of the other Quality characters were brought back in the 1973 Earth-X story, when the FREEDOM FIGHTERS got their own series in 1976 they had left for Earth-One. And in ALL-STAR SQUADRON, Roy Thomas established that all these Quality characters were native to Earth-Two and only left for Earth-X because it needed them to fight the Ratzis over there. So you've got Quality characters as immigrants travelling between Earths. Meanwhile, Kid Eternity (owing to the similarity to Captan Marvel, Jr.) was established on Earth-S! The perception of Earth-X as the Quality Earth doesn't hold up, since these characters were spread out over many Earths and some of them had become established as part of Earth-One before there was an Earth-X. Mind you, as an Elseworld series, Earth-X would have been a good concept to explore.

Earth-S! was hampered by the fact that the characters were only borrowed from Fawcett. They got permission to use the Marvels and then some of the other Fawcett heroes (Shazam's Squadron of Justice), but not owning them probably is why they were never amalgamated into Earth-One before the Crisis. Once Captain Marvel and his family were bought outright from Fawcett, there was more incentive to bring them into the mainstream. But after the 1970s, the Fawcett characters have struggled to get attention and often been ignored.

The Charlton Earth was never a part of continuity until the Crisis and they were only brought in to destroy them, so they could be brought back as either THE WATCHMEN or as rebooted versions of the originals. The big period for Charlton usage was right after Crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But like every other acquisition, the publisher seemed to lose interest in them after that. It's been an uphill battle for the Charltons to get back on top.

And it's the same with Archie !mpact Red Circle, Milestone, Wildstorm, Thunder Agents et al. When they first get the property, they make an effort, but then they start to lose interest and can't be bothered.

Nice breakdown!

When it comes to the Fawcett characters, well mainly the Shazam family, while they've never reached the heights of the 'main' Justice League characters, they've been a consistent presence in the DC line for decades, with a fair amount of attention in adaptations - culminating of course in the Shazam and Black Adam movies. So DC/WB has leveraged the property, albeit not as much as they have their core characters (then again, Shazam got a movie before Flash did, so that's something).

With the Charlton characters, DC was clearly interested in using them in the early Post-COIE years, since they specifically forbid Alan Moore from using them as is for Watchmen. But you're right about interest waning over time. Still, Blue Beetle has somehow managed to remain a relevant brand for all these decades and is now the first Charlton character to get his own movie! I wonder which version the credit goes to for this - Ted Kord for being a consistent presence in the DCU through his ties to the JLI and Booster Gold, or Jaime Reyes for ensuring that Blue Beetle was a consistent and unique presence in the DC line and across adaptations and ultimately generating enough interest for a movie to be greenlit.

As far as Quality goes, its not as though the lack of a consistent earth should have hampered the growth of the characters per se. That would be a moot point in the Post-COIE DCU anyway. But I do wonder if the Freedom Fighters concept sort of pigeon-holed them into the role of "fighting Nazis on an alternate earth where WW2 continued into the present". I mean, that's the context in which the Ray showed up in the Arrowverse.

Plastic Man seems to have escaped that trap though. Really, he has the potential to be a bigger deal, especially given his JLA connection.

[Zero Hunter]

The ray was such a great character. A legacy character done right. He was a member of both the Justice League and Young Justice. I would love to see him brought back. I think a big problem with most of the Earth X characters is writers keep wanting to shove them into a box and make them Freedom Fighters. That is a concept best left in the past. Black Condor was best when he was a supporting character in the Starman book. Uncle Sam is best when he is shown being the head of the S.H.A.D.E. The Ray was best as a part of the bigger DCu and not pigeon holed into a role his father had on a team from 40 years ago.

The pretty much ruined the character with the Nu52 though when they changed pretty much everything about his character.

I would love it DC would start up another Justice League book with younger heroes like Ray, Firestorm, Vibe, Hawkgirl, Bulleteer, Styker Z, and maybe a few others under the watch of Martian Manhunter training them to one day jump up to the big leagues.

[Jim Kelly]

When it comes to the Fawcett characters, well mainly the Shazam family, while they've never reached the heights of the 'main' Justice League characters, they've been a consistent presence in the DC line for decades, with a fair amount of attention in adaptations - culminating of course in the Shazam and Black Adam movies. So DC/WB has leveraged the property, albeit not as much as they have their core characters (then again, Shazam got a movie before Flash did, so that's something).

It's thanks to so many high level comic book professionals loving Captain Marvel that we've seen as much of him as we have. I think that was a prime reason why he was licensed from Fawcett in 1973--just because the people working at National Periodical Publications wanted to bring him back. There was a lot of interest coming from the fan community at this time, as well.

And for awhile, they did get a lot out of the Shazam! brand. I remember there was a "Dry Look" commercial in the 1970s featuring Shazam [Captain Marvel]. However, from 1979 to 1986, Captain Marvel was lucky if he got to guest star in other characters' comic books.

Part of that might be due to Roy Thomas having made a deal that gave him control over the Marvel Family. But Roy never could get Billy Batson's own comic book off the ground until after Crisis, with the limited run of SHAZAM: THE NEW BEGINNING in 1987.

I think one reason that failed is that other popular creators wanted to get their hands on Captain Marvel, too. Nothing came of that until Jerry Ordway's THE POWER OF SHAZAM! in 1994. Likewise, other major talents such as Alex Ross and Geoff Johns have championed the Big Red Cheese.

Having these people in his corner--including Michael Uslan who fought for decades to get Captain Marvel his own movie--is why the World's Mightiest Mortal has survived through stormy times.

Black Adam appeared only once in a Fawcett publication, in MARVEL FAMILY 1 (December 1945)--"The Mighty Marvels Join Forces" by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck.

E. Nelson Bridwell and Kurt Schaffenberger revived him in SHAZAM! 28 (March-April 1977)--"The Return of Black Adam." He appeared in the tabloid featuring "Superman Vs. Shazam [Captain Marvel]" and then Bridwell, Don Newton and Schaffenberger used him during the Marvel Family run in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS. After which Roy Thomas had him challenge Superman and Captain Marvel in DC COMICS PRESENTS 49 (September 1982). So I'd say that most of the heavy-lifting for Black Adam was done after National Periodicals had adopted the Marvel Family.

[Vakanai]

I'm not sure - maybe it has to do with when I got into DC, but it seemed that due to the cartoon Plastic Man eclipsed Elongated Man as "DC's stretchy guy."(Plas also does more than just stretch, he can shape-shift) It might've evened out a bit until Morrison brought Plas back in a big way during his JL run since I guess they just preferred Plas to E-Man.

Plastic Man also showed up fairly regularly in Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. So that's definitely put him above Elongated Man.

[HsssH]

The ray was such a great character. A legacy character done right. He was a member of both the Justice League and Young Justice. I would love to see him brought back. I think a big problem with most of the Earth X characters is writers keep wanting to shove them into a box and make them Freedom Fighters. That is a concept best left in the past. Black Condor was best when he was a supporting character in the Starman book. Uncle Sam is best when he is shown being the head of the S.H.A.D.E. The Ray was best as a part of the bigger DCu and not pigeon holed into a role his father had on a team from 40 years ago.

The pretty much ruined the character with the Nu52 though when they changed pretty much everything about his character.

I would love it DC would start up another Justice League book with younger heroes like Ray, Firestorm, Vibe, Hawkgirl, Bulleteer, Styker Z, and maybe a few others under the watch of Martian Manhunter training them to one day jump up to the big leagues.

Father Time runs Shade, not Uncle Sam. As for Ray, wasn't he gone till Rebirth?

[Jim Kelly]

Plastic Man also showed up fairly regularly in Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. So that's definitely put him above Elongated Man.

That could never happen--no one puts Dibny in the corner. Comic books are more important than cartoons and in the comics Elongated Man was one of the greatest detectives and someone Batman trusted. Maybe BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD was reflecting the Murray Boltinoff of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD comic book run--where indeed Murray had Batman team with Plas, even when it made no sense--because when did Murray ever care about what made sense. But Elongated Man had a long running feature in DETECTIVE COMICS, where Batman had the lead feature.

In terms of star power, you could argue that Plastic Man is the bigger name. And that's probably why Grant Morrison wanted him in the League--which seemed to be made up of the most iconic characters and characters that Grant had co-created. But I think that Ralph is the better team player and he fits in the groove of the rest of the characters quite well. Both the Pliable Policeman and the Ductile Detective lose something when they are teamed up with other characters. Plas should really be in his own surreal world and he has to give up that aspect to make sense in the mainstream super-hero environment; while Ralph should be in his own mystery feature, where he and Sue are doing all the detecting. But of the two, Elongated Man has to give up less than Plastic Man in order to work in the team adventures.

[Riv86672]

Plastic Man can fly?

^^^Not as was shone in that clip, but he’s morphed into various plane/rocket type configurations, sprouted wings etc.

[dswynne]

You forgot Earth-3!

Earth-3 gives us the Crime Syndicate of Amerika! (Then later the Crime Society too!)

Basically, you want Garth Ennis' THE BOYS?

But, seriously, I'm game if there was a feature featuring MAHZAS!, who is basically that world's Lex Luthor.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

I'm not sure - maybe it has to do with when I got into DC, but it seemed that due to the cartoon Plastic Man eclipsed Elongated Man as "DC's stretchy guy."(Plas also does more than just stretch, he can shape-shift) It might've evened out a bit until Morrison brought Plas back in a big way during his JL run since I guess they just preferred Plas to E-Man.

There's a distinct lack of "Boom chicka bow wow."

[Zero Hunter]

Father Time runs Shade, not Uncle Sam. As for Ray, wasn't he gone till Rebirth?

Your right sorry. I always mix up Uncle Sam and Father Time. And yeah it was the Rebirth revamp that sucked so bad.