Originally Posted by
Doctor Know
Bi-Polar DC editorial office struck again. Byrne explains that he was told he would be able to restart Superman from day one and rebuild everything up gradually. He was told, "get rid of everything, but don't throw anything away".
Once the contracts were signed however, DC reneged. Byrne was to write a fully realized Superman from the jump after his six-part MOS mini-series. Crisis changes be damned; to DC, Byrne was to write Superman as if Crisis and the reboot never happened. There was no Pre-Crisis or Post-Crisis Superman to the powers that be. They were the same character. Something that Byrne chaffed under as you can imagine.
1. Byrne wrote and penciled the character, but DC was still promoting the Pre-Crisis Jose Garcia-Lopez model of Superman for the advertising.
2. "Get rid of everything, but don't throw anything away". Post-Crisis Supes = Pre-Crisis Supes. But the things DC didn't want undone still applied. Like Superman being the Last and ONLY survivor of Krypton. A rule they didn't break until 2004 with Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman: Supergirl Saga.
No Super Pets. No Clark Superboy. No Legion History. No time traveling descendants (Kristin Wells Superwoman and Laurel Kent on Legion). The Super powers were to remain scaled down. The Kents were to remain alive. The old personalities and nature of the supporting cast (Lois, Lana, Perry, Jimmy) were not to return from Pre-Crisis. Batman was no longer Superman's genuine friend like in the Silver and Bronze Age. DC following Frank Miller's interpretation from TDKReturns and his input on relaunching Superman with Byrne.
3. Who's Line is it Anyway?: The Post-Crisis was infamous for referencing Pre-Crisis events. When they couldn't have happened at all. Chief example would be Superman being a founding member of the JL. When The JL Detroit is the first League in this continuity. Followed swiftly by the JLI. You have Superman say repeatedly on his own book (written by Byrne), in Legends (written by Ostander), and on JLI (Giffen and DeMattis) that Superman is not a team player and has never thought about joining such an ensemble. With the caveat that if the League would ever need him. He would be there.
It's worse for WW. She was introduced late to the Post-Crisis Universe. Using the Robin's as an anchor. Jason Todd was Robin and Dick was Nightwing when Diana made her debut to the world in Legends. On JLI and JL Europe, you have characters like Ralph (Elongated), Wally, Carter and Sheira, Hal, Guy and others constantly referencing the Satellite Years, as if any of that could've happened. No way Diana could be a founding member of the League the aforementioned characters make reference to.
Vixen and J'onn did infrequent references to the Detroit years.
Apply the nonsense we saw happen with the New 52, to the Post-Crisis reboot and you'll know what the score is. No one is to blame more than DC editorial. DC mandated a hard reboot of Superman and they did almost everything they could to undermine the people (chiefly Byrne and Wolfman) they directed to make it happen.