Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Anyone remember the DC event from almost 25 years ago, "The Silver Age?"

Well, if you don't, you didn't miss much, as it wasn't very good.

Oh, there were talented creators involved, but only on the artistic side. The main writers were Mark Waid, Geoff Johns, and Mark Millar. I think even fans of theirs would admit it's not their best work.

So why am I even broaching the subject, you ask? Because this is Legion World, where people always come up with ideas a million times better than what actually saw print!

Here's a link to the event's page at the DCU Wiki:

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Silver_Age_Vol_1

Now, how would you do it better?

Ooft. A paragraph into it, and it disappeared up its own continuity. Hopefully the book was more fun.

I have Silver Age notes linked to the Golden Age series.

New Frontier could have been titled The Silver Age.

LOL. So true.


It did have a handful of fun moments scattered through, but they were few and far between. Also some very nice art (especially the covers.)


Do you mean a continuation of that miniseries by James Robinson and Paul Smith? I would be interested if you shared those notes in this thread or in the Bits forum.


Yeah, but they were only released about 4 years apart. DC didn't want it mistaken for one of their least popular events.

I was never taken with the big island threat in New Frontier, in exactly the same way the island in New X-Men faced was underwhelming.

Fair enough. I like New Frontier more for the character arcs and the Easter Eggs than for the plot itself.

Definitely. Lots of interesting, strong versions of the characters in that one.

Especially Jordan. Arguably the only time in the past 60 years that that character felt exactly right. J'onnz was also very well portrayed. Allen, not so much. And the whole rationalizing of Batman changing his look because "I don't want to scare kids" rang false.

But overall, New Frontier is so well crafted that it easily transcends its minor flaws.

I agree.

Jordan's humanity and selflessness really came through. You could see why he was selected a lot more than being someone with no fear.

Some of the J'Onzz, as alternate Superman have been fine. He's certainly become a key part of a lot of JLA rosters. But his portrayal in New Frontier is among my favourites.

From Challengers through Ted Grant to the Suicide Squad, there are lots of good moments.

One idea which I keep coming back to is that The Silver Age event could have brought back the Multiverse six years earlier, and without any of the gore and fanwank of Infinite Crisis and the events which preceded and followed it.

Also, the Legion of Super-Heroes should have appeared in The Silver Age event.

That whole period was dreadful. A Silver Age avoiding any of that would have been an improvement.

With things having merged in Crisis, would you have returned it to the way it was ? Or would you have had new versions of Earth 2 etc?

I was mainly only interested in the final issue featuring the H Dial and the JLA turning into different heroes like Miss Fortune.

Thoth, I would say yes, I'd have restored the Pre-Crisis status quo. No need to overcomplicate things.

EDIT: Having said that, I'd also liberate all the goofy, silly stuff from Limbo, as seen during Morrison's Animal Man run.

Sarky, the final issue, an 80 Page Giant, was easily the best one in my opinion, for the reasons you noted and also for the Alan Davis cover and Eduardo Barreto interiors.

I guess it's just that the whole thing overall felt so underwhelming to me, sticking to safe, box-ticking nostalgia (already diminished by the slew of continuity errors) over the expansive world-building of the real Silver Age. I'd imagine there were a lot of editorial problems, as well as the low morale in the DC offices at the time, which kept this event from achieving its potential.

I guess a lot of egos would have taken a hit. Annual events, often trying to fix self imposed continuity errors. When you could have just had everything.

With Crisis, DC were consolidating and refreshing their properties. Superman became the sole Kryptonian . Except, DC now had him lesser powered in a world with Captain Marvel. Captain Atom. Martian Manhunter and Power Girl. One example of things not being thought through.

You're probably right. But to be honest, I feel no sympathy for those creators and editors who allowed their egos to get in the way of telling the best possible stories. The older creators and editors took pride in their work, but didn't have any illusions that they were somehow bigger than what they were creating.


Exactly!


Which is all part of the natural cycle. I've seen it argued that the cycle runs an average of 15 years. The problems start when people get too possessive or too pretentious in their execution of the cycle. Again, egos causing damage.


Definitely. And then at the other extreme there is overthinking and excessive self-consciousness.

Well said.

I'd have loved for the older creators to get more credit and reward for all their creations. They were writers in a publishing company. Not entertainers on a convention circuit.

I generally look at writers as often just moving the pieces of other people's work around. Some are better written than others, but that's the baseline. Those 15 year cycles are now faster and faster, yet never stray far from what went before.

And a lot of that is what the publisher wants and pays for. They too have deluded themselves into being what they are not.

Merchandising and media deals have locked in licenses. Event comics want the same cast, at the expense of creativity in the solo titles. Royalty programmes don't encourage new concepts, while looking to restrict older agreements. They look to mining old stories, for film/TV, rather than create new sources, and congratulate themselves for doing all of this.

Perhaps, had the older generation got the credit and exposure the latest generation get, we'd get some of the same. But it's hard to imagine a lot of them changing.

Thanks for the kind words, Thoth.

What I hope is that the trend I'm seeing in superheroes losing popularity with movie and TV watchers (the casual fans) means that the genre will disappear for at least a few years.

At the same time, I doubt that monthly serialized superhero comics are ever going to bounce back from their decline in sales. Especially with non-genre, non-serialized stories now dominating the graphic novels market.

The silver lining I see is that, within a few years, the only people who will care anymore about superheroes will be the genuine, sincere, deeply committed fans. Because that's where the best work is going to be, in fan fiction, fan art, and other fan projects. Made by and for the people who love superheroes, and who don't care whether or not they make any money from their work.