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.