The old heroes from pre World War Two and after who mainly made up the JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA would now be mostly forgotten. Whilst Superman , Batman , Wonder Woman, and a few others continued to entertain the readers, their stories started to become more realistic and less comical. Like Batman, the 1960's meant waving bye bye to most of the Bat-Man Family, Wonder Woman & Superman lost some of their comical supporting characters also. Whilst heroes like the Flash, Green Lantern and the Atom would be completely re imagined as NEW Heroes with Similar names and Powers, Other Like Green Arrow, and Hawkman would be updated and remained much as they had before. Although Hawkman would later get a major character make over.
With a bit of slight redesigning of the costumes, which happened over a period of time, Batman and friends continued into the 1960's. However, as most of the DC characters had started their "Lives" in the 1930's & 1940's it was easier to just accept that these characters were never ageing than be allowed to age. Both Batman & Superman who remain aged around 29. BUT this meant that as they now existed in the modern day, they could not no longer be thought of as the same as they were in the past....... ie they would have been too young to have even fought in the 2nd World War against Germany and Japan.
The concept of Earth 2 was conceived that in another parallel universe most of the heroes first appeared in or around the end of the 1930's. Helped fight in WW2 and would grow old and retire in the 1960's. This was also the so called Golden Age of DC Publications.
This Allowed an unique twist, The Justice Society could still exist, and could have grown older, started families and even had children.
When the Justice League of America first met the Justice Society of America this allowed both groups to interact. The Silver Age Flash had already met his Golden Age name sake before this, and the fans had liked the idea.
But when Heroes of the Past met the Heroes of today, the readers LOVED this. So every year the League and the Society would meet up. Both Supermen would meet, Both Batmen would meet, and both Wonder Women would meet. As these were the same character But taken from a different point in time, this gave the writers a good chance to play with different concepts.
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| Same Heroes But Different. |
Superman of Earth 2 could have married Lois Lane, Batman could have also married and had children, Robin the Boy Wonder could be allowed to become a man. Wonder Woman also could have married her long time boyfriend Steve Trevor and started their own Wonder Family.
The cut off point of when the old DC stories became what was to be Earth 2 would be the end of the 1950's. This made sense as this was when a lot of the older Heroes comics had stopped being published.
For Batman, the changes in his costume In the 1960's allowed a physical marker. Before the Oval Bat Earth 2.... After the Oval Bat Sign Modern day.... ie Earth 1....... Both Superman & Wonder Woman from Earth 2 worn costumes which reflected an earlier look along with a little bit of silver grey hair to help add a little bit of age. Superman's Logo would mirror his 1940's style.
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| EARTH 2 EARTH 1 |
This meant that Older Batman would still have his supporting cast of Ace the Bat Hound, Bat-Girl, Bat-Woman and Bat Mite. These characters stayed the same, but it was all change for Bat-man and Robin of the New "Old" Earth 2 ...... also this also allowed other Universes to be explored, many of which became littered with heroes from an earlier time that had been publishes by companies now owned by DC.
Here is a look at the old and new Bat-man Family
Here is a look at the old and new Bat-man Family
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| GOLDEN AGE EARTH TWO SILVER AGE EARTH ONE |
Next time we have a look at how robin grew up to become a Hero in his own right.
Until then
ENJOY !
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