What would YOU have done?

[ShinDangaioh]

I would not have had Kara killed. If she had to go, I would not do the Secret marriage of Supergirl.

I would have Rokyn's dimensional shifting stop with Rokyn away from Earth's dimension during the Crisis, leaving Superman and Supergirl the only Kryptonians left in the universe.

That would have concluded the final cleaning up that was going on with the mythos before Crisis.  The Legion of Super Pets had faded into the background for the most part, save Krypto.  He was in the pages of Superboy.  The only other appearance of Krypto was during that three part where Supergirl and the Kandorianl Council had almost convinced him that he was born on Earth.  Krypto was the one great flaw in their plan.

I would have created a new villian tht took advantage of Superman's most unused weakness.  Gravitational forces.

I'd also throw Superman into situations where he has make hard decisions like his counterpart in Superfriends did.  The greatest good for the greatest number of people.

The Superfriends Superman showed he very much lived by that code when he deliberatly undid his previous saving of the planet Krypton and undid Earth's destruction(and probably other planets: Exxor, Thanagar, etc.).  Either way he would be directly responsible for the death of billions of people.

If the reboot was mandated, I would do it so that both Superman and Supergirl would have survived.  The reason Krypton didn't have much of a space program was due to corruption in their goverment.  They couldn't control people who were out in space exploring.    They had the tech, but it was buried by the Science Council.  They'd have a bit of a space program to handle work on the weather control sattelites(That would be how Kara would survive.  She was working on one of the sattleites when Krypton blew.  It would also send the Supermobile over to her, since it would be the vehicle she was using to work on the sattelites-minus the S shield and the hyper-efficent FTL drive that would be added much later.  A minor mod  and giving it a slower FTL drive than Kal's rocket would have Kara arrive after Superman was an adult)

[NotSuper]

Another thing I would do is to make Jonathan Kent a Jew (as a tribute to Superman's creators--Jonathan's grandparents would also have been immigrants) and Martha Kent a Protestant.

[llozymandias]

Earth-Prime's DC Comics knew they were depicting real events from other times & universes.  How creative would that feel?  In my scenario here DC does not do Crisis, because it does not happen in the DC Multiverse.  The "post-crisis" stuff is done as an "ultimate DC" of sorts.  As far as the DC guys are aware they are doing stories about a fictional universe.  Unknown to them, they are tapping into another multiverse.  If DC does do Crisis, they do it to give themselves an excuse for not using the "pre-crisis" multiverse anymore.


     Kandor being the capitol city of a planetary civilzation millenia in advance of earth should have a large population (50 million to 400 million or something like that).  But, that should still be less than 1% of krypton's total population.  The deaths of around 99% of the other kryptonians would still be a tragedy to Kal-El.  The citizens of Argo City died when Kal was an adult.  He didn't know about them untill after they died.  I imagine he had very mixed feelings about his uncle Zor.  Argo City had phantom zone projectors.  Jer-Em was sent to the zone shortly before the meteor shower.  Zor knew about Kal.  If Zor thought things through he would have sent everone in Argo City to the phantom zone.  When Kara arrived on earth, she would have had a pz projector with her.  As well as a record of all the Argo City citizens to be released from the zone asap.   I imagine that krypton was self quarentined.  Maybe the space program Jor was involved with was not krypton's first such effort?  Even a toddler (when under a yellow sun) had the power to destroy entire solar systems with ease.  Kal's telescopic vision allows him to view things in other solar systems, & possibly other galaxies as well.  What if his heat vision has the same range?  At least when used in concert with his telescopic vision.  Imagine in ancient times a group of kryptonian "astronauts" discover the power they have under a yellow sun.  One (or more) of that group is a toddler.  In a temper tantrum that child inadvertantly destroys several inhabitted solar systems.  The group immediately returns to krypton.  It's decided that kryptonians will never leave their planet again.  All record of their first space program is erased.  Only the priests have any knowledge of what happened.

[DakotaSmith]

On Earth-Dakota (an alternate universe extremely similar to the one outside your window, but in which DC's business decisions were controlled by me), the Crisis never happened.

Instead, DC, feeling generally hamstrung by half a century's worth of continuity -- much of which doesn't make a lot of sense by the more sophisticated standards of the time -- made the following decision:

Starting with the January, 1986 issues, all comics published by the company ceases to tell stories in the universes of Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-S, etc.  All storylines in all books came to completion as of the December, 1985 issue.

Beginning in January, 1986, all stories took place inside a single universe which is simply another parallel universe.  Internally, DC called it "Earth-0," though no story of the time ever referred to it as such.  From the perspective of the characters, theirs was the only universe they'd ever known.

There was an editorially-dictated five-year moratorium on any and all alternate universe stories.  So while the Earth-2 and Earth-1 Supermen still existed, there were no stories that involved them in any way for five years.

The January, 1986 lineup of DC titles were:

o  Superman:  solo adventures of the Man of Steel, published the first of every month.

o  The Adventures Of Superman:  solo adventures of the Man of Steel, published the 14th of every month.

o  Batman:  solo adventures of the Darknight Detective, published the first of every month.

o  Detective Comics:  solo adventures of the Darknight Detective, published the 14th of every month.

o  Wonder Woman:  solo adventures of Princess Diana, published monthly.

o  Green Lantern:  solo adventures of "space cop" John Stewart, a member of the GLC, published monthly.

o  Hawkman:  solo adventures of the winged aliens Katar Hol and his wife Shayera, published monthly.

o  Flash:  solo adventures of Wally West.

o  Adventure Comics:  a monthly title whose sole purpose is to introduce potential new super-hero characters.  The first six issues introduced J'onn J'onzz, Green Arrow and Black Canary (a team by design), Captain Marvel, the Question, Captain Atom and Doctor Fate.  The title was used to "try out" hero concepts to guage reader interest in a continuing title.

In March, 1986, the following titles were added:

o  The Brave and the Bold:  adventures of Batman teamed with a rotating guest character, published monthly.

o  Action Comics:  adventures of Superman teamed with a rotating guest character, published monthly.

o  World's Finest:  joint adventures of Superman and Batman, published monthly.

o  Sensation Comics:  adventures of Wonder Woman teamed with a rotating guest character, published monthly.

o  Justice Legion:  the adventures of a 30th-century super-team, not limited to teen-agers.  The futuristic version of the Justice League, but actually introduced before the Justice League titles in order to garner interest.  The origins of said team are lost to the mists of time, but there are legends of its beginnings a thousand years previously.

Then in July, 1986, to much fanfare, was introduced the following title:

o  Justice League:  a monthly title devoted to the teaming of the super-heros.  The first couple of adventures featured Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, J'onn J'onzz, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Hawkgirl (sans Hawkman).  By the third issue, however, it was decided by these characters that the League should be all-encompassing, and as new super-heros come on the scene, they should be approached for membership.

Consquently, Justice League on Earth-Dakota became similar to what we think of as the TV series Justice League Unlimited today.  It was a clearing house for all DC's superheros, whether they had their own book or not, and whether they were successful or not.  If a try-out in Adventure or All-Star Comics (see below) garnered no interest, they'd be relegated to background panels of Justice League.

Furthermore, note that by editorial decree, new super-hero characters were only to be found in the pages of either Adventure Comics or:

o  All-Star Comics.  A "try-out" title similar to Adventure Comics, except it would feature team-based adventures.  Some issues introduce new individual characters within the context of a Justice League adventure.  Some issues were adventures of sub-teams of the Justice League.  All-Star Comics was the springboard for the titles:

o  Justice League:  Outsiders:  a monthly featuring a sub-group of the League whose rotation varied but generally included characters who for various reasons didn't "fit in" with the usual League teams.  Basically a group that didn't ordinarily "work and play well with others."  The team was nominally "led" by the Question.

o  Justice League:  Doom Patrol:  a monthly featuring a sub-group of the League who were particularly unusual in some way.  The cast was essentially similar to the Doom Patrol of Earth-Reality's DCU.

o  Justice League:  Teen Titans:  a monthly featuring the adventures of the junior members of the Justice League.  Regular membership included Supergirl, Robin, Stargirl, Wonder Girl, and Aqualad.

Very rarely were characters in the Earth-Dakota DCU killed.  Instead, if interest waned, they were simply rolled back into the Justice League.  Titles and heros came and went as titles and heros do, but they always had the Justice League.  One might go years without seeing Hawk and Dove in a regular story, but they might be glimpsed wandering the Hall of Justice, ready for use in case a writer might be so inclined.

The most dramatic difference in the comics world of Earth-Dakota was the fact that, without Crisis On Infinite Earths as the template for annual company-wide cross-overs, such things never came into existence.  Cross-over adventures occurred either within the confines of the existing team-up titles or in All-Star Comics or a similar Justice League title created explicitly for the purpose of a cross-over story.

As for the Earth-0 Superman himself ...

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the race of the Mathusians learned the secret of immortality, but at a cost.  They could become immortal, but only by sacrificing their ability to reproduce.  They did so, and became the self-styled Guardians.  They formed the Green Lantern Corps, which by 1986 had become the primary peace-keeping force in the galaxy.

A few thousand years ago, one of their number, Krona, ultimately broke away from the Guardians and decided to attempt to create a "successor" race.  he envisioned a race genetically superior in every way, immortal like the Guardians, but capable of reproduction.  Krona's work was deemed criminal by the Guardians, and he was outcast.

Working on his own, Krona went to the planet Krypton.  He conducted long-term experiments in genetic engineering and enjoyed great success.  His super-race was just that:  humanoid in appearance, extraordinarily intelligent, an extremely wide range of both active and passive senses, muscle tissue so dense that they were almost capable of negating gravity, and the ability to draw nourishment directly from certain wavelengths of their red sun.  While not immortal, they were extremely long-lived, with lifespans of several centuries not uncommon.

When the Guardians discovered what Krona had done, they punished him by banishment to some random alternate universe, never to return.  Realizing the potential for harm inherent in a super-race, successive Green Lanterns were charged with observing their development and reporting the the Guardians in the event they appeared to become aggressive.

By 1956, the Kryptonians had succeeded in producing a thriving and peaceful civilization.  They had colonized various moons and planets in their own solar system and were on the verge of discovering interstellar flight when the planet Krypton mysteriously exploded.  The Green Lantern of their sector could report no reason for this.  She did report, however, that just before the destruction of the planet an experimental spacecraft was launched.  It entered hyperspace just after the planet's destruction for an unknown destination, carrying in its wake a number of small chunks of the planet's debris.

The various Kryptonian colonies in their solar system, highly dependant on  Krypton for various resources necessary for their survival, slowly died out.  Only two colonies, the space stations of Kandor and Argo, appeared capable of continued life.  However Kandor itself mysteriously disappeared only a few years later.

Argo, on the other hand, appeared to be continuing a self-sufficiency, however an unexpected side-effect of the destruction of Krypton was the conversion of its rubble to a substance that was unusually toxic to Kryptonians.  Argo was ultimately punctured by Kryptonite meteorites, and the only survivor was a teenaged girl who was placed in an experimental spacecraft and launched into hyperspace.

The first Kryptonian spacecraft was that of Kal-El.  His spacecraft landed in a rural area of Kansas where it was found by the Kents, who "adopted" the child as their own.

Posessing of amazing abilities even as an infant, young Clark Kent grew in power.  The yellow sun was teeming with the wavelengths of light he'd been specifically engineered to use for sustinance, turning his body into a "power battery" that multiplied his enhanced genetics to a fantastic level.

There was no Superboy on Earth-0:  Clark began his career as an adult, totally ignorant of his Kryptonian heritage.  Only as Kryptonian artifacts found their way to Earth did he gain information about his past.

For example, there were unusual meteorites found across South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas from a 1956 strike.  These odd, green rocks would cause a peculiar form of blood poisoning.

The biggest key to unravelling his past was found in the arrival of Supergirl.  Clearly of the same genetic structure as Superman and carrying some of the same strange green meteorites as those found in 1956, it was concluded that she must come from Superman's planet of origin.  She could tell volumes about the destruction of Krypton and life on post-Krypton Argo.

The final key was provided when Brainiac, a "collector" of alien civilizations, arrived on Earth and attempted to make off with human cities.  He had absconded with the Kryptonian space station of Kandor, placing it in an area of spacial intangibility called the "Phantom Zone."  However, Brainiac's spaceship and transport equipment was destroyed while Superman fought him, making it impossible to bring the Kandorians back.  Superman nevertheless found a way to communicate with the Kandorians, at which time Superman learned the truth of both his origin and Krypton's destruction:

Making contact with Van-Zee of Kandor, Superman learned that in the last days of Krypton, his father Jor-El had been experimenting with creating hyperspacial wormholes.  What Jor-El couldn't have forseen were the unique circumstances under which Kronos had created the Kryptonian race.  His choice of the gravitationally-massive Krypton and its massive Red Giant sun were environmentally unique, yet combined with an additional womhole within these gravitational fields produced a horrifically unstable situation.

In short, Jor-El accidentally created a quantum black hole on the surface of the planet.

All of this would have been unknown, but for the fact that Van-Zee was an assistant of Jor-El's working from the Kandor space station.  He'd been in contact with Jor-El during his final experiments -- something he'd never divulged to the other Kandorians.

With only minutes to deal with the situation Jor-El placed his infant son in an experimental hyperspace craft and launched him toward Earth.  The planet was ripped to shreds, the black hole winking out of existence once the equipment that created it was destroyed.

At the end of this story, Superman was left in the situation of needing to find a way to restore the space station of Kandor from the Phantom Zone to real space, yet at the same time aware that if the Kandorians discovered the secret of what had happened to their planet, he and his new Kandorian friend Van-Zee might face a significant backlash.

And ... well ... that's what I'd've done, in the alternate universe of Earth-Dakota.  

Dakota Smith

[NotSuper]

Great ideas, Dakota. This is a really fun thread and it shows just how versatile the character of Superman can be. I might have to create another take on Superman myself.

[Just a fan]

On thr topic of Kandor, my thought: Superman and SuperGirl recieve an call from the UN requesting their presents ASAP. When they arrive they are told of a recently discovered planet on the far edge of our solor system that has a Green K core but otherwise could support life, the problems being it is so far away it would take earth ships 100's of years to reach it, and the planet is so large it gravity would crush a normaly earth being. Now the kicker is a grateful member of thier science team has developed an enlarging ray and the people in Kandor could live and thrive on the new planet. The problem with the enlarging dievce is it is powered by Gold K, which once used would strip the people of all thier super powers. The super cousns presnt this to the Kandorains, who vote to live on the new planet. Kal, Kara and Superman robot take the bottled city to the new planet. The plan being once the they reach the planet the robot will set the bottle down and activate the ray, leaving the cousins safely in orbit.

Once they arrive the robot starts to desend to the planet but somehow malfunctons and start burning up when entrying the atmosphere, before Kal can re act, Supergirl flies in to save the city from being destroyed in the fire and fall to planet surface. Having been exposed to the Green K, she begins to die, with no way to save her Kal watches as she turns on the enlarging ray, and hears her say, "I thougtht I lost my parents once, I couldn't live thru that again, Mom, Dad I love you" and she slowly dies as we watch the city expand behind her.  The final scene is the enlarge Kandorians building a memoerial to Kara and naming thier Karayn which were told translates in "Gift from Kara"  and Kal thinking to himself, there will never be a more noble woman, my dear sweet cousin who made made this universe a little less lonley for me.

Epilog, the Kandorians laying Kara's body in tomb designed to perserve her forever and the enlarging ray placed along side her, and we're pivleged to see a small crack exposing the Gold K............

[Defender]

Jeez, ask an easy question why don't ya?

 If the DC editors had sat down with me and asked what I'd have done with the character these days , I would've kept things boiled down to a couple of concepts. Looking at what works and what doesn't.

 PRE-CRISIS ELEMENTS TO KEEP:

 1) Super-trinity of Kal-El, Kara Zor-El, and Krypto.

 2) Superman was Superboy in his past.

 3) 'Metropolis' Clark Kent as disguise.

 4) Lois Lane does not know Clark and Superman are the same man, and are not married.

 5) Krypton is destroyed, and beyond the Phantom Zone villains, the super-trinity are the last of their kind. Could work Kandor in later, but for the beginning of the run they're it for Krypton's heroic legacy.

 6) Krypton as utopia. Krypton was a gem of the universe, a thriving world that had found peace after generations of war, and had wonders both geographical and technological that were exceeded only by the Oans. Their loss was a tragedy to the galactic community, for while somewhat isolationist (in an effort to avoid contaminating other more primitive cultures) they provided a moral example to civilizations as Krypton's last son would to the people of Earth. Green Lanterns were one thing, but if the Kryptonians got involved it was BIG. Thus Krypton takes on a legendary resonance to the alien civilizations of the DCU, one more immediate than the mythical status of the Maltans/Oans/Zamarons. A cautionary tale some might say about putting all your eggs in one basket. . .


 ELEMENTS OF THE POST-CRISIS SUPERMAN TO KEEP:

 1) Ma and Pa Kent being alive. I like the fact that Superman treasures both sides of his heritage. I also like having Ma and Pa Kent around to allow for more of Clark's humanity. 'Metropolis Clark' is the real Clark's disguise, but he needs a place where he can just let that mask drop and be himself with other people, where he can be the man he was raised to be without having to drape himself in Kryptonian colors. His parents and their counsel provide him with a place of sanctuary more precious than even the Fortress of Solitude. He's not quite as dependent on them as he is in the post-crisis comics, but he loves his mom and dad and has them in his life.

 (Short list I know).

 ELEMENTS TO ADD (GENERAL):

 1) Superman as the morality of the DCU. He's the first superhero of the post-golden age era, and the most powerful. But more than anything else he's might for right. He's a just man who holds himself to a higher standard, who's dedicated himself to the ideals of Truth, Justice, and the American way of life. He's a fundamentally good man and while he may occasionally become troubled, he never falters when it comes time to do the right thing. He's not a killer either; a man who remembers the loss of an entire world would treasure life as no other, and he would do everything in his power to not only confront and halt evil but try to redeem those lost to it. As the Superman of the JLU cartoon put it ' I believe in redemption. I believe in second chances. But most importantly, I believe in my friends. '

 2) Superman as contented hero. I don't want to see my hero ridden with chest-thumping Angst. Superman should easily be one of the happiest people on Earth. How many of us could do what he does, helping people and seeing them safely through the day, to be in command of powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men? To be able to fend off the machinations of Brainiac, the menace of Lex Luthor, and the rampages of Titano? To be able to journey to alien worlds, through time, through alternate realities and to experience the depth and scope of the DC Universe in its awe-inspiring entirety? Superman should greet the uknown and the unexplored with a fundamental zest and a smile. The son of a scientist and an astronaut, he's got explorer's blood in his veins. He's not only a fighter for peace, but a scientist working to repay his adopted homeworld for all it's given him. Simply put, being Superman is fun.

 3) Lex Luthor as the greatest criminal mind of our time! Not a poor man's Kingpin. The Luthor-as-businessman model has been done to death. Yes, he built LexCorp to be his legitamite financial empire, but only because he was so monumentally bored he needed a suitable diversion. Lex is the Leonardo Da Vinci of supervillains. He's the guy the Thinker, the Joker, the Superman Revenge Squad all go to for the Plan. For the scheme. Because in a world of men with magic rings and dark knight detectives Lex is the ultimate in criminal genius. The ideas he jots down on a napkin in idle moments of reflection could make a petty crook a king. Lex needs Superman because Superman is the only person who consistently provides Lex with any sort of challenge.  Not that he'd ever admit it to himself or others, but Superman is the only person on Earth Lex considers his equal.

 That's all I've got for now, more later.

 -Def.

[MatterEaterLad]

I have to ask why keeping the Kents alive is so important?

It seems so much more fundemental that they gave Clark a sound upbringing and he went off to find what he was truly meant to be...