This is a bit of a pet project that I’ve been meaning to start for a while now, and Adam Mallinger gave me the final nudge to get moving on it when he started his Superfan XL site that discusses the post-Crisis Superman stories from the 80s and 90s. I am going to read as many of the comics that DC published in 1984 as I can – a task made much easier by the DC Universe Infinite app – and sum up my thoughts here, with one post dedicated to each month.
Why?
First and foremost, 1984 is the year before DC overhauled its continuity with the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS maxiseries. I started regularly reading comics in early 1989, so the “post-Crisis” DC was my primary reference point. At the same time, the late 70s/early 80s versions of the characters influenced many of the spinoffs and merchandising that introduced me to the characters when I was a kid, so even if I didn’t know those stories, I feel a connection to that time period. So I want to try to get to really know the specific quo that DC felt needed to be massively disrupted.
Second, I want to do some intentional thinking about how superhero comics storytelling has changed. The decline of newsstands and the rise of the direct market in the 1980s led to experiments with format and technique that I think turbocharged the usual evolution and development of the art form. 1986 is often noted as a pivotal year that included stories like WATCHMEN and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. I want to look back a little earlier and see how those experiments were unfolding. So I’m going to be comparing 1984 both to today and to the late 80s/early 90s when I was an avid reader and purchaser.
Third, tying into the first two points, when I am done, I may want to indulge in a bit of an Elseworlds-type creative exercise and ask myself what kind of stories DC could have told if they hadn’t gone ahead with CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. If nothing else, such an exercise could make for a heck of a roleplaying game setting.
So far this has been a lot of fun. So let’s get started.
