THEY ARE BACK! THE DIBNYS ARE FINALLY BACK!!

Well, it finally happened. It was a very pleasant surprise, a perfectly satisfying return and… I didn’t have the time to report it.
Anyway, the Dibnys are back and just as we remember them. Literally, since these are not the New 52 versions but the ones from the 80s Earth-One.
As part of the Convergence crossover, Ralph, Sue and the entire Justice League roster of the Detroit incarnation are back in  Convergence: Justice League of America #1,  written by Fabian Nicieza.

Convergence: Justice League of America #1

The issue is part of a longer story and doesn’t stand alone. Which means there will be more of our favorite couple. The best part of this is that Sue is the POV character, so, predictably, Ralph will be the hero of the whole story.
A great surprise is that Fabian gets the characters just right. They feel just like Nick and Nora Charles, which is actually a great improvement over most of their original appearances (Justice League Quarterly #6, being the most notable exception). If in the next issues he solves a mystery, we would have the full deal.
If this wasn’t good enough, according to the USA Today article about this issue “Fabian Nicieza is eagerly awaiting the call to do a monthly detective comic book featuring Ralph and Sue Dibny”. That would be great news. I don’t know how serious is that, but I found that so exciting that I even went to Dan DiDio´s facebook wall to congratulate him on the decision. Fabian clearly gets the characters and the current DC line could definitively use a book like that.
As soon as I read the whole JLA Detroit story in Convergence, I will write a review here.

UPDATE 

The mystery of how the actual heroes are not on the cover.

The second part of "Heroes Interrupted" in Convergence: Justice League of America #2 is even greater than the first. Well, at least for Ralph and Sue.

Finally a story that revindicates the Elongated Man as a JLAer!

...Just not on this panel.

The story make a nice showcase of Ralph's fighting abilities. He is basically all around stretching more than he ever did on a JLA book.

The issue also focuses on his skills; however, in this case, it isn't on him as a detective, but as a strategist and a field leader.
In addition to being the POV character, Sue also becomes the problem solver, along with an anachronistic Detective Renee Montoya (she debuted in 1992 as a regular cop in blue). Sue didn't actually started to take initiatives like that until Justice League Europe #9, when she helped save Power Girl.

The downside of so much Dibny focus, to be fair, is that the rookies are not really showcased. The story could have used about 5 pages to focus on the fight of the Justice Leaguers against the Secret Six after spreading. However, this isn't really a bad thing, the story is clearly about the Dibnys: it shows how Ralph and Sue can do a lot with very little. 

This image says it all!
Enlarge if you don't mind spoilers.

The Periodic Table of Superheroes

It's funny how as awesome as it is I can't help but nitpick minor details. Like The Atom, Speedy and Mr. Mxyzptlk so notoriously missing. They were popular during that era, as well as Cyborg, Starfire, Raven and Beastboy. Harley has nothing to do there (although, retroactively, it would have been a really cool thing to see), and I feel that the Scarecrow, Captain Cold, Grodd, Black Manta, Zod, Solomon Grundy, Sinestro, Sivana, Mr. Mind and Mordru were more popular than Two-Face. That being said, we have to note that whoever did this grouped heroes by families, which wouldn't have made easy to fit everyone there. It's fun to play with these ideas, anyway.

Know your Justice Leaguer

In a previous article, I made the personality profile of The Elongated Man. Knowing what makes a character tick is what makes them interesting. The bad (or the badass) seems to be the flavor of the day since the late 80s. Everybody needed to be like Rorschach, Batman or Wolverine to be cool. But that’s not good writing, just selling fool-proof hooks that can be pulled even by the lesser writers.

Good writers know how play with personality traits in order to sell any character. Take Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, as instance, Tolkien and Jackson, managed to make a pop cult icon out of Gollum, a petty worm who is the very antithesis of any type of alpha male. The most read book of all times is about a loon that sees windmills as villains. The most popular sitcom is about four neurotic misfits… The trick is to know the character and to know how to exploit his personality traits.

With that in mind, I give you a list of sketches the most notorious members of the Justice League. My focus is on temperament, which I consider the very core of a person’s attitude.

Aquaman: His personality has wildly changed in some media; however, in comics, he’s most commonly portrayed as a tough yet melancholic, no-nonsense guy with a lot of weight over his shoulders. That crown is heavy.

He has an old soul. Like Batman, his eye for detail is just as sharp as his eye for the big picture. He’s extremely loyal and noble, but he doesn’t waste time on lost causes.

Within the League he sits among the other "kings": Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter. I just happens.

Other versions have him as a merrier guy. Batman: The Brave and the Bold even gave him a loud, bigger than life personality, very similar to the Thor of the 2011 movie. It’s not the original deal, but I kind of like this better, even if toned down a bit.

The Atom: It is ironic, but the smallest man alive, often feels like a small man inside. Despite being a genius and having one of the greatest super powers, he tends to feel guilty and undeserving, making him the most typically melancholic member of the team. He’s very creative and escapes everyday life through science and superheroics. He pulled the whole superhero thing for a woman, who doesn’t seem to appreciate him that well, which doesn’t speak well of his self-esteem. Hawkman, his best friend is also bossy and overly confident. The second he gets out of his lab, Ray Palmer tends to give a lot, expecting nothing in return.

He loves his role as the idea guy of the JLA, he's no tactician, but when it comes to tehnical matters, hes the go-to guy.
However, he is sometimes portrayed as an absent-minded genius with little interests outside science; your average Egon Spengler, Gyro Gearloose or Mr. Fantastic.

Batman: A compulsive melancholic who is obsessed with perfection. Fueled by survivor’s guilt, makes sure he’s the best at everything he does, including being the ultimate alpha. He’s very methodical and needs to control people and information alike. Years of practice have made him faster when it comes to acquiring new skills. He is able to act like a very social person as Bruce Wayne, but that’s all it is, an act. He has deep trust issues and can’t communicate affection properly to his loved ones (even though he is not that bad at hinting it). His most significant love affair is with Catwoman, who is just as distant in her own way. 

Working with the JLA, he arrives late at the Watchtower, takes charge, solve the problem and goes back to Gotham.
During the silver age, both as Batman and as Bruce, he was more civic-minded, polite and preachy. This characterization was reused with some added coolness in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Black Canary: She’s an overachiever, focusing all her dedication and discipline in continuing her mother’s legacy as a superhero. Mother issues and poor taste in men are perhaps the biggest aspects of her personal life. Opposed to Green Arrow, she’s also a strong, independent woman with feminist values. She works her ass off; Hal would just get the job done right with the best  tool available, and then hit the bar; by contrast, Dinah would do hours of exhaustive practice, almost as intensively as Batman. She plays hard to get, but she is no Catwoman. Ollie is her weakness; she demands a lot of herself only to fall for the resident ladies man. Her temperament is a bit melancholic, but phlegmatic enough to have great people skills, which makes her a perfect field leader.

The Elongated Man: The guy is all about doing what he loves and getting some attention while he’s there, by far, the most laid back out of the classic leaguers; a perfectly sanguine type. He’s quite diligent but wastes no extra energy to get the job done; he’s so practical that in his debut, he proved to be a faster crime-solver than Flash himself. He can solve anything Batman does – only with fewer resources and more lateral thinking. He's often the one who humbly presents a practical solution when the team seems to be up against the wall (even more often when Batman is not around). 

Out of the entire league, he’s the one that makes the most assertive life-choices and avoids drama the best. Ralph is a fun guy who managed to get the money, the girl, the fame and the status on his first day and then saves the world merely by “stretching at the right time”.

Firestorm: Ronnie is frat guy with a heart of gold. Being analytic never worked for him, so he focused on fun and what makes a male kid popular, but then, he got a challenge and was forced to change his ways. His fusion with Professor Martin Stein is like a permanent, intensive and forced mentorship that forces him to overcome that one aspect of his life he used to neglect. The way he acts, he looks self-secure, yet, he’s overcompensating for his lack of intellectuality, which he is overcoming as Firestorm. The JLA became even more reinforcement. Starting with Superman, they believe in his potential. He's the rookie of the team and when it came to fitting in, Ralph often took him under his wing.  

The Flash: One of the hardest to define for many people. He’s all about diligence and a huge sense of civic duty. His temperament is somewhere between phlegmatic and melancholic. He feels the need to complete great task and to do it step by step and by the book, often missing the forest for the tree. However, he can still be very creative. He’s very similar to Superman, only less bold, more humble and more of a side thinker. And while Clark pretends to be boring, Barry is the genuine article.

Green Arrow: This one is all about character. He’s sanguine like Hal, only with a shorter temper, savvier and more stubborn. He relies heavily on common sense and cynical observation to the point that he is perhaps the best judge of character in the League and, even though he’s about as old as the rest, he’s seen the “old devil” of the team. 

He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and yet, he’s so stubbornly liberal that he became the most socially aware JLAer; he’s the guy that often keeps the rest grounded. To him, watching out for the little guy is way more important than defeating the bad guy and his teammates appreciate him for that. That being said, he can also be patronizing, flawed and a bit chauvinistic. The fact that he’s an idealist doesn't mean that his behavior is perfect as a person, especially when it comes to women.

Green Lantern: The guy is the epitome of the charming alpha male. He likes, he takes. He shoots, he scores; very good at saving the day, getting the girl and having a great time. However, like a good sanguine (and unlike Ralph), he is not that great on the long term. Hal can’t keep the girl and doesn't really climb the job ladder, even when he has all the opportunities there. He probably feels a bit undeserving under all that cockiness.

Hawkman: He is a tough alpha male; nerves of steel, sharp, to the point; never misses a thing and he is always talking with authority. He never backs away from his frame. His views are often the toughest of the team. He and his wife might walk around bare-naked, yet he is very conservative (Republican in fact), overprotective with women (at least one time with Black Canary and often with his wife) and he takes the most aggressive stands on punishments.

As serious as Katar is, the ones that get close to him like Hawkgirl, the Atom and Elongated Man, can get him to show his lighter side.  That being said, he can’t stand Ollie.

Superman:  I always say, when your father treats you as if you were Superman, you end up flying. This is literally the case with Clark. He comes from two great sets of parents, the first gave them his genetic characteristics and the double gift of life and the second raised him as an assertive man with great values. He might feel the weight of the World when it comes to do the right thing with his powers (especially in the last decades), but classically, he does good because he truly likes and believes in kindness, Midwestern, all-American kindness.

The big difference with Barry, is that he is not as pressured by guilt, and that, as Clark, he only pretends to be a square. When it comes to Lois, he barely minds her aggressive exterior; he can only look at her great fiery heart.

In general, he’s easy going and calm. Modern interpretations have him more introspective, early ones had him self-righteous and the ones from the silver age, had him more easy going and even more chivalrous, with a slightly geeky sense of fun.

Wonder Woman: She is like Athena or King Solomon: graceful, merciful, assertive, proper, respectful, wise, kind and as self-secure as the archetypal good monarch. Generally calm and nice, she has no trouble being aggressive and taking the bull by its horns when the situation requires it. I would say that she is the best leader a team can have (keep in mind that leadership rotated in the original JLA).

With so many attributes everybody is in love with her; yet, she has something that prevents most from hitting on her. At some points she has been attracted to the idealist Superman, and at least an interpretation has had her with a thing for the more magnetic Batman; however, the guy that gets her heart (Steve Trevor)  is a suave gentleman with the right cause.

Zatanna: She is a crowd pleaser, loves the attention and manages to get that with her charming personality. Since she was created, there has always been constant drama on her life, she is always missing something, which tells me that she is a bit codependent. She’s mostly sanguine, having fun and going with the flow; however, she also has some supine and melancholic characteristics. Between the lines, I have noticed some daddy issues in her persona.

Did you like the character profiles? Here are some more:

Know your Super Buddy!
Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire,  Ice, Sue, 
Maxwell and the rest of the late 80s gang!

Know your Bat-Villain! Part I - 
Probably the craziest supervillains in 
American comics, so it is a longer read.

Art for Absolute Identity Crisis: BOO-YAH!!

Front center, a great place for the World-famous Elongated Man.
This page was created for the cover art of Absolute Identity Crisis released October 12th, 2011. This has to be the greated thing DC has done for the Elongated Man this year.
Artists often forget how tall is Ralph supposed to be, but that's clearly not the case here.

Top 10 grounded DC characters.

Art by yours truly, Rafa Rivas.

For certain characters, who never had notoriety of any sort, its completely normal to get dry spells of publication. Nobody expects the likes of Angel and the Ape, Anthro, Prez or Detective Chimp to get their own regular series. However, since the 70s, every decade has a different set of previously prominent DC Comics character hidden under the rug. As if TPTB were ashamed of those properties. The Martian Manhunter, Firestorm, Zatanna, Red Tornado, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Adam Strange and even Aquaman have all been through that.

The first clear example would have to be J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. When the Justice League of America was founded, outside the "super trinity" (Batman, Superman and Wonder), he was about as famous as any of the rest. Really. In fact, the weakest link was Green Lantern, who debuted some months before the team was created. After the debut of the JLA, all its members were editorially pushed with their own titles; the Martian moved from Detective Comics, where he was out-shined by Batman, to House of Mystery, where he became the lead. The Elongated Man replaced him in Detective Comics. However, that all faded by the late 60s; he was first taken out of House of Mystery, and then, he was written off the Justice League. By the 70s, he was known as the green bald dude who was somehow a funding member of the JLA. After over a decade of cameos, the Justice League title provided the best justification for his return: it needed full-time members, who wouldn't have adventures outside the book. Lacking options to make the team feel like the real JLA, writer Gerry Conway decided to bring the green dude back, and for similar reasons, the next creative team kept him as leader of the Justice League International. DC revamped the League once more in the mid 90s and, this time, the angle was going for the original founding members (or their available equivalents). Consequently, after all that, despite his long absence around the 70s, the Martian became known as "the heart and soul of the JLA". That's a happy ending, let's see how it continues now that he has been retroactively erased from the origins of the Justice League and shoehorned into a team called "Stormwatch".

Zatanna, for instance, was a steady member of the JLA after the late 70s. Like the Martian Manhunter and the Elongated Man, she stayed with the League during it's "Detroit era". However, once it was over, she went back to scarce cameos. The controversial and successful Identity Crisis limited series brought her back to the spotlight, she has a miniseries, joined the League for a while, appeared in Detective Comics, and got her own title. Now, she's with something called "Justice League Dark".

Firestorm popped up in '78 with a mini series, then, fully boosted by his creator (Gerry Conway), returned in 1980 to join the Justice League and get his backup feature in Flash. In 1982, he graduated from the backup to get his own title. Then, they got the popular characters out of the JLA title, they did some really weird stuff with him in his book, yadda, yadda, yadda, he didn't appear through the 90s. When I started reading comics, I often wondered whatever happened to the guy from Super Friends with fire instead of hair. He returned, but they keep doing odd things with the character.

Along with the Elongated Man, half the characters who were part of the Justice League International, were notoriously absent from 1996 to 2004. They revamped them as the "Super Buddies" in a couple of limited series that were critically acclaimed and sold very well. However, after the first series, for some reason, one by one, each of those characters was killed off (Sue Dibny, Blue Beetle, Rocket Red, the Elongated Man), horribly derailed (Maxwell Lord, Captain Atom, Mary Marvel) or went through hell because of that (Booster Gold, Fire).

Their absence is normally a bit more notorious once they return; however, I believe I can identify the missing people of this era. My criteria is how recurring they were in the past, compared to what they get now:

10. Zauriel and Aztek

Shooting stars like Ragman or Blue Devil, they were never really regulars of anything. However, their absense is odd, considering that their creator, one Grant Morrison, is one of the most influential forces of the current DC Comics authors. He tends to leave a trace of brilliantly conceived bastard children behind him.
9. The classic Teen Titans

Not really an endangered species, since we get to see them all around; however, they do lack a regular series. During the 70s, writers avoided using or creating sidekicks (children fighting crime are a dumb idea, anyway), so they kept them in the Teen Titans team (a team of teenagers with no adult supervision... sounds better, doesn't it?). In 1980, DC aged them, added new characters and it became a hit. Sidekick problem solved, right? Well, not really. They kept aging and, during the 90s, DC created a new wave of sidekicks... which eventually needed a team, and since the Teen Titans were no longer teenagers, they got the name as well. Now the original titans are too old to stay in the team and not popular enough to substitute their mentors. Some became part of the Justice League, but that didn't sit well with the title's fans at all. Without a team, most of these characters are doomed to be title-less, which puts them at risk of fading away.

8. Black Lightning

Black Lightning was created to be the main African American superhero from DC Comics, and yet the character has been blocked from every opportunity of exposure outside comics: for Super Friends, they had to create "Black Vulcan", for Static Shock, they created "Soul Power", and he was notoriously absent in Justice League. He got some recent prominence in comics, but it has been fading since he quit the Justice League. And now, with Static as the new and improved electric black dude, BL is even less likely to get some spotlight.

7. The Penguin

This guy is probably the most recurring and well known of the list. Ask anybody who's not a comics book fan - the Penguin is a popular character. He even appeared more often in the 60s TV show than the Joker. However, in the current comics, he's a mere supporting character. What happened? In the 80s all the popular Batman characters got their postmodern makeover. The Joker, Two-face, Poison Ivy and Catwoman went from silly gimmicky villains to complex characters. The Penguin (like the Riddler) never made the leap. Even though, in theory, he always had what it takes to be a spectacular villain with magnetic personality: An epic histrionic disorder. As the creators of South Park how far can a character get with that (yes, I'm talking about Cartman).

6. The Question

Between Alan Moore's Rorschach and the Fox Mulder-esque treatment the Question got in Justice League Unlimited DC had the perfect formula to make Vic Sage a hit character. On the other hand they had Renee Montoya, a minor supporting character getting quite popular thanks to Gotham Central. What was done? They killed off Vic and turned Montoya into the Question. Did it work? If the purpose was trading the lead status for a supporting one, I guess it did. Montoya is a lovely member of Batman's supporting cast, but she doesn't have the twisted mind that is required to be the Question and now she can't even fall back to her police role.

5. Garth

Aqualad's main roles were sidekick of Aquaman and member of the Teen Titans, but what happens when he becomes too old for either? Literally, not much. Garth was killed two years ago and a new Aqualad has replaced him on both fronts.

4. Green Lantern John Stewart.

John was always meant to be supporting, he was the original "fill-in Green Lantern" to Hal Jordan; however, by 1992 he was popular enough to get his own series - which was cancelled for no good reason. Later, in 2001 he became the Green Lantern of the Justice League TV series; the idea was to bring diversity to the show to reach a wider audience. The comics followed the trend for a while, but despite all the other media popularity, when DC resurrected Jordan and brought back Guy Gardner, Stewart hit the bench once again.

3. Lobo

Lobo was created in 1983 and by the late 80s he was appearing at least once every single month. He got a number of miniseries and then, after R.E.B.E.L.S. was cancelled, his own title. However, with the change of century, Lobo started fading. He became supporting character of Young Justice, some appearances in 52, and then, back to supporting R.E.B.E.L.S.

2. Wally West

Like Iris West (his aunt) and Ralph Dibny, the Kid Flash is one of the earliest and most recurring supporting characters of the Flash. In the silver age, he was also a Teen Titan. When Barry Allen died, Wally became the Flash (the character got the regular series) and has been part of three incarnations of the Justice League. Recently, DC decided to resurrect Barry. Now, we have two Flashes, but we only get to see the adventures of the original.

1. Elongated Man & Wife

Before the mid 90s, one way or another, the Elongated Man always had a decent amount of appearances. About once every month. After that, his appearances became scarce. In 2004, writers Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis found the perfect home for the Dibnys in Formerly Known as the Justice League. Then, Brad Meltzer decided Sue could be the perfect victym for a thriller (Identity Crisis) and further than that, her death unleashed years of megacrossover events for DC (not even the Death of Superman caused such an aftermath). Ralph died in one of those spins (52) and they ended becoming "detective ghosts". As tragic as those stories were, at least it can be said that they put the Dibnys front center; however, it has been over four years since the end of 52 and those ghosts have only made 3 very brief cameos. Ralph used to be one of the most recurring characters of Flash, along with Iris West and Kid Flash; he had ties strong ties to Batman, was a member of the classic silver age Justice League of America and the Justice League International. However, now it'd seem that DC goes out of its way to avoid featuring them (in Justice League: Generation Lost and Flashpoint, for instance). And it's not only in comics: Sue has never been featured in other media, Ralph's animation time doesn't add up to even 5 minutes, and he's notoriously absent from the DC Universe Online videogame and the DC Universe Classics action figures.

The End of the DC Universe!

The other day, I saw a thread in the DC message boards that got me thinking about the kind of endings that I'd like for the characters of the current DCU. Here's what I came up with:

Green Lantern
Sinestro finally gets Oa destroyed, but he loses his own life in the process. Kyle, John, Kilowog, Soranik, Salaak, Arisia, Ch'p, Katma, Tomar Re, and Sodam become the new Guardians of the earth battery, which only survived because Hal merged with the light.

The Flash
Barry Allen returns after surviving the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Realizing that Central City has long moved on after he disappeared and that Earth is safer than ever, he moves to the future with Iris [so that his climax is CoIE but he still gets his happy "silver age" ending]. The Rogues retire and Wally remains the guardian of the city.

The Atom
Ryan and Ray find a way to cure Jean from her Jimbaran relapses. Ray decided to retire as the Atom to focus on his marriage.

Justice League International
Booster Gold makes the ultimate sacrifice, which only a resurrected Ted will ever acknowledge. Ted becomes the new "Maxwell" of the last JLI [it's a switcheroo deal topped with a "Greatest story never told" situation], which also has Fire as its field leader. Ice retires to have a family with Guy... What none of them ever find out is that Maxwell's actual brain remains in his old cyborg body; he retired long ago and has lived with L-Ron and Wanda managing a Manga Khan space resort ever since.

Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman saves USA from the wrath of the Gods, her body becomes a statue at Washington and Zeus gives her soul, along with Steve's a place in Mount Olympus [CoIE + Greek tragedy].

Batman
The Joker and a small gang of old time criminals push Damian betray his father and Terry. Damian sacrifices taking the Joker with him. Eventually, Bruce dies by Selina's side surrounded by Terry, Barbara, Dick and Tim [It's a legacy thing, he made a difference]. He's buried by them, along with the remaining leaguers and the Batman Inc. Corps.

The Elongated Man
Ralph and Sue keep solving DC mysteries forever [Quantum Leap, anyone?]. Billy Warner becomes the best detective of his generation, the Detective Chimp invites him to join the Croatoan Society.

The Martian Manhunter
The Martian Manhunter retires to live with a single mother and her daughter [is, he embraces humanity]. They die at the same time from natural causes.

Green Arrow
Dinah and Ollie remarry, only to get divorce the next year after that. They remain a couple. They have a daughter; she becames a registered Republican and wants nothing to do with superheroes.

Hawkman
It took a thousand reincarnations, but Hawkman and Hawkgirl finally complete their lives without early tragedies.

Zatanna
Zee finally starts a drama-free relationship with a normal guy and retires [she got over her daddy issues]. She becomes a hot soccer mom. Her kid is teased because there are a lot of "glamour" pics of her mom all over the Internet.

Starman
Not an important character, but Starman sacrificed himself to save Earth from his own race [Ziggy style], which were actually mutants created by the Spiders from Vega.

Aquaman
After Aquaman achieves great peace between Atlantis and the rest of the World, and a lot of prosperity emanates from his county, he dies in a fight against One's son, who was then killed by Garth, who was, at the time, considered a traitor to the kingdom. This way, Garth gets this way his redemption, as well as the forgiveness of Meera and Atlantis. He is finally allowed to reunite with his Atlantean wife: Arthur's daughter.[something Arthurian without making Mera a **** or dragging swords and lakes into it].

Black Lightning
Black Lightning reveals his identity and becames Mayor of Metropolis [he finally made the difference. Would President be too much?]. The Suicide Slum becomes the Suicide District, the cultural center of the city (real state agents keep trying to push for "Simon Heights", but nothing). He puts on his wig for one more fight along the League after that.

Metamorpho
Java takes one of Simon's plan to the extreme, and kills Sapphire; Simon kills Java trying to save her. Although old habits die hard, Simon rejects his own selfishness for her and his grandson; Metamorpho accepts himself in order to provide a role model for his son, he gets Simon's frequent cooperation as a grandfather.

Justice League Unlimited
The Justice League is carried on by Terry.

Superman
Mr. Mxyzptlk puts Superman him through some ultimate test of morals and courage. He passes and the imp alters reality so that his enemies fade away. However, many years later, Luthor returns and things too far in order to destroy him (probably something involving the Anti-Monitor technology from Crisis on Infinite Earths). He is a shell of a man, merged with Brainiac, Amazon and Metallo technologies, and he makes Superman chose between sacrifice or the destruction of all reality. Superman chooses the former and dies. Right then, after realizing that he has lost his humanity and has almost destroyed everything he ever cared about in the process of eliminating him, Luthor commits suicide. It turns out this was Mxyzptlk's real test. He pops up again to restore everything, only this time he leaves Clark without his powers, thus lifting the overwhelming responsibility from his shoulders, so that he finally has no other choice than to spend the rest of his days living a normal life with Lois and their half Kryptonian son. Karen retires to lead her own life with her family. Kara married Jimmy and along with Krypto, she proudly carries Superman's legacy.
The Kents retire to live in the old Smallville farm. Every day Clark looks more like Jonathan. 

The Elongated Man and the Silver Age Timeline!, pt. III: Post-Classic

By 1968 DC Comics lost the leadership of the comics book industry as well as some of the key people of the silver age: Gardner Fox, John Broome and Otto Binder, who were there since the golden age. In their place came people like Len Wein, Denny O'Neil, who grew reading comics and started to write for adults (the Comics Code Authority started to lose control).

1968 - 1973 is the transition between the Silver Age and the Bronze age of comics. There were still a great amount of important charcters created every year, but they were not as conventional as the ones from the classic years of the Silver Age. The new characters of this era embraced completely the Marvel tendencies. They were diverse, tragic, unconventional and freaky.

The early 70s saw the return of the horror and western genre, as well as that of Jack Kirby, who created a great number of legendary characters in worlds of their own.

Adam Strange and the Martian Manhunter are notoriusly absent from most of these years.

1968

March:

• Creeper (Showcase #63),

• Guy Gardner (Green Lantern #59).

May:

• Anthro (Showcase #74),
• Secret Six (Secret Six #1).

June:

• Hawk and Dove (Showcase #75),
• Copperhead (The Brave and the Bold #78).

August:

• Bat Lash (Showcase #76), 
• Red Tornado (Justice League of America #64),
• Cain (House of Mystery #175).

October:

• Angel and the Ape (Showcase #77).

• General Zahl. The Doom Patrol sacrifices their lives (Doom Patrol #121).

November:

• Sensei (Strange Adventures #215),
• Hellgrammite (The Brave and the Bold #80),
• Johnny Double (Showcase #78).

December:

• Dolphin (Showcase #79).

1969

May: Nightmaster (Showcase #82).

June: The Gentleman Ghost of Earth-1(Atom and Hawkman #43).
September: Abel (House of Secrets #81).
November: Black Canary joins JLA (Justice League of America #75).

1970

February:

• J.L.A. Satellite, Vigilante a.k.a Greg Saunders of Earth-One appears (Justice League of America #78).

March: Wildcat a.k.a. Ted Grant of Earth-One appears (The Brave and the Bold #88). 
June:

• Manbat (Detective Comics #400),
• Manhunter 2070 (Showcase #91).

October:

• Intergang, Morgan Edge (Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133), 
• Thorn of Earth-1 (Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #105),
• El Diablo (All-Star Western #2).

November:

• Darkseid (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #134),
• the Ten-Eyed Man (Batman #226).

1971

February:

• Orion, Highfather, Kalibak, Lightray (New Gods #1),
• Forever People (Forever People #1),
• the Phantom Stranger returns (Showcase #80).

May:

• Talia (Detective Comics #411),
• Desaad, Mantis (Forever People #2).

April:

• Mr. Miracle, Oberon (Mister Miracle #1),
• Ruby Ryder (The Brave and the Bold #95).

May:

• Granny Goodness,
• Dr. Bedlam (Mister Miracle #2).

June:

• Ra's Al Ghul (Batman #232),
• Glorious Godfrey (Forever People #3).

July:

• Swamp Thing (House of Secrets #92),
• Black Racer (New Gods #3),
• Bruno Manheim (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #139).

August: Two-face of Earth-1(Batman #234).

September: Don Rickles (Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #141).

October:

• Big Barda (Mister Miracle #4),
• Dabney Donovan (Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #142).

December: Virman Vundabar (Mister Miracle #5).

1972

January:

• Bernadeth, Lashina, Mad Harriet, Stompa, and Funky Flashman (Mister Miracle #6),
• John Stewart (Green Lanten #87).

February:

• Jonah Hex (All-Star Western #10), 
• Steppenwolf (New Gods #7).

March: Kanto (Mister Miracle #7).

April: Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (Tarzan #1).

August:

• Etrigan the Demon (The Demon #1),
• Forager (New Gods #9),

October:

• Kamandi (Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #1),
• Manhunter a.k.a. Paul Kirk (Detective Comics #437).

November: Swamp Thing, the Un-men (Swamp Thing #1).
December: The Human Target II (Action Comics #419).

Notes: I used cover dates for this list (wich means you have to substract a couple of months).
Font types are modified according to the character.

• Important character,
• Character with an equivalent on Earth-2,
• Character with an Earth-2 double,
• Might have Earth-2 double, but their debut date makes it abiguous,
• Crossed-over descendant of an Earth-2 character,
• Created in other media first.
• Not tied to the DCU yet,
• Related to the Elongated Man.  

Continue to:

• The Elongated Man and the Bronze Age Timeline! (1973 - 1985).

Go back to:

• The Elongated Man and the Silver Age Timeline!, Part I: Pre-Classic (1947 - 1956).
• The Elongated Man and the Silver Age Timeline!, Part II: Classic (1956 - 1969).

Related articles:

• Survivors of the Golden Age! - This article will help you identify character counterparts between Earth-One and Earth-Two.