The Witching Hour
The Witching Hour was a DC Comics horror-anthology book that began in the early 1970's. Also includes a reprint of the first J'onn J'onzz Martian Manhunter story from Detective #226. Tony Isabella leaves Black Lightning 11 and is replaced by Denny O'Neil. It quickly becomes a home to inventroy material from cancelled titles. Adventure 459 becomes a 68 page $1.00 comic originaly planned to recapitulate the old Comic Cavalcade format and feature Green Lantern, Flash and Wonder Woman in every issue.
Some new reprint titles are added to the schedule to make up for all the titles cancelled in the last year. Superboy and Justice Leagure dropped to 44 pages. Variations on this series continued as The World's Greatest Super Friends in 1979, the Super Friends Hour in 1980 and just plain Super Friends in 1981. Challenge of the Super Friends upgraded the baby version of the Justice League by dropping the Wonder Twins and introducing major league villains in the form of the Legion of Doom. Miracle cancelled, although Aquaman is scheduled to be included in an upcoming anthology title. One of the first hints that the Legion could be something more than another super-hero team book. DC Comics Presents begins, featuring Superman team-ups, starting with the mandatory race with the Flash, this time around the universe itself. Wonder Woman 244 returns the adventures of Wonder Woman to the present to match the tv show, which has just switched networks and decades. However, at the last minute the debut is pushed off till December, causing great consternation at DC.
Christopher Reeve is scheduled to debut in Superman: The Movie. Showcase 100 is a special double issue that features every character from Showcase who was ever awarded his own series, plus everybody else they could squeeze in. Jack Harris edits Green Lantern 104 as Julie Schwartz makes room for DC Comics Presents on his schedule. Edited by Julie Schwartz and drawn by George Tuska. Justice League with emphasis on Superman and Wonder Woman. World's Greatest Super Heroes comic strip debuts from the Chicago Tribune- NY News syndicate.
This is Neal's last significant comic book work. Editor Jack Harris introduces a new more modern art style and more sophisticated stories into Shazam 34. Steel The Indestructible Man begins by Gerry Conway, a new patriotoic hero set in the days before America entered World War II. Firestorm begins, a new teen age super-hero title aimed at the "Spider-Man tradition" with the twist that the hero has two secret identities who must work together to form one hero. DC Super Stars 18, featuring Deadman and the Phantom Stranger is the last issue.
Limited Collectors Edition is renamed All-New Collectors Edition as each issues is projected to feature new material, beginning with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Sheldon Moldoff and Tenny Henson. Each issues is by a different set of creators. Doorway To Nightmare begins, a different kind of mystery title, featuring book length stories involving the host Madame Xanadu more closely than the usual standard. Mike Gold, in Amazing World of DC Comics 16 proposes that the Silver Age of Comics ended in 1968 with the cancellation of the Batman TV show and the edtorial changes begun by publisher Carmine Infantino, including the birth of the Dark Knight.He proposes the names Bronze Age or Platinum Age for the period that followed it. Mike Gold later comments that it was the worst selling title of the seventies.
Star Hunters begins in its own title by David Michelinie and Don Newton. The title, Story Editor, is abolished with all editors being full editors. The story editor arrangement, where editors only worked with writers and all art was assigned by Vince Colletta, is abandoned. DC universe as well as made for tv characters Black Vulcan, Apache Chief and Samurai. All New Super-Friends Hour finally features new episodes and introduces the Wonder Twins to replace Wendy and Marvin. Nelson Bridwell edits Superman Family 185.
Superboy returns to Adventure 453, Levitz edits. Mister Miracle revived by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers. Justice League 144 features Steve Englehart's "Origin of the JLA-1" a story set in the fifties, featuring most of DC's characters from that time period but with a morden take on the paranoia that pervaded the era. Batman Family 11 is the first to feature all-new material as Jeanette Khan works to stamp out reprints. Marshall Rogers joins him in 471. Steve Englehart begins a classic run on Batman in Detective 469. Jack Harris takes over his books Freedom Fighters 8 and Young Love 124.
Tony Isabella leaves his editorial duties to be a full time writer. Weird Western Tales 39 features a new series, Scalphunter, by Mike Fleisher. Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson produce this controversial epic. Superboy appears in a comeback attempt in DC Super Stars 12 in which it is rather heavily implied he loses his virginity.