The DC Comics Unofficial
Silver Age Appearance List

   All super-heroes and super-villains will be listed in this Appearance List, whether they appear in a million issues or just one issue. Supporting characters will be listed if they appear in a significant amount of stories (usually about two or three). Supporting characters who appear in one story but whose impact is most definitely felt (like Earl Clifford, whose death helped in the creation of Black Lightning, or Mark and Marie Logan, parents of Changeling Gar Logan) will also be included. Other aliases of heroes and villains will be included within the list, but will warrant separate entries if needed. (For instance, Beast Boy I [Gar Logan] is listed, but his entry will direct you to Changeling. However, the first Flamebird's entry will not point to Superman, but will instead list all the stories where Superman used the Flamebird identity. Likewise, there are two separate entries for Dick Grayson: one as Robin and one as Nightwing).

   All of the characters will be assumed to come from Earth-1 unless a story specifically refers to them as being from another Earth. If a hero, villain, or supporting character comes from another Earth, it is noted after his, her, or its name. If a character has "Earth hopped," (such as Uncle Sam), that too is also listed.

   All of the stories take place in the multiverse that existed before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and thus there are discrepancies between that character's history now and that character's history Pre-Crisis. (For instance, Pre-Crisis Martian Manhunter was never married and Wally West's parents' names were Robert and Mary, not Rudolph and Mary). There are some stories in the Appearance List that do not fit in the determined continuity of the Pre-Crisis multiverse, but are listed anyway. Such series as DC Challenge, Sgt. Bilko, and Super Friends fall outside of the "strict" DC timeline, but are included in the appearance list. The only two stories that take place in the Post-Crisis universe are issues 11 and 12 of the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series, which are included for completeness sake.

   Stories are considered "Pre-Crisis" if the entire series (regular, maxi, or mini) takes place before the Crisis (examples include everything from All-Star Comics to the New Adventures of Superboy to the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps miniseres) or if the series was published during the Crisis on Infinite Earths publishing run. For the latter, a definite point was defined as the end of the "Pre-Crisis" universe in those titles. If a series had issues that were tagged as "Crisis" issues, the last of such issues will be considered the last Pre-Crisis issue of the series (such as All-Star Squadron #56 or DC Comics Presents #88). If a series did not have any issues tagged as "Crisis" issues, an ending point of the Pre-Crisis multiverse was arbitrarily chosen within the publishing range [March 1985 to February 1986] of the Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series. Such series such as Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes and Tales of the Teen Titans had obvious ending points: the last issue of the original run would be considered "Pre-Crisis" (issues #325 [July 1985] and #58 [October 1985] respectively), while the later isses featured reprints of earlier stories and are not included in the listing. Other series, such as Vigilante, were purely arbitrary.

   The dividing point between the Golden Age and the Silver Age is also fuzzy, and thus is the point where stories involving the Earth-2 characters end and the stories involving the Earth-1 characters begin. With characters such as Flash and Green Lantern, the points are obvious, the cases of Superman and Batman are not. Here, I take as a reference an e-mail distributed on rec.arts.comics.dc a number of years back. I set the first apperance of the Earth-1 Superman as Action Comics #241/Superman (first series) #123 simultaneously. The first appearance of the Earth-1 Batman occurs in Detective Comics #225/Batman #113 simultaneously. The first appearance of the Earth-1 Wonder Woman occurs in Wonder Woman (first series) #98. All three of these appearances occur in 1958. For Green Arrow and Aquaman, the first appearances of their Earth-1 counterparts occur in Adventure Comics #256 and Adventure Comics #260 respectively. These both occur in early 1959. Any appearances of these characters in earlier comics constitutes their Earth-2 counterparts.

   If you have any questions or comments on my logic, please e-mail me at jrh7925@hotmail.com. I welcome any comments anyone might have. Also, I love to answer questions about the Pre-Crisis DC Universe, so don't be afraid to ask! I'll try my best to answer!