The 5G Files continue, looking at DC’s original plans for the Superman and Batman books in 2023, and how they differ from today.
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Yesterday, we ran original publishing plans from DC Comics for 2023, if they had gone down the 5G road, for the series The Hunt For Batman and the subsequent The Trial Of Batman. With Bruce Wayne hunted down for the murder of Bane. But what would have happened next? Bleeding Cool is publishing The 5G Files, looking at the aborted-but-not-quite relaunch/reboot planned for DC Comics in 2020 dubbed 5G or Fifth Generation. Planned by then-publisher Dan DiDio, it would have seen the main characters of the DC Universe, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne and more, aged up and replaced by newcomers to the roles of Superman, Batman and more, the fifth generation of DC superheroes. Welcome to The 5G Files and Superman Vs Superman: Chapter Thirteen.
The storyline, The Return Of Superman, would have seen Clark Kent – who had retired powerless to Africa with Lois Lane, but had put together a team, The Authority, in secret on the side – to take them public. To decide that Batman should not be judged by the law and decides to break him out of prison. This would put him in direct conflict with his son, Jon Kent. And would give us the Superman vs. Superman storyline, an ultimate generational struggle as Clark Kent battles Jonathan Kent over what it takes to be Superman, both physically and morally. Imagine Batman Vs Superman in Dark Knight Returns but with father and son.
Of course none of this happened, 5G was dumped, and Clark Kent and Jon Kent have never been closer. But originally, as planned by Dan DiDio, this year they would have been at war, over the fate of Batman. With the Justice Alliance fighting on Jon Kent’s side.
Keep checking the 5G Files tag for more… we’ll be concluding the 5G files today. And for Lying In The Gutters fans of old, consider this story having a green traffic light.
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