INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: From Debut to Ongoing Solo

General Discussion Comic Books
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How long did it take your favorite DC characters to go from their debut to their own title? Superman and Batman, for example, each had their own titles within a year of their debut in anthology comics. But others, like Aquaman, had to wait more than 20 years for their own title. I’ve broken down the wait periods for the most popular DC characters below.

For the purposes of this exercise, limited series and one shots do not qualify, nor do any team-up books, even with the subject character at the lead. In order to properly quantify notoriety, I have restricted myself to characters who have appeared in at least 900 publications to date.

OVERNIGHTERS [0 years]:
Firestorm [FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN #1 (1978)]
Helena Bertinelli [THE HUNTRESS #1 (1989)]
Kyle Rayner [GREEN LANTERN #48 (1994)—GREEN LANTERN #51 (1994)]

BREAKOUT STARS [1-5 years]:
Superman: 1 [ACTION COMICS #1 (1938)—SUPERMAN #1 (1939)]
Batman: 1 [DETECTIVE COMICS #27 (1939)—BATMAN #1 (1940)]
Billy Batson: 1 [WHIZ COMICS #1 (1940)—CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #1 (1941)]
Jay Garrick: 1 [FLASH COMICS #1 (1940)—ALL-FLASH QUARTERLY #1 (1941)]
Alan Scott: 1 [ALL-AMERICAN COMICS #16 (1940)—GREEN LANTERN #1 (1941)]
Wonder Woman: 1 [ALL STAR COMICS #8 (1941)—WONDER WOMAN #1 (1942)]
Hal Jordan: 1 [SHOWCASE #22 (1959)—GREEN LANTERN #1 (1960)]
Ray Palmer: 1 [SHOWCASE #34 (1961)—THE ATOM #1 (1962)]
Conner Kent: 1 [THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #500 (1993)—SUPERBOY #1 (1994)]
Bart Allen: 1 [THE FLASH #91 (1994)—IMPULSE #1 (1995)]
Plastic Man: 2 [POLICE COMICS #1 (1941)—PLASTIC MAN #1 (1943)]
Barry Allen: 3 [SHOWCASE #4 (1956)—THE FLASH #105 (1959)]
John Constantine: 3 [THE SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #37 (1985)—HELLBLAZER #1 (1988)]
Tim Drake: 4 [BATMAN #436 (1989)—ROBIN #1 (1993)]

DUES PAID [6-24 years]:
Damian Wayne: 9 [BATMAN #655 (2006)—ROBIN: SON OF BATMAN #1 (2015)]
Deathstroke: 11 [THE NEW TEEN TITANS #2 (1980)—DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR #1 (1991)]
Jimmy Olsen: 13 [SUPERMAN #13 (1941)—SUPERMAN’S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN (1954)]
Supergirl: 14 [SUPERMAN #123 (1958)—SUPERGIRL #1 (1972)]
John Stewart: 20 [GREEN LANTERN #87 (1972)—GREEN LANTERN: MOSAIC #1 (1992)]
Lois Lane: 20 [ACTION COMICS #1 (1938)—SUPERMAN’S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE (1958)]
Aquaman: 21 [MORE FUN COMICS #73 (1941)—AQUAMAN #1 (1962)]
Guy Gardner: 24 [GREEN LANTERN #59 (1968)—GUY GARDNER #1 (1992)]
Hawkman: 24 [FLASH COMICS #1 (1940)—HAWKMAN #1 (1964)]

SILVER CLUB [25-49 years]:
The Spectre: 27 [MORE FUN COMICS #52 (1940)—THE SPECTRE #1 (1967)]
Wally West: 28 [THE FLASH #110 (1959)—THE FLASH #1 (1987)]
Power Girl: 33 [ALL STAR COMICS #58 (1976)—POWER GIRL #1 (2009)]
The Joker: 35 [BATMAN #1 (1940)—THE JOKER #1 (1975)]
Cyborg: 35 [DC COMICS PRESENTS #26 (1980)—CYBORG #1 (2015)]
Starfire: 35 [DC COMICS PRESENTS #26 (1980)—STARFIRE #1 (2015)]
Jason Todd: 35 [BATMAN #357 (1983)—RED HOOD: OUTLAW #26 (2018)]
Martian Manhunter: 43 [DETECTIVE COMICS #255 (1955)—MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1 (1998)]
Barbara Gordon: 44 [DETECTIVE COMICS #359 (1967)—BATGIRL #1 (2011)]
Zatanna: 46 [HAWKMAN #4 (1964)—ZATANNA #1 (2010)]
Green Arrow: 47 [MORE FUN COMICS #73 (1941)—GREEN ARROW #1 (1988)]

GOLD CLUB [50+ Years]:
Catwoman: 53 [BATMAN #1 (1940)—CATWOMAN #1 (1993)]
Sinestro: 53 [GREEN LANTERN #7 (1961)—SINESTRO #1 (2014)]
Dick Grayson: 56 [DETECTIVE COMICS #38 (1940)—NIGHTWING #1 (1996)]
Hawkgirl: 66 [FLASH COMICS #1 (1940)—HAWKGIRL #50 (2006)]
Lana Lang: 66 [SUPERBOY #10 (1950)—SUPERWOMAN #1 (2016)]
Black Canary: 68 [FLASH COMICS #86 (1947)—BLACK CANARY #1 (2015)]

GOLD QUALIFIERS [50+ years with no Ongoing Solo]:
Poison Ivy 53+ [BATMAN #181 (1966)—?]
Beast Boy: 54+ [THE DOOM PATROL #99 (1965)—?]
Donna Troy: 54+ [THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #60 (1965)—?]
Brainiac 5: 58+ [ACTION COMICS #276 (1961)—?]
Elongated Man: 59+ [THE FLASH #112 (1960)—?]
Saturn Girl: 61+ [ADVENTURE COMICS #247 (1958)—?]
Cosmic Boy: 61+ [ADVENTURE COMICS #247 (1958)—?]
Riddler: 71+ [DETECTIVE COMICS #140 (1948)—?]
Alfred Pennyworth: 76+ [BATMAN #16 (1943)—?]
Two-Face: 77+ [DETECTIVE COMICS #66 (1942)—?]
Wildcat: 77+ [SENSATION COMICS #1 (1942)—?]
Penguin: 78+ [DETECTIVE COMICS #58 (1941)—?]
Roy Harper: 78+ [MORE FUN COMICS #73 (1941)—?]
Scarecrow: 78+ [WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #3 (1941)—?]
Lex Luthor: 79+ [ACTION COMICS #23 (1940)—?]
Perry White: 79+ [SUPERMAN #7 (1940)—?]
Commissioner Gordon: 80+ [DETECTIVE COMICS #27 (1939)—?]
Jonathan Kent: 80+ [SUPERMAN #1 (1939)—?]
Martha Kent: 80+ [SUPERMAN #1 (1939)—?]

6 Likes
2

She was a farmer’s wife and good at her job.
But they committed the ultimate sin and kidnapped her for a billionaire gone bad.
She now prowls the badlands
An outlaw hunting other outlaws
A bounty hunter
Martha

Soon at your comic shops.
Rated M

When are we getting Martha’ s vengeance arc, as she rides a motorcycle bringing down Luthor thugs, trying to take down the mastermind behind it all? :grin:

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Great job! Honestly having to debate between a couple of awesome reports this week for my favorite one!

4

What a great, fun research topic. I hope you had as much fun making it as I had reading it.

One (possible) addition to the Overnighters popped into my head as I was reading - Black Lightning. (Unless he hasn’t appeared 900 times, but that seems unpossible)

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Can I just say that I would absolutely read a Commissioner Gordon or Perry White solo book? Either of those would be awesome.

I do notice, though, that you don’t seem to be counting taking over as the title character of an existing solo (e.g. John Stewart’s stint as the main Green Lantern in the '80s and Jim Gordon’s power-armor Batman phase). Was that just for simplicity’s sake?

2 Likes
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I thought about those, but in both cases those were only meant to be temporary storyline changes — unlike with Kyle, who was set up to take over from Hal for the long term.

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Hey HubCityQuestion, did characters like Firestorm really appear in 900 issues? Are you counting team books like Justice League?

As an old Bronze Age guy I think of characters like Kamandi or my favorite the Warlord that either started in their own book (Kamandi) or Warlord in First Issue Special and then his own series soon after, but neither has made it to 900 issues.

900 issues seems to be a really high bar. I guess my favorites are more fringe characters.

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I am in fact counting appearances in other books, and even reprints.

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Black Canary had a couple self-titled mini-series in the '90s. (4 issues in 1991 and 12 issues in 1993)
Mera debuted in 1963 and just got a title comic in 2018.

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I don’t know if this was counting mini-series, but Cosmic Boy got his own mini-series in 1986
Elongated Man got a mini-series in 1992
Beast Boy got his own mini-series in 2000
and Donna Troy got her own mini-series in 2005

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I was not counting miniseries, no.

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