DC Explosion and DC Implosion

The DC Implosion is the popular label for the sudden cancellation of more than two dozen ongoing and planned DC Comics series in 1978.

The name is a sardonic reference to the "DC Explosion", a then-recent marketing campaign in which DC began publishing more monthly titles and increased the number of story pages in all of its titles, accompanied by higher cover prices. Many titles which had been cancelled in the 60s and earlier in the 70s had been brought back as part of the "explosion", intended to increase the company's market presence and profitability.

National Periodical Publications (DC's official name at the time) was instead experiencing ongoing poor sales. This has been attributed in part to blizzards in 1977 and 1978, a weak U.S. economy, and the quality of the titles themselves. In response, company executives ordered that titles with marginal sales, and several new series still in development be cancelled. About 30 titles were affected. Much of the unpublished work saw print in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, a 2 issue "series" which "published" the work in limited quantity solely to establish the company's copyright. Some of the material already produced for the cancelled publications was later used in other series, however.

Cancelled Titles

Twenty series were cancelled abruptly, with the following as their final issue:

• All Star Comics #74 (#75 later published in Adventure Comics #461 and 462)
• Aquaman #63 (Aquaman story from #64 published in Adventure Comics #460)
• Army At War #1
• Batman Family #20 ("merged" into Detective Comics)
• Battle Classics #1 (reprint title)
• Black Lightning #11 (#12 later published in World's Finest Comics #260)
• Claw the Unconquered #12
• Doorway To Nightmare #5 ("merged" into The Unexpected)
• Dynamic Classics #1 (reprint title)
• Firestorm #5 (#6 reworked in The Flash #294-296)
• House of Secrets #154 ("merged" into The Unexpected)
• Kamandi #59
• Mister Miracle #25
• Secret Society of Super Villains #15 (#16 appeared in 2007's Showcase Presents: The Secret Society of Super-Villains)
• Secrets of Haunted House #14
• Shade, the Changing Man #9 (Odd Man story appears in Detective Comics #487)
• Showcase #104 (Deadman story for #105 appears in Adventure Comics #464)
• Star Hunters #7
• Steel: The Indestructible Man #5 (#6 story reworked for All-Star Squadron #8 and 9)
• Witching Hour #84 ("merged" into The Unexpected)

Shazam! #35 ("merged" into World's Finest Comics), Karate Kid #15, and Freedom Fighters #15 were cancelled a few months before the Implosion, to make room for other titles in the DC Explosion. Similarly, the New Gods feature was concluded in Adventure Comics #459 and 460. All were announced within the comics themselves as being cancelled, and unlike Implosion titles, the Freedom Fighters and Karate Kid even had ending stories published (though the Freedom Fighters ending continued in Secret Society of Super-Villains, which did fall victim to the Implosion).

Unpublished titles

Six new series were planned, but never published:

• Demand Classics (reprint series)
• Deserter (a cowboy western)
• Vixen (would have been the first series starring an African-American superheroine; the character later appeared in Justice League of America)
• Western Classics (reprint series)
• Starslayer (a Mike Grell creation later published by Pacific Comics)
• Swamp Thing (a revival by Martin Pasko, delayed until 1982)

Three secondary features were planned, but the titles in which they were to appear were cancelled before the stories were produced:

• Manhunter from Mars in Aquaman
• Vigilante in Aquaman
• Metal Men in Adventure Comics

External links

• Fanzing article on the DC Implosion
• Dial B for Blog describes the DC Implosion (pt 1), (pt 2), (pt 3)