I was an avid comic book kid in the 1960s, and for some reason I was entirely devoted to DC and ignored Marvel. I think it must have been the Batman TV show, which debuted when I was at the impressionable age of 5, that sucked me into the DC universe where I was held by megatronic forces.
In the late 60s, I noticed a newfound social justice consciousness suddenly taking hold of the Justice League. Over 30 years later I can still remember the speech an old man in the ghetto gave to Green Lantern: “I been readin’ how you work for the BLUE SKINS … and how on some planet you helped out the ORANGE SKINS … but what did you ever do for the BLACK SKINS? Can you tell me that, huh, Mr. Green Lantern?” The superhero’s shoulders sag in shame as he stammers, “I … I can’t …” So he decides to leave off fighting crime and go fight poverty and racism.
Then about the same time (circa 1969) Green Arrow goes down South to coal mining country and battles a redneck fascist empire. It was every decent-thinking liberal’s perfect nightmare fantasy. There was a folksinger who sang protest songs and the goons had dragged him off to prison. The redneck fascist-in-chief employed actual NAZI guards complete with German accents. “Zose missles… fire zem!” Green Arrow compared himself to Robin Hood while defeating the bad guys.
I noticed that DC had taken off in a startlingly new direction, but I’d had a certain social consciousness instilled in me by Catholic nuns during the Civil Rights movement, so it was all right with me.
But then circa 1970, DC Comics suddenly mutated into something that was utterly incomprehensible to my 10-year-old mind. I never could grok exactly what they were getting at. There was a radically new, darker, heavier, graphic style, and all the familiar characters were replaced by unrecognizable alien entities. Something about “New Godz” and “APOKALIPS.” Huh? Where are Superman and Batman? What IS this stuff? They lost me completely. As a result I simply quit reading comic books altogether. I had, anyway, reached an age where I would have quit comix regardless.