You have to remember, as far as all sellers were concerned, superheroes were dead, a fad whose time had passed. DCs hero books were driven by three properties, Superman (and Superboy by extension), Batman, and Wonder Woman. They survived because they were the first of their kind, and the successes that everyone else piggybacked off of.

Goodman and Lee only returned to superheroes because of The Adventures of Superman. They were just piggybacking on that success, looking for the next big thing. Youre right about the stories being too short and the poor covers, but they were just looking at what drove their other books, and if it didnt work, so what? Superheroes werent any more important to them than the hotrod issues that preceded them in Young Men.

-Eric

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And we all know how well those hotrod issues sold, don't we?
Again, it looks like management and editorial just threw stuff against the walll and hoped that something would work rather than thinking about what they were trying to do. Fortunately, less than a decade later, they'd try a different approach.

A. Leedom, President of the Red Raven Revival Society and former speech therapist for George Bush
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