Dans la première moitié des années 1980, Paul Kupperberg écrit les scénarios de The New Adventures of Superboy et de Supergirl. En 1984, la direction de DC choisit d’annuler les deux séries et de les regrouper dans une formule de 48 pages, intitulée DC Double Comics Starring Supergirl and Superboy. Il est prévu qu’Eduardo Barreto et Bob Oksner se chargent de Supergirl tandis que Carmine Infantino et Klaus Janson s’occupent de Superboy.
Avant l’annulation définitive de The New Adventures of Superboy et le lancement de la nouvelle formule, Kupperberg doit néanmoins écrire un dernier épisode, illustré par Kurt Schaffenberger. Les mystères de l’édition (et les voies impénétrables de la Poste) feront que ce dernier ne recevra jamais le script. Quant au contenu des deux premiers numéros de la nouvelle anthologie, il sera annulé… pour cause de Crisis on Infinite Earths, maxi-série de Wolfman et Pérez chassant Supergirl et Superboy de la nouvelle continuité.
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So, here was the plan in early 1984: Supergirl would end with #23 and New Adventures of Superboy would stop with #54 , then the two strips would be revamped and relaunched in a new shared title, DC Double Comics (DCDC). Julie Schwartz would still be the editor and I would remain the writer, but Carmine Infantino (now paired with inker Klaus Janson) would take over the art on Superboy.
Sounded awesome! Other than the fact that I’d already scripted NAOS #55, which wrapped up a major storyline, I was excited to take these two characters in new directions. For the Teen of Steel, I would introduce the Galaxians, a new team of teen superheroes from across time and space to help him ward off a menace that threatens the entire universe.
I wrote the scripts for the first two issues (they’d share the rotating 24-page lead slot and 16-page back-up slots), Carmine penciled the first stories, Ben Oda lettered it… Klaus Janson inked at least the splash page of the Superboy story… and we got word to stop work.
Meanwhile, Supergirl’s new artist was Eduardo Barreto, who turned in a stunning first chapter for the pilot issue of DCDC; Bob Oksner was slated to ink, but I don’t believe any of the pages ever went to him before the plug was pulled; Ed King was the letterer. A pity. I would have loved to see how Oksner handled Eduardo’s beautiful pencils.
Feeling she had fallen into a rut, I sent the Maid of Might away from Earth to spend some time on New Krypton with her parents — and without her superpowers — before she was to go off adventuring in space to find herself.