Did We Almost Get A Silver Age Sequel to The Golden Age by James Robinson?

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Mar 16, 2019

In their latest look at never-published comic stories, CSBG shows how close we came to a Silver Age sequel to James Robinson's classic Golden Age!

In Nothing Was Delivered, we look at announced comic book projects that never came about. We'll try to find out WHY they didn't come out. I'm sure you all know tons of examples of comic book projects like these, so feel free to write me at brianc@cbr.com to tell me some for future columns.

Today, we look at the almost sequel to James Robinson and Paul Smith's classic, The Golden Age.

The Golden Age was an prestige format Elseworlds story by Robinson and Smith that told the story of what happened to the superheroes of the DC Universe after World War II. Here's a hint. It was not good. Not with McCarthyism and the fact that...THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN!!!

But really, the whole thing was so well-written and beautifully drawn that you just knew that Robinson was going to have a bright future in comics and he soon took the same style he gave to The Golden Age and applied it to Starman, in a legendary run on that series starting in 1994.

However, the final page of The Golden Age hinted at the Silver Age and people have long wanted to see a Silver Age sequel.

As it turned out, we came close to getting one in 1996!

Find out the details!

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Robinson discussed the then-upcoming project to Matthew Brady in Wizard Magazine.

The comic was going to be drawn by the legendary Howard Chaykin (Paul Smith on one series and Howard Chaykin on the other? WOW!).

Robinson explained the premise, "The story starts with police officer Jim Harper, who was the Golden Age hero, Guardian, investigating a series of appaerently unconnected murders. He'll confer with King Faraday and begin to realize that there is more to the murders than he originally thought. The ramifications go right through the American Cold Way government, right through to the top."

John Jones then picks up the case from Harper.

Robinson further noted, "There will be a few Golden Age characters making appearances as well, including the Golden Age Hawkman, Hourman and the Ted Knight Starman, of course."

An interesting detail Robinson explained was the unique narration of the series, "The actual 'people' who narrate the story will be the casebooks of Jim Harper, King Faraday and John Jones. However, the narration about the new age of heroes will be the reporter's journals of Iris West, back when she was just Barry Allen's girlfriend."

Robinson ended by saying that "It should be a nice complex story, similar to The Golden Age, but its not a direct sequel; its the next installment of the same universe. If readers enjoyed Kingdom Come this summer, they should enjoy The Silver next summer."

However, next summer never came. Well, you know, obviously it CAME, but just with no Silver Age!

Years later, Robinson told Ain't It Cool News, " I was developing the SILVER AGE with a big name artist and for one reason and another it didn't happen when it should have. Since then between Mark Waid's JLA YEAR ONE and especially Darwyn's Cooke's NEW FRONTIER, the story I wanted to tell has been told and by better and more talented guys then me."