History WhatCouldHaveBeen / TheDCU

* In August 2003, Creator/MarkWaid and Mike Wieringo put in a proposal for a one-shot special that would revamp Aquaman. Rather than going the DarkerAndEdgier route like Creator/PeterDavid, they'd wanted to do a LighterAndSofter take playing on the wonderment and majesty of the ocean. It would have featured a Russian marine biologist named Yelena as an AudienceSurrogate, with the goal being to remind people why the idea of having epic adventures underwater seemed so cool before ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' [[AudienceColoringAdaptation ruined]] [[AdaptationalWimp it]].

** As a result of the story being reworked, many ideas were changed later in production, with the obscure Tim "Jace" Fox being reintroduced to replace his brother Luke as the future Batman in ''Future State'' being one of them. Bane would die as a result of a bomb by Joker (which killed several other characters who would go on to be reanimated as zombies and join ComicBook/TaskForceZ), but it was later revealed Bane had faked his death and left Henry Clover Jr. (Gotham, brother of Gotham Girl) to die in his place. Superman would instead form the Authority with a reformed Manchester Black, with the team not reappearing after the initial ''ComicBook/SupermanAndTheAuthority'' miniseries. Ultimately, the Justice League's members were seemingly killed in ''ComicBook/DarkCrisis'', but they would turn up alive and disband for good, with the Titans taking up the reins as DC's main heroes afterward (though their mentors would still reappear as solo heroes), with the other conflicts tossed out in ''ComicBook/DawnOfDC'' in favor of Amanda Waller becoming the new main antagonist.

** As a result of the story being reworked, many ideas were changed later in production, with the obscure Tim "Jace" Fox being reintroduced to replace his brother Luke as the future Batman in ''Future State'' being one of them. Bane would die as a result of a bomb by Joker (which killed several other characters who would go on to be reanimated as zombies and join ComicBook/TaskForceZ), but it was later revealed Bane had faked his death and left Henry Clover Jr. (Gotham, brother of Gotham Girl) to die in his place. Superman would instead form the Authority with a reformed Manchester Black, with the team not reappearing after the initial ComicBook/SupermanAndTheAuthority miniseries. Ultimately, the Justice League's members were seemingly killed in ''ComicBook/DarkCrisis'', but they would turn up alive and disband for good, with the Titans taking up the reins as DC's main heroes afterward (though their mentors would still reappear as solo heroes), with the other conflicts tossed out in ComicBook/DawnOfDC in favor of Amanda Waller becoming the new main antagonist.

* In late 2019 and early 2020, there were major rumblings about DC Comics' latest big relaunch, including a revamped timeline which spanned from World War I to today that saw Wonder Woman, not Superman, as the first DC Comics hero. Additionally, the return of more of the pre-New 52 canon was teased, such as Comicbook/{{Cyborg}} once again having been a member of the Teen Titans. Rumors circulated that this would lead to a new Crisis spinning out of ''ComicBook/FlashForward'' which would spawn "Generation 5", which would [[LegacyCharacter see new heroes donning classic hero mantles]], with such rumored ideas being [[Characters/SupermanJonathanSamuelKent Jonathan Samuel Kent]] taking up Superman's role and the former ComicBook/{{Batwing}} Luke Fox becoming Batman. A Free Comic Book Day comic entitled "Generation Zero: Gods Among Us" would set things up followed by two one-shots in the following months entitled "Generation One" and "Generation Two" with two more presumed to follow suit. The end of ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'' had a sequence where Doctor Manhattan looks into the future and vaguely references something called "5G," presumably tying into the "Generation 5" concept. Certain books at the time also began laying the groundwork for this, such as Steve Orlando's ''Wonder Woman'' run introducing a tribe of Amazons who lived in South America in order to set up the future debut of Yara Flor, who would have become the 5G Wonder Woman; and Kelly Sue [=DeConnick's=] ''Aquaman'' debuting his and Mera's infant daughter Andy just in time for her to grow up to be Aquawoman. Creator/TomKing also stated at the time that his ''Comicbook/BatmanTomKing'' run was meant to set up 5G in some capacity, with fans and critics pointing to ''Batman Annual'' #2, which briefly showed a future where an elderly Bruce Wayne was retired from crimefighting and married to Selina Kyle, as further evidence of the new timeline aging up some of DC's characters. However, before any of that could be set into motion, Creator/DanDiDio was suddenly fired in February 2020 followed by the UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic bringing the comic industry to a screeching halt. When DC resumed production and began releasing comics again, none of the "Generation" titles were released at all. Even more, Wally was now a major player in ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal'' with Creator/ScottSnyder suggesting that this story was the "new Crisis". This seems to be supported by the fact that the collected edition of ''Flash Forward'' containing the unprinted ''Generation Zero'' story ends with Wally deciding to face the Batman Who Laughs, leading into ''Death Metal''. Further dashing this original storyline was the announcement of the one-shot ''Generations: Shattered'', which instead features heroes from various points in history teaming up with "the original" Batman (re: the one from ''Detective Comics'' #27). The titles that would have made up the 5G relaunch were eventually repurposed as a group of mini-series under a new banner dubbed ''ComicBook/DCFutureState'', which was now changed to depict a ''possible'' future of the DC Universe rather than the new status quo going forward. However, the stories in ''Future State'' are still largely based on ideas [=DiDio=] had for 5G in spite of the repurpose, an example being [[spoiler:his CreatorsPest Wally West being possessed and turned into a villain]].

** The aforementioned 5G tease in ''Doomsday Clock'' also showed a new Turtle and a female Kid Flash, who were implicitly Wally West’s children Jai and Iris. The idea has yet to be followed up on, with Wallace West instead remaining the current Kid Flash, though Iris did later appear as Kid Flash in the non-canonical ''[[Comicbook/GreenLanternLegacy Green Lantern: Alliance]]'' graphic novel.

* Grant Morrison's non-starter crossover ''Hypercrisis'' was meant to institute hypertime, an idea of theirs introduced by Mark Waid in ''Comicbook/{{The Kingdom|DCComics}}'', as the formal return of the multiverse. Also titled ''The 12 Labors of Superman'', the event was to open with the funeral of Captain Marvel, and the revelation that a monster known as the Chronovore was devouring the early years of the 21st century, with Superman and company repairing history by creating a 'bridge' of reordered events. It was intended to reinvent the Challengers of the Unknown as Challengers: Beyond the Unknown, introduce the Guardians of the Multiverse with a corps of Green Lanterns from different realities, and substantially utilize the time-travelling Superman Squad introduced in ''Comicbook/{{DC One Million}}'' (was well as introducing the mystery of the Unknown Superman), among other unrevealed ideas - many of the notions from this pitch ultimately found places in Morrison's other comics.
* ''ComicBook/DarkCrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' was meant to have Red X to be a major player in the story, however, the character's poor reception in ''ComicBook/TeenTitansAcademy'' saw the character removed.

* ''Comicbook/GreenLanternInfiniteFrontier'' ended with John Stewart leaving the GL Corps and taking on the new identity of the Emerald Knight, with the last page teasing a new series called ''John Stewart and the Emerald Knights''. Due to a change in plans for John (rumored to be due to the ''Green Lantern'' Creator/HBOMax series that was in development at the time), ''Emerald Knight'' was subsequently downgraded to a mere one-shot, with the character instead retaking the Green Lantern mantle in a new series called ''Comicbook/GreenLanternWarJournal'' as part of the ''Comicbook/DawnOfDC'' initiative.

* The 2021 one-shot ''Stargirl Spring Break Special'' was supposed to set up a Justice Society of America series by Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch, but Hitch revealed in 2022 that the book ended up not happening.

* ''Comicbook/GreenLanternInfiniteFrontier'' ended with John Stewart leaving the GL Corps and taking on the new identity of the Emerald Knight, with the last page teasing a new series called ''John Stewart and the Emerald Knights''. Due to a change in plans for John (rumored to be due to the ''Green Lantern'' Crearor/HBOMax series that was in development at the time), ''Emerald Knight'' was subsequently downgraded to a mere one-shot, with the character instead retaking the Green Lantern mantle in a new series called ''Comicbook/GreenLanternWarJournal'' as part of the ''Comicbook/DawnOfDC'' initiative.

* ''Comicbook/GreenLanternInfiniteFrontier'' ended with John Stewart leaving the GL Corps and taking on the new identity of the Emerald Knight, with the last page teasing a new series called ''John Stewart and the Emerald Knights''. Due to a change in plans for John (rumored to be due to ''Series/GreenLantern'' Creator/HBOMax series), ''Emerald Knight'' was subsequently downgraded to a mere one-shot, with the character instead retaking the Green Lantern mantle in a new series called ''Green Lantern: John Stewart'' as part of the ''Comicbook/DawnOfDC'' initiative.

** Bleeding Cool later was able to piece together what would have been the entire Generation Five storyline: Superman's revelation of his secret identity would have harsher consequences, with Jon staying longer in the 31st Century and his desire for other heroes to reveal their identities leading to a schism that destroys the Justice League. Bane would still kill Alfred, but Batman would drive away the Bat-Family in his anger. Joker would take over Gotham, sending Batman over the edge. Before he could kill the villain, he would make him an offer, which makes Batman allow him to escape. ''Dark Nights: Death Metal'' would happen (under the title ''Dark Crisis: Death Metal''), aging up everyone. This would lead to a series of one-shots called ''Last Call'', setting up the PassingOfTheTorch for the younger generation -- Superman would take Lois to Africa and give Metropolis to Jon while Batman would regather the Bat-Family to apologize. However, he would learn the Joker would uphold his offer: killing Bane for killing Alfred, causing Bruce to shut down everything Bat-related and hide in England. Luke Fox would realize there was need for a Batman and take over with his sister Tamara joining as his Robin. Damian would resurface as leader of Leviathan in retaliation for Bruce seemingly tossing him to the wayside, leading to Luke and Jon fighting the former Robin and the two heroes becoming a new World's Finest. In Africa, Superman would meet up with Jenny Sparks and the two would create a new iteration of The Authority. Joker would return and, fighting Luke, reveal what Bruce had done, leading Luke to hunt down Bruce, who instead decides to surrender and turn himself in for his role in Bane's death. Superman would see this as an injustice for some reason and he and the Authority would rescue Bruce, setting them up to battle the DCU. Superman, noting his powers failing, would get himself a massive power boost which would threaten existence, leading to Bruce sacrificing himself to destroy Superman, fully passing the torch. This storyline would have lasted until ''2024'', with 2025 being the point where DC and Warner Bros. would have kept going or smashed the ResetButton.

** Wolfman's plans purportedly extended beyond simply reimagining every character from the ground-up; he wanted to do the same to DC Comics ''as a company'' and is supposed to have lobbied for the company's name (at least on the covers of the comics) to be changed to "Action" which would facilitate a more direct and dynamic comparison to "Marvel".

* ''WhatCouldHaveBeen/DCAnimatedUniverse''

* Creator/PaulDini wrote a ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} Prestige Format one-shot for Vertigo, which sold out in a short time. Vertigo had plans for a miniseries and eventually a series. Then, Creator/GrantMorrison got the bid for ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'' and snatched Zatanna away… Dini's ongoing Zatanna series [[ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} did eventually happen]] in 2010, though it was cancelled after 16 issues.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen/{{Batman}}
* WhatCouldHaveBeen/LegionOfSuperHeroes
* WhatCouldHaveBeen/{{Superman}}
* WhatCouldHaveBeen/TeenTitans
* WhatCouldHaveBeen/WonderWoman

* James Robinson's ComicBook/TheGoldenAge was probably one of the more acclaimed comic book minis of the 1990s. The ending featured a memorable and natural SequelHook, and Robinson confirmed that there would be another mini called ''The Silver Age'' with art by Creator/HowardChaykin. However, it got stuck in DevelopmentHell for a decade. In the meantime, ''JLA: Year One'' and particularly ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier told stories similar to the one Robinson had been planned, killing any chance of the comic ever being made.

** The story was originally supposed to bring back the classic ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}, who would've replaced the poorly-received [[LegacyCharacter A.J. Curry]] version of Aquaman that was floating around at the time. In Morrison's own words, he and J.G. Jones had wanted to bring back an Aquaman "we could all understand", but they didn't provide an explanation for how he'd returned or regained his iconic appearance, with the assumption being that another writer would fill in the details later. DC ended up scrapping the plan in favor of the then-upcoming ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' crossover, leading to Aquaman's cameo appearance in ''Final Crisis'' becoming an AbortedArc.

*** ''Ultra Comics'' was originally ''Ultraa the Unknown''. Ultra himself was intended to be a Pinocchio-style character, [[PinocchioSyndrome a fiction who wanted to become real]].

* ''Comicbook/GreenLanternInfiniteFrontier'' ended with John Stewart leaving the GL Corps and taking on the new identity of the Emerald Knight, with the last page teasing a new series called ''John Stewart and the Emerald Knights''. Due to a change in plans for John (rumored to be due to ''Series/GreenLantern'' Creator/HBOMax series), ''Emerald Knight'' was subsequently downgraded to a mere one-shot, with the character instead retaking the Green Lantern mantle in a new series called ''Green Lantern: John Stewart''.

* ''Comicbook/GreenLanternInfiniteFrontier'' ended with John Stewart leaving the GL Corps and taking on the new identity of the Emerald Knight, with the last page teasing a new series called ''John Stewart and the Emerald Knights''. Due to a change in plans for the character (rumored to be due to ''Series/GreenLantern'' Creator/HBOMax series), ''Emerald Knight'' was subsequently downgraded to a mere one-shot, with the character instead retaking the Green Lantern mantle in a new series called ''Green Lantern: John Stewart''.

** The aforementioned 5G tease in ''Doomsday Clock'' also showed a new Turtle and a female Kid Flash, who were implicitly Wally West’s children Jai and Iris. The idea has yet to be followed up on, with Wallace West instead remaining the current Kid Flash.

* Speaking of ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'', the project was originally going to be a ''Franchise/{{Justice League|Of America}}'' SpinOff focusing on some of the lesser known heroes of the DCU, with Morrison specifically envisioning the new team as a pastiche of Marvel's [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]]. To that end, the original cast consisted of characters who each paralleled a specific Avenger, with the Guardian standing in for ComicBook/CaptainAmerica (a shield-wielding {{Badass Normal}}), the Enchantress for ComicBook/ScarletWitch (a magical heroine with a bit of a dark side), [[ComicBook/NewGods Mr. Miracle]] for Thor (a caped Creator/JackKirby creation with ties to a fantastic other world), [[ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} Etrigan the Demon]] for the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] (a tormented man with a dangerous SuperpoweredAlterEgo), obscure Golden Age hero Spyder for ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} (an adventurous archer with an arsenal of {{Trick Arrow}}s) and ComicBook/MartianManhunter for ComicBook/TheVision (a stoic green hero with the ability to [[{{Intangibility}} become intangible]]). Morrison was denied permission to have the Demon, Enchantress or Martian Manhunter in the book since they were all being used elsewhere at the time, so he replaced them with Klarion, Zatanna and Frankenstein, respectively. By then, the whole Avenger angle had begun to fade away, and it was eventually decided to drop the ''Justice League'' title and do the story as its own unrelated thing.

* Speaking of ''ComicBook/SevenSoldiers'', the project was originally going to be a ''Franchise/{{Justice League|Of America}}'' SpinOff focusing on some of the lesser known heroes of the DCU, with Morrison specifically envisioning the new team as a pastiche of Marvel's [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avengers]]. To that end, the original cast consisted of characters who each paralleled a specific Avenger, with the Guardian standing in for ComicBook/CaptainAmerica (a shield-wielding {{Badass Normal}}), the Enchantress for ComicBook/ScarletWitch (a magical heroine with a bit of a dark side), [[ComicBook/NewGods Mr. Miracle]] for Thor (a caped Creator/JackKirby creation with ties to a fantastic other world), [[ComicBook/{{Etrigan}} Etrigan the Demon]] for ComicBook/IncredibleHulk (a tormented man with a dangerous SuperpoweredAlterEgo), obscure Golden Age hero Spyder for ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} (an adventurous archer with an arsenal of {{Trick Arrow}}s) and ComicBook/MartianManhunter for ComicBook/TheVision (a stoic green hero with the ability to [[{{Intangibility}} become intangible]]). Morrison was denied permission to have the Demon, Enchantress or Martian Manhunter in the book since they were all being used elsewhere at the time, so he replaced them with Klarion, Zatanna and Frankenstein, respectively. By then, the whole Avenger angle had begun to fade away, and it was eventually decided to drop the ''Justice League'' title and do the story as its own unrelated thing.