World Without...?

[redsycorax]

What would a DC universe be like without... well, we already know when the character is Superman or Batman, given the number of Elseworlds, imaginary stories or alternate universes that depict the consequences. However, what about the other, less central figures? The Silver Age Flash's emergence seemed to mark the beginning of that period of the DC heroic tradition. If Barry hadn't been there, what would have happened? What about Green Lantern- what if Abin Sur had bypassed Earth or not died when his starship crashlanded?  One of the problems is that this question is only effective if one considers the top echelon of DC's heroes, though. What about the Silver Age Atom, Hawkman and Hawkwoman or Green Arrow? There are exceptions- it's possible to imagine an Atlantis without Aquaman, but what would it be like? What if it were adversarial to the outside world? What about Themiscyra without Wonder Woman? 

Or what about Batman without Robin, or Superman without Lois Lane? The supporting characters can be just as pivotal to characterisation and story development. 

[dans]

what if Kale-El's rocket had landed near Atlantis?

[jonclark]

The problem is that the further you get down the latter the more you begin to have unseen butterflies.

If we remove Dick Grayson, do we necessarily remove "Robin"? Batman might remain solo or he might find another partner. Could it be Jim Olsen who meets Batman through Superman? Could it be Roy Harper if Batman rather than Oliver Queen is alerted to the boy? Maybe it's an adult like Kathy "Batwoman" Kane who becomes Batman's sidekick.

There was a story once that had a non-DC superteam on a given night perform some regular feats. They rescued a street kid from being lured into a dark subway station by a shadowy man. They thwarted a mugging in an alley. And their delivery of a criminal to the local police station caused a young police scientist to stick around long enough that he avoided a lightning strike on his lab. In this universe there already were heroes so no one missed the abscence of Captain Marvel, Batman, or the Flash.

Preventing one hero's origin might not make any real difference except that Hawkman might become the arch-foe of Captain Cold or Hector Hammond in the abscence of Barry or Hal. Or it might be that Guy Gardener becomes Green Lantern instead of Hal because Abin Sur's ship stayed aloft a few seconds more or a few seconds less. The outcome is largely upto how the author wants to arrange the board after he removes a piece or two,

[johnreiter902]

in The Flash Vol 2 #165, we get to see a world without the speedforce, where there is no Flash.

Central City is a crime-ridden dystopia. Aquaman died during the JLA's battle with Starro because Flash wasn't there to watch his back. The Teen Titans were all killed by Mr. Twister in their first adventure because Kid Flash wasn't there to neutralize the vortex.