Golden Age DC Characters
(1935–1942)

National Allied Publications' second title was New Comics (1935), which became New Adventure with issue #12 and just Adventure Comicswith #32.

In early 1946, Adventure Comics dropped almost its entire lineup (Sandman, Starman, Genius Jones, and Mike Gibbs, Guerrilla) and picked up the previous stars of More Fun Comics (Superboy, Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Johnny Quick). This may have been because humor features were gaining steam, and a book called "Adventure" couldn't transition as well to that format. More Fun, on the other hand, retained its own comedy feature (the Whitney Ellsworth/Henry Boltinoff "Dover and Clover") and picked up Adventure's "Genius Jones."

The Shining Knight, after a late run by Frank Frazetta, was dropped in 1952 due to shrinking page count. Johnny Quick followed in 1954, which is why Aquaman and Green Arrow, the survivors, became DC's only Golden Age heroes aside from Superman/Superboy, Batman, and Wonder Woman to survive into the Silver Age. Then editor Mort Weisinger began to juggle the backup features in his various books; he briefly replaced Green Arrow with Congorilla, then dropped both the newcomer and Aquaman in favor of "Tales of the Bizarro World" in 1961, followed by the Legion of Super-Heroes a year later. The Legion proved a great success, displacing and finally absorbing Superboy's long-running lead feature, before in turn being replaced by Supergirl in 1969.

Supergirl was moved over to her own title in 1972, leaving Adventure without any sort of regular lead feature for the rest of its run. Numerous characters were tried (including several return appearances by old regulars like Aquaman and Superboy, as well as Plastic Man, the Spectre, Dial "H" for Hero, and the JSA. Its last few issues werre all-reprint collections in the digest format. — Thanks to Rich Morrissey