Although I suppose Superboy may get the title of the first (major) one. He pretty much led off the Earth-1/Earth-2 split, giving Clark a pre-Superman cartoon, establishing the teenage and bald Luthor, and the various other stuff which became markers for which Earth was which.

Yep...Initially, Brainiac 5 was supposed to be the descendant of Brainiac. Changing Brainiac into a machine confused the heck out of those of us reading the Legion of Super-Heroes at the time (Yes...I'm that old!)

There was another story shortly afterwards in which it was revealed that Brainiac adopted a son. The adoption was to help him disguise the fact that he was actually a machine.

Brainiac 5 was then declared to be descended from the son.

Thanks!

Re: Accidentally bald Luthor:

2. Eventually, Team Weisinger did the origin of Luthor’s hair loss: an accident caused by or involving Superboy — maybe an acknowledgement that Luthor’s balding was in fact an accident. Or otherwise a rather bizarre coincidence.

...

In Smallville, Lex creates "living protoplasm", which leads to him creating an antidote for Kryptonite poisoning. He calls Superboy to his private lab to surprise him. Lex accidentally starts a fire.

Superboy decides to use his "super-breath" to put out the fire. This causes two things to happen. 1) Other chemicals fall into the antidote, destroying it. 2) Lex's hair gets blown off.

Lex: "You... You idiot! You made my hair fall out! I'll do everything in my power to destroy you, Superboy!"

Lex's evil deeds begin. He then gets disowned by his family. "You've brought shame to our family! You are no longer my son!-- Out!!" (Ouch! Two exclamation points.)

Lex's father is bald on top, but has dark hair on the sides of his head. His mother is a blonde; as is his little sister. I need to read up on the history of Lex's comic book family.

Anyhoo...

If anybody here is interested, I see via an online schedule that Cartoon Channel is replacing the new FF tonight with "The Batman," presumably reruns, as I had already figured THAT to be defunct.

The mention of Harley Quinn made me think of her great voice job, by Arleen Sorkin, principally a daytime soap player, which made me think of Mark Hamill's equally good Joker, infinitely better, I said to myself, than whoever did it for those Filmation cartoons just after ABC's cancellation of the Adam West/Batman series made the character's rights available (I'm currently seeing some of this stuff via a Dishnet preview of Boomerang). THIS in turn reminded me of something that I've been puzzling over for years, and maybe you can do an item on it, Brian. Here goes:

The third season of "Batman" on ABC was reduced from two half--hour episodes a week to one, on Thursdays (that will be important), and run straight through, no repeats or preemptions, not even on Thanksgiving evening (see?), until all had been shown once, and then it was gone for good (except for general syndication reruns). In one of two mid--to--late 90s magazine interviews (one was in a "Starlog" special that was obviously clearing left--over inventory from the recently defunct "Comics Scene," the other in "Film Fax") with Yvonne Craig, who played Batgirl in that third season only, she said that they were filming TWO episodes a week, even though, as I said, only ONE was being aired. I decided that the network had totally committed themselves to a third season well in advance, like NBC would later do with the second season of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" show, and came to regret it just as much, i.e., ABC saw the ratings drop dramatically during season two (speculation; I have no documentation of the actual Nielsen numbers, which might well put a quick end to this, of course). The network, I further theorize, found a loophole or something in the contract that allowed them to reduce the show to one episode a week, but not increase the schedule/budget to let them utilize the entire week for each installment, so that they covered the entire season for half the cost.There are problems, however. Why add a character if they were just going through the motions (This was the studio's act?)? The "Green Hornet" crossover late in the second season, allegedly to help that program's ratings (even though "Hornet" star Van Williams told Will Murray they were winning their time slot and executive producer William Dozier---not the network---cancelled the show because ABC refused to expand it to an hour ["Starlog" #135, October 1988; when I CAN make a specific citation, I do!]) makes no sense if the only reason "Batman" itself didn't get struck from the schedule then was due to a binding commitment and nothing else. It is also said that another network---no idea here which one, oddly---wanted to pick up "Batman" after ABC dropped it, provided they didn't have to pay to have the Batcave set rebuilt, but it was already gone. However, if the numbers were so bad that then perennial third--place finisher ABC would have liked to be rid of it sooner than they could be, why would CBS or NBC want it? Plenty of mixed signals in this business, Brian. Can you---or anybody here---help straighten it out?

you mean "Reign of the Superman"?

that wasn't Luthor, though... he was a crazed scientist, yes, but unless i'm mistaken, the bald scientist WAS the Superman of the title.

Also, many characters have had their characterizations changed to match the changes made for the animated series.

She showed up very briefly in Villains United, trying to escape from Arkham. To be honest, though, I'm glad she's mostly been phased out; her character doesn't really work in mainstream DCU.

1. Shuster's original illo in the pre-comics pulp version has, IIRC, a bald Luthor. Not saying there's a connection, just pointing it out.

2. Eventually, Team Weisinger did the origin of Luthor's hair loss: an accident caused by or involving Superboy -- maybe an acknowledgement that Luthor's balding was in fact an accident. Or otherwise a rather bizarre coincidence.

You know, where is Harley in the mainline DCU right now? Did she stick? I know she had her own book for awhile (and I rather liked it), but I don't recall seeing her during the Infinite Shitstorm of the last few years in DC, and I don't think she's put in a 52 appearance yet. Has she died, or just been shelved for a bit?

The Zod from the Jim Lee issues? Well...

*spoilers ahoy!*

Is that the same Zod who just showed up in Action Comics? Or is he yet another Zod?

Though this currently makes some sad.

Didn't Brainiac suddenly becoming a computer cause continuity problems for Brainiac 5?