Hmmm, this is a tough one JB, the one year that both companies were getting it right for the most part. I'm thinking 76 is a good point for both companies, but there will be a few things that would have to happen to get this to work.

Crossovers sould be handeled like cocktails, only in moderation or you end up making an ass out of yourself.  Limited series should also be handeled in a similar manner, for the same reasons. There would have to be a ridged " stay the course " policy because the trolls out there are going to raise hell for the first five years of this. Then I hope they will have all gone away There would have to be a way found to get the comics back into the grocery stores, and other like places to make them more accessable to the younger audience.

Funny you should ask this question JB, a friend and I were speculating on Marvel doing this very thing. We have both heard a rumor that Doctor Strange has the Infinity Guantlet now, all it would take there is a snap of the fingers.  

I'm not so familiar with Marvel Lore, so I won't address that because anything I would say there would TRULY be a random date (all though, maybe that would work best!).

For DC Comics, I'd like to rewind back to the end of the first story of publication, but that provides TOO many random dates (and doesn't really follow the contest rules).

So...I'm going to say 1942 for DC.  Everything that NEEDED to be there was there.

MPH

PS...I'd also like to add (and this is NOT part of the contest), but maybe actually SETTING the stories in the YEAR the character was first published would be a good idea, too.  I'm working on a pitch for a character that works damned well in the 1940s and earlier, but is a wee bit more difficult to do in the 2000s and I keep coming back this particular point!

I think you'd have to go back to 1970 or before, because it was the 70s when rot started to set in.  Which isn't to say that the 70s and later didn't produce a lot of good work, or even that the creative impulses that came into the industry were all bad.  But 1970 seems like the last point where you can really make a clean break with all the modern developments and mindsets that have led super-hero comics to their current position...where grown men are both reading stories about Sue Dibney getting raped and killed AND stories where the Hulk destroys huge parts of New York City without killing anyone.

Mike

Any "fix" that is done as a story element or event is automatically doomed to
failure.

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Well, I'm sure if they had One More Day to get things right, they would......

Oh, yeah, that was sarcasm and NOT directed at JB.

"For DC, it's fairly simple for me.  Revert everything to the way it was immediately before CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.  That event led to 20+ years of confusion and growing chaos."

That's hilarious, Thom, because I feel the exact opposite way. Everything leading up to DC in 1985 was confusing to me. The relaunch smoothed things out and allowed opportunities like Captain Marvel joining the JLA, which I enjoyed. Ain't fandom great?