What if the classic Bronze Age series continued…? Alter Ego #180 is due Feb. 15 from TwoMorrows (though earlier in some places, according to Diamond). The subject? The Young All-Stars — a DC series created in the 1987 aftermath of Crisis on Infinite Earths. There’s a lot of groovy material in the issue, which is a spiritual sequel to Alter Ego #175, which featured a deep dive into the series’ predecessor, All-Star Squadron. Anyway, one of the coolest features in both issues is a series of faux All-Star Squadron covers that imagine if the series had continued on its own. The initial part ran in #175 and the follow-up is in #180. Here’s how editor Roy Thomas, who edits AE and was the driving force behind both comics series, explained it in Issue #175: “I (that’s Roy, of course) had long assumed that the 70 or so covers that original editor Len Wein or later I myself had overseen for DC’s 1981-87 All-Star Squadron series were the only ones ever commissioned related to that particular concept. Imagine my surprise in 2020 when my longtime correspondent Ray Bottorff Jr., sent me samples of a whole slew of imaginative “faux covers” that had been posted online, which picked up the numbering of the actual series after #67 (and of the Annuals after #3) and assumed the magazine had never been canceled and replaced with The Young All-Stars on the heels of Crisis on Infinite Earths. “I quickly contacted the mental progenitor of all those covers, one John Joshua, and was delighted that he and the talented artists (a few of them longtime pros) involved would allow Alter Ego to print them, beginning in this issue. And we thank DC Comics in advance for its presumed indulgence in understanding that this is totally a fan homage for the fun of it, not an attempt by anyone to usurp trademarks or copyrights (which are rendered for DC in any event). Alas, we had room this time around for only the initial handful of these wonderful faux covers… but we plan, going forward, to stick a new batch of them into each and every issue of A/E where we can find the space, till they’ve all seen print!” Normally, for our EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT, I’d show off 13 of these but I don’t want to...