On Earth-Dakota (an alternate universe extremely similar to the one outside your window, but in which DC's business decisions were controlled by me), the Crisis never happened.
Instead, DC, feeling generally hamstrung by half a century's worth of continuity -- much of which doesn't make a lot of sense by the more sophisticated standards of the time -- made the following decision:
Starting with the January, 1986 issues, all comics published by the company ceases to tell stories in the universes of Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-S, etc. All storylines in all books came to completion as of the December, 1985 issue.
Beginning in January, 1986, all stories took place inside a single universe which is simply another parallel universe. Internally, DC called it "Earth-0," though no story of the time ever referred to it as such. From the perspective of the characters, theirs was the only universe they'd ever known.
There was an editorially-dictated five-year moratorium on any and all alternate universe stories. So while the Earth-2 and Earth-1 Supermen still existed, there were no stories that involved them in any way for five years.
The January, 1986 lineup of DC titles were:
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Superman: solo adventures of the Man of Steel, published the first of every month.
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The Adventures Of Superman: solo adventures of the Man of Steel, published the 14th of every month.
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Batman: solo adventures of the Darknight Detective, published the first of every month.
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Detective Comics: solo adventures of the Darknight Detective, published the 14th of every month.
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Wonder Woman: solo adventures of Princess Diana, published monthly.
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Green Lantern: solo adventures of "space cop" John Stewart, a member of the GLC, published monthly.
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Hawkman: solo adventures of the winged aliens Katar Hol and his wife Shayera, published monthly.
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Flash: solo adventures of Wally West.
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Adventure Comics: a monthly title whose sole purpose is to introduce potential new super-hero characters. The first six issues introduced J'onn J'onzz, Green Arrow and Black Canary (a team by design), Captain Marvel, the Question, Captain Atom and Doctor Fate. The title was used to "try out" hero concepts to guage reader interest in a continuing title.
In March, 1986, the following titles were added:
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The Brave and the Bold: adventures of Batman teamed with a rotating guest character, published monthly.
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Action Comics: adventures of Superman teamed with a rotating guest character, published monthly.
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World's Finest: joint adventures of Superman and Batman, published monthly.
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Sensation Comics: adventures of Wonder Woman teamed with a rotating guest character, published monthly.
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Justice Legion: the adventures of a 30th-century super-team, not limited to teen-agers. The futuristic version of the Justice League, but actually introduced
before the Justice League titles in order to garner interest. The origins of said team are lost to the mists of time, but there are legends of its beginnings a thousand years previously.
Then in July, 1986, to much fanfare, was introduced the following title:
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Justice League: a monthly title devoted to the teaming of the super-heros. The first couple of adventures featured Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, J'onn J'onzz, Green Lantern, the Flash, and Hawkgirl (sans Hawkman). By the third issue, however, it was decided by these characters that the League should be all-encompassing, and as new super-heros come on the scene, they should be approached for membership.
Consquently,
Justice League on Earth-Dakota became similar to what we think of as the TV series
Justice League Unlimited today. It was a clearing house for
all DC's superheros, whether they had their own book or not, and whether they were successful or not. If a try-out in
Adventure or
All-Star Comics (see below) garnered no interest, they'd be relegated to background panels of
Justice League.
Furthermore, note that by editorial decree, new super-hero characters were only to be found in the pages of either
Adventure Comics or:
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All-Star Comics. A "try-out" title similar to
Adventure Comics, except it would feature team-based adventures. Some issues introduce new individual characters within the context of a Justice League adventure. Some issues were adventures of sub-teams of the Justice League.
All-Star Comics was the springboard for the titles:
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Justice League: Outsiders: a monthly featuring a sub-group of the League whose rotation varied but generally included characters who for various reasons didn't "fit in" with the usual League teams. Basically a group that didn't ordinarily "work and play well with others." The team was nominally "led" by the Question.
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Justice League: Doom Patrol: a monthly featuring a sub-group of the League who were particularly unusual in some way. The cast was essentially similar to the Doom Patrol of Earth-Reality's DCU.
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Justice League: Teen Titans: a monthly featuring the adventures of the junior members of the Justice League. Regular membership included Supergirl, Robin, Stargirl, Wonder Girl, and Aqualad.
Very rarely were characters in the Earth-Dakota DCU killed. Instead, if interest waned, they were simply rolled back into the Justice League. Titles and heros came and went as titles and heros do, but they always had the Justice League. One might go years without seeing Hawk and Dove in a regular story, but they might be glimpsed wandering the Hall of Justice, ready for use in case a writer might be so inclined.
The most dramatic difference in the comics world of Earth-Dakota was the fact that, without
Crisis On Infinite Earths as the template for annual company-wide cross-overs, such things never came into existence. Cross-over adventures occurred either within the confines of the existing team-up titles or in
All-Star Comics or a similar Justice League title created explicitly for the purpose of a cross-over story.
As for the Earth-0 Superman himself ...
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the race of the Mathusians learned the secret of immortality, but at a cost. They could become immortal, but only by sacrificing their ability to reproduce. They did so, and became the self-styled Guardians. They formed the Green Lantern Corps, which by 1986 had become the primary peace-keeping force in the galaxy.
A few thousand years ago, one of their number, Krona, ultimately broke away from the Guardians and decided to attempt to create a "successor" race. he envisioned a race genetically superior in every way, immortal like the Guardians, but capable of reproduction. Krona's work was deemed criminal by the Guardians, and he was outcast.
Working on his own, Krona went to the planet Krypton. He conducted long-term experiments in genetic engineering and enjoyed great success. His super-race was just that: humanoid in appearance, extraordinarily intelligent, an extremely wide range of both active and passive senses, muscle tissue so dense that they were almost capable of negating gravity, and the ability to draw nourishment directly from certain wavelengths of their red sun. While not immortal, they were extremely long-lived, with lifespans of several centuries not uncommon.
When the Guardians discovered what Krona had done, they punished him by banishment to some random alternate universe, never to return. Realizing the potential for harm inherent in a super-race, successive Green Lanterns were charged with observing their development and reporting the the Guardians in the event they appeared to become aggressive.
By 1956, the Kryptonians had succeeded in producing a thriving and peaceful civilization. They had colonized various moons and planets in their own solar system and were on the verge of discovering interstellar flight when the planet Krypton mysteriously exploded. The Green Lantern of their sector could report no reason for this. She did report, however, that just before the destruction of the planet an experimental spacecraft was launched. It entered hyperspace just after the planet's destruction for an unknown destination, carrying in its wake a number of small chunks of the planet's debris.
The various Kryptonian colonies in their solar system, highly dependant on Krypton for various resources necessary for their survival, slowly died out. Only two colonies, the space stations of Kandor and Argo, appeared capable of continued life. However Kandor itself mysteriously disappeared only a few years later.
Argo, on the other hand, appeared to be continuing a self-sufficiency, however an unexpected side-effect of the destruction of Krypton was the conversion of its rubble to a substance that was unusually toxic to Kryptonians. Argo was ultimately punctured by Kryptonite meteorites, and the only survivor was a teenaged girl who was placed in an experimental spacecraft and launched into hyperspace.
The first Kryptonian spacecraft was that of Kal-El. His spacecraft landed in a rural area of Kansas where it was found by the Kents, who "adopted" the child as their own.
Posessing of amazing abilities even as an infant, young Clark Kent grew in power. The yellow sun was teeming with the wavelengths of light he'd been specifically engineered to use for sustinance, turning his body into a "power battery" that multiplied his enhanced genetics to a fantastic level.
There was no Superboy on Earth-0: Clark began his career as an adult, totally ignorant of his Kryptonian heritage. Only as Kryptonian artifacts found their way to Earth did he gain information about his past.
For example, there were unusual meteorites found across South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas from a 1956 strike. These odd, green rocks would cause a peculiar form of blood poisoning.
The biggest key to unravelling his past was found in the arrival of Supergirl. Clearly of the same genetic structure as Superman and carrying some of the same strange green meteorites as those found in 1956, it was concluded that she must come from Superman's planet of origin. She could tell volumes about the destruction of Krypton and life on post-Krypton Argo.
The final key was provided when Brainiac, a "collector" of alien civilizations, arrived on Earth and attempted to make off with human cities. He had absconded with the Kryptonian space station of Kandor, placing it in an area of spacial intangibility called the "Phantom Zone." However, Brainiac's spaceship and transport equipment was destroyed while Superman fought him, making it impossible to bring the Kandorians back. Superman nevertheless found a way to communicate with the Kandorians, at which time Superman learned the truth of both his origin and Krypton's destruction:
Making contact with Van-Zee of Kandor, Superman learned that in the last days of Krypton, his father Jor-El had been experimenting with creating hyperspacial wormholes. What Jor-El couldn't have forseen were the unique circumstances under which Kronos had created the Kryptonian race. His choice of the gravitationally-massive Krypton and its massive Red Giant sun were environmentally unique, yet combined with an additional womhole within these gravitational fields produced a horrifically unstable situation.
In short, Jor-El accidentally created a quantum black hole on the surface of the planet.
All of this would have been unknown, but for the fact that Van-Zee was an assistant of Jor-El's working from the Kandor space station. He'd been in contact with Jor-El during his final experiments -- something he'd never divulged to the other Kandorians.
With only minutes to deal with the situation Jor-El placed his infant son in an experimental hyperspace craft and launched him toward Earth. The planet was ripped to shreds, the black hole winking out of existence once the equipment that created it was destroyed.
At the end of this story, Superman was left in the situation of needing to find a way to restore the space station of Kandor from the Phantom Zone to real space, yet at the same time aware that if the Kandorians discovered the secret of what had happened to their planet, he and his new Kandorian friend Van-Zee might face a significant backlash.
And ... well ... that's what I'd've done, in the alternate universe of Earth-Dakota.
Dakota Smith