I keep thinking Camelot 3000 but that wasn't ongoing.

I'm kinda surprised no one has nailed this yet. If there was a star spanning saga like Infinity Gauntlet at the time for DC, it would have been fitting to be in this title.

Oh duh, of course-- it's Omega Men!

Lots of totally unnecessary violence in that comic.

It was Omega Men indeed. There were some reprint titles and a mini or two, but the first ongoing monthly with the new paper and driect sales model was Omega Men.

If we just could go back and tell them to not totally kill the grocery store/drug store market for young, new readers...

It's not certain that the industry would have survived without that move. In teh late 70s early 80s there was a *lot* of talk about how the industry was dying. Remeber the DC Implosion?

Speaking of which, what unusual hero had his debut delayed by the DC Implosion?

I want to say "Tom Jones", but, that's not unusual.

Was it Firestorm?

Nope. He debuted before the Implosion.

I'm trying to remember here, but wasn't this a western series ??? I think there was a western and then some sort of cosmic thing by Mike Grell that ended up being published by another company.
I can't remember the names of either, so, not a big loss here.

You are on the wrong track, strangely enough.

Well, it wasn't Adam Strange.

SHADE, the changing Man?

No, his series was cancelled in the Implosion, so he was already around.

Here's a total guess:
Ambush Bug ???

Nope!

I'm surprised that this is truing out to be hard. Here's a hint-- the character would have been one of the back-up features of the DC Explosion. In the house ad, he's the only new character.