The Hulk, He is Rampaging

[scratchie]

I just got a nice reader copy of Rampaging Hulk #1 (I still have #2 and 3 from when they came out; wish I knew what happened to my old #4). I just started reading a little of it and it occurred to me that this was the first time I ever saw the kind of story they they like to call "Year One" these days.

Can anyone think of an earlier example of Marvel or DC going back to revisit the early history of one of their characters? Any obvious examples I'm forgetting?

[MDG]

How about when Englehart wrote the "real" origin of the JLA?

http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=31195

MDG

[Cei-U!]

How about when Englehart wrote the "real" origin of the JLA?

Looking back, it's one big nerdpuzzle but God, did I love it at the time it came out. The fanboy within still feels a thrill when I see that cover.

Cei-U!
Down, boy! Heel!

[scratchie]

How about when Englehart wrote the "real" origin of the JLA?

http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=31195Fascinating. I've never even seen this before. It's six months after the first Rampaging Hulk, though.

[scratchie]

Looking back, it's one big nerdpuzzle but God, did I love it at the time it came out. The fanboy within still feels a thrill when I see that cover.Is there any point in reading it if you're not already familiar with the early JLA issues?

[MWGallaher]

Can anyone think of an earlier example of Marvel or DC going back to revisit the early history of one of their characters? Any obvious examples I'm forgetting?

There's at least a couple of obvious ones: Superboy and the original version of Wonder Girl. Before its first DC cancellation, Blackhawk backed up to the war era. Wonder Woman did the same, but technically that's a "different" character, since the Earth-2 concept was already established by that time.
In the 60's Captain America's strip in Tales of Suspense also went back to WWII for a year or so.

[scratchie]

Hm. Good examples but not really what I was going for, either. Having thought about it, one of the things that characterizes "Year One" stories (to my mind, anyway) is the retelling of a "vintage" story in a "contemporary" voice.

Superboy and Wonder Girl aren't the same, because they're introducing a new phase to the heros' lives that we'd never seen before, not re-telling stories from a period that had already been covered in a previous iteration.

[Kirk G]

How about when the FF went back in time to visit Pharoah in about FF#20... and t hen Marvel keeps revisiting the same scene, in both Doctor Strange, and in West Coast Avengers "Lost in Time Caper"?

Or how about in Fantastic Four #5, when Dr. Doom sends them back in time to get Blackbeard's Treasure, only to discover that Ben IS Blackbeard after disguising himself?? Does that count?

[Kirk G]

OOpps, double post. sorry!

[scratchie]

How about when the FF went back in time to visit Pharoah in about FF#20... and t hen Marvel keeps revisiting the same scene, in both Doctor Strange, and in West Coast Avengers "Lost in Time Caper"?

Or how about in Fantastic Four #5, when Dr. Doom sends them back in time to get Blackbeard's Treasure, only to discover that Ben IS Blackbeard after disguising himself?? Does that count?I'm not familiar with the first one, but both of these sound like they're part of the regular continuity, not retelling stories from a past "era". I'm trying to think of things analagous to

Batman: Year One
Daredevil: Yellow
Batman and the Monster Men
Fantastic Four: First Family

etc.

The key, for me, is retelling an old story -- or telling new stories in an era that has already been "covered".

One example that occurred to me earlier this afternoon, when the boards were nigh-inaccessible, is The Invaders. It's that sort of retelling/expansion of prior continuity that I'm thinking of.

[prince hal]

If The Invaders fits your criteria, then certainly All-Star Squadron and the Liberty Legion do.

Never read it myself, but Marvel's The Sentry may also.

Superman's life story was retold a couple of times during the Silver Age, with additions made here and there. Maybe the whole Weisinger era could be considered, because he was constantly supplementing the Kryptonian heritage aspect of Superman's life, changing it and taking it far beyond what had been established back in the Golden Age.

[scratchie]

The Silver Age re-tellings of Superman's life definitely capture the feeling I'm thinking of.

[MWGallaher]

The key, for me, is retelling an old story -- or telling new stories in an era that has already been "covered".



Kanigher did "retelling an old story" a lot in Wonder Woman: Lots of his late 60's stories were based on Golden Age adventures, and the immediate post-Diana Prince stories after issue 200 were, too. But that's still not what you're getting at, I know. Kanigher's reuse of old WW stories was more like a remake, not an intentional, admitted look back at a past adventure in a new perspective. The reader of those Wonder Woman stories wasn't supposed to realize that these were fresh looks back, they were supposed to accept them as new stories.
I think maybe Rampaging Hulk--which happens to be one of my favorite Marvel comics, by the way--may have indeed been the first to go back and fill in the blanks on an ongoing basis (as opposed to, say, Superman stories that told some particular tale about his past).

[Cei-U!]

Don't know if this counts but Detective Comics #235 (September 1956)retold Batman's origin with a crucial new detail: Joe Chill was not a random mugger but a hitman working for gangster Lew Moxon. This was also the story that explained that Batman's costume was based on childhood memories of a masquerade costume worn by his father.

There's also the short-lived Earth-2 Wonder Woman series of the mid-1970s, which depicted new versions of her first encounters with Paula Von Gunther and others.

Cei-U!
For that matter, every Superboy story published up through the Crisis on Infinite Earths fits the category!

[T GUy]

MDG:
How about when Englehart wrote the "real" origin of the JLA?

How about when Englehart wrote the "real" origin of the Vision?