Rearranging Deck-Chairs On The Titanic: Comicdom's B/W/O/F Futile MAKEOVERS?

[Scott Shaw!]

This week's ODDBALL COMIC features a "fabulous transformation into reality" that turns SUPERHEROES' "Fab Four" from androids into teenagers. Yet this eleventh-hour makeover had no effect at all on sales; this issue was SUPERHEROES' last.

What are some of comics' other best, worst, Oddest and (your) favorite last-minute makeovers that failed to produce the desired results -- namely, sales that would rescue the series from cancellation?

Aloha,

Scott!

[Buzz Dixon]

One that I worked one (whose name I forget, mercifully!) for TSR as a back-up feature involved a team of special forces soldiers. As the title they were in was winding down, we decided to send 'em off with a bang: The villain turned them into plant-men and they stayed that way at the end of the adventure!

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Not sure of the effect it had on sales, but changing Jonah Hex from a cowboy with his own series into HEX a guy running around in space seemed a really odd/desperate call to me.

It was the last issue of Jonah Hex that did it for me, he dies at the end, and then in the 2nd last panel he turns pink, and the ground is bare in the final panel (from memory), and it had a caption explaining to find out what happens to the character next (who just died at the end of his series) then pick up Hex.
And instead of a letters page there was a one page ad for the series.
(which kinda looked exactly the same except it had space instead of a desert).

[prince hal]

WORST: The Kents become generic "young" parents

[MWGallaher]

ODDEST: Swamp Thing. Y'know, I can almost buy the concept of transforming Swamp Thing into more of a super-hero character; after all, monstrous heroes are ubiquitous these days. But if they were going to do that, they should have just gotten it over with! Instead, DC (I believe Gerry Conway was in charge of Swampy at the time) wasted what would prove to be the last two issues featuring a helpless and cured Alec Holland running from some of the least interesting supervillains ever conceived (including the forgettable "earth elemental" Thrudvang, who, for some strange reason, I--and of course Mark Waid--have never forgotten). Odder still were the plans for the never-published continuation of the series: it was going to become a superhero "buddy book" featuring Swamp Thing and--Hawkman!?

[Charlie Ryan]

Best:

Roy Thomas and Gil Kane's Captain Marvel
Roy Thomas and Neal Adams's X-Men

Worst:

The awful Gipsy/Vibe/Vixen issues at the end of the Justice League's first run (in fact, those badly dressed duds might not have looked too out of place teamed up with this week's "Fab 4")

The last few "giant-sized" issues of DC's "Plop!" (what began as such a beautiful book --- 32 pages/no ads, Basil Wolverton front and back covers --- ended as a padded, ad-filled 48 page comic filled with a lot of one-joke gag panels)

Biggest Disappointment (because I could never put Jack Kirby on a "worst" list):

The "Shilo Norman, Super Trouble" issues of Mister Miracle

Oddest:

The morphing of Captain America's original 1940's run into "Captain America's Weird Tales"

[Mike Kuypers]

We saw a lot of futile attempts at makeovers in the late '60s.

Best: "Diana Rigg" Wonder Woman

Worst: Super-Blackhawks

Oddest: "Hunted" Metal Men disguised as humans. Of course this wasn't as offensive as another makeover years later which put human psyches inside Metal Men bodies, and made Doc Magnus a robot as well.

[dougputhoff]

Best: Turning Amazing Fantasy into a superhero comic. It didn't save it, but it did give the world Spider-Man. For a series(along with being my favorite): I'd probably go with turning Nova in a space-faring hero. Unfortunately, Marvel cancelled it just as it was getting going.

Worst: Marvel's strategy in the late 1980s of turning any second-string hero into a mutant--Cloak and Dagger, Namor, for example.

Oddest: EC changing the title of the superhero Moon Girl into A Moon...A Girl...Romance, a (duh) romance comic.

[G. Rice]

Best:
Starlin's take on Warlock. Didn't save the book but brought new mythology to the Marvel Universe. Looked wild, too.

Worst:
Have to agree that no move was as completly goofy as Jonah Hex turned into the Road Warrior.
How about instead Jonah as Sam Spade? As Sparticus? WW 1 flying ace? A software designer? Mangus, Robot Fighter! I got it...William Tell! Fits perfectly! He shoots the apple off with his back turned using a mirror!

second worst: turning the Archie Adventure heroes into comedy figures...with a rock singer as each book's narrator. Instead of saving the once-prestigious, influential comics line, it dug its grave six feet deeper.

Oddest:
Teaming Hawkman with the Atom. A guy who operates a mile above the ground and sqawks to birds coupled with a hero one micron tall who travels via phone lines. Kept the characters on the shelves for about three more issues.

[Richard Onley]

Worst: Marvel's strategy in the late 1980s of turning any second-string hero into a mutant--Cloak and Dagger, Namor, for example.

In fairness, Namor was recognized as a mutant in the 1960s--it just wasn't the Great Big Fad then that it became in the 80s.

[Charlie Ryan]

Best:
Starlin's take on Warlock. Didn't save the book but brought new mythology to the Marvel Universe. Looked wild, too.

I loved Starlin's revamp on Warlock too, but it doesn't qualify as an "eleventh-hour makeover". Warlock's original title had ended almost a year and a half before the series was resurrected in Strange Tales with Jim Starlin at the helm. After several (four?) issues of ST, he moved back to his self-titled book (restarted with the old numbering still intact --- imagine that) for another year or so before it was (sadly) cancelled again.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

is prime material for a comic version of MST3K!!!!!!!!

It also hsd the rock star precursor to ALL THAT's TOTALLY KYLE!!!!!!!!!

J.A.P.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

The final seven issues of ALL-STAR SQUADRON is a prime example of a futile MAKEOVER: It provided origin tales of some of the core members of the group; it was a cool idea to give young readers the background info on several of the heroes that Golden Age historians might remember, but new readers do not know anything about: Heroes like LIBERTY BELLE (From the pages of "BOY COMMANDOS" & "STAR-SPANGLED COMICS"); The SHINING KNIGHT (of "ADVENTURE COMICS"); The Golden Age ROBOTMAN (From "STAR-SPANGLED COMICS" & "DETECTIVE COMICS"); JOHNNY QUICK (of "MORE FUN COMICS" & "ADVENTURE COMICS" fame); & The TARANTULA (From "STAR-SPANGLED COMICS"; Not to be confused with JERRY LEWIS' Super-Heroic identity of Ze FEARLESS TARANTULA!)

Jeremy Aron paaterson.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

Doug, MOON GIRL had a much more complicated history than you might have beleived: Its very first issue was titled MOON GIRL & The PRINCE; it became MOON GIRL for the next five issues; issues #7 & #8 were more on the crime formula, but still starred MOON GIRL, & were titled MOON GIRL FIGHTS CRIME; then came the four romance issues of A MOON, A GIRL... ROMANCE; With issue #13, the book joined the NEW TREND line-up as... WEIRD FANTASY!

Jeremy Aron Patterson.

[JIM ENGEL]

What are some of comics' other best, worst, Oddest and (your) favorite last-minute makeovers that failed to produce the desired results -- namely, sales that would rescue the series from cancellation?

Aloha,

Scott!

I have sort of the reverse experience...companies like DC "makeover" characters I already liked. Then those revamps ARE successful, but I wish they were cancelled...

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

How about the final two issues of HENRY BREWSTER, which had the book transformed into a globetrotting teen spy book!

It did not save the series, however!

J.A.P.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

This thread is now part of the Classic Comics Forum!


J.A.P.

[gentlesatirist]

...a Swamp Thing/Hawkman comic?

That would have been great. Hawk can't fly effectively in the swamps and ST's plant powers aren't much use in mountians and sky cities.

Had never heard that before.

Also think the last few issues of All-Star Squadron had origins that were filler issues because DC wasn't sure what it wanted to do with the comic. Always heard it was cancelled even though it had better sales than other DC comics of that era.


- FE

[MDG]

...a Swamp Thing/Hawkman comic?
Not as an ongoing thing--Hawkman was set to guest star in Swamp Thing (the original run) but the book was cancelled before it appeared. It was ready to go though--I've seen original pages for sale.

MDG

[Cei-U!]

The final seven issues of ALL-STAR SQUADRON is a prime example of a futile MAKEOVER

How does this qualify as a makeover, futile or otherwise? The absences of the Earth-2 Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman et al (none of which were mentioned in the stories you cite) notwithstanding, nothing about them changed the premise, history or approach of the book at all.

Roy Thomas knew All-Star Squadron was ending with #67 and filled those last issues with stories originally slated for Secret Origins. It wasn't an attempt to save a dying title. It was a way to buy him time to figure out how to continue the All-Star Squadron series while obeying the editorial dictum to deemphasize the JSA. The result, of course, was Young All-Stars.

Cei-U!
I summon the objection!

[MWGallaher]

Not as an ongoing thing--Hawkman was set to guest star in Swamp Thing (the original run) but the book was cancelled before it appeared. It was ready to go though--I've seen original pages for sale.

MDG
I've read reports that it was planned to be an ongoing thing; Hawkman would have been presented as a "guest star" in that issue, but he was going to continue to co-star as a regular cast member, had the series continued. Weird idea, yeah, but DC tried to keep several dying books alive by adding co-stars in the 70's: Green Lantern, Phantom Stranger, and Challengers of the Unknown, anyway. Maybe Back Issue magazine will cover this in their ongoing series of articles on never-published comics? I'd sure like to see some pages from issue #25; maybe the last page would give us a better hint as to whether Katar was going to indeed co-star...

[Shellhead]

This week's ODDBALL COMIC features a "fabulous transformation into reality" that turns SUPERHEROES' "Fab Four" from androids into teenagers. Yet this eleventh-hour makeover had no effect at all on sales; this issue was SUPERHEROES' last.

What are some of comics' other best, worst, Oddest and (your) favorite last-minute makeovers that failed to produce the desired results -- namely, sales that would rescue the series from cancellation?

Aloha,

Scott!

Volume 1 of Thunderbolts ended just a couple of issues after a bizarre shift... from ex-supervillains seeking redemption as heroes to Fight Club Marvel Style.

[Bicycle-Repairman]

Marvel's Venus ran only 19 issues starting in the late 1940s. The series began as an example of the humourous pin-up genre but evolved from that into romantic drama, sci-fi super-hero action, and finally horror.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

Patsy Walker also dabbled in romance in the 1950s, & during the final years of the book in the 1960s, she was seen as a young adult career girl!


J.A.P.

[Scott Shaw!]

Marvel's Venus ran only 19 issues starting in the late 1940s. The series began as an example of the humourous pin-up genre but evolved from that into romantic drama, sci-fi super-hero action, and finally horror.

Now THAT'S the Marvel Masterwork hardback reprint I'd love to see! I've read a few reprints of some of Bill Everett's "Venus" stories and they're fantastic.

I'd also like to see the entire run of AMAZING FANTASY/AMAZING ADULT FANTASY, "The Comic Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence!", as a Marvel Masterwork.

And speaking of which, AMAZING ADULT FANTASY No. 15 would have to be the most famous last-minute-change-in-direction final issue of any comic ever printed. I think it was Kurt Busiek who proved that -- by their code-numbers -- the stories in the first few issues of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN were originally slated to appear in AMAZING ADULT FANTASY No.s 16, 17 and 18.

Aloha,

Scott!

[MichikoS]

From this...
http://www.thecomicshop.com.au/covers/comics/c/creeper-01-dc-nm.jpg


to this...
http://www.comix-index.de/Bilder/Beware5.jpg

No. Way.

Michi

[MichikoS]

A classic character made over in three consecutive issues. Note the change in hair color between #2 and #3. This makeover has never been rivaled for sheer perversity and wrong-headedness, imo. --Michi

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1859/200/1859_2_1.jpg
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1859/200/1859_2_2.jpg
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1859/200/1859_2_3.jpg

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

The three-issue makeover you are referring to is the Archie comics version of the Shadow, which is considered by many to be the worst Shadow series ever!


J.A.P.

[theflyingfrogunderdog]

How about when Marvel made the original X-Men the Defenders? :rolleyes: That makeover lasted for over two years, so i guess it was a deck-chair rearranging success? :)
http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/large/23565426234.131.gif

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

That Ex-X-Men phase was from issue #125 to issue #152, so it was more than two years of issues!


J.A.P.

[Jeremy A. Patterson]

How about the final issue of Dell's Dracula, in which he received a female partner named Fleeta!


J.A.P.