CBR: When Words Collide - Dec 7, 2009

[CBR News]

Tim thinks about all the new characters from from the last several decades who haven't stuck around all that long, and explains why the likes of Wolverine, Deadpool, and the Endless managed to make an impact while others haven't.


Full article here.

[bryan]

They are definately the exception to the norm. Many are created not with the intent of becoming major characters, though. Many you're supposed to forget. It's those who got their own series that could have but rarely make it. Major Bummer. Scare Tactics. Slapstick. Even the New Warriors. Xero. Ressurection Man. Is it just me, or has DC been more willing to try new series?

The successes stand out that much more. Starman. Wolverine. Punisher. Sandman. Runaways. ummm.... Jessica Jones? Any of the Young X-Men? Repteel?

[theorphan]

What about Noh-varr, the Sentry, and Emperor Vulcan? All of them have been in the limelight for a while now. Do they appear month in and month out like Wolverine? The Sentry sure does, appearing in several titles each month. Noh-varr looks like he will be soon. Vulcan just died, but could easily come back and was in a comic almost every month since his creation. I think there are definitely some key exceptions. I guess only time will tell who the Cable and Deadpool of the 00s is. I really enjoyed the article though. Its something I think about quite a bit.

[electricv01]

Harley Quinn, Stargirl, Starman (Jack Knight), Booster Gold, The Endless, Bane, Doomsday, Renee Montoya... All spring to my mind for DC.

Also Conner Kent and Tim Drake, but not sure if they count being that they are new versions of established characters.

[Zetadog]

in the old days, fewer titles were published monthly. but they circulated far many more copies.

The quality of printing forced artists to design distinctive easily recognizable costumes.

today many more titles are published, but they sell far fewer copies. the companies feel safer relying on already established characters. the size of the market is generally to small to launch a breakout superstar character. the most they get is a book that is hot for a few years or decade or decade and a half.

Invincible is/was probably the biggest new character/book in the last 10 years.

In the past, comic covers gave some indication of what was going on inside the comic. narration, dialogue, sometimes multiple panels. today comic books are more exclusively for nerds.

quite a few characters have been successful from the 70s: most of the 70s x-men, many of their villains. howard the duck. man-thing. luke cage. iron fist. Nova. and some of their villains.

The 1980s gave us the Limbo stories, Apocalypse, new mutants, Mr.Sinister, Lobo, venom, firestorm, the other Star-Man, Darkhawk, Quasar, New Warriors, grey hulk. they may not be iconic, but they keep showing up again.

[electricv01]

And for Marvel - Blink ^^

[Comicbookfan]

what about Secret warriors Benids created that group. plus Layla Miller didn't Benids create her? and hen there is The Sentry Paul Jenkis, Marvel Boy Grant morrison he also created Damian right? plus Vulcan from Brubaker. Bane at DC Harley Quin lots of people contradict this article.

[Comicbookfan]

Mike Allerds X-Force! Doop for god sakes man! Jessica Jones sisnt she new? X-Man Nate gray, Gambit, Cable,Deadpool Azrael at dc, Daken at marvel.

[Sijo]

Characters only become regular if they're popular with a large segment of the audience (or in some cases, with creators who have a lot of 'pull'); it doesn't really have anything to do with quality. I would rather prefer that Marvel put out a regular Gravity series that another Deadpool book, but that's how these things work.

[Alexjholt]

I was actually considering this earlier in the year, and came to a pretty similar conclusion, to use a metaphor it's kind of like how a forest functions - new trees can't grow because they are obscured by big old trees. Except that in this case the trees don't ever really fall to make room for more.

The trick seems to be either getting in through another medium (X-23 and Harley Quinn seem to have done pretty well for themselves) or piggy-backing on a team book - the Sentry being the most notable example.

Taking a look at the 2000s though, according to wikipedia, and not counting direct legacy characters....

Sentry, Noh-var, Crispus Allen, Stepford Cuckoos, Fantomex, Temugin, Phyla Vel, Abigail Brand, Maria Hill, Layla Miller, Runaways, Young Avengers, Amadeus Cho, Michael Pointer, Damian Wayne, Vulcan, Daken, Cosmo the Space Dog

Now admittedly, we don't have any Wolverines or Spider-mans in there (yet) but remember that Wolverine took 13 years after creation to get an ongoing. Most of those characters I've listed there have been pretty high profile and been involved in stuff enough at the very least to get them likely to be revisited in the future even if their. I'd actually say, of all of them, Stepford Cuckoos seem to have carved out the comfiest niche. I'd actually say though, if SWORD manages to keep itself going in the long term, thats going to be the most impressive of the bunch.

[bizarro john]

Ah. The old "No new characters" debate.

1. Marvel and DC have a rich history of existing characters. Why re-create something already existing? Instead, why not focus the efforts on taking a pre-existing character and making it better?
Examples abound: Grant Morrison's Animal Man & Doom Patrol, Howard Chakin's Shadow & Blackhawk, James Robinson's Starman, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. Even Sandman was an existing character (somewhat).
For Marvel, there's the entire Ultimate line.

2. Non-superheroes: Vertigo abounds with long running titles with memorable characters: The Endless (mentioned), the Fables universe (but they probably don't count), Yorick Brown, Dashiell Bad Horse, Jesse Custer... And just how could you forget about John Constantine? over 260 issues, several OGNs, and even a movie! The only reason most of these stop is due to the fact that the story has ended.


3. Independents: Creators are much more likely to create new characters and want to keep control over them. Where is that likely to happen? With the independent publishers, such as Image or Dark Horse. So let's look at non Marvel and non DC characters, shall we:
Savage Dragon, Grendel, Hellboy, Mage, B.P.R.D., Walking Dead, Invincible, Spawn, Bone, Madman... The list goes on and on... In those characters I see 3 movies, 3 movies in development hell, an animated TV show, multiple statues and action figures, and even an entire toy company.

The reason you don't see more of these characters? Outside of Spawn, the creators tend to what to keep a bit more control over their characters. Could some of the mentioned titles go crazy and become as (annoying) popular as Wolverine? Sure they could, if the owners allowed it.

[Adam K]

Lots of people listing recent new characters that have "stuck around," but they seem to be missing the point. Sure, The Sentry has been in a bunch of books lately, but do you think he will be ten years from now? That's what really matters. Like everyone that's mentioned Vulcan: sure, he appeared somewhere each month since his creation, but what makes you think he'll be any more than a little blip on radar of readers in the future?

[rwe1138]

*cough* Lobo *cough*

[theorphan]

Lots of people listing recent new characters that have "stuck around," but they seem to be missing the point. Sure, The Sentry has been in a bunch of books lately, but do you think he will be ten years from now? That's what really matters. Like everyone that's mentioned Vulcan: sure, he appeared somewhere each month since his creation, but what makes you think he'll be any more than a little blip on radar of readers in the future?

For the Sentry, it depends if his powers get defined a little more. If his character doesn't get tightened up, writers will avoid him because he's either too powerful or they'll have to continuously think of ways to get him out of a fight. So far though, it would seem he has great staying power with three solo series and two team books, along with cameos in most every other major marvel title.

For Vulcan, I think only time will tell if he has staying power, but so far this decade, he and Cassandra Nova have been the only new X-Men villains that have shown up as much as some of their more common villains like Sinister, Apocalypse, and the Hellfire Club. I think he could easily be a mainstay in both the X-Men and cosmic parts of the Marvel U.

[Adam K]

To be fair, I'd say the reason he has cameos in other books has more to do with Dark Reign being the major status quo of the MU, so it just seems like the easiest way to show that in his appearances. I'm sure if he wasn't around, they'd just throw Venom or Bullseye in there instead for the obligatory Dark Avengers/Dark Reign bit.