Send in the Stand In, or Who did it better as a Replacement?
Jan 7, 2020 9:25:28 GMT -5
Roquefort Raider and tarkintino like this
Post by brutalis on Jan 7, 2020 9:25:28 GMT -5
So let's talk about the trend of replacing/substituting/wannabe's who take on the role of a superhero or supervillain (not as often) in the absence of the originator. I shall not even try listing them all as this has been a long tradition in comics (even more today than ever it seems) stories. Now I am not talking about how DC re-invented many of the heroes from the Golden Age to the Silver Age with totally new identities and costumes and sometimes power changes. But more about the times since then when writer's feel the need to injure, kill or remove the current version with placing someone new in the super suit.
I will begin with Hank Pym and his myriad identities being so readily assumed by others as one of my earliest memories for this stratagem. This begins with Clint Barton (Hawkeye) who is feeling like the proverbial Fifth and weakest wheel on the Avengers, so he slugs down some Pym growth serum and jumps into the Goliath suit for power and attention. He eventually returns to his archer persona and then Bill Foster takes up the Black Goliath mantle and eventually even becomes Giant Man. Erik Josten uses the Goliath moniker for awhile until Foster's nephew Tom takes up the Goliath title in memory of his dead uncle. And then Raz Malhotra is given the Giant Man form. Earlier amid the Goliath confusion comes Scott Lang who steals the Ant Man identity while making it his own and then Eric O'Grady, who takes on being Ant Man from Lang. Rita DeMara joins the fun and steals the Yellowjacket suit and jumps to the future alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy. And good old confused Hank Pym chooses for taking the name Wasp in the honoring and remembrance of his supposedly "dead" partner and ex-wife, Janet Van Dyne until she returns. While along the way Jan is found alive in the Microverse and returned but now there is a new Van Dyne in town, Hank's daughter Nadia who adopts the Wasp title and Janet's last name. Have you followed all that?!?
SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH. And this is just the start folks. From here, nearly every major hero has been taken off the battlefield at some point or another with a replacement inserted, some doing their best and living up to the NAME or going on to different/similar identities while others flopped or perhaps even did better in the identity than the original. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Hawkeye, Deathlok, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Flash, Supergirl, Batgirl and sooooo many others for us to explore and discuss. Lord knows there could be an entire team made up of replacement heroes. They need a place to hang out and talk about their adventures, something like a club or AA monthly meeting: Hi, I'm so-and-so and I used to be Iron Man for a day or night. They could even borrow the club's name from DC: The Legion of Substitute Heroes! So what are your own thoughts and ideas about the ever changing faces behind the masks and cowls?
I will begin with Hank Pym and his myriad identities being so readily assumed by others as one of my earliest memories for this stratagem. This begins with Clint Barton (Hawkeye) who is feeling like the proverbial Fifth and weakest wheel on the Avengers, so he slugs down some Pym growth serum and jumps into the Goliath suit for power and attention. He eventually returns to his archer persona and then Bill Foster takes up the Black Goliath mantle and eventually even becomes Giant Man. Erik Josten uses the Goliath moniker for awhile until Foster's nephew Tom takes up the Goliath title in memory of his dead uncle. And then Raz Malhotra is given the Giant Man form. Earlier amid the Goliath confusion comes Scott Lang who steals the Ant Man identity while making it his own and then Eric O'Grady, who takes on being Ant Man from Lang. Rita DeMara joins the fun and steals the Yellowjacket suit and jumps to the future alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy. And good old confused Hank Pym chooses for taking the name Wasp in the honoring and remembrance of his supposedly "dead" partner and ex-wife, Janet Van Dyne until she returns. While along the way Jan is found alive in the Microverse and returned but now there is a new Van Dyne in town, Hank's daughter Nadia who adopts the Wasp title and Janet's last name. Have you followed all that?!?
SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH. And this is just the start folks. From here, nearly every major hero has been taken off the battlefield at some point or another with a replacement inserted, some doing their best and living up to the NAME or going on to different/similar identities while others flopped or perhaps even did better in the identity than the original. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Hawkeye, Deathlok, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Flash, Supergirl, Batgirl and sooooo many others for us to explore and discuss. Lord knows there could be an entire team made up of replacement heroes. They need a place to hang out and talk about their adventures, something like a club or AA monthly meeting: Hi, I'm so-and-so and I used to be Iron Man for a day or night. They could even borrow the club's name from DC: The Legion of Substitute Heroes! So what are your own thoughts and ideas about the ever changing faces behind the masks and cowls?
