I have added polls when I started threads like this in the past and I feel it adds to the conversation. Either way, it’s a good subject.

Some of these replacements had legs as far as being the status quo. Kyle Raynor had 130 issues as Green lantern and James Rhodes lasted about 3 years as Ironman.

John Stewart as the next Green Lantern. Brilliant choice that married a critical issue of the era with the logical need for the Guardians to have another protector. Instead of Stewart acting like some early Silver Age character who would have jumped at the chance to be a superhero (e.g. Jimmy Olsen), Stewart had serious reservations about taking on the role of an enforcer. His initial conflict with Jordan over the former's temperament and world view made the chance for Stewart to become a Green Lantern fascinating, as one of DC's best known hero identities would never be seen quite the same again.

So, was Stewart a better GL than Jordan? I would say no, but he was a necessary and solid bookend to the kind of GL earth needed from that point forward.


Harry Osborn as the second Green Goblin. As if The Amazing Spider-Man #121 / 122 was not a torrential flood of drama and tragedy, the final panel of Spider-Man walking away from the scene of the Green Goblin's death teased a shadowy observer. At the time, no one imagined who would stand by at such a scene, just waiting, but over the next few issues, the noticeable hostility Harry Osborn projected toward everyone--notably Peter Parker--hinted that Harry knew something. By the time he discovered the Spider-Man mask among Peter's clothing, and (in a great visual cliffhanger) disappeared into the original Goblin's lair, readers knew where this was going.
Harry as the second Green Goblin was not just another "guy takes over the role of another villain" plot; in-universe, Spider-Man's world was barely moving toward what anyone would describe as normal, but the shock of Gwen Stacy & Norman Osborn's deaths was still fresh; there was no way of losing that cloud overnight, so realistically, it still had great effect on the title well over year after those landmark issues were published. To that end in the comic, Harry would use said cloud to fuel psychological & would-be deadly attacks against Parker until the latter forced the younger Osborn into failure, then a ranting breakdown.

Still, Harry's feeling of abandonment, betrayal and the idea that his father had been murdered were Gerry Conway's (arguably justified) motives for an unhinged son to seek revenge as his father, reveling in the idea of inflicting terror & pain on people he used to count as part of his inner circle. The coda of Harry's first run as the Goblin had Peter tell the police that he would help him in any way he could...because he's Harry's friend. There was no triumphant, stand-over-the-villain's-body moment here, but loyalty and some understanding from one hurt man to another. I won't say Harry was a superior Goblin to his father (he was not), but in building the legacy of a hero's greatest foe (at a time when the aura of tragedy was so much a part of the title), he was a great compliment to the original.

Back in the Golden Age, both the Black Owl and the Green Mask had multiple versions of the same secret identity; the former was an explicit handoff, the latter was unexplained.

I don't pay anything to this subject matter and I just have a hard time dealing with any replacements at all. Sorry.

Is replacement the right word? Wouldn't inheritance or birthright be more appropriate? The "Title" of Phantom is taught and trained for to be handed down generation to generation from father to son/daughter. What happens if you don't want to go into Dad's line of work after all the years of preparation?