Pushing to the moon
I have to say, I'm really impressed with the way Marvel's been pushing the newer characters.Marvel and DC have been around for decades, and each as established a core library of heroes and villains. And although both publishes have tried many times to add to their library, neither has been particularly successful.
Think about it. How many characters has Marvel successfully (by successful I mean characters who have become part of the universe's lore, and have crossed over into the mainstream audience's awareness) after the 60's? I can really only think of a handful: Wolverine, Gambit, and She-Hulk. You can argue for Cable, Beta Ray Bill, Cloak and Dagger, Power Pack, and the Thunderbolts as well, but I wouldn't call and of them "mainstream." There's also Venom and Sabretooth, but they're just evil versions of Wolvie and Spidey.
But for every character that sticks, there are a dozen that fall by the wayside. Think Darkhawk, Sleepwalker, the New Warriors, the Champions, the Defenders, Carnage, Fitzroy, X-Man, Generation X, Maverick, Thunderstrike, Demogoblin, Vengeance, the entire New Universe, Marvel 2099... It goes on and on. They're all still around (well, most of 'em), but they'e all been reduced to being bit players in various titles. None of them were able to break through and become part of the lexicon.
Same goes for DC. Have they added any noteworthy character since the 80's? Maybe Doomsday, Huntress, Lobo, Deathstroke, and Bane. They updated some of their characters, introducing newer versions of Flash, Green Lantern, and Batman. But does anyone still remember the Team Titans? Artemis? Chain Gang?
But recently, Marvel's been doing a heckuva job on some of the the character's its been introducing for the past few years. To wit:
The Sentry was introduced in his own mini, and was added to the flagship New Avengers book.
X-23 was inserted into the X-Men, got her own Captain Universe one shot, and is now part of the New X-Men.
Vulcan, the third Summers brother, was introduced last year in X-Men: Deadly Genesis, and will figure prominently in Brubaker's upcoming Uncanny X-Men run.
The Winter Soldier ("Bucky" for you old-timers) was reintroduced in Captain America, and will be seen in an upcoming arc of Wolverine.
The New Warriors have fallen from grace, but there are two formidable contenders to taking up the teen team mantle: The Runaways and The Young Avengers.
Let me say that none of these characters have broken through just yet. But Marvel seems to be pushing all the right buttons, moving the characters past the titles where they originated, and giving other creators opportunities to expand on these character's personalities, experiences, and so on. If the above heroes (and villains?) fade away into obscurity, it certainly won't be due to any shortsightedness on Marvel's part.
(PS - I must confess, I know very little about DC right now, but I think they're doing the same thing, successfully introducing Hush, and re-introducing Jason Todd as the Red Hood. )
posted by butch @ 4/18/2006
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