Superheroes and their Families

[joanorm]

In the current Wonder Woman comic she has suddenly acquired a brother, Jason. I am researching this storyline and trying to think whether any other character's story was hijacked by a sibling in this way. Can anyone think of characters where the title hero is almost superseded by a secondary character?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

No, what is going on with Jason in Wonder Woman is pretty unprecedented in superhero comics at least. I am not sure what the long term plan for Jason is, but why Geoff Johns and DC thought this was a worthwhile direction to take the franchise in is pretty unbelievable. Who thought that what was really missing from the premier superheroine book in comics was more time devoted to another white male superhero in a genre literally overflowing with white male superheroes?

Has introducing a long-lost sibling ever panned out in the superhero genre? Did everyone forget about how lame Barry Allen's long-long lost twin was? Or Buffy's retconned-in little sister Dawn?

I suppose Mary Marvel and Supergirl are the two best examples, but they never took away the spotlight away from Captain Marvel or Superman.

[DGraysonWorldsGreatestSpy]

Combine it with the fact BOTH Wonder Girls are non existent to Diana and the Amazons were just cannon fodder for the story as Darkseid sought to turn them into his army and Zeus (A Harvey Weinstein Of Gods considering his history) also appeared over a more logical choice like Athena and you see why Diana has never really had a Classic storyline on par with Superman or Batman. I picked up a couple of issues but found no justification for Jason beyond it being Editorially mandated. I hope at this point Donna and Cassie move away from Wonder Woman because they get treated worse than the Batgirls by the Wonder Woman Group.

[Robanker]

A good deal of fans feel this is what happened to Superman in his title with respect to his son, Jon Kent. Love him or hate him, he's the co-star of that book. Naturally, he took some spotlight from Lois, too.

[Restingvoice]

Some people also feel Detective Comics should be a Batman book and not prioritizing his extended family. On the solo Batman book, people consider Catwoman is taking the spotlight.

[lucius121]

To a much smaller extent this could be black lightning and his daughter.

On the Marvel side this happened to X-23 and her sister gabbie

[Lee Stone]

Superheroes have families?
Thought they were just fodder to give them a dark past or something.

[king81992]

No, what is going on with Jason in Wonder Woman is pretty unprecedented in superhero comics at least. I am not sure what the long term plan for Jason is, but why Geoff Johns and DC thought this was a worthwhile direction to take the franchise in is pretty unbelievable. Who thought that what was really missing from the premier superheroine book in comics was more time devoted to another white male superhero in a genre literally overflowing with white male superheroes?

Has introducing a long-lost sibling ever panned out in the superhero genre? Did everyone forget about how lame Barry Allen's long-long lost twin was? Or Buffy's retconned-in little sister Dawn?

I suppose Mary Marvel and Supergirl are the two best examples, but they never took away the spotlight away from Captain Marvel or Superman.

If writers had any sense, Jason would be Cassie's father. That would justify all the focus he's getting and allow Cassie not to be inexplicably shelved. As things are Jason doesn't seem to bring anything to WW stories.

[DrNewGod]

Few things in comics annoy me more than writers that decide, "Instead of the character that I signed on to write, so I'm going to create my own and turn the existing title into a stage for my new toy." The phenomenon goes beyond just family members.

[Sacred Knight]

No, what is going on with Jason in Wonder Woman is pretty unprecedented in superhero comics at least. I am not sure what the long term plan for Jason is, but why Geoff Johns and DC thought this was a worthwhile direction to take the franchise in is pretty unbelievable. Who thought that what was really missing from the premier superheroine book in comics was more time devoted to another white male superhero in a genre literally overflowing with white male superheroes?

Has introducing a long-lost sibling ever panned out in the superhero genre? Did everyone forget about how lame Barry Allen's long-long lost twin was? Or Buffy's retconned-in little sister Dawn?

I suppose Mary Marvel and Supergirl are the two best examples, but they never took away the spotlight away from Captain Marvel or Superman.

Its not unprecedented at all. Its not even the most egregious recent example. Jon hijacked the Superman title for nearly two years. Jason took focus from WW for about two arcs. Jon is just more popular than Jason so it doesn't get called out nearly as much. Which is ironic because they're both pretty similar in their one-dimensional depictions, albeit a different dimension for each. Jason has yet to grow much beyond the "cocky new guy", while Jon is a Mary Sue.

Also, Dawn was not a bad idea. It panned out just fine as season 5 was perhaps the best season of Buffy ever. The character could be annoying, but she was designed to be, she was a pre-teen kid meant to clash with her older sister. The storyline, the idea behind it, worked great. If anything, its an example of the idea working, not an example of it not.

[kjn]

Also, Dawn was not a bad idea. It panned out just fine as season 5 was perhaps the best season of Buffy ever. The character could be annoying, but she was designed to be, she was a pre-teen kid meant to clash with her older sister. The storyline, the idea behind it, worked great. If anything, its an example of the idea working, not an example of it not.

I'm not that familiar with Buffy, but my wife was a huge fan. The Dawn character served an integral part in Buffy's character development, where she went from being an only daughter to being a big sister to being a surrogate mother (and placing a lot of tension in their relation). Thus, you can compare it to Logan's arc in Logan, where he learns to be a parent to first Xavier and then Laura.

From what I can tell, Jason serves no purpose whatever to Diana's character.

[Frontier]

It seems like the Arrowverse has surprisingly more success in creating previously unheard of siblings for major characters, such as Thea Queen as Green Arrow's sister (even if she was based on Mia Dearden) and Alex Danvers for Supergirl.

[Jackalope89]

I think Jason was created to make Wonder Woman more appealing to the male comic book buyers.

Think about it; pretty much every other major Justice League member has a gender opposite (or more) in their own mythos that, in a pinch, can fill in with at least roughly the same abilities/powers/etc. Batman has Batwoman and Batgirl, Martian Manhunter (sorry Cyborg, still hard for me to see you as a founding member) has M'gann, there's an entire corps of Green Lanterns, Aquaman has Mera, Superman has Supergirl and Powergirl, etc.

But Diana doesn't really have that.

[j9ac9k]

In the current Wonder Woman comic she has suddenly acquired a brother, Jason. I am researching this storyline and trying to think whether any other character's story was hijacked by a sibling in this way. Can anyone think of characters where the title hero is almost superseded by a secondary character?

This wasn't family, but in terms of being "superseded by a secondary character" Johns made the GL title about Sinestro for awhile.

[Midnighter]

Also, Dawn was not a bad idea. It panned out just fine as season 5 was perhaps the best season of Buffy ever. The character could be annoying, but she was designed to be, she was a pre-teen kid meant to clash with her older sister. The storyline, the idea behind it, worked great. If anything, its an example of the idea working, not an example of it not.

Couldn't agree more. That whole season just felt really epic in scope. Dawn can be a divisive character, but I really grew to like her. I think her addition added new dimensions to the mythology.

I think Jon has potential but like you said they need to pull back on him some, I think Bendis will correct this.

Totally indifferent towards Jason. Kinda hoping he turns into a villain, lol.