Heroes Reborn 1996 - a wasted opportunity for brand growth?

[PhantomReporter]

In 1996 something happened that had exciting possibilities - not the storyline itself, but something which back in 1996 conditions weren't right to capitalize on - but they're perfect now.

So picture a storyline taking place right now where the FF, Iron Man, Thor, various Avengers - this time maybe throw in Spidey and Daredevil and maybe some X Men etc - essentially 80% of the most iconic and popular characters in the MU (Wolverine dead and old man Steve Rogers gets a pass). Like Heroes Reborn, most of the iconic Marvels are shunted to an alt universe or somewhere. Don't worry about them - you'll still be able to read about them in their line of comics - ones that took the lessons of HRB and used that folly to create good comics.

What i'm concerned about is this ... who is left in the MU and which heroes can be 'promoted' and shaped to grow their brand and recognizability.

Thanks to the films we are seeing formerly obscurer concepts such as The Guardians stepping up - Rocket Racoon as a break out character! So can this be done in universe - with the 'superstars' off elsewhere and believed dead for at least 2 years worth of comics, who do you give the push to and how?

So first off if you were writing - which of the really big characters do you keep in universe and who do you send away and then which B to Z list heroes do you give their own comic to? What does your remains in 616 Avengers and X teams look like.

So imagine for example, no Cyclops, Wolverine or Storm in the X Men (Don't worry you still get to see them in alt X Men along with a few others - except Wolvy, who is dead still) - who steps up, who gets screen time and a chance to shine?

My picks for shunting off would be Avengers: Iron Man, Thor, Falcon Cap, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk, Black Panther, Spider Man, Luke Cage and Captain Marvel plus maybe a few lesser knowns leaving old man Steve to choose a new 616 Cap and maybe get an old school Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hercules, Black Knight and a few others team together.

Shunt off a small X team - Cyclops, Storm, Collossus, Rogue and a few younger mutants to give a real mix.

Back in 616 give an X push to Iceman, Nightcrawler and a few others with plenty of screen time for everyone from New Mutants generation to New X Men, focusing on some more and others less but allowing a good 10-14 characters more screen time than they have right now with Cyclops etc dominating it.

Big guns to remain in 616 - Doctor Strange with a new relaunched comic.

I would probably give solo and mini pushes to Quicksilver, Hank Pym, Hercules (Moon Knight comic continues in the alt world) and a new Defenders. Captain Britain and Excalibur - give lesser seen characters more time in team books - Nighthawk, Gargoyle, Stingray, Paladin, a line of Midnight Sons but interacting with the greater MU ...

What would you do?

[PhantomReporter]

Bumping - earlier i had a bit of a headache so maybe didn't explain clearly.

My thought is if you removed the majority of the biggest, iconic characters from the regular 616 (but kept publishing them in a line ala HEROES REBORN) it would give space for other characters to rise to prominence, both in-universe and in terms of buyer recognition - sort of like how having Wolverine 'dead' and absent from the X books for a while would allow other X characters to have a bigger share of the spotlight.

So if you were writing this strategy, which characters would you remove from 616 and which characters would you promote? Teams, solos, storylines, creative teams etc. Who do you want to see become the next Deadpool or Rocket Racoon?

[Rheged]

Bumping - earlier i had a bit of a headache so maybe didn't explain clearly.

My thought is if you removed the majority of the biggest, iconic characters from the regular 616 (but kept publishing them in a line ala HEROES REBORN) it would give space for other characters to rise to prominence, both in-universe and in terms of buyer recognition - sort of like how having Wolverine 'dead' and absent from the X books for a while would allow other X characters to have a bigger share of the spotlight.

So if you were writing this strategy, which characters would you remove from 616 and which characters would you promote? Teams, solos, storylines, creative teams etc. Who do you want to see become the next Deadpool or Rocket Racoon?

Hmmm. I'm not sure you could do that for any length of time, as it proved unsuccessful in a less than a year. Heh ... it's sort of like their recent replacement of Thor and Cap, though, on a line wide scale, isn't it? Sadly, you'd have to immediately have some sort of event to make folks see how 'important' the guys left were, I would think.

[PhantomReporter]

Well maybe if you left a few of the big guns that have their own corners of the MU. Taking Thor and Iron Man out of the Avengers is a big deal because you'd need to fill their spots so maybe Hercules steps up for Thor ... Daredevil is more isolated so you could keep him here.

X Men though - they would really benefit from not having Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Cyclops - it would really force the writers to up their creativity anded make more use of other characters.

[cranger]

X Men though - they would really benefit from not having Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Cyclops - it would really force the writers to up their creativity anded make more use of other characters.

I agree that it is hard to have any other characters elevated to A-List when the current A-Listers get all of the focus but I do not see Marvel ever taking that risk. It would certainly be interesting though. As for the bolded, this has more to do with the creativity of the writers. If you removed those particular characters, four more would take their place and some of the more obscure characters will slide in to the now vacant wallpaper roles.

I think a similar method would be to leave the big guns here, but reduce their role. Force the writers to elevate the other characters. Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Cyclops are fine if they are only in one book each and the writer is told that leader does not mean lead character.

[PhantomReporter]

I agree that it is hard to have any other characters elevated to A-List when the current A-Listers get all of the focus but I do not see Marvel ever taking that risk. It would certainly be interesting though. As for the bolded, this has more to do with the creativity of the writers. If you removed those particular characters, four more would take their place and some of the more obscure characters will slide in to the now vacant wallpaper roles.

I think a similar method would be to leave the big guns here, but reduce their role. Force the writers to elevate the other characters. Wolverine, Storm, Rogue and Cyclops are fine if they are only in one book each and the writer is told that leader does not mean lead character.

Well that's kind of my point - if you have an A List and the B Listers get to play supporting cast with a few lines then the C List are included as wallpaper, then by removing the A List, everyone slides up a notch. Keeping Cyclops et al there would just tempt writers and editorial to keep fixed on them. Plus if you were to take Cyclops, Storm and Rogue along with Collosus and say Moonstar, Hope, Hellion and M and have those 8 be the only X Men trapped on another earth - one built around them maybe but they eventually regain their memories, then this forces a quite interesting and tight dynamic.

Meanwhile back home you might decide that Nightcrawler is the push character so you promote him but establish that his team of X Men follow his leadership style - i.e he runs a tight close knit team where he doesn't overshadow his team-mates - but in his own book you show how important he is.

My personal thought is that the X Men lost a lot of what made it great when they became faceless battalions led by several charismatic leaders instead of tight knit units.

My preference would be - no duplication of characters between books. Each X book has a distinct team for a distinct mission - occasionally you'll see other mutants and there could be some cross-over, but pick a number - say 8. Then state who is on what unit and stick to it except for occasional specialists - bring back the days when you had clear teams with occasional guest star/allies assisting.

[hawkeyefan]

If I recall correctly, they did use HReborn to try and profile some other characters at Marvel. Thunderbolts came into being as a direct result. Heroes for Hire, Quicksilver, and Ka-Zar all got new titles.

With the exception of T-Bolts, they all quickly faded away once the big name heroes returned.

If they tried it again today, I'm sure something similar would happen.