"Family" size when is enough enough for you?

[Lee]

Umm… no. Jade has been carrying on his tradition just fine for the last 40+ years with Alan doing what he does best.

Then that's the story of someone learning the family business, not taking over the family business. It's not truly committing to a generational lineage to keep a 100 year old man around as an active super-hero.

Also not every character needs a supporting cast. Captain Comet has been operating just fine on his own without a supporting cast for 70+ years.

You can't have a supporting cast if you don't even have a series.

[docmidnite]

Then that's the story of someone learning the family business, not taking over the family business. It's not truly committing to a generational lineage to keep a 100 year old man around as an active super-hero.

Who said anything, about taking over? She doesn’t need to take over. She was carrying on what she learned from him and his lineage/legacy because she’s his daughter while he was actively doing his thing. No different than the rest of Infinity Inc, or the original 5 Titans or Young Justice or some of the current Teen Titans and the characters that started before them.

You can't have a supporting cast if you don't even have a series.

When Captain Comet was starring in Mystery in Space for 10 years he didn’t have a supporting cast and didn’t need one. Same thing when Starlin brought him back for his own 12 issue maxi-series during the 2000’s.

It depends on the character. Some need a supporting cast while others don’t.

[Frontier]

It's not passing the torch if everyone has their own torch.

The story of three generations of men attending the same university is one of tradition/legacy. A story of a grandfather, father and son all attending the same university at the same time isn't.

I don't think the university comparison works. It's more like working in the same profession.

I think too many costumed "family members" get in the way of a good story. I like characters to have a diverse supporting cast full of everyday people from all walks of life. Not just a cast of fellow superheroes, unless ya know, it's the Justice League.

I don't see why you can't have both.

It's not like Bart, Jay, Jesse, or Max were in every Wally Flash story but they were still relevant to him and came into his life when appropriate.

[Masterff]

It really really really really really depends:

In Batmans Case for example I like Damian,Tim,Dick,Jason,Cassandra and Barbara but Duke and Luke are to much for me..
Superman case Conner,Jonathan and Kara....
Flash Jay,Barry,Wally,Bart,Iris West II....

It depends how interesting a character is for me...For example if we are also talking about Superhero+Superhero Kids I like to imagine a variety of Kids who could be interesting if they get the powers from mom and dad...

[MadFacedKid]

I misunderstood this. I don’t mind sidekicks but if they’re used I’d rather if possible they be on a second book rather than the parent title. I don’t like when too much attention is taken away from the main character or characters on a consistent basis

[WonderScott]

There's never enough to me... I view it like crime television shows or the Green Lantern Corps. They're many cops in precincts, but they all have their own skills and personalities, despite all being police officers.

[Güicho]

Sooner or latter every main character gets sidekicks/proteges/or simply some new inspired character. For you personally how many is best for a family size? I think most would agree Batman has just too many at this point while someone like Aquaman could use one or two more.

For me I think once you start getting over 3 active sidekicks things start getting sloppy and fans start getting upset becuase the one the like is not getting used while one they don't is.

Batman already went off course into useless derivative crap with the second Robin, enabling the endless parade of creepy clones that followed.

[Dr. Ellingham]

The idea of a surrogate family of superheroes is inherently goofy to me. Batman is a solo superhero. And his world, his stories are more interesting when he is presented as such.

Spinoffs can be done well, and every idea has its fans. But to me, the whole Arrow-family, Aqua-family thing went off the rails decades ago.

The actual problem is that at this point, the simplest way not to piss of the every-Wednesday crowd is to keep as many of the duplicate characters in print as possible. And they continually attempt to reassure us that all those duplicates still "count". Somehow.

[Koriand'r]

I don’t see why not. DC could just rerelease Sensation Comics (which was her second title for the most part) and have Wonder Woman share the book with Donna, Wonder Girl, Artemis, Nubia and even Steve Trevor rotating in and out every other story arc.

The Wonder Woman fandom is small but very loyal. We'd quickly buy up a second book. The problem with the latest Sensation was that it was an all over the place anthology so the stories didn't matter and read like fan fiction. If there were essential tie-ins to the main book and various characters were included it would have been successful.

The main problem with the Wonder Woman Family is there's not enough interaction. It's like Diana barely knows Cassie and I'm not sure if Donna, Cassie and Artemis have even met Nubia. Like when Artemis trained Cassie they should have their own dynamics between them. A storyline with just Donna and Artemis or Nubia and Cassie would be ideal. Opportunities are squandered, there should have been a story featuring all of them in WW #750. That only makes the Wonder Woman brand bigger.

[Lee]

There was an issue of Marvel's "What If?" comic with four stories in it, where all four members of the Fantastic Four gained the same power. In one story they all had Mr Fantastic's powers, in another they all had the Human Torch's powers. And so on.

I think an ongoing team book where all the characters have the same abilities is a hard sell. It's for the best that each member of the Fantastic Four has their own powers.

[Frontier]

There was an issue of Marvel's "What If?" comic with four stories in it, where all four members of the Fantastic Four gained the same power. In one story they all had Mr Fantastic's powers, in another they all had the Human Torch's powers. And so on.

I think an ongoing team book where all the characters have the same abilities is a hard sell. It's for the best that each member of the Fantastic Four has their own powers.

I think it depends how you do it. No one expects The Flash Family to all star in one book but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be around.

Aquaman's family all have fairly different powersets from him.

The Batfamily and Arrow family don't have powers so that can let their individual members shine in different ways.

Spider-Man cartoons show how a bunch of spider-people together in ongoing narratives isn't really feasible but on their own and away from each other they can work well enough.

[IonRyner]

Nothing wrong with a big family, or a lot of side kicks especially if it works. It works for batman who is successful he has Robin, Batgirl and other family and supporting characters that I missed since I don't really read up on Batman

[Koriand'r]

Nothing wrong with a big family, or a lot of side kicks especially if it works. It works for batman who is successful he has Robin, Batgirl and other family and supporting characters that I missed since I don't really read up on Batman

Batman's are redundant. Their personalities are different but for the most part their abilities and skill sets overlap too much.

Maybe I'm not reading or digging deep enough but that's how it appears to me.