Does DC have to many versions of the same superheroes?

[mathew101281]

Robins: Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damion Wayne. Not to mention the ones that are not in continuity anymore.

Green Lantern: Hal, Kyle, John, just to name the most popular ones.

Flash: Guy, Barry, Wally

Do you think it deludes a moniker to have to many characters running around sporting it?

Or do you think the legacy angle is the most interesting thing about the DCU?

[Vakanai]

Or do you think the legacy angle is the most interesting thing about the DCU?

Oh god no! I'm into DC for classic stories with classic characters, not to have those characters pass the torch to a new generation ad infinitum.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Legacy is by far one of the most interesting parts of the DC Universe. Wally West is a more interesting Flash than Barry Allen partly because he inherited the mantle. The Green Lantern Corps is all the more interesting for all the different heroes who have a GL ring.

That doesn't mean that I think it can never be too much. For example, I think DC has gone waaaay too overboard when it comes to creating different versions of the League for different situations, all with their own take on the "Big 7." We really didn't need a Justice League of China when we had the Great 10 nor did we need Justice League 3000 when the Legion is supposed to be a thing. Justice League Dark and Justice League Odyssey are also unnecessary when there were established magic-based and cosmic-based teams in the DCU like, for example, Shadowpact and the Omega Men respectively.

IMO, there should be maybe two to three "versions" of the Justice League at most: the main JLA with the Big 7, Justice League International (with Booster Gold, Ted Kord, Fire, Ice, and Guy Gardner), and Young Justice. That's it.

[Frontier]

This has probably been the most consistent or contentious complaint with the Big Two for a while now.

[MadFacedKid]

This has probably been the most consistent or contentious complaint with the Big Two for a while now.

I don’t think Marvel is bad when it comes to this. DC on the otherhand though...

[achilles]

Legacy is by far one of the most interesting parts of the DC Universe. Wally West is a more interesting Flash than Barry Allen partly because he inherited the mantle. The Green Lantern Corps is all the more interesting for all the different heroes who have a GL ring.

That doesn't mean that I think it can never be too much. For example, I think DC has gone waaaay too overboard when it comes to creating different versions of the League for different situations, all with their own take on the "Big 7." We really didn't need a Justice League of China when we had the Great 10 nor did we need Justice League 3000 when the Legion is supposed to be a thing. Justice League Dark and Justice League Odyssey are also unnecessary when there were established magic-based and cosmic-based teams in the DCU like, for example, Shadowpact and the Omega Men respectively.

IMO, there should be maybe two to three "versions" of the Justice League at most: the main JLA with the Big 7, Justice League International (with Booster Gold, Ted Kord, Fire, Ice, and Guy Gardner), and Young Justice. That's it.

I'm guessing the folks at DC didn't think "Shadowpact" would sell as many comic books or do as well in other media as slapping together the words "Justice League" and "Dark".

[Digifiend]

Yeah, it's about branding. JL Dark, and Wonder Woman being on that team, sells way better than Shadowpact would've.

[manwhohaseverything]

I'm guessing the folks at DC didn't think "Shadowpact" would sell as many comic books or do as well in other media as slapping together the words "Justice League" and "Dark".

Making every team dependent on justice league rather building independent ones is also a short sighted move. You are also over saturating the brand.If jl itself fails, then every brand connected to it automatically sinks.

[Riv86672]

Legacy is by far one of the most interesting parts of the DC Universe. Wally West is a more interesting Flash than Barry Allen partly because he inherited the mantle. The Green Lantern Corps is all the more interesting for all the different heroes who have a GL ring.

That doesn't mean that I think it can never be too much. For example, I think DC has gone waaaay too overboard when it comes to creating different versions of the League for different situations, all with their own take on the "Big 7." We really didn't need a Justice League of China when we had the Great 10 nor did we need Justice League 3000 when the Legion is supposed to be a thing. Justice League Dark and Justice League Odyssey are also unnecessary when there were established magic-based and cosmic-based teams in the DCU like, for example, Shadowpact and the Omega Men respectively.

IMO, there should be maybe two to three "versions" of the Justice League at most: the main JLA with the Big 7, Justice League International (with Booster Gold, Ted Kord, Fire, Ice, and Guy Gardner), and Young Justice. That's it.

^^^ agree on the legacy aspect of DC. It’s a pretty special part of their characters/universe.
Also agree on the overuse of the Justice League name (never mind how much fun I have using the concept for team builders). Teams like Shadowpact and The Omega Men taking point on the Dark/Odyssey storylines would have been really great.

But...

I'm guessing the folks at DC didn't think "Shadowpact" would sell as many comic books or do as well in other media as slapping together the words "Justice League" and "Dark".

...it comes down to marketing.
Why try and build up a couple of minor teams that could really use it and add diversity to your line up when you can just water down an existing product that’s proven to sell.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I'm not really into the legacy thing at all. I started with DC in the mid-1970s when legacy was only talked about in the sense that the Teen Titans thought they'd one day replace the JLA.

But the idea of multiple heroes with the same name is something I just don't like. I'd prefer each hero grow into his own identity the way Marv Wolfman did it in New Teen Titans. Robin became Nightwing, not Batman. Wonder Girl became Troia. Speedy became Arsenal. Aqualad became Tempest. Yes, Woflman made Wally the Flash in Crisis, but Barry had been killed off. Similarly, I was ok with Kyle and Connor when Hal and Ollie were killed off, but once all 3 were brought back, the legacies did feel redundant.

If you want to make these legacies necessary, then they have to find their own identities and cities to operate in.

That's the problem I have with comics these days -- the heroes cluttering up the comic means we don't get the civilian identity parts anymore or as much. Now, it's all-hero-all-the-time. Even when they're out of costume, the story is still about their costumed identities.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

I'm guessing the folks at DC didn't think "Shadowpact" would sell as many comic books or do as well in other media as slapping together the words "Justice League" and "Dark".

Yeah, it's about branding. JL Dark, and Wonder Woman being on that team, sells way better than Shadowpact would've.

I'm just saying it's become too much. It's like what Riv said. Even though the brand sells, watering it down too much isn't the best business decision either because then it loses its novelty. In other words, if every team is a derivative of the Justice League, each with different versions of Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, etc., what makes the Justice League at all unique and the home for the "best of the best"? It was especially bad in the New 52 where we had Justice League, Justice League International, Justice League Dark, Justice League 3001, Justice League of America, Justice League United...you get the point.

Look at how Marvel is doing it. There are only two current "Avengers" books: Avengers and Savage Avengers. Meanwhile, they're also publishing Marauders, Excalibur, New Mutants, Strikeforce, not to mention X-Men and Fantastic Four. It's about encouraging diversity in the line.

[Vampire Savior]

I think it's gotten way out of hand. The worst cases are the Robins and Green Lanterns. People can talk all they like about how these situations work well and how it's one of the great things about these universes, but they always end up with characters stepping on each others' toes, characters being made obsolete and struggling to find a purpose when someone else takes or takes back their identity, and fans going to war with each other.

If things were set up to be like Power Rangers and Castlevania, where the heroes REALLY DO pass the torch on to new generations and move on, then it would work better, but the DC Comics universe isn't set up that way.

[Lee]

They have too many for each of them to get an equal amount of use.

[sifighter]

I love dc’s concept of legacy and history, the comics just kind of use it wrong at times. Not to say they don’t do it right at times but they’ve shown it can be done better. For example Young Justice S3 had a great moment with revealing that Aquaman retired to be full time king of Atlantis so Kaldur became the new Aquaman. That’s great and shows a decent amount of progression. If you don’t like that look at Batman Beyond, a future where a retired too old to be Batman Bruce works with Terry McGinnis to be the brand new Batman of his day. It has worked in comics to where Starman became to old so he passed his staff down to his son who when he retired passed it on to Stargirl. But here’s the thing, in comics it rarely works that way and because of that the comics get cluttered.

Don’t get me wrong I love a lot of these characters and I don’t necessarily want them to go away because I do want to keep reading them, but if it’s a system of natural progression then I can at least accept it should they go away/retire/possible death.

However this does not make any version of characters any less valid just because there are too many of them. Every version of some character is someone first version of that character or their favorite. There are some people who have grown up with Dick Grayson, some with Jason, some with Tim, and some with Damian. As cluttered as it may be at times they can all have a place if written well and someone will always be wanting to read their version of that character. I myself grew up with John Stewart in my cartoons but I also read Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, and Alan Scott. It’s just something we have to live with and sometimes it will be a great thing and sometimes it will be a terrible thing.

[achilles]

Making every team dependent on justice league rather building independent ones is also a short sighted move. You are also over saturating the brand.If jl itself fails, then every brand connected to it automatically sinks.

Agree with you on that, but I think DC went that way for just that reason. Sad, as I missed the old Shadowpact.