Legacy vs Original Characters

[Kingdom X]

I really like the concept of Legacy heroes because it gives the OGs the chance to have poignant endings to their stories. I don't wanna see Bruce Wayne never get over his trauma and continuously push his family away... it's just not interesting at a certain point.

Of course the OGs will always come back but I'd be fine with a bunch of them retiring or finding other jobs (kings, queens, space ambassadors, etc.) for 5ish years before having a bombastic return.

[lemonpeace]

I really like the concept of Legacy heroes because it gives the OGs the chance to have poignant endings to their stories. I don't wanna see Bruce Wayne never get over his trauma and continuously push his family away... it's just not interesting at a certain point.

Of course the OGs will always come back but I'd be fine with a bunch of them retiring or finding other jobs (kings, queens, space ambassadors, etc.) for 5ish years before having a bombastic return.

my thing is, is the come back inevitable or has DC created a feedback loop where they've conditioned their fans to expect a return, leading to them encouraging their lazy ciclical storytelling culture? I feel the thing that holds legacy back nowadays is the fact people have indulged DC reneging so much that fans have be come so entitled that they hold DC to that standard so they can prevent their characters from ever fully moving on from the image of them they have in their head that's based around a specific point in their history.

[Ra-El]

my thing is, is the come back inevitable or has DC created a feedback loop where they've conditioned their fans to expect a return, leading to them encouraging their lazy ciclical storytelling culture? I feel the thing that holds legacy back nowadays is the fact people have indulged DC reneging so much that fans have be come so entitled that they hold DC to that standard so they can prevent their characters from ever fully moving on from the image of them they have in their head that's based around a specific point in their history.

I think the OGs always come back because the big corpotations that own these characters don't let them go away. Batman is more worthy to DC than any of the legacies he launched.

Now, if what BC is saying is true, and DC will let continuity stop ruling their stories, maybe when a new author wants to tell a story about Bruce retiring and Damian becoming Batman he will be able to do it, and when the next person decide that they want to write about Bruce Wayne becoming immortal and be Batman forever he can too, without have to worry about what the last guy did.

[Frontier]

my thing is, is the come back inevitable or has DC created a feedback loop where they've conditioned their fans to expect a return, leading to them encouraging their lazy ciclical storytelling culture? I feel the thing that holds legacy back nowadays is the fact people have indulged DC reneging so much that fans have be come so entitled that they hold DC to that standard so they can prevent their characters from ever fully moving on from the image of them they have in their head that's based around a specific point in their history.

DC can't be pinned as being any less guilty of this than Marvel is. All those All New and All Different mantle changes Marvel hyped up were eventually revoked and the originals came back, and that's not even the first time it happened. John Walker? Bucky? Thunderstrike? Rhodey? Ben Reilly?

Of course some of these stories were not designed to fully replace the main hero. Superman was never permanently going to stay dead to allow for four different Supermen to permanently take over. AzBats was meant to represent everything Batman shouldn't be for when Bruce came back.

Now, if what BC is saying is true, and DC will let continuity stop ruling their stories, maybe when a new author wants to tell a story about Bruce retiring and Damian becoming Batman he will be able to do it, and when the next person decide that they want to write about Bruce Wayne becoming immortal and be Batman forever he can too, without have to worry about what the last guy did.

That sounds kind of messy to me. Isn't this why we have different imprints?

[DrNewGod]

DC can't be pinned as being any less guilty of this than Marvel is. All those All New and All Different mantle changes Marvel hyped up were eventually revoked and the originals came back, and that's not even the first time it happened. John Walker? Bucky? Thunderstrike? Rhodey? Ben Reilly?

Of course some of these stories were not designed to fully replace the main hero. Superman was never permanently going to stay dead to allow for four different Supermen to permanently take over. AzBats was meant to represent everything Batman shouldn't be for when Bruce came back.

Cap belonged on that list. John Walker was deliberately set up as an arc to demonstrate a) how much heroism it took to be Cap, and b) why we don't want Cap being The Punisher. But, I digress.

[Frontier]

Cap belonged on that list. John Walker was deliberately set up as an arc to demonstrate a) how much heroism it took to be Cap, and b) why we don't want Cap being The Punisher. But, I digress.

I know, I was just focusing on DC examples.

[TheRay]

I vastly prefer original characters, but seeing characters that start off as legacies come into their own is fine too. Like how Batgirl became Oracle.

[The Darknight Detective]

Good point about Abin Sur; I was looking at it strictly in terms of GA/SA. I also mentioned, I can arguably see both Barry and Mr. Terrific as legacies, depending on how you define the term. Sometimes though, like the GA v. SA Atom, calling characters with recycled names legacies seems like a real stretch.

I had taken "legacy" to imply a bit more influence by the predecessor than just having the successor lift the name and/or duplicate the abilities, which is what you had with Flash and Mr. Terrific. Any mentoring of Barry by Jay is retcon following CoIE. Prior to that Barry had his own gig well underway before ever meeting Jay, and they met up afterward only infrequently. If you define legacy to include being inspired or copying with no other real connection, then yes, it's arguable.

Except nobody described either Hal or Barry as legacies pre-COIE in the way we think of the term today (or in any other way, come to think of it). They were the first ones of their type on Earth-1, just like Alan and Jay were on Earth-2.

[DrNewGod]

Except nobody described either Hal or Barry as legacies pre-COIE in the way we think of the term today (or in any other way, come to think of it). They were the first ones of their type on Earth-1, just like Alan and Jay were on Earth-2.

While I tend to agree, the concept does fit all but the first gen of the GLC, even if we didn't have a word for it in 1960. The whole question gets messy, because more time has now passed with DC's characters sharing a single continuity than when they had separate histories.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'd probably revamp the legacy concept to be more like "Blindspot" from Daredevil than another mantle like Robin or Kid Flash.

[TheRay]

I prefer legacy characters, but that has to do mainly why I like DC comics.

I think DC comics could generate the same passion without legacy characters. I think Barry would be a great and interesting character whether he was another Flash or not.

[mathew101281]

Legacy characters tend to work better when their is an established connection for me. Falcon or winter soldier being Cap I’m fine with. Some rando the writer just came up with is a much harder sell.

[Agent Z]

This poll really should have come with a neutral option.

[Agent Z]

I'd probably revamp the legacy concept to be more like "Blindspot" from Daredevil than another mantle like Robin or Kid Flash.

What do you mean?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

What do you mean?

Blindspot felt more distinct when he popped up, already set with his own ID/gimmick.

So Blindspot felt like the best of both worlds. He's a legacy but doesn't feel like a mini-me. He could be his own man but he has the Daredevil mythos as a backup. Its an approach we should be doing more with.