Maybe fans should be more open to these ideas.
Yes
No
Depends on the hero they're replacing
Maybe fans should be more open to these ideas.
Each of those characters needed to be reimagined for the current audience, though. Bond in 2021 is not nearly the same Bond of the 1960s in terms of his character. And nothing like the James Bond in Fleming's novels. There would be a shite storm of outrage and pushback if he was.
So then the question becomes whether or not you can reinvent those old characters for the modern era in a credible way? And can you do so while still growing the audience so that the title is actually viable?
In most cases I think Marvel's answer is to simply create a new character to fill the role. It feels like spit-balling more than a stroke of pure genius sometimes, but we're talking baseball stats here. You don't have to bat 100%. Three or so hits out of every 10 tries is good enough for their purposes. So if you come away with a Johnny Storm, Miles Morales, Kamala Khan, and Captain Marvel, you're doing well. (I get that Carol may not be more well-liked than Mar-Vell or even Monica Rambeau, but she's definitely generated more revenue for the company than any of her Captain Marvel predecessors...so that counts as a win.)
The funny thing is fans always say 'make a new character' whenever old characters are changed or updated in any way, yet then complain about the new characters
And indeed, the very act of reimagining and reinventing these characters means they are, both in essence and in function, new characters themselves who just happen to have the same name as an older character. Basically, even these examples are Legacy Heroes/Legacy Characters. (Heck, some properties just outright say that, making the characters literal legacies of older characters with the same name, for variously chosen reasons, in-story.)
Depends on which character it is. Personally I’d be fine with Robbie being the main Ghost Rider from here on out since he’s my favorite.
T'Challa
A.K.A. The Black Panther
King of Wakanda
King of the Dead and The Champion of Bast
Two-Time Time Magazine "Person Of The Year"
Six-Time People Magazine "Sexiest Man Alive"
Appreciation Thread Indexes
Marvel | Spider-Man | X-Men | NEW!! DC Comics | Batman | Superman | Wonder Woman
I don't even know if the backlash to Spider-man Beyond is still a thing now that we know the specifics, but if it's still disliked then there are a variety of reasons.
The initial revulsion to the announcement came because people have been waiting for Marvel to undo OMD, and this seemed like it might be a diversion from it. There was no way to know if this was gonna be a couple of months or a couple of years. Second reason is that Ben Reilly just isn't that popular today, whereas someone like Miles Morales might have a somewhat warmer reception. The third reason is that Ben already was Spider-man, so it seemed like a reash of an old unpopular storyline.
All of these reasons have to do with the specifics of the announcement, not the notion of replacing characters.
I had no problem with Wally, Connor, and Kyle at DC in the 90’s-2000’s, Marvel it depends on the character for some reason. Again, biased.
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Last edited by jackolover; 09-22-2021 at 10:21 PM.
It really depends. I'm completely confortable with Carol being Captain Marvel and Kamala Miss Marvel. I don't see how/why Marvel would change them in the future.
I also wouldn't mind if Sam Wilson remained Cap, but I would be even happier if Marvel managed to make the Falcon mantle matter in his own right.
Some like Spider-Man and Wolverine are just too damn iconic to leave their identities for long. I'm fine with them sharing their identities with Laura and Miles, thought.
For the Hawkeyes that works really well, IMO.
I just dislike the very idea of legacy characters, so absolutely not. It would also take away significantly from the originals, I feel. In my opinion, the point of a legacy character, if we need them at all, should be to get them exposure before they strike it out on their own with an identity unique to them.
I think there are definitely a lot of things weighing down the MU, and part of it is character bloat.
At some point characters need to move on and new characters need to come in. Not just the heroes, but the villains too. There is just too much reliance on recycling old ideas, whether that is marketing or lack of willingness to create new things.
I am sure many people remember, at least if they came into comics more than decade ago, having at least a few characters, teams or concepts that were new and made that era exciting to be part of. Team lineups were constantly changing, not just among old characters but brand new or unexplored characters getting to be parts of new stories.
So, whatever the sticking point is with people, the industry needs to ignore it and try to sell comics. If they want to keep on with trademarks, they need to revamp them. Not just cosmetically adjusting the characters, but just get new characters and tell fun stories.
I basically try to give "legacy" characters their own identity anyway, at least until they have a real canonical one. If you want to do legacy characters so badly just have them be from another Earth. Simple as that.