The "I'm going to pull an obscure character from the way past" Award

[j9ac9k]

Bork was a pretty obscure character when Busiek brought him in to his Power Company book.

[Jody Garland]

Two-Face
It's hard to believe that this guy nearly disappeared for over a decade before Denny O'Neil brought him back.

I'll one up this. The Golden Age Two-Face, Harvey Kent, was essentially retired after his third appearance where he was fixed permanently in 'Tec #80. The third Two-Face- yes, third- was Paul Sloane in Batman #68, his only appearance. Decades later, Post-Crisis, the ersatz Two-Face had an appearance in 'Tec #580 (November 1987) before eventually being brought in as a heavily rebooted, long term character in Brubaker's 'Tec #777 (February 2003). It's a wild legacy for a one-shot replacement from 1951.

[James Cameron]

Quicksilver / Max Mercury in Mark Waid's Flash

[K7P5V]

Hopefully this one counts, but my choice would be Chuck Dixon bringing in Blockbuster for his run on Nightwing (XD)

[TheRay]

I’m fairly certain Temple Shaman, Ras Al Ghuls father, was brought back after 20 years or so in 2008 and it’s already been 14 years since we last saw him. He’s due to come back.

[Lee]

The Rival, 52 years between his first and second appearance.

Black Adam, 32 years between his first and second appearance.

[John Venus]

Does the green car from Action Comics #1 count? :P I've seen that cover recreated several times. I can't remember specifically which comic it was but there have been a few that tried to give the cover some backstory so the guy freaking out on the cover is also a fully fledged character.

Other moments off the top of my head:

-Batman Jones who first showed up in Batman #108 in 1957 who later showed up for a couple of panels in Tony Daniels 'Battle for the Cowl' event.


-Merlin, Tor and Zatara fighting side by side in All Star Comics Vol 2 #1 (1999):

All Star Comics Vol 2 #1.jpg

Tor was a character created by Fred Guardineer (same guy who created Zatara) for Quality Comics in 1941 sometime after Zatara's debut. He was also a mustachioed magician with a cape who cast spells by speaking backwards. The only difference is that his real name was Jimmy Spade and his mustache was fake. He was a photographer who used him magical powers as an excuse to get more assignments.

See write up of him here: https://www.cosmicteams.com/quality/profiles/Tor.html

His last appearance was in 1942. DC, then known as National Comics, bought Quality Comics in the 50's. So Robinson using Tor in 1999 was the deepest of cuts.

Merlin was created by Dan Zelnerowich for National Comics in 1940. His real name was Jack Kellog, he was an English playboy who was looking forward to inheriting his uncles fortunes after the latter died only to learn from his uncle that the money was gone and that Jack was the descendant of Merlin the sorcerer. He received a green cloak with magical power and then joined the war effort. After Fred Guardineer took over his strip he began casting backwards spells as well.

See a write up of him here: https://www.cosmicteams.com/quality/...es/Merlin.html

His last appearance was in 1942. And like Tor showed up 57 years later in the aforementioned 'All Star Comics Vol 2 #1'. It was a very brief appearance since Merlin and Tor died after the first couple of pages but the fact that they appeared at all is remarkable.

[married guy]

Quicksilver/Max Mercury was the one that sprung to mind.

[Jim Kelly]

Isn't this Grant Morrison's whole thing?

You took the words out of my mouth. His run in THE GREEN LANTERN made my head spin with the number of deep cuts. The one that took me by surprise was the revival of "The Strange World Named Green Lantern"--from GREEN LANTERN 24 (October 1963) by Broome, Kane and Giella. We thought, when Alan Moore introduced Mogo in GREEN LANTERN 188 (May 1985), he was paying homage to that sentient planet--even though there were some differences between Mogo and the original planet. But Morrison established that the world named Green Lantern is in fact a completely different sentient planet.

[tib2d2]

You took the words out of my mouth. His run in THE GREEN LANTERN made my head spin with the number of deep cuts. The one that took me by surprise was the revival of "The Strange World Named Green Lantern"--from GREEN LANTERN 24 (October 1963) by Broome, Kane and Giella. We thought, when Alan Moore introduced Mogo in GREEN LANTERN 188 (May 1985), he was paying homage to that sentient planet--even though there were some differences between Mogo and the original planet. But Morrison established that the world named Green Lantern is in fact a completely different sentient planet.

I'll admit that I figured I'd hear Morrison's name spring up for this award. Deep cuts, I like that. But do you feel he's too presumptuous that we'll remember these reintroduced characters? "what, you don't remember this character from 3 panels in 1967?"

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

I'll admit that I figured I'd hear Morrison's name spring up for this award. Deep cuts, I like that. But do you feel he's too presumptuous that we'll remember these reintroduced characters? "what, you don't remember this character from 3 panels in 1967?"

You just summed up why Final Crisis was an unmitigated disaster.

[Kaijudo]

During the Palmiotti/Gray run on Hawkman, they brought back a number of Golden Age Hawkman villains who hadn't been used probably since the 40s and paired them with some Silver Age Hawkman foes to create a kind of "Legion of Hawkman Haters" group.

From the Golden Age: Trygg the Sorcerer, Satana the Tiger Girl, Hummingbird, Lasso, the Purple Pilgrim, Thought Terror.
Silver Age: Lion-Mane, Fadeaway Man.

This just goes to show that even though there are heroes with more pronounced/popular rogues galleries, the right creative team can make any lineup memorable, if not fully impressive. The fact I really remember these characters all these years later proves that.

[John Venus]

Has anyone been crazy enough to bring back a comic character that debuted before Superman did?

[Aarkus]

my first thought for this would be Morrison reviving the Seven Soldiers concept

[j9ac9k]

Has anyone been crazy enough to bring back a comic character that debuted before Superman did?

Well, DC brought back a whole bunch of old pulp heroes for awhile, like The Shadow and Doc Savage...