Superhero Families - When does a 'family' become to big?

[Confuzzled]

X-Men and the Spider-Verse movies prove that 'superhero families' are only limited by the writers' passion to flesh out each individual character.

Ofc, I think the real issue here are some fandoms thinking other franchise families get much more focus than their own.

[HsssH]

Only that she now got aged up do to time travel shenanigans, putting her at roughly the same age as Emiko, and and the now also returning Sin.

That all there girls are (Half-)Asian, and have their origin somehow tied to assassins also doesn't really help imo.

If you look at the number of family members in realtion to the popularity of the franchise Green Arrow might have actually the worst problem with bloat at the moment.

Maybe it is just me, but I find there being dozen of archery themed heroes and villains a bit ridiculous. Yes, bunch of Superman clones make more sense to me.

[Will Evans]

Only that she now got aged up do to time travel shenanigans, putting her at roughly the same age as Emiko, and and the now also returning Sin.

That all there girls are (Half-)Asian, and have their origin somehow tied to assassins also doesn't really help imo.

If you look at the number of family members in realtion to the popularity of the franchise Green Arrow might have actually the worst problem with bloat at the moment.


I think you can often get a way with a female and male character filling similar roles, and in a role that is mostly support (like mentor) you might also get away with more characters (especially if they support other characters).

You can add Red Canary to that list of Asian girls as well.
Even Connor Hawke is 1/4 Korean.

[Aahz]

You can add Red Canary to that list of Asian girls as well.
Even Connor Hawke is 1/4 Korean.

But Red Canary is older and has afaik no connections to assassins.

Lian, Emiko, and Sin are all the same age, same hight, similar look and have a lot of overlap in their back story..., I mean I like all three of them, but I still think that having all of them in the same continuity adds unnecessary bloat.

I mean we even have a "get Lian back" story and a "get Sin back" story running parallel in different books at the moment...

[Restingvoice]

Well, it's called a nuclear family, big family, and extended family for a reason...
To translate it to comics...
Nuclear is manageable in a single series
Big you need multiple series
Extended is when you have to do Urban Legends (rotating cast) series to accommodate
So yeah for me Extended is too big
(I don't have measurement for Large so let's just say Large IS Extended)
That said comics is a business it also depends on sales and that depends on popularity so maybe Bat titles can afford to be extended but the other family can't? ...but that's more for the company's problem not mine.
if it's how much I can afford then the less family book the better

[Primal Slayer]

X-Men and the Spider-Verse movies prove that 'superhero families' are only limited by the writers' passion to flesh out each individual character.

Ofc, I think the real issue here are some fandoms thinking other franchise families get much more focus than their own.

I don't think Spider-verse films is that good of an example as 98% of the characters are from other Earths and you don't have 8 Spideys fighting crime every day together.

Even the Xmen films have a hard time giving everyone something to do. If you aren't Wolverine, Mags, Charles, Mystique.... you're pretty useless

[Will Evans]

I've copied this response in bold from forum poster @Factor from March 11, 2022 on the 7 Great Families of the DC thread, as I think it applies here on what I believe:

Interestingly, all the families seem to more or less follow the same structure of having:
- The main hero (Diana, Clark, Barry, Arthur, Ollie etc)
- Someone the same age as them, portrayed in equal footing and usually with a different expertise (Steel with tech, Batwoman with the supernatural, Nubia's newfound ruling abilities, Mera with her Xebel background, Black Canary...)
- A sort of mentor figure (Alfred, Hippolyta, Jay Garrick, Vulko etc)
- Their first sidekick, who has developed into their own hero (Nightwing, Kara Zor-El, Arsenal, Wally).
- The "outcast", usually more violent and rebellious (Red Hood, Artemis, Arsenal again or maybe Emiko, Koryak)
- A former sidekick still finding their footing (Tim Drake, Cassie Sandsmark, Connor Kent, Mia Dearden etc)
- The most likely inheritor of the super-hero identity (Jon Kent, Yara Flor, Connor Hawke - Damian should be here, but Jace is a curveball).

I'll add another line to this though. The young child character:
Superman family: Osul and Otho
Green Arrow family: Lian
Shazam family: Darla
Green Lantern "family": Keli Quintela
Flash family: Irey and Jai
Aquaman family: Andy
Wonder Woman family: Trinity is in progress
Batman family: by process of elimination, this is Damien currently as an older example. This also is an answer to Factor's curveball he mentioned.


Also multiple characters can occupy the same role. Both Red Hood and Huntress are the rebellious one for Batman. Both Jay and Max Mercury are the mentor type for Flash, etc.

I’m copying myself here. But question:

Who do you think is the most aggressive, rebel one of the Flash Family?

[Icefan]

I’m copying myself here. But question:

Who do you think is the most aggressive, rebel one of the Flash Family?

Godspeed, maybe?

[Shockingjustice]

Never? These characters have existed for over 70 years. If you just saw the same old people again and again without introducing new faces I feel like you would began to stagnate. Also Batman has like 50 comics all about him so how is his family being big an issue when you rarely see them in anything else. Besides most diverse characters can't exist on their own so family will natural get bigger as new characters are attached to existing characters to gain popularity. Though this is just my opinion.

Side note we technically don't even have big families for all the Justice League members. Only the most popular franchises have one. Martian Manhunters and Cyborgs is non existent.

[Will Evans]

Never? These characters have existed for over 70 years. If you just saw the same old people again and again without introducing new faces I feel like you would began to stagnate. Also Batman has like 50 bigs all about him so how is his family big am issue when you rarely see them in anything else. Besides most diverse characters can't exist on there own so family will natural get bigger as new characters are attached to existing characters to gain popularity. Though this is just my opinion.

Side note we technically don't even have big families for all the Justice League members. Only the most popular franchises have one. Martian Manhunters and Cyborgs is non existent.

Well they have Ms Martian and Variant, respectively.

[Jim Kelly]

The way that comic books originally operated, kids would get the comics when they were maybe around seven years old and by twelve years of age social pressures would make them give them up--or move onto material for mature kids like MAD and OUR ARMY AT WAR and VAMPIRELLA. And a new generation would replace those kids, for whom everything was new. That was the way of the world.

The problem came when some older kids just wouldn't move on and make way for the younger generation. And then those obdurate throwbacks, some of which stuck around until they were annoying adults, would start to buy up all the comics so little kids had no chance of getting them. And when those over the hill sad sacks got bored, the publishers had to put on a song and dance for them so they wouldn't fall asleep, their grey heads falling into their soup at the old folks home.

[Frontier]

I don't think Spider-verse films is that good of an example as 98% of the characters are from other Earths and you don't have 8 Spideys fighting crime every day together.

Even the Xmen films have a hard time giving everyone something to do. If you aren't Wolverine, Mags, Charles, Mystique.... you're pretty useless

Watch any Peter Parker cartoon (other than Amazing Friends) where they have to juggle a bunch of Spider-People.

Spider-Verse gets a pass because it's a movie and a team-up story more than it as a team or Family Affair.

[Rac7d*]

But Red Canary is older and has afaik no connections to assassins.

Lian, Emiko, and Sin are all the same age, same hight, similar look and have a lot of overlap in their back story..., I mean I like all three of them, but I still think that having all of them in the same continuity adds unnecessary bloat.

I mean we even have a "get Lian back" story and a "get Sin back" story running parallel in different books at the moment...

yup gonna be worse then the whos batgirl issue with cass and steph

[Mai Zen]

yup gonna be worse then the whos batgirl issue with cass and steph

Eh I think it's generally accepted that Cass is Batgirl while Steph is spoiler. Thought Cass perhaps would compete with Robin for Batman mantle I guess

[Will Evans]

Godspeed, maybe?

Ah, good point. I forgot about him.
Who would be the aggressive one for the Superman Family?
Before I would say Eradicator, then at one point Powergirl, then at another point the post crisis-Supergirl.