Why Create A New Character When You Could've Used...?

[Alpha Male]

Was thinking about Tom King's current run on Wonder Woman, which I'm enjoying quite a bit, and I got around to thinking about the Sovereign, whom I believe was created specifically for this story. As a big fan of the old-school Doom Patrol, it dawned on me that, with just a little bit of tweaking, the role the Sovereign plays could have easily been filled by longtime DP foe General Immortus.

That got me thinking: what are some other cases where a new character has been introduced in a role that could've been swapped out for an established villain, supporting character, second-tier hero, etc.? And to clarify, I'm don't mean characters who would have had to go through radical tweaks/reimaginings to make it work...just known characters who could've easily been slotted into positions that instead went to brand new characters.

Anyone spring to mind?

Sovereign reminds me of an old Wonder Woman foe named the Duke of Deception. I don't understand why King couldn't use the Duke of Deception as it would've made more sense and tied perfectly with Diana and The Amazons.

[scary harpy]

...
The Silver Age Atom and Elongated Man for Doll Man and Plastic Man are two early examples, and if Supergirl had been allowed onto the Teen Titans Donna Troy might never have been created.

If Supergirl had been allowed onto the Teen Titans, DC would have had to nerf her powers...or she and Kid Flash could have handled any threat the Titans faced.

Considering the decade in question, DC would have nerfed her powers big time.

[Aahz]

I think a lot of the more recent Bat Characters fall under that.

Why crate Calvin Rose if you have Dick Grayson?

Why create Strix when you have Cassandra Cain?

Why create Ghost Maker and Clown Killer if you have Red Hood?

Why create Jace Fox of you have Luke Fox?

Why create Punchline and the Gardener if you have Harley and Ivy?

Why create Sparrow (Darcy Thomas) when you have Stephanie Brown?

[Agent Z]

Was thinking about Tom King's current run on Wonder Woman, which I'm enjoying quite a bit, and I got around to thinking about the Sovereign, whom I believe was created specifically for this story. As a big fan of the old-school Doom Patrol, it dawned on me that, with just a little bit of tweaking, the role the Sovereign plays could have easily been filled by longtime DP foe General Immortus.

Why would you use a Doom Patrol villain for a major Wonder Woman arc?

[OBrianTallent]

When we look at teen black females-who else is out there aside from Natasha Irons? Tonya Spears?

Something interesting I found....the last few appearances of Tanya Spears was in Titans Academy I think where she was using the name Powerhouse. However, if you try to look up Powerhouse in Wikipedia...it redirects you to....Naomi. Tanya is a much more layered and interesting character than Naomi. I would have really rather have seen a series about her instead....but as has been stated, Bendis didn't create her.

[Agent Z]

I have one: why the hell did we have to create Naomi when we had Vixen sitting right there in limbo?

"we've been sitting on this amazing African female character for decades, but instead of giving her a chance to shine, let's create a new one".... ????

now we get Mari in BoP and I haven't seen Naomi mentioned anywhere since her creator disappeared, so I guess I've been vindicated on this one? lol

The question you should be asking is "why doesn't DC platform more than one black female character at a time?"

It's not like Mari and Naomi have any real overlap besides being black female characters.

[king81992]

Why use/ create Brother Eternity when Blackfire exists?

[marhawkman]

If Supergirl had been allowed onto the Teen Titans, DC would have had to nerf her powers...or she and Kid Flash could have handled any threat the Titans faced.

Considering the decade in question, DC would have nerfed her powers big time.

You mean like when they had more than one of Super-Boy, Wonder Girl, Miss Martian and Bombshell?

Wait.,.. pretty sure there was a time when they had Supergirl and Wonder Girl on the same team....

[Primal Slayer]

You mean like when they had more than one of Super-Boy, Wonder Girl, Miss Martian and Bombshell?

Wait.,.. pretty sure there was a time when they had Supergirl and Wonder Girl on the same team....

It was a nice change of pace

[phonogram12]

Because then Bendis wouldn't be able to get royalties...

Honestly? I can't blame writers who do this, especially since most comic book writers get paid jack. I used to feel this way about all the characters that James Tynion introduced during his run (Punchline and Ghostmaker, specifically), but if it helps him pay his rent and put food on the table, I am absolutely okay with that.

[DrNewGod]

Was thinking about Tom King's current run on Wonder Woman, which I'm enjoying quite a bit, and I got around to thinking about the Sovereign, whom I believe was created specifically for this story. As a big fan of the old-school Doom Patrol, it dawned on me that, with just a little bit of tweaking, the role the Sovereign plays could have easily been filled by longtime DP foe General Immortus.

That got me thinking: what are some other cases where a new character has been introduced in a role that could've been swapped out for an established villain, supporting character, second-tier hero, etc.? And to clarify, I'm don't mean characters who would have had to go through radical tweaks/reimaginings to make it work...just known characters who could've easily been slotted into positions that instead went to brand new characters.

Anyone spring to mind?

Sovereign reminds me of an old Wonder Woman foe named the Duke of Deception. I don't understand why King couldn't use the Duke of Deception as it would've made more sense and tied perfectly with Diana and The Amazons.

Aside from the points made by others about IP rights, King seems to be forming a narrative on the myth of freedom in the US versus its history. Could be he doesn't want the backstory of either the Duke or the General to obfuscate that narrative.

[DragonsChi]

Honestly? I can't blame writers who do this, especially since most comic book writers get paid jack. I used to feel this way about all the characters that James Tynion introduced during his run (Punchline and Ghostmaker, specifically), but if it helps him pay his rent and put food on the table, I am absolutely okay with that.

I can. You sell products continuously by providing value and being customer first.

Bendis has a long history of making changes to a degree of almost ruining characters or concepts for cash grabs and then just disappearing afterwards leaving things broken or unusable. (Or creating characters who in the end cause the destruction or get to a point of being unusable later)

Where is Naomi now? What writer is going to actually pick her up to a usable degree in universe that isn’t Bendis?

If you take the time and do things the write way both the company and Bendis/any other creator will make money on the same characters and concepts on-going. Bendis has a few hits where this helps him but if you look at all the things as a whole he has done at Marvel and DC there are so many nearly broken things that are just wasted.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

Probably because Phantom Girl was being used in L.E.G.I.O.N. and Star Boy was happily retired with Dream Girl?

Five Years Later did not have Star Boy happily retired with Dream Girl. Nura was being an overweight sexpot ruling Naltor while being tended to by an endless series of younger hunks, while Thom was off being a balding, overweight coach for a future-version-of-baseball team while also married to the team's owner, who was somebody we'd never seen before and never saw again. The final storyline before the Reboot saw them teleported to the Legion at the same time and, since it was literally the end of the world as they knew it, they shared a kiss, but that was it.

And the reason Phantom Girl was with LEGION in the first place was that the spell that caused Glorith to be switched into the Time Trapper's place during that one-off in the Mordru-ruled AU also forced her to be switched both in time and space with the Durlan working with Vril Dox II so he would become R.J. Brande and finance the Legion. She most certainly didn't voluntarily do it.

Edited to add: I recently found a series of reviews of the Five Years Later era (from the first issue all the way to Zero Hour) on a reddit page for the LSH in which the author was convinced that Giffen and the Bierbaums actually hated half the Legion based on the fates they inflicted on them, and he was convinced that Star Boy and Dream Girl must have been two of their most hated based on the fates they got.

[caj]

Completely agree, Timber Wolf by Night. Thanks.

[Dr. Poison]

The question you should be asking is "why doesn't DC platform more than one black female character at a time?"

It's not like Mari and Naomi have any real overlap besides being black female characters.

By using the OP's logic, why create Batman when DC(aka National Comics) already had Superman? There really aren't any similarities to Vixen and Naomi besides being black female heroes. Don't get me wrong, I wish DC would give Vixen a big push but Naomi didn't steal much of anything from Vixen.

Here are some DC characters that I feel are redundant:


Cats Eye when Wonder Woman already had Cheetah(two cat-themed Wonder Woman villains).

Maxwell Lord as a Wonder villain when Diana already had Dr. Psycho, Hypnota, and the Duke of Deception who are all mental-powered villains of hers.

Mr. Freeze when Batman already had Mr. Zero(two cold-themed Bat villains).

Faora when Superman already had Ursa(two female Kryptonian prisoners with very similar personalities).