Curious: What, in your opinion, is the most Complicated Backstory regarding how a character gained their powers or powerful weapons/costumes/etc.?
Curious: What, in your opinion, is the most Complicated Backstory regarding how a character gained their powers or powerful weapons/costumes/etc.?
Original join date: 11/23/2004
Eclectic Connoisseur of all things written, drawn, or imaginatively created.
Hawkman’s gotta be up there.
I mean, it may have started off straightforward, but the layer after layer of reboots reimaginings and retroactive story telling have made it pretty complex.
Firestorm has a pretty complicated backstory.
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Donna Troy. Back in the day, she's had like three different origin stories, the Nu52 happened and she got yet another one. I'm not sure what her deal is currently.
Quicksilver and ( especially ) Scarlet Witch. I'm convinced that Stan got Jack on the phone on a Friday and told Jack, "Come up with some characters for the X-men to fight and have it ready by Monday! I'll put the words on top in the office!" Meaning to flesh them out in follow up story but they never got to it.
It was almost 10 yrs before Pietro and Wanda even had last names! Then they were the Whizzer's kids. Then they were Magneto's kid's. And I think a couple of years ago Marvel toyed with them being Inhumans? I'm pretty sure I read an old reprint that said that Pietro was older, I'm not sure when it was decided that they were twins.
Then there's the issue of how Wanda's powers work...in those old comics it seemed she'd gesture and something would break or maybe fly through the air and hit you. Then her "hex" was some ill-defined energy bolts that would kinda zap you. Then she was learning "true magic" that would only effect organic things. Then there was the "hex spheres"...ultimately they settled on Choas magic and that seems to have been the most consistent.
It gets complicated for characters who have had multiple origin stories in various separate incarnations (e.g., Supergirl).
I read an interesting blog recently that reminded me that Marvel had toyed with the ideas of the siblings not being actual mutants way back in 1966:
https://cokeandcomics.com/avengers-30/
Stryfe is the clone of Nathan "Cable" Charles Dayspring Askani'son Summers (the son of Cyclops and Jean Grey's clone) who was created in the future as a back up in case Nathan wasn't able to be cured of his techno-organic virus. He was abducted by and raised by Apocalypse (who was the one that infected Cable in the first place in the distant past (which is out present) who was only going to use him as a host body (which is something is something we didn't know Apocalypse needed until that story and I don't think has ever really been touched on since.)
Psylocke and her body switch with Kwannon back in the day. It's a doozy of a story.
I think the "non super powered pals" of super teams have very convoluted backstories after a while, because they sometimes go through various incarnations and "super origins."
Mal Duncan - Guardian - Hornblower - Vox
Snapper Carrr - traitor, snapping powers, mentor to Hourman
Rick Jones - Hulk's friend, leader of the Teen Brigade, Avengers's mascot, Cap's sidekick, wielder of the Destiny Force, one half of two Captain Marvels, A-Bomb, The Whisperer
Last edited by CaptainEurope; 05-04-2024 at 01:43 AM.
As far as the lengths someone goes through to gain power, I'd add Dr. Strange to the list. From his time as a surgeon to becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, it did not strike me as an easy or straight line road.
Sometimes complexity comes in layers. The main character of the Adam Warren Series Empowered got her powers from a 'fedex' envelope left by her front door. However, the complexity comes in learning later on the source of that gift and how it came to be that she was the one who received it.
Original join date: 11/23/2004
Eclectic Connoisseur of all things written, drawn, or imaginatively created.
Hopefully this counts, but my choice would be The Joker
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Most start pretty straight forward, but then get "improved" by later writers.
Almost anybody that's a product of an Event usually has a bunch of tangled threads attached.
Silver Scarab, who invented Nth metal armor because of the estranged superhero parents he moved all the way across the continent to avoid, and then became a superhero for no discernible reason but turned out to be some kind of long prophesied demon creature, except it wasn't him and he became Sandman, and later, Dr. Fate.
On that subject (Golden Age) Hawkman's origin is a bit wonky. Rich dude with an enormous archaic weapons collection, who invents (or discovers) Nth Metal, and just has it lying around until somebody randomly sends him the knife with which he was murdered in a previous life that he suddenly remembers, inspiring him to dress up like an hawk and go rescue the love of both of his lives. They tidied that up during the Bronze Age, but I can't help thinking there's a reason they almost never again mentioned his backstory after Flash Comics #1.