Generations of Heroes

[Ascended]

Well, I see something completely different. If we have two very different surroundings or there's just something a little skewed with the glasses we use to observe the world around us, we don't know. But the world "generally" is a dangerous one.

It is however, nice to see two posters disagree yet both acknowledge that they don't have an iron clad, fool proof view of the world.

[BohemiaDrinker]

It is however, nice to see two posters disagree yet both acknowledge that they don't have an iron clad, fool proof view of the world.

The very fact that there is a discussion is proof enough that no view is definitive.

[superiorcrisis]

Exactly. And if it's generational, then people will generally see the second or third as not as important as the first, who is the "real" one.

(Yes, Jay and Alan came first, but they failed to make the same impact).

And I guess I'm also looking for the "why" here - why should DC have this generational aspect rather than just sticking to Clark, Bruce, etc.? How does it benefit them?

It wouldn't benefit them--but it wouldn't hurt them either. It would just create more interesting stories.

[superiorcrisis]

Marvel looks like it's moving in this direction with the death of Wolverine and Avengers NOW!, but we all know it won't last.

[Dataweaver]

I would like it if they had the main Universe for all major characters, Earth 2: to include more of the Golden Age, and then a Universe focused on the Next Generation of heroes with DickBats/ Donna Troy/ Wally West leading the Justice league. They could also do a universe were the Villians are the main focus.

This, or something very much like it. I personally prefer the notion of an Earth without a Justice League, where the Titans have stepped up to be its premier heroes.

[Ascended]

The very fact that there is a discussion is proof enough that no view is definitive.

Very true, but that seems to be forgotten a lot of the time when posters here disagree.

[superiorcrisis]

Ha ha! My thread has 65 replies! Now it can go into syndication!

One of the oldest superheroes Phantom does have generations but only 1 guy is needed in the comic so the rest of the generations are just history. Sometimes, popular characters get a long history such as Wolverine. Family shows can have multiple generations of characters and once comics diversity, there could be comics for the whole family that have multiple generations like grampa simpson, homer and bart. Cw caters to teen customers and tend to focus on the younger characters. Dc currently wants younger customers so it is very similar to the CW tv shows which often does not have old characters or very few old characters.

Wait--what? We don't do that?

[GlennSimpson]

It wouldn't benefit them--but it wouldn't hurt them either. It would just create more interesting stories.

Why is a generational set of heroes more interesting than one good one?

Did we need multiple generations of Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, or Robin Hood?

[BohemiaDrinker]

Why is a generational set of heroes more interesting than one good one?

Did we need multiple generations of Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, or Robin Hood?

Nope, but we had more than one generation of Skywalker, Zorro, Phantom, USS Enterprise crew, Assassins Creed and Metal Gear Solid protagonists and others.

It's a storytelling tool as valid as any other and, in vast, shared universes like DC and Marvel, a very useful one; if nothing else, for preventing an uniformity that can easily lead to boredom.

[Gordonstar]

You would have to have real time for this to work. And already has been done with John Brynes Generation aka Earth 38.

[BohemiaDrinker]

You would have to have real time for this to work. And already has been done with John Brynes Generation aka Earth 38.

Not really. You'd have to have the passage of time, like in post or even pre-Crisis, sure, but not "real time". And yeah, it's already been done, like in post-Crisis. I miss a lot of those characters.

As for Generations; it could have been great, but it was done by Byrne....

[Dataweaver]

You would have to have real time for this to work.

It was working just fine in the 90s, without real time. What you need is history — something more extensive than “superheroes first appeared five years ago”.

It was also working with Gardner Fox’s Earth 2 titles in the 70s and 80s, which admittedly did have real time. Earth-38 isn’t the be-all and end-all of real-time comics; it’s merely the only world in the Local Multiverse (besides Earth-33) that features it.

[Gordonstar]

Except I agree with John Bryne on post crisis, there was a point where it felt like Batman was still 30 and Dick was getting 30. It's a bad idea if you want Wayne to be a hero while Dick is BatMan.

Aging characters while the older one is stunted is an error most don't see when it comes to Post Zero Hour.

[Gordonstar]

It was working just fine in the 90s, without real time. What you need is history — something more extensive than “superheroes first appeared five years ago”.

It was also working with Gardner Fox’s Earth 2 titles in the 70s and 80s, which admittedly did have real time. Earth-38 isn’t the be-all and end-all of real-time comics; it’s merely the only world in the Local Multiverse (besides Earth-33) that features it.

too bad in the 90s they decided to trash the Jsa and others.

[GlennSimpson]

Nope, but we had more than one generation of Skywalker, Zorro, Phantom, USS Enterprise crew, Assassins Creed and Metal Gear Solid protagonists and others.

It's a storytelling tool as valid as any other and, in vast, shared universes like DC and Marvel, a very useful one; if nothing else, for preventing an uniformity that can easily lead to boredom.

I suppose that the only person who would experience that uniformity/boredom would be someone who starts reading and continue to read long enough to experience it. Which there certainly are people who do so.

But at the same time, the main target should always be new readers, and those readers don't really know or care about the difference between Barry Allen and Wally West, other than knowing that Barry Allen came first, which gives him a bit more of a mystique.

I think it also comes down to how the new reader sees the previous one. Sometimes the previous one comes across as "your father's version" and that's bad; but sometimes it comes across as the "real" version.