Is there no room for originality anymore at Marvel? (spoilers for the Ant-Man Annual via article connection)

[Cmbmool]

I mean can anyone create their own original hero and character and NOT HAVE THEM REPLACE an already alive hero to create some type of legacy hero for PC reasons ?

http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/conten...cter-giant-man

I'm all for diversity in all types, but is there no more room for creativity anymore ?

What do you think of this ?

[Viteh]

Isn't Giant-Man just another version of Ant-Man? I highly doubt Scott will stop being Ant-Man.

[scribbleMind]

Nope. Notice how all the Avengers Initiative and Academy kids don't have a place anymore. Alexis from Avengers A.I.? Gone. The New Invaders? More like the all new all missing Invaders.

Blue Marvel is a miracle, all things considered, but other newly created characters are likely to fade into semi-nonexistence or be killed off for drama. Blue Marvel was being pushed, and I don't know if that's because of the number of very loud Blue Marvel founds or because they actually saw the potential in the character. Most brand new characters are not pushed like that. The most push they get is that might be lucky enough to start in a recognizable team book, ala Psynapse but after that they better entice people pretty fast because they're gone when the next creative team shows up. It's not hard to figure out why, I've seen it happen a lot, people claim they want new characters and those characters get a book no one wants to take a chance on them. "Why is there this new character no one cares about here when an older character that isn't being used could be here?" and "this book is never gonna last six issue, this character is never going to make it, why invest my time and money on him/her" seem to be the two dominant mindsets, and both result in poor sales.

Which leads to a pretty interesting question, I think. Is it better that a mantle fall to an older lesser used character that could use the attention, ala Falcon, or a new character so that he or she might have a greater chance to thrive and a slightly more defined place in the universe. Afterall, at the very least that character will have to be addressed if that mantel is to change again.

[HUTHAIFA]

OMG, someone took one of Hank Pyms hundred secret identities. Ask Rita Demara and Bill Foster how that worked out. Do you guys really understand what you sound like when you complain about PC this and PC that. Hopefully, this new character will end up like Scott Lang, and not like the rest of Hank's legacy characters.

[Tiamatty]

Sure, there's plenty of room for originality. Creators make new superheroes pretty regularly. And then those characters disappear into limbo quickly. See, that's the problem: Readers don't want to read about new characters. They want to read about the characters they already know. And writers are mostly interested in writing the characters they grew up with. A few writers here and there have a real love and appreciation for newer characters, and continually use them. Gillen and Ewing both spring to mind.

But I'm not sure that the new Giant Man is actually a good example of what you're complaining about. Having someone take on the Giant Man mantle makes sense. The fact that it's a gay Indian-American is pretty great, but the point is that Pym's legacy deserves to live on.

[Kurolegacy]

To be fair, the Giant-Man mantle was open with Hank Pym being presumed dead while merged with Ultron. Honestly I don't really find this to be all that bad an idea since it creates a LGBT character and puts them in a position for the comic readership to get to know him and possibly build up notoriety. In time he could grow to become his own hero rather than just a legacy character. As far as progressive moves go, this is a good way to go about it rather than sidelining another hero or retconning their sexuality.

[jphamlore]

I'm more wondering what sane person would want to be a Giant Man. Look at what Millar and Hitch showed in Ultimates 2 as the fate of Giant Men in deadly combat: The other side just flies things through one's brain.

[Blue Reloaded]

I'm more wondering what sane person would want to be a Giant Man. Look at what Millar and Hitch showed in Ultimates 2 as the fate of Giant Men in deadly combat: The other side just flies things through one's brain.

My question is, do Pym particles work the same way getting smaller as bigger...meaning why doesn't Giant Man just become a light, weak, really big person?

[vaf2675]

Nope. Marvel is strictly wash, rinse, repeat nowadays.

[Dopliss]

My question is, do Pym particles work the same way getting smaller as bigger...meaning why doesn't Giant Man just become a light, weak, really big person?

Avengers A.I. answered this, apparently, Pym Particles can also alter the density of their user.

[XPac]

I think Ant-Man should keep the Giant Man name. When he's big he can be Giant Man, and when he's small he can be Ant Man. The fact that the name Giant Man has Ant Man in it just works for me.

They can always name the new guy Goliath.

That said, there's like a 50% fatality rate for people who take on Pym identities, so I'm not entirely sure why anyone would want to be Giant Man. And it almost makes sense than there is when your power is essentially to become the biggest target on the field.

[aja_christopher]

I mean can anyone create their own original hero and character and NOT HAVE THEM REPLACE an already alive hero to create some type of legacy hero for PC reasons ?

http://www.cosmicbooknews.com/conten...cter-giant-man

I'm all for diversity in all types, but is there no more room for creativity anymore ?

What do you think of this ?

I wish there was room for more creativity in these complaints... I remember when I could read the word "PC" and try to decide if I wanted a Dell or a Mac.

[Quicksilverfan]

Nope. Notice how all the Avengers Initiative and Academy kids don't have a place anymore. Alexis from Avengers A.I.? Gone. The New Invaders? More like the all new all missing Invaders.

Blue Marvel is a miracle, all things considered, but other newly created characters are likely to fade into semi-nonexistence or be killed off for drama. Blue Marvel was being pushed, and I don't know if that's because of the number of very loud Blue Marvel founds or because they actually saw the potential in the character. Most brand new characters are not pushed like that. The most push they get is that might be lucky enough to start in a recognizable team book, ala Psynapse but after that they better entice people pretty fast because they're gone when the next creative team shows up. It's not hard to figure out why, I've seen it happen a lot, people claim they want new characters and those characters get a book no one wants to take a chance on them. "Why is there this new character no one cares about here when an older character that isn't being used could be here?" and "this book is never gonna last six issue, this character is never going to make it, why invest my time and money on him/her" seem to be the two dominant mindsets, and both result in poor sales.

Which leads to a pretty interesting question, I think. Is it better that a mantle fall to an older lesser used character that could use the attention, ala Falcon, or a new character so that he or she might have a greater chance to thrive and a slightly more defined place in the universe. Afterall, at the very least that character will have to be addressed if that mantel is to change again.

I can only speak for myself, but I generally don't latch onto new characters AT ALL. There's a couple of reasons for this: pretty much every comic book writer eventually creates their own personal character that only they themselves find a use for. Once they stop writing the character, no other writer picks them up again because they're busy writing their own made up characters. This leads us to a crap-load of "one-hit wonders' which evidently not many fans feel are are worth the investment. You could also argue that a many of these characters are not very well conceived to begin with, which is why they don't stick around.
Also, if I was offered some closure on characters I'm currently following, maybe I'd give newer characters a try. Here's a dumb metaphor: let's say Marvel (or any comic book company) is a restaurant, and the characters are the dishes they offer. Now me, I'm eating the filet mignon, I don't want the waiter to shove BBQ ribs, sushi, tacos, and fried rice at my face until I've finished what I have. The problem is, the filet mignon never ends, so I never have the time or inclination to try the other stuff. So that's my take on it

[protege]

It doesn't bother me that the new giant man isn't white; what does bother me is;
1) the costume really needs to be updated. That costume started in the sixties, and I'd like to see something more modern.
2) I wonder if we're going to see a lot of this guy, and where he'll turn up.

[Overhazard]

Cosmic Book News needs to lay off the salt or they're going to need blood pressure medication. All this "PC this, PC that, rarrrh!" stuff is getting old.