NOTE: On Thursday, May 10, 2018, we will be reviewing the latest Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War in a completely SPOILED format. Join us for the critique and share your commentary in two days!
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Follow The Leader: Episode 72: Recent Additions to the Iconic Hero Pantheon!
NOTE: On Thursday, May 10, 2018, we will be reviewing the latest Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War in a completely SPOILED format. Join us for the critique and share your commentary in two days!
ReplyDeleteHello!
My wife and I like watching Marvel’s Runaways, and one time I glibly told her Runaways was the last original idea Marvel’s had in the last 20 years.
Then I thought about it, and it’s actually closer to 30 or 40 years! Just looking at Marvel productions, every movie and show is based on a character created in the 60s or 70s.
Even some of my favourite comics introduced in the 80s were all characters from the 70s: Moon Knight, Alpha Flight, Punisher…or spin-offs of Silver Age ideas like New Mutants, X-Factor or West Coast Avengers.
So the question is, how many great original ideas can people think of that Marvel’s introduced since, say, 1980? (for fun, let’s say…how many since Dazzler?).
To be clear, I know there were plenty of characters created: Beta Ray Bill, Captain Marvel/Monica Rambeau, Rogue…but I’m talking about iconic figures that could carry their own series or movie.
And I’m thinking of characters pretty true to their original form. “Legion” may be pretty successful, but honestly, it’s pretty unrecognizable from the crazy-haired, gangly Bill Sienciewicz character I remember.
There are definitely a few examples of post-Dazzler success (or potential success) stories, but, to my knowledge, a mere handful. It’d be fun to see if we can even get to double-digits from the “House of Ideas”.
And what the heck, play the same game with DC starting from New Teen Titans #1 (after the intro of Cyborg, Starfire and Raven). I actually think DC comes out a little ahead of Marvel (with a bit of help from the “British Invasion” of writers).
Go to it!
-david p.
Deadpool and Cable were created in 1991 and are popular. That’s all I can think of right now.
ReplyDeleteJessica Jones.
ReplyDeleteVenom?!!?
ReplyDeletePower Pack was created in 1984.
ReplyDeleteKamala Khan.
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ReplyDeleteKamala Khan is a good one not on my list. The first ones I thought of were Power Pack, Deadpool, Cable, Elektra, Venom and Jessica Jones.
Also, I can imagine Cloak and Dagger as a Netflix TV series.
That still leaves us short of double-digits for original properties in the last three decades. (Not exactly Lee/Kirby levels of output!)
Mind you, maybe there's a New Universe Cinematic Universe in the works we don't know about.
How about DC?
-david p.
ReplyDeleteRocket ("I'm not a") Raccoon can carry at least PART of a movie....
Yeah, but Rocket was created and first appeared in the late '70s.
ReplyDeleteI suppose a cheat could be the Guardians of the Galaxy in their current, and Marvel Cinematic U, form: yes, a team by that name first appeared in the late 1960s, and yes, all of the individual members of the current team (except for Nebula, who was introduced in the mid-1980s - and who is only a member in the movies) were created before 1980, but the idea of putting those characters together and calling them the Guardians of the Galaxy, set in the modern day instead of a thousand years in the future, is a new (and quite recent, 2008) idea.
Ok.. not house of ideas per se, but we did have the whole Image, Valiant, Malibu, Continuity, etc. explosion of characters in the 90s some of which are alive and well today. Basically the point being that there is still room for new ideas. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteCH 47 is right. A lot of the new concepts moved out of the big two with characters like Spawn and Savage Dragon etc.
ReplyDeleteTim Drake (Robin) did get started in late 89 and early 90. Not sure if he counts as Robin himself had been around for decades.
At Marvel, the villain Crossbones first appeared in 1989. Regarding villains, the Black Order from the latest Avengers movie did not appear in comics until the 2000s.
Spider-Man 2099 first arrived in 1992. I actually like that character and his costume.
My wife reads a few comics every month, so I follow current/recent stuff through her. I like Kamala Khan, Moon Girl and the Runaways okay. I find those series more enjoyable and less convoluted than the "A-list" books like Avengers, X-men or ASM.
ReplyDeleteFrom DC- Harley Quinn , hugely popular today and created by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm in the early 90s.
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ReplyDeleteOh, I'm not suggesting at all that comics as a medium are stagnant, far from it. Indie properties have had a huge impact (Walking Dead, TMNT, to name a couple of big ones) and they offer a very fresh alternative to the Big Two.
I just mainly focused on Marvel when I realized how few of their popular characters pre-date 1980. Runaways, to my mind, is really the freshest thing out of Marvel in a long, long time. Which is funny when you consider how explosive Marvel's first two decades were.
(although I just remembered Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's X-Statix; yes, it's a spin-off of a spin-off (X-Force) of a spin-off (New Mutants) of X-Men, but they did create a very unique cast with a unique voice that worked quite independently of the other X-books).
DC post-1980 did okay with the introduction of John Constantine, Sandman/Morpheus (as well as the Endless and a version of Lucifer who now has a TV series) and a bunch of characters like Vigilante (80s version), Booster Gold, later Aztek, the aforementioned Harley Quinn...their Vertigo imprint also started stuff like Preacher, Transmetropolitan and Y: The Last Man, which is more along the lines of the creator-owned, indie boom).
Thanks for all the input,
-david p.
Squirrel Girl? Apparently, she's quite popular, though personally I can't see the appeal. For DC, Constantine was the first one that came to mind. DC was good at introducing new versions of older heroes (Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, the Legion, Starman, Manhunter), but I can't think of too many iconic figures post 1980. Lobo, Maybe? He first appeared in 1983 and got very popular later, even though I think he was originally meant as a parody of "grim n'gritty" guys like Wolverine.
ReplyDeleteHow about Miles Morales (Spider-Man 2.0)? He's getting his own feature length animated movie this year.
ReplyDeleteCharacters that could possibly be recognized by "civilians"? I can think of 2 Deadpool,Harley Quinn.
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