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Once upon a time a comic book company published a storyline. In that story the main protagionist went insane when a semi-major villain destroyed his hometown. He then turned against his teammates, brutally attacking them in some cases; killing others. Finally he upsurped all the power at his boss’ command and became for a time one of the biggest villains of that universe. Basically decades of continuity was thrown out the window.
He was replaced with a rookie who had never really been seen up until then… a kid with all the power of the orginal, his power item acted quite differently. Now I liked this kid, he reminded me (in more ways than one) of my favorite comic book character, and I read everything I could with him in it.
Unfortunately, a lot of long-time readers were incensed. In some cases forming groups of like minded people and now boycotting what was previously their favorite comic, in other cases calling for the new character’s complete removal from continuity. And while this heated debate did boost sales of the comic for a short while, the argument still flares up to this day.
The storyline was Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight.
Now we have Marvel repeating the same mistakes that DC did back in 1993. One of their “fan-favorite” characters was killed during a recent storyline and a character that was largely an unknown stepped in to replace him. While it is obviously not the exact same situation, there are correlations that are plain to see.
My favorite comic book character is Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), and up until he was killed off during Annihilation and then later replaced, I didn’t understand the hatred of Kyle Rayner by fans of Hal Jordan, it just seemed totally illrational to me for someone to hate a character based upon what a writer had done.
Now, I don’t hate Wendell’s replacement, Phyla-Vell, but I do understand the illrational anger exibited by the fans of Hal Jordan a little better now. They saw everything they enjoyed about their favorite character completely turned on its ear and then were forced to watch in horror as a “New and Improved!” sticker was put on it with a shiny ribbon, when to them it looked very much like a train wreck. Sound familiar?
It’s ridiculous to take out that aggression on the new character, it’s not Kyle’s fault that Hal went bad and died, and now it’s a moot point since Geoff Johns retconned it all, it only took ten years for Hal fans to get their guy back. Ideally, fans of Wendell won’t have to wait as long.
I just find it hypocritical that Marvel retconned “Quasar’s legacy” into something meaningful only after his death, if he had been treated as though he meant something to Marvel other than as the butt of jokes for Wizard Magazine or issues of Captain Marvel (a book put out by the same company!), I’d almost be able to overlook the death of my favorite character if he’d been showed a shred of respect.
He was replaced with a rookie who had never really been seen up until then… a kid with all the power of the orginal, his power item acted quite differently. Now I liked this kid, he reminded me (in more ways than one) of my favorite comic book character, and I read everything I could with him in it.
Unfortunately, a lot of long-time readers were incensed. In some cases forming groups of like minded people and now boycotting what was previously their favorite comic, in other cases calling for the new character’s complete removal from continuity. And while this heated debate did boost sales of the comic for a short while, the argument still flares up to this day.
The storyline was Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight.
Now we have Marvel repeating the same mistakes that DC did back in 1993. One of their “fan-favorite” characters was killed during a recent storyline and a character that was largely an unknown stepped in to replace him. While it is obviously not the exact same situation, there are correlations that are plain to see.
My favorite comic book character is Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), and up until he was killed off during Annihilation and then later replaced, I didn’t understand the hatred of Kyle Rayner by fans of Hal Jordan, it just seemed totally illrational to me for someone to hate a character based upon what a writer had done.
Now, I don’t hate Wendell’s replacement, Phyla-Vell, but I do understand the illrational anger exibited by the fans of Hal Jordan a little better now. They saw everything they enjoyed about their favorite character completely turned on its ear and then were forced to watch in horror as a “New and Improved!” sticker was put on it with a shiny ribbon, when to them it looked very much like a train wreck. Sound familiar?
It’s ridiculous to take out that aggression on the new character, it’s not Kyle’s fault that Hal went bad and died, and now it’s a moot point since Geoff Johns retconned it all, it only took ten years for Hal fans to get their guy back. Ideally, fans of Wendell won’t have to wait as long.
I just find it hypocritical that Marvel retconned “Quasar’s legacy” into something meaningful only after his death, if he had been treated as though he meant something to Marvel other than as the butt of jokes for Wizard Magazine or issues of Captain Marvel (a book put out by the same company!), I’d almost be able to overlook the death of my favorite character if he’d been showed a shred of respect.
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