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Brian Hague
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Joined: 14 November 2006
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 12:06am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

You mean Rusty the Oxidizing Killer Klown? I made him up too...

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Rod Collins
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 12:11am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Salvaging a character/characters seems to mean getting a creative team who understands the characters and is able to recontextualize them for a new audience without taking away what made them unique/interesting.

I enjoyed what David Walker did with a group of what could be considered "lame 70s villains" in his recent Power Man And Iron Fist run. He kept them true to their past and made them formidable and interesting to read about.

Edited by Rod Collins on 06 January 2018 at 12:19am
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Eric Jansen
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 9:27am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

How about the Spirit's sidekick Ebony?  He was smart and valiant, but his appearance--!  Recent update attempts have made him a street-smart girl or a handsome young cab driver.  How far can you change a character before it's no longer the same person?  (Was Neal Adams' Green Arrow the same person as Jack Kirby's?)
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 9:37am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

ITEM: Mr. Byrne, of course that was Neal Adams' quote. I just paraphrased because I was trying to "touch it up a little" for the topic.

ITEM: Thanks for everyone's opinion about the Man-Thing. You aren't going to change my mind... but always glad to hear what others think of my opinions.

ITEM: It seems that most everyone thinks that any character is salvageable without radical transformation. I don't see it for a number of characters... but then, I wanted to know what YOU think.

ITEM: The list of characters I made were ones whose books were cancelled, or were in imminent danger of cancellation; and then, thanks to changes in creators, stories, changes in the characters themselves, etc. suddenly became hits. They weren't always hits. Shucks, I recall a time in the early 60s when Batman's popularity was waning, or when Iron Man was not such a fan favorite.

I'm enjoying what y'all think. I'm interested in seeing more!
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Dale Lerette
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 10:30am | IP Logged | 5 post reply

I always liked Man Thing and found his latent sentience seemed to work very well with his surroundings. I think, though, you have to have a careful writer who works toward that goal. I do not think it is easy.
In my mind Marvel Two-in-One #43 seemed to really capture this essence well when the Man-Thing reached its vegetative hand out and you could see a human hand forming as it almost touched the entropic crystal.

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Brian Kirk
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 10:57am | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Exploding from the pages of Doctor Strange: THE MINDLESS ONES in their own book at last!

Edit to add: fake milestone, 1234 posts!


Edited by Brian Kirk on 06 January 2018 at 10:59am
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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 11:08am | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Green Arrow was like almost every other DC character of the '50s and '60s -- made out of cardboard -- until Dennis O'Neil gave him a personality and a purpose. And made him stop being a Batman clone. 

I don't see that as "salvaging." More like "there's nothing here, so let's put something here."
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Steve De Young
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

As many times as people tried, even JB himself, I don't think Hank Pym has ever recovered from hitting Wasp.  
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Tim Cousar
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Because others keep going back to it.
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Rod Collins
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Posted: 06 January 2018 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Kurt Busiek did a good job of bringing Hank Pym back, but as Tim mentioned other people continue to go back to this moment.
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Andrew Bitner
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Posted: 07 January 2018 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

The subject of Cyclops is a tough one for me. He'd always been my favorite X-Man until it seemed Marvel no longer wanted him to be a hero.

Pairing him with Emma Frost was a betrayal of the character.

If I was going to write X-Men with Scott reborn, I'd let the Frost affair lie in the past and move on. It was a horrible idea and deserves to be forgotten, not explained or otherwise honored.

Shaper of Worlds? I would LOVE that.
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 07 January 2018 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

As many times as people tried, even JB himself, I don't think Hank Pym has ever recovered from hitting Wasp.

•••

Miserable little fanboys who won't let go. Fah!!

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