(Or am I thinking of a different story from the same series that involved Hal?)

Jack, I haven't read the issue you mention, but could it have been Superboy #166?

But I must ask, as an old-school DC fan from way back when, exactly what is so wrong with characters turning into gorillas? Spider-Man knows people who turn into lizards, man-wolves, and piles of sand. Thor himself has turned into a frog. Arthur Nagan, Ken Hale, and Franz Radzik, all Marvel comics scientists, have turned into... Yes, Gorillas! Turning into a gorilla is, I believe, a proud comic book tradition.

Brian H. - I didn't collect Green Lantern Corps, so I missed that issue, although I seemed to recall hearing the Salakk took over the Pol Manning identity. ITEM: I think that cover is for shock value alone. ITEM: They had to put another Green Lantern into that role? Somebody ran out of ideas. Sad.

And I see nothing wrong with characters turning into gorillas, babies, giant headed characters, puppets, half-bodies, or whatever you like. Back in the 60s, Julie Schwartz found that - for whatever reason - gorillas on covers of super hero comics sold better. Thus, entrez les gorilles!

"... the oft-heard sound of jackboots in these parts..." Wow. I must be deaf to such. Discussion, sure; repression, no. And that metaphor is very disturbing to me... the effect you wanted, I guess.

Rebecca - I suspect it's just that the DC or Marvel characters were simply the ones identified so far. No prejudice against Disney, or anyone else. For example, Fawcett's Marvel Family #10, "The Marvel Family versus the Sivana Family" was a fantastic time travel story, and one of the best Marvel Family stories.

And the first story you're referring to Avengers #56 ("Death Be Not Proud!")  and Avengers Annual #2 ("And Time, The Rushing River"), where the current Avengers (Giant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Panther, and Captain America dropping in for a visit) went back in the past to try to save Bucky or at least find out what happened to him, and the Scarlet Centurion caused them to appear for real in that time... messing up the time stream so that he could change the "present" to one where he controlled the original Avengers, and take over. Good times... well written, great art, and the time paradox was NEVER undone until Marvel started changing their own story.

Oh, and welcome to the board! Your day to walk Lockjaw is Tuesdays. Bring LOTS of plastic bags! :)

Thanks for posting that, Brian, but I'm not sure it is the scene |I was thinking of. In the back on my memory, I can see Vance out of  costume and the exchange being far more brief, but I may be misremembering. 

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The difference with what Claremont did is that, as you say, these were alternative versions of characters that only existed in that story (or from that story onwards) and that is not a new device. Truth or Death - thanks for the correction to the title - and the Bendis tales with the original X-Men meeting the current team are different in that these are time travel tales which feature characters from two different times in Marvel's publishing history.

This of course is problematic if we are to accept that their are only six years, or whatever, between the FF getting their powers and the present day. In the Bendis storyline, the X-Men seem to come from the time that these stories were actually published.