Same with the Doctor (from DOCTOR WHO). The First Doctor was very vague about his origins in the first ever episode and even some of the later incarnations didn't reveal everything. Nowadays, we have the "Time War" and all sorts of things handed.

Some great secret agent characters don't have origins, a lot is left to our imagination. THE EQUALIZER was a good example of that. 

I like origins for some characters, but there is something satisfying about not knowing everything about a character. I like the fact that sci-fi and fantasy characters can remain secretive, the less we know, the better.

It's just a shame that everything has to be told now and fans and publishers both appear to want it. It's the same with non-comic stuff. Take my favourite show THE A-TEAM, for example. Years ago, the opening intro was enough ("Four guys escaped from a military prison for a crime they didn't commit and fled to L.A."). And on with the action we went. If that show were being made today, we'd need a five-part origin episode and every detail of their Vietnam exploits revealed.

Oh well, I still have my Showcase books and my Jim Aparo Stranger pin-up. No one better than that on the Phantom Stranger.

I like the novel CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Willy Wonka was rather a mysterious character, we knew little about him. He had the same mystique in the 1971 film version, but then Tim Burton had to show us everything in his version, even getting Christopher Lee in the film. Was Burton a fan? Perhaps, and if so, it was proof that a fan should never be let near a franchise.

What we have now - and I am by no means the first person to say this - is a mindset where fans who wanted everything explained to them are now the ones creating the books.

As a kid, I wanted the Hulk and The Thing to be cured. If I had become a comic writer, I'd have probably done that, hence the reason fans shouldn't be allowed near a particular property. Len Wein's words seem more apt than ever.

Bad omen for the medium, yet another nail in the coffin.