10 Subtle Changes That SAVED Iconic Comic Book Characters

[Music] when it comes to superheroes the devil is in the details there are about a bajillion things that can go wrong when designing a comic book character and it shouldn't really come as a surprise to discover that even some of the most beloved characters didn't come out guns blazing right out of the gate heck if bob kanan had his way batman would have been rocking red long johns and a mechanical pair of wings when he debuted in detective comics number 27. sometimes changing just one or two details no matter how subtle is all it takes to take a character to the next level or just save them from certain doom as always i'm ewen from what culture comics and here are 10 subtle changes that saved iconic comic book characters number 10 discovering philosophy the question steve ditko as revolutionary as he was throughout the silver age was prone to the occasional lapse for every spider-man you had a mr a for every mr a you had the question he was basically mr a but less angry the main problem with ditko's original question series was the same problem that cropped up in certain issues of spider-man and even blue beetle that being that ditko was a sucker for randian objectivist philosophy and if you've ever read a single sentence by rand you'll know why it's almost impossible to get through an issue of that original run without your eyes rolling out of your skull the solution to this was as simple as dc just waiting for cheltenham comics to collapse and superbits characters 20 years later so when the question came to dc comics post-crisis the reigns were handed to writer dennis o'neil an absolute legend of the medium who sadly passed away earlier this year overnight o'neill together with dennis cohen metaphysically killed off the original vic sage and started anew and thus the question became more of a philosophical figure instead of just a paragon of objectivist philosophy also we have a video all about denisova dennis gwen's question so go check that out if you haven't already number nine superman's declining powers post-crisis superman there were many reasons given for rebooting the entire dc universe the first time in crisis on infinite earths for more general goals like streamlining the dc universe as a whole by doing away with the dc multiverse altogether to much more character specific decisions such as the many alterations made to superman's comics superman being akin to santa claus for a lot of kids a mythic figure who can just do anything that he wants him to the man of steel had spent years with that mindset being applied to his power set with him often just making up new powers on the spot because he's superman over time this approach as well as the seemingly unending array of super characters that the publishers beckon call undermined superman's importance and relatability and was in part why crisis came about in the first place with the reboot dc just could everything but his base power set heat vision super strength indestructibility ice breath and flight and reset his mythology to zero to start again although certain elements have returned there's no denying it was an essential change to make to a hero then rapidly losing appeal number eight introducing the parallax fear anomaly green lantern when green lantern was rebooted in the silver age dc changed the power ring from having a mystical source to a sci-fi one being a cosmic embodiment of willpower that just also happened to be weak to the color yellow wait what yeah for decades green lantern was infamous among comics readers for having one of the all-time dumbest weaknesses in the history of the medium now in most cases like this the solution if you want your character to be taken seriously as time goes on would be to just pretend it was never a thing to begin with because they're comics and it is totally okay to do just that instead dc went with a different solution see when they introduced the color spectrum of power rings they also introduced various deities that represented those types of rings most notably parallax and with him came the minor law detail known as the parallax sphere anomaly this is the green lantern mythos's small but effective way of explaining why their power rings don't work on things that are yellow they can under normal circumstances unless the ring bearer is incredibly afraid when that happens the rings have no effect number seven the circular shield captain america the original captain america shield as the movie so helpfully showed was originally well a shield it was angular sort of diamond shaped good for blocking bullets but not a lot else while captain america wasn't necessarily in danger of being cancelled especially after that first issue sold so well joe simon and jack kirby quickly realized that the captain needed something a bit more creative in their arsenal for the sake of excitement if nothing else so they redesigned the shield to be a perfectly circular disc shape as well as simplified the colour scheme to instead be comprised of two red stripes two white stripes and a blue center with a big old white star slap bang in the middle this not only made it more easily recognizable but its disc shape meant that cap could now throw his shield to take down enemies making for more creative and dynamic fight scenes number six leading more into the crazy deadpool the best thing that ever happened to deadpool was rob liefeld being kicked off of riding him sure that goes for a lot of different car but characters but once that happened the deadpool we all know and love began to surface it's difficult to pinpoint a precise moment where this change happened if anything was more of a slow dawning realization on the part of the people writing him throughout the late 90s and early 2000s that a character who can come back from literally anything can be a great vehicle for comedy it is worth noting however that the first occasion where deadpool broke the fourth wall came in joe kelly's run on the character in deadpool number 28. thus the merc with a mouth went from yet another rob liefeld creation obviously ripping off deathstroke to the dark biting satire of superhero comics that everyone loves today what makes watching the change in real time throughout deadpool's early appearances really is how subtle it surprisingly is basically nothing about his backstory and personality change he was already pretty casual about his inability to die and the harm he causes others it's just that the universe around him started treating what was going on as funny instead of with the typical edginess that defined comics in the 1990s number five joined the x-men wolverine wolverine originally debuted in an issue of the hulk as a one-off opponent for the jade giant to face after the issue ended we didn't hear much out of wolverine and why would we he was a bad guy of the month and once the hulk was done with him he'd served his purpose but then came along len wine and dave cockrum with the x-men having laid dormant for several years wine and cockroam decided to reboot the entire team with new and old characters one of which was wolverine who was co-created by wine in the aforementioned hulk comic wolverine's base personality went unchanged but when he was put on a team with characters like cyclops storm kitty pride and jean grey logan's personality and backstory began to flourish the results of this speak for themselves as wolverine is now one of the most famous characters in the entire marvel canon where would he be today without the x-men number four forming the heroes for hire luke cage and iron fist these days the marvel netflix shows have done more than enough to make people love luke cage the less said about what they did to iron fist though the better and iron fist has been kicking around since the 70s but there was a time where these two heroes were about to be scrapped for good iron fist and luke cage were both products of the martial arts and blaxploitation film movements of the 1970s so when martial arts movies and black exploitation cinema started to die out marvel frankly had no idea what to do with either character the solution was devious in its simplicity team the pair of them up very little about the two as characters changed but putting them together in one book turned their look around practically overnight the two characters are alright on their own but together their chemistry is electrifying this one simple change made these two almost forgotten minor heroes into legends of the marvel universe number three ditch the batman comparisons green arrow people joke about green arrow being a knockoff of batman all the time and for good reason that's exactly what he was when he first started out well thankfully when green arrow was folded into the larger dc universe they found the perfect spin on the character to separate him from bruce have him lose his fortune and become a hard travelling lefty in the late 1960s oh and he also grew a really cool van dyke beard which is a pretty important detail too the change came courtesy of denis o'neill yet again only this time with neil adams on the green lantern green arrow comic which cast queen opposite hal jordan a space cop who embodied establishment conservative politics it gave ollie an identity that was all his own the point where the biggest gripe people had with the arrow tv show when it first started out was how it seemed obsessed with being everything that had been holding green arrow back to begin with a rip-off of batman number two admitted that she had a point poison ivy ever since her inception poison ivy was intended to be a superpowered commentary on eco-terrorism someone who took her love for the environment quote unquote too far by escalating it to violence against innocent people or shock horror the poor guiltless oil barons and forest destroying corporations yeah if they didn't make some kind of pivot with her fast ivy would not have lasted long into the 2000s now that we are mere decades some irreversible ecological disaster more and more comics writers have made waves to reform ivy she's now more of an anti-hero than a straight-up bad guy her motivations are still the same but the universe doesn't immediately vilify her as much as it used to like the infamous batman animated series episode where she's somehow the bad guy for turning a woman who ordered the deforestation of a millennial old rainforest for cardboard into a tree while she does still occasionally walk in circles with the villains poison ivy's first and foremost priority has been shifted to the protection of the planet seeing that's come as a relief to readers and fans of ivy especially and number one introducing the red costume daredevil more than any other entry on this list this little change was something that daredevil desperately needed if he was going to survive in the modern day the yellow costume that he debuted in definitely has its charms but it was an odd choice for a character who lifted his namesake from satan himself leave it to artist wally wood to respond who gave the man without fear his now iconic crimson costume in 1965's daredevil number seven the new suit is his now famous solid red skin type bodysuit with two ds emblazoned on the chest and two little red horns in the head it gave matt murdock a more imposing image while still being bright and colourful and while the occasional change has been made here or there wood's template isn't going away anytime soon and that was our list know of any other examples where subtle changes save the character let us know down in the comments below and don't forget to please support the channel by liking the video and subscribing for more so you don't miss another upload going forward that's all for now though keep reading comics keep supporting your local cardboard store while you're at it and i will see you soon bye

Channel: WhatCulture Comics

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Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 14 2020