Over the last several months I've been involved in some interesting discussion threads where the term "legacy character" was getting tossed around -- and I came to realize that not everybody agreed on just what does or doesn't qualify as a "legacy character" in the first place! There doesn't seem to be one perfect, detailed, generally accepted definition to show us exactly how far the term "legacy character" can be stretched.
As samples of possible areas of disagreement, there are such questions as:
Does the new character have to recycle the old one's colorful alias in order to qualify as a "legacy character"? Or is it enough to wear a variation of the same costume design even if he or she has changed the name? Does it matter if the new character is a family member, or was hand-picked and then trained as a potential successor by the old-timer, just in case? Or can anyone make himself a true "legacy character" by dusting off the alias and/or the costumed "look" of a dead superhero whom the newcomer never even met?
And let's face it -- I haven't even mentioned the complications which can result from time travel, parallel timelines, and spur-of-the-moment retcons! (Wait -- I just did. Oh, well.)
Anyway -- my point is that there is plenty of room for sincere differences of opinion on such tricky matters, and while I may have opinions of my own on how to answer such questions, I find I don't know how the majority of my fellow fans feel about the fine points of how to define the proper meaning of a "legacy character."
Since DC seems to create such characters more often than Marvel, I decided my best bet was to come up with a list of interesting examples of "possible legacy characters" from DC's continuity of the last 70 years or so, and simply ask each of you, my dear readers, to answer a few simple questions about whether or not you think "legacy character" is the right way to describe each situation I summarize. I'll be grateful for any answers I get that help me figure out what the "majority opinion" is among my fellow fans regarding where to draw the line!
Seven Examples, With Questions
1. Dick Grayson become Robin in 1940 -- with a name and a costume which were both radically different from the name and costume of his mentor, Batman. He briefly impersonated Batman a few times in Silver Age and Bronze Age stories without trying to claim that role for his own, became Nightwing on a regular basis around 1984 during "The Judas Contract," became Batman (for a few months' worth of the regular Bat-titles) in "Prodigal" in 1994 (right after Zero Hour), and recently became Batman again (right after "Final Crisis).
QUESTION #1: Is Dick a legacy character? If so, when did he become one?
2. Barry Allen became The Flash in 1956. It was established (years later!) that he had read about a previous Flash, Jay Garrick, in comic books Barry used to buy as a kid, but had never believed the guy really existed. After all, there had never been a "real Flash" on Barry's native Earth-One until he claimed the role for himself; so he thought he was "starting something new" instead of just "repeating a legacy." Only as a grown man did he later discover the existence of Earth-Two and its own Flash within the Multiverse.
QUESTION #2: Was Barry Allen a legacy character when he debuted, even though he lived in a world where he was the Very First User of the Heroic Alias "Flash," instead of being seen as "continuing another guy's legacy" from Day One? Fans might have remembered a previous Flash, but did their opinion matter more than Barry's regarding what he was doing?
FOLLOW-UP QUESTION (call it #2-A): If Barry was not a legacy character in 1956, did he become one after COIE, when large chunks of Earth-One and Earth-Two continuity were shoehorned together into one timeline -- that of the Post-COIE DCU -- so that now we were retroactively assured that when Barry first became The Flash, everybody and his brother in that world had seen Barry as continuing the legacy of Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash of the original JSA lineup?
3. Kara Zor-El debuted as Supergirl in 1959. Unlike Dick Grayson, she used a name and a costume which were both clearly modeled on, although not identical to, those of an established superhero (Superman, of course). Unlike Dick Grayson, she was never depicted in later stories as likely to become Kal-El's successor in his chosen role someday -- Dick might someday grow up to be Batman, but a teenage girl was not likely to grow up to be a man. Also unlike Dick Grayson, she was a blood relative of the older hero who became her mentor -- they were first cousins.
QUESTION #3: Was the Earth-One Supergirl a legacy character?
4. Helena Wayne of Earth-Two debuted as The Huntress in the 1970s. Like Kara Zor-El, she never was expected to replace the male hero from whom she was derived, but unlike Kara, she was that hero's own child instead of being a more distant relative or an "orphaned ward" such as Dick Grayson.
QUESTION #4: Was Helena Wayne a legacy character, perhaps because of her pedigree as a famous hero's daughter who was continuing a proud family tradition, or for any other reason?
5. Around the time "The New Teen Titans" title launched in 1980, Garfield Logan -- the former "Beast Boy" -- changed his heroic alias to "Changeling." Various other characters in DC's history had previously used "Changeling" or "The Changeling" as their own aliases, but they were all so obscure that Gar Logan probably didn't know that when he chose to use the name. (As recently as a couple of years ago I had never heard of any of the previous users of that alias at DC, and I've read an awful lot of comic books!) As you might guess, at least some of the previous users could change their shapes, although I have not heard that any of them were green all the time, all over, in any shape they chose, and I have not heard that any of them wore costumes similar to what Gar wore in the 70s and 80s.
QUESTION #5: So if Gar Logan never made any effort to suggest he was "continuing a legacy" of previous shape-shifting Changelings, and DC never made any effort to advertise him as a successor to another Changeling -- did Gar somehow become a legacy character when he recycled a colorful alias which others had already used, even if in-continuity he didn't seem to realize they had done so?
6. In 1985, during "Crisis on Infinite Earths," Japanese astronomer Kimiyo Hoshi -- originally "Kimiko" but she changed her name later, so I'll stick with the later version -- suddenly received super-powers and began calling herself "Doctor Light" while wearing a costume virtually identical to that of the supervillain Arthur Light who has used the same name of "Doctor Light" in his criminal endeavors. Unless I'm missing something, when she took on her superhero identity Kimiyo had never met Arthur Light, had no family ties to him, never taken any great interest in any news reports she saw about his activities as a villain (solo and later with the Fearsome Five), and had no intention of "following in his footsteps as a villain" as a tribute to him -- but unlike the situation with Gar Logan and the earlier Changelings, Kimiyo must have realized her predecessor existed, since for some reason she ended up swiping his alias and his costumed look, and keeping them!
QUESTION #6: Is Kimiyo Hoshi a legacy character?
7. In the Pre-COIE continuity, Lyta Trevor (The Fury in the "Infinity Inc." title) was the daughter of the Golden Age versions of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. But when her parents were erased from the history of the Post-COIE DCU's mainstream timeline, Lyta desperately needed a new family tree in a hurry! When Roy Thomas began writing the "Young All-Stars" title, set in the Post-COIE version of World War II, he created a new "The Fury" whose real name was Helena Kosmatos, and whose powers (and alias) would eventually be inherited by her daughter. So Lyta came first by several years in terms of publishing history, but Helena was retconned as having been "The Fury" decades before Lyta was even born!
QUESTION #7: In the Post-COIE continuity, was Lyta a legacy character because she was following in her mother's footsteps as "The Fury" in terms of the revised "internal chronology," or was Helena a legacy character because from the fannish point of view, judging by real-world chronology, Helena was the one who was based on Lyta, or what?
BONUS QUESTION: After reading all of the above, do you have any further thoughts you want to share with us on the general topic of "Just what IS the right definition of 'legacy character'?"
As samples of possible areas of disagreement, there are such questions as:
Does the new character have to recycle the old one's colorful alias in order to qualify as a "legacy character"? Or is it enough to wear a variation of the same costume design even if he or she has changed the name? Does it matter if the new character is a family member, or was hand-picked and then trained as a potential successor by the old-timer, just in case? Or can anyone make himself a true "legacy character" by dusting off the alias and/or the costumed "look" of a dead superhero whom the newcomer never even met?
And let's face it -- I haven't even mentioned the complications which can result from time travel, parallel timelines, and spur-of-the-moment retcons! (Wait -- I just did. Oh, well.)
Anyway -- my point is that there is plenty of room for sincere differences of opinion on such tricky matters, and while I may have opinions of my own on how to answer such questions, I find I don't know how the majority of my fellow fans feel about the fine points of how to define the proper meaning of a "legacy character."
Since DC seems to create such characters more often than Marvel, I decided my best bet was to come up with a list of interesting examples of "possible legacy characters" from DC's continuity of the last 70 years or so, and simply ask each of you, my dear readers, to answer a few simple questions about whether or not you think "legacy character" is the right way to describe each situation I summarize. I'll be grateful for any answers I get that help me figure out what the "majority opinion" is among my fellow fans regarding where to draw the line!
Seven Examples, With Questions
1. Dick Grayson become Robin in 1940 -- with a name and a costume which were both radically different from the name and costume of his mentor, Batman. He briefly impersonated Batman a few times in Silver Age and Bronze Age stories without trying to claim that role for his own, became Nightwing on a regular basis around 1984 during "The Judas Contract," became Batman (for a few months' worth of the regular Bat-titles) in "Prodigal" in 1994 (right after Zero Hour), and recently became Batman again (right after "Final Crisis).
QUESTION #1: Is Dick a legacy character? If so, when did he become one?
2. Barry Allen became The Flash in 1956. It was established (years later!) that he had read about a previous Flash, Jay Garrick, in comic books Barry used to buy as a kid, but had never believed the guy really existed. After all, there had never been a "real Flash" on Barry's native Earth-One until he claimed the role for himself; so he thought he was "starting something new" instead of just "repeating a legacy." Only as a grown man did he later discover the existence of Earth-Two and its own Flash within the Multiverse.
QUESTION #2: Was Barry Allen a legacy character when he debuted, even though he lived in a world where he was the Very First User of the Heroic Alias "Flash," instead of being seen as "continuing another guy's legacy" from Day One? Fans might have remembered a previous Flash, but did their opinion matter more than Barry's regarding what he was doing?
FOLLOW-UP QUESTION (call it #2-A): If Barry was not a legacy character in 1956, did he become one after COIE, when large chunks of Earth-One and Earth-Two continuity were shoehorned together into one timeline -- that of the Post-COIE DCU -- so that now we were retroactively assured that when Barry first became The Flash, everybody and his brother in that world had seen Barry as continuing the legacy of Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash of the original JSA lineup?
3. Kara Zor-El debuted as Supergirl in 1959. Unlike Dick Grayson, she used a name and a costume which were both clearly modeled on, although not identical to, those of an established superhero (Superman, of course). Unlike Dick Grayson, she was never depicted in later stories as likely to become Kal-El's successor in his chosen role someday -- Dick might someday grow up to be Batman, but a teenage girl was not likely to grow up to be a man. Also unlike Dick Grayson, she was a blood relative of the older hero who became her mentor -- they were first cousins.
QUESTION #3: Was the Earth-One Supergirl a legacy character?
4. Helena Wayne of Earth-Two debuted as The Huntress in the 1970s. Like Kara Zor-El, she never was expected to replace the male hero from whom she was derived, but unlike Kara, she was that hero's own child instead of being a more distant relative or an "orphaned ward" such as Dick Grayson.
QUESTION #4: Was Helena Wayne a legacy character, perhaps because of her pedigree as a famous hero's daughter who was continuing a proud family tradition, or for any other reason?
5. Around the time "The New Teen Titans" title launched in 1980, Garfield Logan -- the former "Beast Boy" -- changed his heroic alias to "Changeling." Various other characters in DC's history had previously used "Changeling" or "The Changeling" as their own aliases, but they were all so obscure that Gar Logan probably didn't know that when he chose to use the name. (As recently as a couple of years ago I had never heard of any of the previous users of that alias at DC, and I've read an awful lot of comic books!) As you might guess, at least some of the previous users could change their shapes, although I have not heard that any of them were green all the time, all over, in any shape they chose, and I have not heard that any of them wore costumes similar to what Gar wore in the 70s and 80s.
QUESTION #5: So if Gar Logan never made any effort to suggest he was "continuing a legacy" of previous shape-shifting Changelings, and DC never made any effort to advertise him as a successor to another Changeling -- did Gar somehow become a legacy character when he recycled a colorful alias which others had already used, even if in-continuity he didn't seem to realize they had done so?
6. In 1985, during "Crisis on Infinite Earths," Japanese astronomer Kimiyo Hoshi -- originally "Kimiko" but she changed her name later, so I'll stick with the later version -- suddenly received super-powers and began calling herself "Doctor Light" while wearing a costume virtually identical to that of the supervillain Arthur Light who has used the same name of "Doctor Light" in his criminal endeavors. Unless I'm missing something, when she took on her superhero identity Kimiyo had never met Arthur Light, had no family ties to him, never taken any great interest in any news reports she saw about his activities as a villain (solo and later with the Fearsome Five), and had no intention of "following in his footsteps as a villain" as a tribute to him -- but unlike the situation with Gar Logan and the earlier Changelings, Kimiyo must have realized her predecessor existed, since for some reason she ended up swiping his alias and his costumed look, and keeping them!
QUESTION #6: Is Kimiyo Hoshi a legacy character?
7. In the Pre-COIE continuity, Lyta Trevor (The Fury in the "Infinity Inc." title) was the daughter of the Golden Age versions of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. But when her parents were erased from the history of the Post-COIE DCU's mainstream timeline, Lyta desperately needed a new family tree in a hurry! When Roy Thomas began writing the "Young All-Stars" title, set in the Post-COIE version of World War II, he created a new "The Fury" whose real name was Helena Kosmatos, and whose powers (and alias) would eventually be inherited by her daughter. So Lyta came first by several years in terms of publishing history, but Helena was retconned as having been "The Fury" decades before Lyta was even born!
QUESTION #7: In the Post-COIE continuity, was Lyta a legacy character because she was following in her mother's footsteps as "The Fury" in terms of the revised "internal chronology," or was Helena a legacy character because from the fannish point of view, judging by real-world chronology, Helena was the one who was based on Lyta, or what?
BONUS QUESTION: After reading all of the above, do you have any further thoughts you want to share with us on the general topic of "Just what IS the right definition of 'legacy character'?"
