A really stupid question

[HardyGirl]

OK, I'll admit (and have before) that I know bupkis about superhero comics. I would like to know something. Why do some characters alter egos remain the same while others change? Take Spider-man for instance...he's always been Peter Parker, right? So why are there different Green Lanterns? Different Robins? (please skip the Nightwing thing, I'm confused enough!) Different Batgirls? Why does David Banner have 3 names? (David, Bruce, Robert) Wonder Woman has always been Diana Prince, hasn't she? And Clark Kent is Superman?

It's all very confusing.

[Raydeen1]

Actually, Peter turned out to be a clone so Ben Reilly was Spiderman for a while.

Some answers, and I'll give you the quick and dirty versions.
Robin is easy. The orginal Robin, Dick Grayson, grew up and became Nightwing. Jason Todd became the 2nd Robin. He was killed by the Joker via a fan poll. Tim Drake is the 3rd and current Robin. There is also an Earth2 adult Robin but we won't include him.

Green Lantern is part of the Green Lanterns Corps which ahas numerous members. John Stewart is a fallback GL in case ssomething happens and Hal is not available (I have a story where Hal slips on a bar of soap in the shower and get s knocked out. The ring finds John Stewart and he becomes GL) This was my first introduction the John Stewart. Then there are other GLs like Guy Gardner whom I know very little about. Again, there is an Earth2 version of GL and is Alan Scott.

The original Batgirl is actually Betty Kane and wore a different costume than the Barbara Gordon BG we all know and love. In Batman: The Killing Joke, Joker cripples Barbara by shooting her and she is paralyzed so she gives up being Batgirl. There have been several women who have donned the mantle of Batgirl in recent years. I know little about them.

Superman is still Clark Kent but when he was killed by Doomsday, there were 4 different Supermans running around. I don't know too much about it because I didn't buy into it and had no interest in it.

Batman (Bruce Wayne) has been replaced by other folks several times. Most notably by Azarel when Bane broke Batman's back. The original Robin (Dick Grayson, now Nightwing) later wore the cape and cowl as he should have from the get go.

I'm just as lost as you on Banner/Hulk. I think alot of that is because they changed his name for the TV series becuase the name Bruce had a gay connotation at the time if memory serves. Others may have a better answer for you on this. I was never much of a Hulk fan and never saw the show until I was an adult.

Does this help?

[Captain]

Lots of reasons....but all boil down to essentially the same thing, editorial decisions.

In the case of some, like Green Lantern or the Flash, they were created during the golden age of comics, when super heroes dominated. By the early 50's Cowboys and Horror/Crime comics took over the newstands and superheroes faded away. In the late fifties/early sixties, superheroes came back into fashion. The editors at DC comics (I wont confuse things more by telling you their names...or that DC ran under a different name then) decided to revive their old characters, but instead of just starting up with the original characters again, they decided to revamp them. During the revamp, costumes, alter egos, even powers were changed, and everything started anew. To further confuse things, it was later decided the older characters existed, only on a different Earth from the new one (Earth 1, Earth 2, etc.).

Some characters like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman survived the super hero purge of the fifites, and thus escaped the wrath of a revamp (although it does cause one to think what changes might have been made had they not).

Spidey, and most of the Marvel heroes were created in the sixties, and never had to go through the revamp the DC characters did.....although some were brought back from Marvels (and other publishers) 40's characters...and heavily revamped. (Daredevil, the Vision, The Angel, etc.).

Nowadays, in an attempt to keep or draw in readers, it's become pretty regular to see characters get killed off and replaced, or get new costumes....or get messed with in almost any way fathomable. Again....Editorial decisions!

Hope this helps?

[StrangeVisitor]

The Green Lanterns are like an intergalactic police force with hundreds of members. One (or two, now) are assigned to patrol a sector of space. Hal Jordan was assigned the sector that Earth is in. If he was ever injured there were a couple back-ups who could take over, John Stewart & Guy Gardner.

With some superheroes, the name (like The Phantom or Blue Beetle) is like a legacy being passed from the hero of one generation to the next when an individual gets too old or dies. Sometimes a newer hero takes the name as a tribute.

Wonder Woman is a (sorta) title for the champion/ambassador of the Amazons. A couple of times WW was someone other than Diana. Originally in the WW comics, WW sent the real Diana Prince - whom she resembled - on an extended vacation so she (WW) could take her place in the military. In the current continuity WW never used the name Diana Prince, her real name is Diana.

The Hulk's alter ego in comics was always Robert Bruce Banner, he went by his middle name. When Kenneth Johnson did the 1977- TV series he changed the name to David Banner because he felt "Bruce" was a weak name.

Ben Reilly was briefly Spider-Man. Don't ask.

Mostly is so companies can reinvent their characters every few years for a new audience yet keep the copywritten names that peole are familiar with.

Yep, Clark Kent (aka Kal-El) is still Superman.

[HardyGirl]

But if superheroes are ficticious characters who have endured over time, why would you have to kill them off?

I know I asked for this, but I'm still confused. I guess I'm just not the new superhero type. I guess I'll just stick to stuff in the 60s & 70s.

But thanks for your help, fellas.

[The Toyroom]

The Hulk's alter ego in comics was always Robert Bruce Banner, he went by his middle name. When Kenneth Johnson did the 1977- TV series he changed the name to David Banner because he felt "Bruce" was a weak name.

The Hulk's alter ego started out simply as Bruce Banner. However, even with the alliteration, Stan Lee had a hard time remembering the character's name and he was referred to as Bob Banner occasionally. When the gaffe was discovered, it was decided that Bruce was actually his middle name.

[SUP-Ronin]

I am not much into comicbooks, as the storylines often tick me off. That said, I pretty much pick my favorite time period and stick with that. While I do like the golden age guys pretty well, I tend to roll with the Superfriends and the legion of doom as I loved that cartoon as a kid and still like it. As with some of the star wars stories, you have different authors who take a story and it seems to run in different directions which causes confusion. When they add in alternate earths, and time periods (future or past) it gets pretty confusing. It's the same reason I don't watch shows like Lost or 24. They are decent but if you miss a couple of episodes, you get completely muddled.

[jessica]

At least you know way more than I do, HardyGirl. I'm so unaware. I have to Google 95% of the comic book characters out there.

[The Toyroom]

But if superheroes are ficticious characters who have endured over time, why would you have to kill them off?

Because continuity is a *****...

The problem began when the average comic book reader didn't STOP reading comics after the usual 7 year period. Readers stuck around longer than they were supposed to. As a result, writers and editors needed to constantly bring new things to the table to keep characters fresh...because the readers demanded it.

Take Superman for example...originally the Last Son of Krypton, from 1938 'til 1959. But his cousin Supergirl was revealed to have survived as well. And she was followed by a slew of other Kryptonians. Eventually, it got to be TOO many and the Superman franchise was rebooted in 1986. Once again, he was the sole survivor of Krypton. But by 1988, the Supergirl concept was once again reintroduced to the mythos....but she was never directly related to Superman as the previous version had been. She went through several incarnations and revamps until 2004..at which point a NEW Supergirl was introduced, who was ONCE AGAIN Superman's cousin.

The Robin problem came about because Dick Grayson couldn't stay eight years old forever and have it become believable. Over the years he had been allowed to age, becoming a TEEN Titan and then eventually going off to college. By 1983/84, it was decided to have him retire the Robin ID and assume the more adult Nightwing persona. But the feeling has always been that a Batman without a Robin for too long darkens the character (moreso than usual). So Jason Todd was introduced around the same time that Dick gave up the Robin identity. Jason got the shaft though because soo after, in 1986, his origin was rebooted due to the company-wide reboot called "Crisis on Infinite Earths" (same reason Superman was rebooted above). This Jason was not as likeable as the first incarnation...fans hated him. In a stunt gimmick, Jason was killed off in 1988 by fans who called in to vote whether he should live or die. But as Batman always needs a Robin, Tim Drake was introduced as the third Robin in 1989. Jason however didn't stay dead and resurfaced in 2004.

And so on and so on for other characters....multiple earths, mulitverses, passing of the torch are just a few of the reasons why these things happen.

[johnmiic]

Well that's a complicated question. The simplest answer is some characters change because the publishers felt at some point to take a gamble and re-vamp the characters. They might do that because sales were low, so they re-designed their look and they changed their alter egos as well, or someone new came on board as a writer or artist and they had so much clout they suggested a major change or they felt the characters were old and needed to be modernized. Some characters are never changed, not in major ways, for fear fans will stop reading the books.

Now the complicated answer. Over the years many changes have been introduced into familiar comic book characters. In the case of DC comics some characters were modernized after WWII because their sales dropped. There was a lot of competition with Horror and Crime comics until the publication of the book called Seduction of the Innocent put the rival publisher EC comics pretty much out of business. After that the Comics Code Authority was self-imposed; some changes were made in existing characters. Marvel has made far fewer changes to their charactersm over the years but they nearly replaced Peter Parker as Spider-Man in the 1990's and when they fans reacted by cancelling subscriptions and sales dropped they quiclkly fixed it. You should rent the History Channel Documentary Superheroes Unmasked. It gives a lot of details on why things happened in comics.

[The Toyroom]

Then there are other GLs like Guy Gardner whom I know very little about.

When Abin Sur's ring was looking for a suitable replacement to be Green Lantern, it discovered Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner were both qualified. Hal happened to be closer geographically.

The original Batgirl is actually Betty Kane and wore a different costume than the Barbara Gordon BG we all know and love. In Batman: The Killing Joke, Joker cripples Barbara by shooting her and she is paralyzed so she gives up being Batgirl. There have been several women who have donned the mantle of Batgirl in recent years. I know little about them.

The first Bat-Girl (Betty Kane) was sort of left in limbo originally when the whole Earth-1/Earth-2 thing began. For the most part, her stories take place on Earth-2. But it was later revealed that she existed on Earth-1 as well, becoming a brief member of Teen Titans West. After the Crisis reboot, this version became known as Flamebird.

After Barbara Gordon, the Batgirl mantle was unclaimed for quite a while until Cassandra Cain inherited the title. 2 others (Huntress and Misfit) have filled out this version's costume very briefly.

Superman is still Clark Kent but when he was killed by Doomsday, there were 4 different Supermans running around. I don't know too much about it because I didn't buy into it and had no interest in it.

The 4 Supermen were Steel, The Eradicator, Superboy (a clone) and Cyborg Superman.

[BlackKnight]

I like that Cyborg Superman was Kinda Moved over to one of the Top 5 Green Lantern Villians. That's a great Idea & Great Move. Everything I have read has always been done so well with the character imo.

I did feel the same about Conner too,.... well until they killed him last yr.

[ctc]

>why would you have to kill them off?

Marketing. It started in the 80's when "The Death of Phoenix" became super popular.

>The problem began when the average comic book reader didn't STOP reading comics after the usual 7 year period.

True. (But it used to be 3 years....) You ended up with a slew of older readers who'd read ten years of continuity and you had to do SOMETHING to keep their attention. Problem is, with a perpetual book you can't really change anything. So you'd get death/return/repeat. And after a few years you'd pretty much done every concievable story with any given character; a revamp was neccessary to facilitate changing things a bit. Then the cycle continued.

It started in the 80's and peaked by the late 90's. Nowadays we're dealing with the aftermath; superhero books that are written entirely around big "non-events" and marketing ploys.

Don C.

[Tothiro]

Because ceiling cat was watching them.