This past July, Marvel announced that they’ll be launching “Avengers NOW” in the fall, another revamp of their comic book universe. More dramatically, Marvel has unveiled key details of this initiative, including the reveal of Thor becoming a woman (but not Lady Thor), Sam Wilson upgrading from Falcon to Captain America, and Iron Man donning a new suit in a series titled “Superior Iron Man.” It’s a continued, largely successful effort on Marvel’s end to inject new life into their comics since Marvel NOW!, but as you’d expect the major character transformations are met with both praise and abject hate, cheering and cries of political correctness gone wrong. Personally, I’m a big fan of new stories and Marvel taking chances with their characters. Don’t buy it? Here’s a whole bunch of suggested reading from the past where Marvel dramatically changed established heroes along with the end result:
Uncanny X-Men Refresh The Entire Team
Imagine you hear the following in 2014:
“This fall, with issue #94 of Uncanny X-Men, Marvel is going to transform the X-Men as you know them! The original team of 14 years, the team you’ve grown with and have learned to love will be completely replaced from the bottom up! Get ready for the ALL-NEW Uncanny X-Men, a team composed of new mutants from around the globe, each from a different country and background!”
There are plenty of people who would write this off as a PR stunt. It’s an enormous overhaul of the X-Men property. Of course, with hindsight, we know that 1975’s Giant Size Uncanny X-Men #1 from Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum was the defining moment in X-Men history, transitioning an also-ran comic book title (X-Men was so in the gutters it was publishing reprints of earlier issues prior to the relaunch) to Marvel’s flagship property and the first Marvel movie of the 2000’s (not counting Blade).
This requires very little defending 40 years later, but the infusion of diverse new characters into X-Men was perfect for the title, exponentially compounding the team’s status as societal outcasts simply for being different. Colossus the Russian farmhand, Wolverine the Canadian secret agent, Sunfire the Japanese hotrod, Nightcrawler the German misfit, Banshee the Irish old-timer, Storm the African goddess, and John Proudstar the, err, proud Native American. So many of those characters would go on to become all-time greats in the Marvel Universe, and that never could have happened if X-Men had stayed rooted in place as a school for really white teens.
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How Long Did It Last?
Forever! Nearly 40 years now.
Read Uncanny X-Men on Marvel Unlimited
Final CBH Score: 5 out of 5
This is about as perfect a team overhaul as you’ll ever see. The Avengers change rosters more frequently than Lou Pinella, and they’ve never come close to the kind of momentous success this revamp led to for the Uncanny X-Men.
Thor Gets Turned Into a Frog
You think it’s weird that Thor’s going to be a woman? That pales in comparison to the lengthy period of 1986 he spent as a frog. Right. A Frog. As in an amphibian that you should never, ever compare, say, your wife to. Doesn’t end well. Not that I’d know from experience… hang on… ok, I think that’s the last shoe she had to throw.
The subsequent developments in Thor made for some of the most imaginative, fascinating, wonderful comics of Walter Simonson’s iconic run on the son of Asgard. End of the day, Frog Thor turns a seemingly disastrous joke into an epic Thor story, showcasing there’s much more to the Worthy than a long set of golden locks and biceps.
How Long Did It Last?
The end of Thor #363 through Thor #366. This might not sound like a particularly long time, but that’s nearly 4 months in a regular comic book publication schedule, and a whopping 69 pages in my all time favorite Thor Omnibus collection!
Read Frog Thor on Marvel Unlimited
Final CBH Score: 5 out of 5
In the hands of Walter Simonson, the all-time great Thor story-teller, even Frog Thor was funny, sweet, and epic.
An All-New Captain America!
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Mark Gruenwald spent what may well have been a quarter-milennia writing Captain America, but his most memorable storyline (to my mind) is “The Captain.” Gruenwald observed 1980’s America and found many of its principles and governmental edicts out of line with the values of Steve Rogers, Captain America. When Steve’s government asked him to serve as a government agent, beholden only to their views and ethics, Steve had to make the hardest choice of his life and walk away from the red, white, and blue, and more importantly for the Marvel Universe, the shield!
As a result, the U.S. government needs to find a replacement Captain America, and that’s exactly what they craft with John Walker, would-be superhero, and his fighting partner, the new, living Bucky!
In one of the most audacious moves in Marvel comics of the time, Gruenwald then spends three issues without so much as a panel showing Steve Rogers, instead focusing entirely on this new Captain America. It’s a bold choice, makes for some absolutely captivating comics about an inexperienced and ultimately inadequate Captain America, and it made fans furious! Seriously, check out the fan letters from the time and look how closely they mirror outrage over female Thor, or the developments of Superior Spider-Man.
How Long Did It Last?
Captain America #332 – #350. Considering most Marvel arcs are somewhere between 4-6 issues, this 18 issue refresh is an absolute mammoth.
Read Captain America: The Captain on Marvel Unlimited!
CBH Final Score: 4.0 out of 5
As I wrote when I nominated The Captain among the best Captain America comics on Marvel Unlimited:
“No Captain America story from this 30 year period impressed me as much as Gruenwald’s “Captain America No More” arc. Nothing really comes close.
It’s stunning how much this 18 issue story arc (18 issues!) predates some of the biggest moments in Marvel Comics of the last 10 years. The makings of Civil War and the Superior Spider-Man are all right here, and done fantastically well.”
The story sags under its own ambitious weight for portions of the middle (the Serpent Society takes a major role here; not a coincidence) but the vision and scope of this bold play are among Cap’s all-time great comics.
The Clone Saga Gives Change a Bad Name
Here’s the elephant in the room regarding big, major, CAN’T BE CONTAINED TO LOWER CASE! character changes: The Spider-Man Clone Saga. The Clone Saga is so irksome it has to be number one on the all-time list of comics readers swear made them swear off comics. The series is a running punchline for comic book mistakes, often attributed to Marvel going bankrupt in the late 90’s, and ultimate a great lesson on the types of hero transformations that tend to do well in the comics.
The lesson is essentially this: Replacing an established, beloved Marvel character with a new version of themselves is tremendously off-putting, disappointing, and in many cases infuriating. Whether this is the revelation that Spider-Man has been a clone of the real Peter Parker all these years, or Magneto roaming the earth as the all-new Joseph (which, what?), this type of character overhaul is almost uniformly derided. Character development is ok, but replacing Spider-Man with Ben Reilly and calling him “the real Spider-Man.” That’s a bit more to take in.
How Long Did It Last?
Amazing Spider-Man #394 – #418, plus a boatload of tie-in Spider-Man series. Amazingly this saga spanned the years 1994 to 1996.
Read the Clone Saga on Marvel Unlimited!
CBH Final Score: 2.0 out of 5
To be honest, I’m much too scared to fully devote myself to the entire clone saga. It kind of sounds like deciding to smash my toes with a hammer for three weeks. Nonetheless, I give the Clone Saga a two out of five, rather than a one, simply because its insane ambition has led to some great future stories, such as the Scarlet Spider, The Ultimate Spider-Man Clone Saga, and even Spider-Island.
Captain America The Winter Soldier Revelations
In 2004, if you had asked for a list of characters Marvel would never, ever bring back from the dead, the short list likely would have been Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, and Bucky Barnes, in some order. Then Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting started their instant-classic run on Cap, and within a year it was revealed that not only was Bucky alive, but that he had been transformed into the murderous Russian human weapon, the Winter Soldier.
As most people know now, you can go ahead and complain about this change, but Marvel is going to have a pretty hard time hearing you over the sound of all those Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier cash registers clanging. Brubaker and Epting did such a great job on their noir-spy Cap that the Winter Soldier quickly became a fan favorite, to the point that Bucky actually became Captain America in another example of a new face wielding the shield.
How Long Did It Last?
2004 – Present. You can find Bucky nowadays running around being mysteriously violent in Original Sin, or in his own solo series: The Winter Soldier.
Read The Winter Soldier on Marvel Unlimited!
Final CBH Score: 5 out of 5
There’s nothing about The Winter Soldier that didn’t work, from the greatest Captain America comics I’ve read to Bucky’s stint as Cap rivaling the excellence of Dick Grayson wearing the cape and cowl. It’s an all time great series of character transformations, forever immortalized now in cinema.
Loki Is… Well… Totally a Woman
The initial outrage over a female Thor is particularly strange when you consider that during John Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel’s relaunch of Thor, Loki came back from Ragnarok as a woman. And let’s not even beat around the bush here, Loki is attractive. Between this and Tom Hiddleston, I’ve developed some seriously confusing feelings about Loki over the years.
Loki’s new form took surprisingly little getting used to (sweet horn crown still in place? Alright, we’re good here) and offers some excellent evidence that this type of transformation can be done without losing the character’s appeal. For example, in her new form, Loki manages to slither into Norman Osborne’s Dark Reign Cabal and set the events in motion that would become the great Siege of Asgard. Same old Loki, different hips.
How Long Did It Last?
Thor #5 – Siege, or the equivalent of some three years.
CBH Final Score: 4.5 out of 5
Loki is just as sinister and untrustworthy as she always was throughout this excellent 17 issue Thor run from Straczynski and Coipel. The only disappointment is how suddenly and effortlessly Loki changes form again.
The Punisher Becomes Frankenstein
One of the best series to come out of Marvel’s Dark Reign was Rick Remender and Tan Eng Huat’s Punisher. Through ten issues, Remender and Huat put Frank Castle through an absolute grinder, pitting him first against the all-powerful Sentry and then the criminal overlord The Hood as Frank attempted to put a bullet in Norman Osborne. Frank’s Pyrrhic victory at the end of issue ten (he set fire to essentially everything and one he’s ever loved) wasn’t enough of a low blow; nope Osborne then sent the Dark Avengers after Frank in Dark Reign: The List – Punisher, and Daken finally did the unthinkable, chopping Frank into bite-sized pieces.
Enter Frankencastle. Comic book deaths can be something of a running gag, with most every hero having died and come back at some point, so to Rick Remender’s credit he avoided the hollow waiting game altogether. Instead, Frank was immediately “saved” by the Legion of Monsters and recreated as Frankencastle. The monster of a man suddenly became a man of a monster… you know what I’m not even entirely sure. Maybe the Muppets know:
How Long Did It Last?
Punisher #11 – Frankencastle #21. Frank was Frankencastle for approximately a year, fighting alongside and against the legion of Monsters.
Read Frankencastle on Marvel Unlimited!
CBH Final Score: 3.0 out of 5
I was never really able to get that invested in the Punisher as Frankencastle. Those Dark Reign issues are so strong that to me the entire Frankencastle experiment is really just a stopgap until the superior Punisher: In the Blood miniseries that concluded Remender’s run on the character. I don’t fault the ambition in the character transformation, largely because it makes for a strangely plausible (in Marvel logic) way to kill Frank but avoid actually having him die.
The Superior Spider-Man Exerts Great Power
Likely the greatest and most directly comparable example of a character transformation that absolutely infuriated legions of comic book fans. In Amazing Spider-Man #700, long-time Spidey writer Dan Slott did the unthinkable: he killed Peter Parker, replacing Peter’s consciousness with that of his arch nemesis Dr. Octopus. It was Doc Ock’s final gambit to escape his own dying body, and his ultimate final victory over his long-time enemy. Unfortunately for Ock (and fortunately for readers), inhabiting Peter’s mind meant inheriting his memories and motivations. Suddenly Otto Octavius was carrying on the legacy of the heroic Spider-Man, with one difference: Otto Octavius is superior.
Replacing Marvel’s number one all-time superhero (don’t even come at me with that Wolverine talk) with one of his greatest enemies is a huge character revamp and had plenty of reader’s questioning their allegiance to comics. Admittedly, on the surface it does sound like some crazy PR intended more to sell comics than to tell a good story. And then a funny thing happened: Superior Spider-Man delivered the best 31 issues of Spider-Man comics in a decade.
Spider-Ock is unintentionally hilarious, dropping antiquated “dolts” like an old-timey villain despite himself, and let’s face it, he’s fascinatingly superior. As Peter Parker, Dr. Octopus receives a graduate degree, founds Peter’s first start-up scientific think tank, and cultivates a meaningful and tender relationship with almost none of the usual Peter / MJ histrionics. Does he also make questionable ethical choices and run afoul of the Avengers? Of course, this is Dr. Octopus we’re talking about! Nonetheless, the Superior Spider-Man is the perfect example of what happens when these types of character reformations are done well. It’s actually melancholy to see the status quo return.
How Long Did It Last?
31 issues, or approximately one and a half years.
Read Superior Spider-Man on Marvel Unlimited!
CBH Final Score: 4.5 out of 5
I’m obviously a fan of the series, but this whole run just feels so intelligent. Overturning an established character is an ambitious editorial decision, but Superior Spider-Man consistently references the old, while applying the new. Peter Parker is “dead” in these pages, and there’s a new Spider in town, but this series truly continues the now 50 year legacy of Spider-Man in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible. Here’s to hoping the new Thor and Captain America can do the same.
What do you think? Any major character transformations that I missed? Any examples of editorial changes like these gone horribly wrong? Think the Thor and Captain America announcements are great/terrible? Do what feels right to you in the comments!
Magneto roaming the earth as the all-new JOESEPH
Can’t they just retcon the ending of Morisson’s New X-men so that it was Joseph all along and not Xorn?
Awesome article!!
Thanks, glad you liked it!