A lot of the comics getting all the attention in the comics industry feature characters from the past, and they seem to outsell others!
HERE THEY COME AGAIN!
Sometimes I think I’ve been transported back in time when I look at the comics coming our way soon!
Recently I heard about the return of one of my favorite detectives, Dick Tracy! I’m a big fan of the company reviving him, and of Mad Cave Studios, so I’m ready to see how that turns out!
Then, of course, when you factor in all the Disney properties appearing at Dynamite, it feels like I’ve taken the Time Tunnel back into the 1990s or thereabouts! I mean, Hercules, Thundercats, Darkwing Duck, and Justice Ducks, just to name a few. Then you add in the Disney villains like Hades, Cruella De Vil, Malificent, and Scar, well, you have a blast from the past!
Of course, Marvel recently brought back Miracleman (although his comics come out more irregularly). I’m always entertained that he doesn’t use his original name—Marvelman—due to copyright concerns, even when he’s appearing as part of the House of Ideas. And then Rocket Raccoon is a perfect example of someone who faded away, only to return strongly! Good luck trying to buy a comic that he appeared in years before he joined the Guardians of the Galaxy! Even Alpha Flight came back briefly, so I want more of them!
When you look at DC, they have revived the Justice Society of America. I have often loudly wished for their return, and I’m happy they’re back, even though it’s kind of dark for my tastes.
The Archie comics have been bringing back their superheroes like Archie as Pureheart the Powerful or Jughead as Captain Hero. What about new books for them? And that’s not even including the Dark Circle heroes like The Fly, Flygirl, The Shield, and many others. The Jaguar is back, and even though the character is now a woman, I’ll be picking up her title. I did like the original guy, though, and hope we see him in some form.
I find it so interesting that characters can be revived after an interlude where they lie dormant. It seems like they just needed a break before returning to the limelight!
What’s next? Will the Legion of Super-Heroes come back to DC? Will the Justice League actually return? (I’d say a big fat YES to that one!) Could Marvel re-establish the Squadron Supreme?
If I were a comics creating company, I’d be reviewing characters who have been successful in the past, and consider reviving them. Hey, I’d love to see The Owl come back!
I’ve often said that comics characters can’t die… they just take a vacation once in a while.
THIS IS A GOOD THING!
It used to be that the readership of comics turned over every few years. Kids would pick up comics, fall in love with them, then move on when they discovered girls or cars or working for a living. A lot of people have said that this stopped happening a decade or three back, that the people who support the industry have been buying and reading “the books” for years and years now!
That being the case, why not bring back beloved heroes (and even villains, apparently) and give them a cool update so they can return to local comics shops?
Yes, some comics fans have short memories. They ascribe to what I call the “Janet Jackson” theory of buying “the books”—What Have You Done for Me Lately? But some of us can save books and properties that have delighted us in the past, and we even go to comics conventions looking for older comics we’ve lost somehow so we can fill in those gaps in our collections.
Given some of the current offerings on the stands, I don’t blame anyone for harkening back to the stories of the past. Hey, I have hardcovers of stories I love to dive in every so often, particularly when I want to read a good, longer tale.
I mean, I remember the Dick Tracy movie, for goodness sake! It came after the Batman ’66 film, and fans were saying it was going to catapult him to the top of the charts! That didn’t happen, sadly, but I would have been all for it if I had liked the movie!
WHO ELSE SHOULD COME BACK?
This is where my imagination runs wild! Since I’ve been around the comics block a time or two, I hope someone somewhere is thinking about reviving other heroes! Here are a few of my suggestions:
The Phantom: Yes, the white guy in the purple suit who lives in the African jungles. These days, I imagine he would have to be turned into a person of color (there has already been a female Phantom). I always groused about The Wild Thornberries where a young white girl from the U.K. was somehow more in touch with nature than the people who had lived in the jungle for centuries. I’m sure there is a way to make Phantom work today. Oh, and I loved his feature film, too. It didn’t do as well in the U.S. as it did overseas, which doomed any sequels! Rats!
Of course, he could return as a member of the Defenders of the Earth group alongside Mandrake the Magician and others. Could happen! You can still watch their animated show on Prime, after all!
Owlman: No, not The Owl, who I previously mentioned! DC brought him from Earth-3 at one point to Earth-1, so he’s been seen before. Of course, he’s a Batman, just from another universe. I wouldn’t mind seeing those two “Owls” team up, actually!
The Green Llama: He’s an oooooold one, all right, but he could be updated for today’s audiences! Just Google him if you need to know what he’s about!
Granted, I remain strongly in favor of new comics characters! I still believe that there are many, many heroes we could experience that could be as popular as Batman, Spider-Man, or Wolverine! Someone just needs to create that person!
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