I feel sheepish like Hawkeye when Iron Man first sponsored him for the Avengers, in a story, I hasten to say, I know only from reprints. I'll try to be worthy of the assemblage.
First off, I want to thank Greg for inviting me, and especially anyone who really wanted to blackball my candidacy but refrained. Back home I talk about the irony of being invited to join a group I often thought of trying to wheedle my way into anyway.
Topic A in my mind, after the discussion last week, is "revamps" (and reboots), especially what we might call their secret history, though what I really mean by that is "revamps from before we thought of them as such." Downblog we identified the DC Silver Age, starting with Showcase #4, as the ur-revamp, the revamp of which all others are but shadows. And co-blogger Ralf added the first Silver Age Marvel appearance of Captain America to the list. ("All those other Cap stories from the past twenty years? Yeah, they never happened.")
So I'm wondering, what other revamp/reboots predate the acknowledged instigator of the last two decades' restarts, Crisis on Infinite Earths? Does lifting up the name "Ghost Rider" and swapping out the Old West vigilante underneath for a Satanic motorcycle dude count? Does the Silver Age Daredevil count as a revamp if nobody remembered or cared about the Golden-Age version?
Revamp candidates:
During the Tales of Suspense days, Marvel did a whole run of Captain America stories set in WWII. They later resumed present-day adventures.
Wonder Woman losing her powers and then gaining them back.
The Don McGregor-Rich Buckler-Bill Graham Black Panther from Jungle Action (major tone shift from BP's previous appearances), and then, the Kirby series that followed it and had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Speaking of Late Marvel Kirby, didn't his late-70s Cap work pretty much pretend the Englehart-Buscema Secret Empire and Nomad etc. arcs never happened?
I'm much less familiar with Bronze Age and Silver Age DC than Marvel, so I may be missing some candidates there. (Even before Dark Knight Returns, it seems like the transition from pop-art Batman to O'Neil-Adams (and Aparo, and Giordano) Batman counts.
Reboot candidates?
Much harder to find any, beyond Cap and Julie Schwartz. Probably because Roy Thomas wouldn't hear of it.
Posted by Jim at June 21, 2005 9:12 PM
