10 Comic Book Heroes Who Were Secretly Replaced

As we all know, crime-fighting can be a tough gig. For one thing you have to fight criminals. It's in the name. I'm so passive I won't even ask a stranger for directions.

Not to mention the costumes (oh lord, the costumes). You have the choice of skin-tight spandex that probably provides absolutely no support. Or, you can wear a metric ton of computerized body armor that probably requires constant software updates. Seriously, how many times do you think Tony Stark has to hit the restart on that Iron Man suit?

It's a thankless job. Spider-Man is the pariah of New York City thanks to muckraking J. Jonah Jamison. Wolverine has to deal with constant romantic anguish and frequent bouts of memory loss. Superman has the world on his shoulders most days, and Batman, well… You know what? Batman has it pretty good. The dude's a billionaire, and he can quit the superhero thing at any time.

But with all those hardships, it's no wonder that superheroes need a break sometimes. When they do go on sabbatical - or die, no one bats a thousand, right? - it leaves quite a void in the world. That's why the following is a list of people who secretly replaced our favorite superheroes.

Daken wasn't born in the best of circumstances. He was the son of a woman named Itsu, who happened to be the Japanese lover of that silver-clawed minx James Howlett, better known as Wolverine. Unfortunately, for Daken, his mother was murdered by the Winter Soldier while he was still in the womb. Owing to the healing factor he inherited from his father, Daken survived the encounter. That's one of the few things Daken and his father have in common, though. Well, that and the Wolverine moniker.

Shortly after the Skrull Invasion came to an end, Norman Osborn decided to create an alternate version of the Avengers. Known as the Dark Avengers, Osborn tapped Daken to step into his father's role as Wolverine. Daken agreed and donned the tan and brown suit, and became an even grumpier version of Wolverine.

He tried and failed to kill Spider-Man. He did, however, destroy the Punisher, Frank Castle, by cutting Castle up into hundreds of tiny pieces. Don't worry because Castle's body was collected by the Man-Thing and sewn back together into a creature known as Franken Castle. The Punisher eventually tracked down Daken looking for revenge. After the two got into a brawl in a bar, Castle shoved a phosphorus grenade into Daken's chest.

After that, Daken took a break for a while. Wouldn't you?