Marvel has been making headlines this week - the plural is important - owing to a massive shake up of their character roster. Established superheroes like Captain America and Thor are having their status quos severely altered, with the former switching from whitebread man-out-of-time Steve Rogers to former Falcon Sam Wilson, and the latter being replaced by a woman who's deemed more "worthy" of wielding magical hammer mjolnir than the blonde-haired Norse hunk we're used to. They're some pretty radical changes, so you can see why the announcements have caused a lot of...intense conversation. Yeah, that's the best way of putting it. What a lot of the people kicking off about the inherited monikers are forgetting, however, is that this happens in comic books literally all the time. Look, we even have a phrase for it: legacy characters. They're much more of a DC thing, as Golden Age heroes passed down their alter egos and costumes to younger generations, but there's a precedent for them in Marvel comics as well. And you know what? Sometimes it works out pretty well. In fact there's plenty of examples of times that superheroes were "replaced" by other characters, and it worked out for the better. If you're a glass half full type, or one of those people who can handle Thor as a frog but not a woman and need convincing otherwise, allow us to indulge you with ten successful superhero replacements. They're a bit like supply teachers, except they manage to remember your name. And can fly.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
