Case in point:
Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) and Spider-woman (Julia Carpenter), as drawn by Jim Calafiori.
Speaking of Spider-woman, in a post in which I referred to the Jessica Drew version of Spider-woman, I misquoted the Great Spider-man Paradox. By the way, both Spider-women exist at the same time on the same Earth with no trouble at all and there is/was even a third Spider-woman in the Marvel U – hint, hint, DC? Cough...Blue Beetle...cough...
Anyway, I went through an old file (really a big collection of pieces of paper) and discovered the Hypothesis’ original formulation. For one thing, it’s not called the Great Spider-man Paradox, but rather The Great Spider-Hawk Exception. There are extra hawk bits that I omitted.
Here is The Great Spider-Hawk Exception:
Spider-man is a great (some say iconic) spider-themed character. Hawkman is a great (some say iconic) hawk-themed character. Once a great themed character exists, it is nearly impossible to create a similarly themed character (whether related or unrelated to the original great themed character) that works at even a minimum level. However, the vast majority of spider-themed and hawk-themed superheroes (of just about every comic book universe) work exceedingly well.
Until next time, make mine multiple heroes with the same name!
"Until next time, make mine multiple heroes with the same name!"
ReplyDeleteI certainly have no problem with that. While I'm not a huge fan of Jaime (having him replace Ted Kord biased me against him), if multiple Blue Beetles means having Ted back, then I don't mind Jaime at all. I mean, it looks like he'll be Ted's replacement in the new JLI series, and that's just wrong.
Just like I think there can be two Batgirls: Cassandra AND Stephanie. I like both, even though they are very different. They worked together when they were Batgirl and Spoiler, I think, so why can't they work together as Batgirls? Here's one instance where I wish DC would copy Marvel.
The only thing I'm not entirely sure about is the multiples Flashes. I'm still waiting for Geoff Johns to sort the details out. Like, how do we refer to Wally and Barry when they're in the same room? Flash I and Flash II? Though, I wouldn't want Wally to take another name...
Crossovers. Hal Jordan and Jean Grey. It has to happen. It has to HAVE happened!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late reply. I have new working hours and it's kicking my behind (energy-wise...need to recharge)
ReplyDeleteYou know, there are/were up to FOUR Spider-women in one story and THREE in regular continuity.
I've kind of played with the idea of multiple heroes with the same name, especially one superpowered and one not (yet having the same or extremely similar costumes).
Sea, that would be enjoyable from a "seeing her pop his walnut-sized mind like...a walnut, I guess"...There would be running pool on when (not if) the popping would happen.