Anti-Hero Substitute: Difference between revisions

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Over the course of a long-running series, something happens to the main character. He [[De-Power|loses his powers]], makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], or gets [[Older and Wiser]] and decides to retire. Sometimes they [[Dropped a Bridge on Him]], or [[Put on a Bus|Put Him On A Bus]]. In a word, he's gone. But the story still goes on! [[Legacy Character|His role is taken by a]] [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]], but one with a very different character. He's how the original hero would be if he were a [[Jerkass]], [[Anti-Hero]] or (most commonly) [[Nineties Anti-Hero]]. This guy is often an effect of [[Executive Meddling]], which arises when editors stupidly declare that audience stopped liking the first hero or never liked him at all; so he will be replaced with someone [[Darker and Edgier]]. Of course, most of time they are wrong: the original guy has so many fans that his replacement quickly becomes a [[Replacement Scrappy]].
 
The moment when the creators realize this and decide to push the big [[Reset Button]] is beginning of the hero's return: [[He's Back|first hero is back]], and often has a fight with the [['''Anti-Hero Substitute]]''' for his position. Of course, however contemptuously the [[Anti-Hero]] dubs him "[[Good Is Old-Fashioned|outdated]]", the original hero wins and [[Status Quo Is God|takes the story back to the point right before the new guy took over]]. The [['''Anti-Hero Substitute]]''' becomes forgotten as fast as possible, and the [[Story Arc]] featuring him becomes a [[Dork Age]]. Alternatively, the [['''Anti-Hero Substitute]]''' gets a name change and, now that he's not replacing a much loved character, may be [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap]].
 
This happened a '''lot''' during the [[Dark Age]] of Comics ([[The Nineties]]). Back then, it was common to expect readers to like the character, but writers have gotten smarter since then. Now, the [[Darker and Edgier]] version of the hero is commonly portrayed as a villain or a psychopath, as the [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] archetype has grown less popular over time.
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* In [[The Eighties]], Steve Rogers, the original [[Captain America (comics)]], was replaced by John Walker, a [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] version of himself. When Rogers regained the mantle, Walker continued operating as the U.S. Agent.
** Like ''Knightfall'' this was apparently a deliberate in your face. And the same thing pretty much is going on now with [[Bucky Barnes]] as Captain America. That said, Steve went on record in ''Heroic Age: Superheroes'' that there's not a man out there more fit to wear those colors than James Buchanan Barnes.
*** It should be noted that during Bucky's tenure as Cap, that while he did use his gun and his costume did invoke a [[Darker and Edgier]] angle,<ref>the costume had far more black than the red, white, and blue.</ref>, the main conflict for Bucky was whether or not he could do right by Steve Rogers as Captain America. As such, Bucky would act as best of a hero as he possibly could during that amount of time as Cap.
* In a [[Video Game]] example, the introduction of K' in ''[[The King of Fighters]] '99'', blatant attempt at [[Darker and Edgier]], had a very mixed reception. Unlike most examples however, he received enough [[Character Development]] to [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap|save him]] from [[Replacement Scrappy|the heap,]] and is now a [[Ensemble Darkhorse|fan favourite.]] Then SNK went even ''[[It Got Worse|further]]'' down the line with [[Villain Protagonist]] Ash Crimson in the next arc. The reception was even ''[[Creator's Pet|more]]'' [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|mixed]].
* [[The Mighty Thor]] was replaced by Thunderstrike in [[The Nineties]], who was quite literally just another version of the original.
** This was a bit of a subversion, as Thor was much more willing to kill a dangerous foe than Thunderstrike was. Thunderstrike did, however, look the part. (He came across as a dork when he tried to sound like an anti-hero). Not only that, but Thunderstrike had previously ''been'' Thor himself.
* Most of [[Norman Osborn]]'s Dark Avengers are villains that had their costumes redesigned to look like familiar heroes. He's gone a bit overboard on this front, creating the Dark (now Shadow) X-Men, making the HAMMER organization to replace SHIELD, and forming The Cabal, essentially a copy of the already morally ambiguous Illuminati, as well as his own Initiative with [[The Hood]] and his gang. Osborn is trying to reshape whole Marvel Universe at his image.
** Comparably, Venom could count as a rare villain-to-villain example of this. Eddie Brock, the original Venom was certainly a homicidal maniac, but he eventually was tailored into a [[Nineties Anti-Hero]] of sorts. The third Venom, Mack Gargan (the Scorpion) is eviler than Brock and thus since he pretends to be a hero as part of the Dark Avengers, he's both an [['''Anti-Hero Substitute]]''' for [[Spider-Man]] (who he impersonates) ''and'' Venom. The second Venom (Angelo Fortunato) didn't last long enough to be considered a subsitute. Now that Flash Thompson is Venom, you could argue for it being an odd reverse villain-hero example; Flash is probably more heroic than Eddie at his very best.
* Happened, of all people, to [[The Authority]] once, when they were defeated by G8's agent and replaced with bunch of [[Nineties Anti-Hero|NinetiesAntiHeros]]. For many people Authority are a buch of [[Jerkass|Jerk Asses]] at best and [[Villain Protagonist|Villain Protagonists]]s at worst, but comparing to replacements they looks like frickng saints.
** {{spoiler|Of course, the second the real Authority comes back, they start their revenge by killing in cold blood the}} {{spoiler|''only''}} {{spoiler|redeemable character among the new team: Rush, the Canadian replacement for Swift, who didn't kill anybody they wouldn't have and hated all her teammates. They catch hell for this later.}}
* Happened to ''[[Astro Boy (manga)|Astro Boy]]'' of all people in a one-shot gag manga [[Osamu Tezuka]] did as a nostalgia piece for Bungei Shunju, a popular men's magazine of the day. After Astro's apparent death in the final episode of the first TV series the ministry of science was ordered to create a replacement, but since they tried to make him [[Humans Are Bastards|more humanlike than the original he turned out to be a selfish, greedy, shiftless sex maniac]].
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** Considering the replacement's personality? Definitely, at least, invoked. {{spoiler|And now she's dead. In fact, she may have never been alive...}}
* Keppler, the [[Temporary Substitute]] for ''[[CSI]]'''s Gil Grissom, is a non-comics example.
* In [http://johnnysaturn.com Johnny Saturn], the Johnny Saturn I (John Underhall) retires, and he is soon replaced by Johnny Saturn II (Greg Buchanan). Many of the characters in [http://johnnysaturn.com Johnny Saturn] are ''legacy'' characters.
* After Horatio Hellpop gave up the mantle of [[Nexus]] it was taken by Stan Korivitsky. Sadly, the mission of killing worst murderers was too much for him, and he quickly snapped and turned worse than those he was supposed to kill. That forced Horatio to take back Nexus powers and kill him.
* [[Ghost Rider]] has an odd example. He is already an [[Anti-Hero]] but in the nineties, a character named ''Vengeance'' showed up who was supposed to be a [[Darker and Edgier]] version of a character that was already the epitome of [[Darker and Edgier]]. A new Vengeance has since appeared -- asappeared—as a villain. And the de-powered original Vengeance seems to be a pretty nice guy these days.
** And now Johnny got tricked into passing his power onto new host. [[Word of God]] already confirmed that it's gonna bite him in the butt once he'll realize that new Ghost Rider may have few loose screws and he had just created another [['''Anti-Hero Substitute]]''' for himself.
** Also, considering he's a [[Legacy Character]], it makes sense that he is replaced with a new host every now and then.
* Intentionally done again in the '90s, when the [[Fantastic Four]] were [[Comic Book Death|presumed dead]], and [[Spider-Man]], [[X-Men|Wolverine]], [[The Hulk]], and [[Ghost Rider]] took their places, swearing to avenge the heroes' deaths. Only three of the four were really [[Anti-Hero|Anti Heroes]], but the extremely ill-suited-for-eachother group fought amongst themselves so much and were so bad at emulating the FF's legendary teamwork that Spidey was pretty much ineffectual in getting them to shape up and the whole team made the Fantastic Four's dysfunctional family dynamics look incredibly well-adjusted by comparison.
* Happened to [[The Flash]] with [[Fan Nickname|Dark Flash]] a mysterious characted that turned out to be an alternate universe version of Wally that didn't allow himself to cross the speed threshhold necessary to save Linda Park in a previous story. He wore a darker outfit and was a little more brutal.
* The [[The Adjectival Superhero|Irredeemable]] Ant-Man, Eric O'Grady, is this to the other [[Ant-Man]], Hank Pym .<ref> not without his own problems- see [[Never Live It Down]]</ref>. O'Grady got his costume from stealing one of Pym's, and is an often lecherous, cowardly, and amoral man who nonetheless has some positive traits and often wishes he was a better person.
* [[Iron Man]] did this to himself, in a way. When his suit was damaged, he built the [[War Machine (Comic Book)|War Machine]] armor. Not only did it have the appropriate [[Darker and Edgier]] name but it was loaded with BFG's and was colored [[Good Guys Wear Black|black and gray]]. Stark wore the armor in a few issues, invoking this trope even though it was the same guy in the armor. After that arc, he gave it to Jim Rhodes who is actually a bit nicer than Stark who can be a [[Jerkass]] from time-to-time.
** It should also be noted that Rhodes replaced Tony as Iron Man for a couple of years due to Stark's alcoholism so in a way, it was the inversion of this trope.
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