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{{trope}}
In [[Superhero|Super Hero]] [[Comic Books]], the [[Status Quo Is God]]. It might not seem like that at first, what with all the [[Killed Off for Real|deaths]], [[Back From the Dead|resurrections]], [[Face Heel Turn|Face Heel Turns]]s, [[Heel Face Turn|Heel Face Turns]]s, and whatnot. It's a rare year -- honestlyyear—honestly, a rare month -- wheremonth—where comic book readers aren't gravely informed that [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]].
 
Yet, take a look at the major characters of [[The DCU]] or the [[Marvel Universe]] today and five or ten years ago. Things will be different, but not ''that'' different, and most of the major changes will seem to have happened recently. The companies that own these characters, like all large corporations, are conservative, and all these dramatic changes have a noticeable tendency to cancel out in the long run. Once a character establishes an iconic status quo, or becomes part of another character's iconic status quo, it can be extremely difficult to change anything major about that character.
 
There is, however, one category of change that's an interesting exception: the "graduation" of [[Sidekick|sidekickssidekick]]s to become independent heroes in their own right, or [[Legacy Character|assume their mentor's mantle]]. Perhaps it is only because this tends to be accompanied by [[Comic Book Time|finally aging the character from a teen to an adult]], and even in the [[Retcon|Ret Con]]-happy world of comics, reversing that without breaking the [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief]] is hard.
 
Still, it also seems that negative fan reaction to these changes is also much, much rarer than with the average change. What little of it there is tends to occur [[Legacy Character|when another character's mantle is taken by the graduating sidekick]], with [[Replacement Scrappy|fans of that character being understandably upset at the displacement]], rather than desire to see the sidekick remain a sidekick. When that sort of thing happens, it's most often remedied by simply having the character graduate ''again'', creating their own hero identity and handing the [[Legacy Character]] baton back to its proper holder.
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** She's a really unique case. Both the confusion and Donna's subsequent promotion stem partially from the fact that Wonder Girl was originally supposed to be [[Wonder Woman]] as a young girl who occasionally interacted with her adult self via [[Time Travel]]. A writer saw the cover for one of these stories and got confused when he was writing the Teen Titans.
* Borderline exception: Stephanie Brown, the Spoiler, "graduated" to replace Tim Drake as Robin. It lasted only a few issues, and she then returned to being the Spoiler... but only for the [[Bat Family Crossover]] that [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|ended with her death]]. ([[He's Just Hiding|She's Just Hiding]], actually). Now she's graduated again to be the current [[Batgirl]]. As of the post-''[[Flashpoint (comics)|Flashpoint]]'' relaunch, Barbara took the mantle of Batgirl back. Stephanie Brown [[Butt Monkey]] of the Bat Family
** Zig-Zaged: while Barbara Gordon shows no signs of abandoning her role as Oracle to become Batgirl again, there is substantial -- thoughsubstantial—though far from universal -- desireuniversal—desire to see that happen. This is likely due to the changeover being connected with her being [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|paralyzed]]. However, there is just as substantial support for Babs to stay as Oracle, as she is a rare example of a handicapped hero whose concept doesn't rely on a [[Disability Superpower]] or on being [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]].
** As for the other major Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, she stepped away and gave the role to Stephanie. She was eventually appointed as the "Batman" of Hong Kong, using the code name "Blackbat".
* An unusual example: [[Moon Knight]] reluctantly took on Midnight--theMidnight—the son of one of his enemies--asenemies—as a sidekick. Eventually Midnight was [[Face Heel Turn|"promoted" to villain status]], after [[We Can Rebuild Him|becoming an evil cyborg]]. This graduation stuck until Moon Knight recently [[Kill Him Already|euthanized his old charge]].
* After ''[[Civil War (Comic Book)|Civil War]]'' Steve Rogers was killed, and was replaced as [[Captain America (comics)]] by [[Bucky Barnes]], his WWII sidekick. You thought Bucky was a [[Dead Sidekick]]? It's a long story... Anyway, when Steve came back, they decided that Bucky should be the one to continue on as Cap, as it's helping his [[Character Development]]. Steve now operates sans codename as a super-agent not unlike [[Nick Fury]].
** Though recently Bucky went back to the Winter Soldier codename after [[Not Quite Dead|supposedly dying]] during [[Fear Itself (Comic Book)|Fear Itself]]. He still operates as a hero, and will be getting his own independent on-going series next year.
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* ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'', just like in the comics, Dick Grayson leaves the mantle of Robin to become Nightwing.
** Barbara Gordon going from Batgirl to [[Batman Beyond|Police Commissioner]] could count too.
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' has one of these pretty early on with Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy [[Rage Quit|Rage Quitting]]ting and later coming back as the new hero, Red Arrow.
** As of season two, Robin is now Nightwing, with Tim Drake taking up the Robin identity.
 
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