Characterization Marches On/Comic Books: Difference between revisions

 

* Gwen Stacy from ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]'' was much different initially than later portrayed. Her characterization changes are quite startling when you consider it, from a college-aged [[Alpha Bitch]] to [[Betty and Veronica|the Veronica and then the Betty]] in the ongoing [[Love Triangle]] before winding up Spider-Man's [[Purity Sue|very sweet girlfriend]], and then, well, [[I Let Gwen Stacy Die|you know...]]

** Aunt May is another example. In the beginning, she was a sweet, extremely old and extremely frail old lady but, er, [[Cloudcuckoolander|somewhat senile and detached from reality]]. That she allowed herself to be charmed by Doctor Octopus and unshakingly saw Mary Jane Watson as a suitable partner and future wife for Peter was portrayed as evidence for this. Then in the late 1970s she became more involved in the real world, e. g. joining the Gray Panthers, a bypass operation removed her recurrent health problems, and by all appearances she actually became younger. During Roger Stern's run her reasons for continuing matchmaking also was revealed as much more canny than previously imagined; she commented to Peter that he and MJ had more in common than he knew (foreshadowing the origin story Stern and his then-wife had cooked up, but which was mostly revealed by Tom DeFalco later on). This change of Aunt May from a passive character who constantly needed to be saved or aided by Peter and others was very much appreciated by the fans.

 

** Interestingly, in a much later arc, the Beast, now blue and furry (which is also this trope, as ''some'' don't know he wasn't always this way), has his appearance restored to his original human form, but at the cost of his intelligence dwindling as he uses his powers. He eventually talks much like his day-one self.

** Apocalypse's first appearances had him as a crime boss, and then a [[Magneto]]-esque mutant supremacist, giving the same sort of speeches with more [[Bold Inflation]] during a time when Magneto was trying to play nice. The [[The Social Darwinist|"survival of the fittest"]] aspect of his philosophy emerged soon afterward and those other characterizations quickly fell by the wayside.

** Magneto himself is a good example of this. The [[Stan Lee]] / [[Jack Kirby]] version of the character was just a straightforward villain with essentially no character depth. [[Chris Claremont]] gave Magneto a sympathetic backstory and changed him into a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], and these changes have more or less stuck over the intervening decades. Unfortunately, post-Clarement writers and editors re-cardboardified Magneto to some considerable extent.

** Rogue got her start as a villainous henchwoman working for Mystique, taking on and nearly single-handedly defeating the entire team of [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] with a bravado that would be out of place on the troubled young girl she was soon developed into.

*** It's also surprising (considering how important it is to his modern characterization) how long it is between his first appearance and the first explicit mention his [[Healing Factor]] (he says that he heals fast a little earlier, but it's in more of a "don't fuss over me just because I got my ass kicked" context than an "I have a superhuman ability to heal" one).

**** Wolverine's original origin was ''intended'' to be that he was actually a wolverine mutated into human form, and his claws were originally intended to be build into his gloves (one suspects he was also supposed to have superhuman strength at some point, as his first appearance saw him fighting the Hulk to a draw while not yet exhibiting any of the powers he would later have). Those ideas never saw print, but several hints toward them were made before the ideas were dropped, and, obviously, it wasn't until after they scrapped the "evolved animal" backstory that any of the character's current backstory came about.