Once upon a time, there was a character. But then that character changed. And he existed until a previous or different version of him/her/itself reappered as another character. Or the original author recreated the character for another editorial. And where there was one character, there were two or more thanks to a convenient retcon, mistake or homage.
After Flashpoint Wally west was reinvented to resemble the TV series The Flash's Wally West
After the return of Flash (Wally West), Wally West 2 it was revealed as a cousin with the same name.
The first one to go against the Avengers. It was revealed than they were created by the Collector.
Retcon: the original Squadron appeared after their copy.
The first one to go against the Avengers. It was revealed than was created by the Collector.
Retcon: the original Hyperion appeared after his copy.
The copy from Squadron sinister, who rebranded himself later.l
The "original", from the heroic Squadron.
The copy from Squadron sinister
The "original", from the heroic Squadron.
Who is this guy again?
The Golden age Superman, created along with earth-2
The superman from a elseworld/possible future, retconned into a Superman from a parallel universe.
The daughter of Bruce Wayne from a parallel earth.
Retcon: reinvented as a mafia princess.
Bruce Wayne's cousin and the first Batwoman. She was later recovered as another character.
Bruce Wayne's cousin and the first Batwoman. The post crisis reinvention.
Originally the sister of Lex, retconned intohis daughter, but recovered as estranged sister.
Daughter of Lex.
The first marvel girl and original host of the Phoenix, she died, came back, died again, came back as a noisy teenager.
The phoenix was the realonewho died instead Jean Grey.
She was exactly identical to jean grey but without powers. After Jean returned the first time, she was "revealed" to be a clone.
The original robin since the 40s.
The Golden Age Robin.He was a Dick Grayson who never stopped being Robin.
A Dick Grayson from a false future. It was never revealed who he really was.
Created by Simon and Kirby when they worked for Marvel, he was the first supersoldier, who dissapeared after WW2 (that means, his publication stopped) and returned in the 60s.
The 50s Captain America, the first try to recover the characters. He was retconed into an impostor with extremist mcartism views of America.
Created by Simon and Kirby when they didn't worked for Marvel anymore.
After the messy Secret Empire revelation, Marvel choose to create a false Captain America, who is essentially the original one, but evil. Just suppose it is an evil doppelganger and don't talk more about it.
The original Human torch, his body was used to built the Vision. But both co-exist!!
The Vision and Jim hammond have the same body, DIVIDED by Immortus.
Rama Tut's second identity, it became another person.
Rama Tut's third identity, it became another person.
Rama Tut's forth identity, revealed as a son.
Rama Tut's fifth identity, an heoric one.
The original was the cousin of Superman. Died in the crisis but reappered later. Meanwhile...
She was replaced by a alien shapeshifter goo who possed as a Supergirl. Things got weird when...
Matrix fussioned itself with human Linda Lee Danvers. The union was an earth born angel. Later linda and Matrix were separated but Linda keep some powers.
After the cancelation of Supergirl, Peter David created Lee, who is nothing but a continuation the earth Angel supergirl saga.
Created by Steve Gerber the modern Howard is a clone created by copyright motives. The original Howard changed his name ad entered to Wittnes protection program.
Acording with Steve gerber, the creator of Howard, the Duck, Leonard is the REAL Howard. But don't tell it to Marvel.
Kingdom Come character. When Jones and Ross tried to introduce Von Bach in the regular continuity, the idea was nixed.
Instead of Von Bach, Rebel make his debut, but the similarities are pretty obvious.
From Avenger to cosmic traveler to the legendary Celestial Madonna, Mantis is perhaps one of the most well-traveled characters in the Marvel Universe. She was created by Steve Englehart.
She is the Marvel's "Mantis" character brought to the DC Universe by Steve Englehart.
Steve Ditko's right wing detective.
Steve Ditko's righter wing detective.
The original Captain marvel. He was so fameous in England than he spawned a ersazt character: Marvelman.
When the war (WW2)interrupted the material of Captain Marvel, the britains created marvel as replacement.
When Todd McFarlane tried to use Marvel(Miracle)man in his Spawn comics, legal issues made this imposible. Man of miracles was createdto fullfill the role planned for Miracleman then.
There is certain risk on use licenced characters in your own universe as, losing the licence.
Don't worry, Ikon is the new Marvel's Space Knight to replace ROM... but nobody cared.
A flag cladded british hero from Marvel comics. By definition a legacy character
A reinvention of Union Jack. When it was rejected by Marvel, creator Paul Grist went to Image where he developted his ideas. He have his own american supersoldier, by the way.
The opposite to Captain Atom, he had been killed several times.
A very similar looking character with the same personality than major Force who made his debut in theNew 52. He was soon killed, but then Major Force reappered, looking exactly like him. It was a name change or a editorial mistake?
Jessica Drew, the first Spider-Woman, was the initial main character for theseries Alias. She was a Bendis fetish. But the idea was nixed, but not the series.
To replace Spider-Woman, Bndis created Jessica Jones,with whom he had more creative freedom.
The original boss of Clark Kent. Reintroduced as the editor of a competitor journal.
Introduced in radio show and in the silver age, he became the iconic Daily planet editor.
the original badass magician.
Grant Morrison wanted to use Constantine in Doom Patrol but his idea was nixed. So Morrison created his own Constantine.
Originally a future superhero who died; Later a combined identity for Superboy/Ultra Boy; eventually he was retconned into arimboriansuperhero who indeed died fighting for the Legion.
The original green skined alien invader of Marvel, they weren't cool enough to be ultimate invaders.
The Ultimate Skrulls, the chitauri survived the end of the Ultimate universe to be another alien race and made to the movies before the skrulls.
One of the earlier examples, Phantom Lady was a Quality character who was believed to be in the public domain after the dissapearance of her publisher house. However her rights had went to DC.
Fox published Phantom Lady stories, but when they discover that DC had the rights, they rebranded the published character into Nightveil. 'Cos DC have good lawyers, you know?
A creation of Al Gordon for DC Comics.
A girl from the future, half way between god and man, who traveled to the past with a violent savage hero (Timber Wolf) whom she soothed.
(But later he traveled back to the 31st century, he left her in the past, there was an cosmic event, retcon included, and.. nobody remember her again).
A creation of Al Gordon in Image Comics.
A girl from the future, half way between god and man, who traveled to the past with a violent savage hero (Wildstar) whom she soothed.
(Or maybe she is Gemini after travel to another universe.)
Originally, Scarab was going to be a Vertigo story for Dr. Fate, but it was considered to much Vertigo for Dr. Fate, so the writer created Louis Sendak.
The original member of the Global Guardians.
The other original member of the Global Guardians, by retcon decree.
When things went to dark in the early '90s for the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Batch SW6 was created as a try to recover the original spirit of the Legion.
David Harper, mercenary for hire. Howard Chaykin worked on him.
Dominic Fortune, mercenary for hire. Howard Chaykin worked on him when he was not working on Scorpion.
Created by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta, a latina powerhouse. Casey wanted to work on the series but Marvel said no.
Created by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta (and Dustin Nguyen), a latina powerhouse. After Marvel said no on an America Chavez series. Casey created America Vasquez in Image. Personally I like more the Vasquez surname.
For a time it was believed to be dead, but revealed to had traveled to the past... until retcon had to retcon the time travel.
Originally, a time travelling phantom girl, retconed in a partial aspect of Phantom girl.
Originally, the GA Hawkgirl was a reincarnated egyptian princess. In the SA became an alien space police and rebrand herself as Hawkwoman, because the Original one was still active. And then they were two separated entities (Kendra and Shayera) But later they become the same again. But Wait!!.. next...
Kendra Saunders became a reincarnation of the GA Hawkgirl (the egyptian princess) but with amnesia. But in Metal it was reveleated than kendra was a separated entity from Hawkwoman.
Comics, you know?
The original Aquaman enemy who was renamed for the Justice League Animated series. Rebranded as...
... who has made the jump to comics as a different character.
