Modern hero/villain staying power

[Lantern]

All of the great comic book characters/properties seem to come from the silver and golden ages; for example, Superman, Batman, and Spider Man. The current hot properties seem to be from the Bronze era; for instance, Wolverine (1974) and the new X-Men (1975).

 

Are there any characters that have been created in the modern age that will have this kind of staying power and attraction to future collectors?

 

[Darthdiesel]

Venom

[Rickdogg]

Spawn? Obviously his books aren't hot anymore, but it is a well established character with over 100 issues. Who freakin knows I just woke up

[chromium]

Sandman (Morpheus)

[Guest]

TMNT......do they count? Lets not forget Stormshadow and Snake-Eyes!!! YO JOE!

[delekkerste]

Tough to say...there have certainly been a lot of interesting characters created, but it's tough to envision them garnering popularity anywhere near as close as Spidey or Wolvie or the X-Men. Sure, Sandman, Preacher, Hellblazer, etc. were critically acclaimed, but none of them won over the masses in a big way. Spawn might have been a good bet in the early/mid-1990s, but I think we can all see that this and the other Image franchises are on the decline. I think all of these 80s revival books are just a temporary phenomenon...I don't see a huge interest in GI Joe or Transformers, let alone Thundercats, Voltron, etc. 10 years from now.

 

Certain Marvel properties like Venom, Gambit and Elektra (from the Modern Age) seem to have enough of a fan base and potential catalysts (like movies) to keep them in the spotlight for a while, though I can't see them attaining overwhelming popularity. Perhaps the Ultimate books and characters will retain their appeal for the next generation of collectors, especially if some sort of Ultimization of the Marvel Universe ever occurs. I'm hoping that the new CrossGen titles, with the benefit of all the proposed CrossGen movie deals, will have staying power, but all indie books fight an uphill battle in the war for longevity/posterity versus Marvel and DC.

 

Gene

[delekkerste]

TMNT...actually, I think that's a very good call. The franchise was absolutely enormous...perhaps when the children of the late 80s/early 90s become wealthy yuppies 15-20 years from now, we could see those books hit even greater heights. Though I wonder if the TMNT toys might not see the lion's share of the nostalgia dollars...my guess is that the number of TMNT fans who actually read the comic was pretty small.

 

Gene

[Guest]

I actually liked the comic. Much darker than the pizza twirling, cowabunga, neon turtles of the movies and cartoons. What about my boys Stormshadow and Snake-Eyes?? Maybe theyll break from the GI Joe books and become cult figures in their own right?

[Rickdogg]

Doubt it

[comicinvestor-migration]

Are there any characters that have been created in the modern age that will have this kind of staying power and attraction to future collectors?

 

Nope, since it's a different era with a totally opposite reader market. One reason these characters and concepts later become cultural icons is that it's kids who start off the trends, then maintain it for many years after. It's the old "Golden Age" phenomenon at work.

 

Comic characters, Disney, Star Wars, etc.

 

Expecting a new comic character read by adults to duplicate the successes of the past, is patently illogical.

[Lantern]

del,

 

I tend to agree with what you are saying and this is why I started the thread. There have been a great deal of good titles published with great story lines in the past two decades, but none of them seem to have the ability to develop into cultural icons. This fact is definitely evident in the DC Vertigo titles that you mentioned. Great comics but that is all they will ever be.

 

My original thought was that (as others have already mentioned in their posts) properties like Transformers and GI Joe would have a good shot, but this seems to be based more on the toys and other licensing avenues than comic book sales. In fact, did these properties actually start as toys and then migrate to comics?

 

I am not a die-hard modern era reader so I am unaware of the CrossGen titles that you mention, perhaps I will check some out. In fact, maybe some of the modern era readers can recommend one. I do, however, agree that any indie will have an uphill battle in its fight for permanence.

 

[delekkerste]

Yes, both GI Joe and Transformers were toys before they were comics.

 

As for the CrossGen titles, I think about a half dozen of them have some kind of movie deals in the works (Route 666 and Way of the Rat I know for sure - I believe Sojourn and a few others are also being worked out). Eisner-award nominated Ruse is a great read and I think that Greg Land's pencils on Sojourn are simply the best in the business. As for permanence, I think it will be difficult for these non-super-hero, non-Marvel/DC titles to really gain traction...realistically, the best you can expect is that some of the titles could achieve similar or slightly greater success than Spawn or Witchblade (which have been popular enough to spawn toy lines and TV/film properties as well).

 

With the current bombardment of video game ads prior to Christmas, I again wonder if any kids are out there reading comics (instead of playing PS2 and XBox) that will be heavily sought after when they are adults. It doesn't look promising.

 

Gene

[Eternal]

What about anybody from Chaos comics.....do you think any of them have a future in the comic world of someday becomming hot again.

[murph0]

Possibly but only in spurts..they won't have staying power as they're all flavor of the month-type characters.

 

Brian

[CosmicBob]

I tell you, for me, Chastity was awesome. I was really suprised by how good the Chastity: Rocked mini-series was. I was expecting more of the Lady Death junk, but that mini-series was very good.

 

I doubt she'll become a household name like Superman or Spiderman, but I really liked the character and that mini-series in particular.

[duncan36]

You never know tastes change, I could see the Preacher being made into a movie, and if done really well it could be a genre bender like Dirty Harry was and be really popular. At points in the last 20 years you couldnt give away non-superhero books, but now even what I would consider Bronze age non-superhero books have taken on a life of their own.

Its the whole anti-cool thing, something becomes so lame that eventually it becomes cool.

Preacher went from scorching hot to 'wouldnt touch it with a ten foot pole', any series that experiences such extremes will have its day again in a big way.

[RULKFAN1000]

Are there any characters that have been created in the modern age that will have this kind of staying power and attraction to future collectors?

 

Nope, since it's a different era with a totally opposite reader market. One reason these characters and concepts later become cultural icons is that it's kids who start off the trends, then maintain it for many years after. It's the old "Golden Age" phenomenon at work.

 

Comic characters, Disney, Star Wars, etc.

 

Expecting a new comic character read by adults to duplicate the successes of the past, is patently illogical.

 

+1

[toytastik]

Invincible