There weren't any further Silver Age revivals from the Golden Age after the Spectre (as far as I know - does Red Tornado count?), which has always been a disappointment to me. I think Wildcat, Black Canary and Dr Fate would have made interesting reboots. Possibly Dr Midnight and Hourman. These are characters, like Hawkman, that visually wouldn't have needed much of a revamp.

 

What Silver Age revivals of Golden Age characters do you think would have worked as an on going series?

You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!

Join Captain Comics

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • I think the question isn't only whether this or that character had enough star potential to be revived as a feature character, but whether Silver Age creators would've managed to tap that star potential, as DC did with the Flash and Marvel did with Captain America.

     

    I argued for the merits of MLJ's Wizard, Ace's Dr Nemesis, and ME's Ghost Rider here, but I don't know I think the first two had the potential to outlast the Golden Age. I'm inclined to think Ghost Rider did.

     

    I see Dr Nemesis as belonging to the dark type of hero, like the Shadow or Batman. I don't think DC's Silver Age creators would have brought out that aspect of the character, but perhaps Gene Colan might have at Marvel. However, I don't know that even Colan's art would've made "Dr Nemesis" a big success (it didn't Dr Strange's title). The character is less suited to exciting action than most of Marvel's Silver Age stars.

     

    The Wizard, as he originally was, was arguably sufficiently versatile, with his combination of strength and inventive genius, to have been a Silver Age lead character. But his creators would've had to figure out what sort of adventures he should have, and probably how to make his personal life compelling.

     

    Marvel did revive the Ghost Rider; perhaps the feature would've been more successful if revived earlier, and handled differently. (I've not heard good things about the 60s version of the title.) On the other hand, one supposes sales would still have gone down as the western genre declined. On the other hand again, "Jonah Hex" did OK in the 70s.

     

    The Golden Age "Star-Spangled Kid and Stripsey" stories I've seen didn't impress me, but I think the idea of a kid superhero with an adult sidekick a good one. Perhaps something special might've been done with them in the Silver Age.

  • I always wondered why DC didn't try a new Starman in the 60s as they did in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It's a great name that doesn't have specific powers tied into it. The same could go for Air Wave.

    For Timely, I would go with the Destroyer, making him vehemently anti-Communist, almost like a Silver Age Punisher.

    I always liked Kid Eternity, too. A dead hero bringing back other dead heroes and talking to someone no one else can see...priceless!

  • I think there's always room for the Shining Knight, in whatever age. Although I'd hate to see the magic basis for his powers get retconned by Julie Schwartz as the Lost Technology of Camelot.

     

    (Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing that -- I just wouldn't want to see it forever!)

  • "I always wondered why DC didn't try a new Starman in the 60s as they did in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It's a great name that doesn't have specific powers tied into it."

     

    Yeah, it took until the 70's for DC to do a new Starman, in FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL (and he only made on appearance).  Then Paul Levitz & Steve Ditko did a new version in ADVENTURE COMICS (which ran about year), then Roger Stern & Tom Lyle did a Post-Crisis character (which was really good until the editor kicked Stern off his own creation).  Years later still, James Robinson did yet another Starman, this one tied in directly to the Golden Age original, and which featured atr some point every other character with that name DC had done over the years.

  • I was a fan of Wildcat from his JLA cover appearences on Justice League of America's 46 and 56 alone and longed to see him in his own book, hopefully rendered by Infantino/Anderson or Giella.

    1936052497?profile=original

    In fact that Hawkman, Mr Terrific, Wildcat, Hourman team look every bit as dynamic as their JLA opponents. Black Canary has a timeless quality about her as well.

  • Why, Stardust the Super Wizard, of course.  Although I think it would help if he acted just a wee bit faster than he did in the Golden Age....

     

    I keed, I keed.

     

    There are a lot of Golden Age characters I absolutely love, but I don't know how many of them might have fit well in the Silver Age.  Maybe Dr. Fate would have been a good choice, especially in the late '60s.

     

    Thinking about it, Blonde Phantom might have worked with a costume update to something slightly more 'mod'.

  • Is the idea to revive characters as they were, or to create NEW versions?  (Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Johnny Storm)

     

    The sad thing about GHOST RIDER is that those early-50's stories from M.E. were actually better-written than the ones in 1967 from Gary Friedrich & Roy Thomas. When I finally got around to those a year back, I couldn't believe how BAD they were!  The characters were all very watered-down, the dialogue was awful, and there was this whole "Spider-Man" vibe to it, where one character for no sane reason hated the hero and is determined to see him brought down (like JJJ). Hey, if I wanna read Spidey, I've got Spidey comics to read.  By comparison, the Johnny Blaze flaming-skull biker GHOST RIDER was a very cool concept, and total re-design. The only problem I have with it, now, is I think the name was all wrong. (Gary Friedrich's earlier, short-lived HELL RIDER would have been a much more suitable name for a flaming-skull biker FROM HELL.)  Oh well, at least we still have The Haunted Horseman...

     

    In the 80's, in THE SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK, we got The Phantom Blonde!

  • Would Phantom Stranger count as a revival? His first comeback appearance in Showcase #80 was straight reprint, but within a few issues of his own comic, I think he was a quite different character.
  • There weren't any further Silver Age revivals from the Golden Age after the Spectre (as far as I know - does Red Tornado count?), which has always been a disappointment to me.

     

    Why wouldn't the Red Tornado count? And speaking of Reddy, didn't Marvel revive/reboot the Vision about the same time?

  • The early 60s might've been more receptive to a new Marvel Family series, employing the Fawcett approach, than the 70s was.
This reply was deleted.