One of the arguments defenders of the re-racing or gender swapping of classic characters used to use, although now they don’t bother since a warped concept of diversity is all they care about, is that new characters of different colors or genders can’t become famous nowadays and since kids need a hero who “looks like them” using the old names will give them the most attention. I’m not sure why being a hero isn’t enough but I’m not against getting some more heroes of color or with two X chromosomes out there. I just reject the notion that the under-representation of LGBT characters means Iceman has to be turned gay. It’s not Bobby’s fault that Northstar is so uninteresting and it’s not like he’s the only one out there with an interest in sex with their own sex. (And why couldn’t he be bisexual? Would have solved everybody’s problem.) I’m in favor of building out the world and creating new characters or using long-ignored old characters so they can find a long-deserved audience.
I reject the notion that new characters can’t be popular. Look at Harry Potter, the house of Stark that wears low-tech armor that does nothing against the constant swords in their guts. Heck, the guy in high-tech armor was created in the 1960s and look how long he took to become famous despite numerous animated credits to his superhero identity. Characters created in recent years can become popular household names, as can ignored characters long overdue to finally get some recognition outside of the four color medium. (Are comics still four-color with modern printing?) I’ve listed a few of them in the past but since new people arrive all the time and others are so thick-skulled they need that same sledgehammer they use to pound messages into their audience, here are six characters and series that rose from the comic page to being famous. “Famous” in this case means becoming household names outside of the comics community, and while cartoons seem to be ignored I’ll be using them as examples as well. However, I’ll put the focus on programs that have live-action counterparts.
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