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Pet Characters

post #1 of 16
8/16/10 at 11:16am
Thread Starter 
I discovered something last night that makes a perfect amount of sense. Geoff Johns wrote a 1999 mini-series called Day of Judgment, in which Hal Jordan becomes the Spectre. That means that he was laying the groundwork for Rebirth five years in advance. It's obvious that he has a certain affinity for the character, unfortunately to a degree in which Hal becomes a Mary Sue type (or whatever the male equivalent is).

Greg Rucka has a few like this, including Renee Montoya and Sasha Bordeaux. These are characters that the writers like so much, they are inexplicably promoted from supporting characters to more prominent roles. It's not like I don't love Montoya, but it baffles me to consider her early days on the Animated Series and in Gotham Central, and now...she's the Question?

Peter David did this with Rick Jones too.

So my question is: who are some pet characters for comic book writers? They can ultimately be crutches for the writers, or characters that become great in a round about way through force-of-will on the writer's part.
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post #2 of 16
8/16/10 at 9:38pm
I can think of no examples but I'm intrigued by this concept so I'm bumping the thread in hopes someone else will contribute.
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post #3 of 16
8/16/10 at 10:17pm
Whedon said he loved Shadowcat and used her as the POV character in AXM.

Warren Ellis doesn't really have one, but Pete Wisdom, Jenny Sparks, Spider Jerusalem(And the Filthy Assistants), William Gravel, the two protagonists from Crooked Little Vein and many other characters he's written over the years are from the same mold. Hard drinking sarcastic chain smokers. This just got worse after Transmetropolitian(And I love Transmet) when they all started to sound like Spider.
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post #4 of 16
8/16/10 at 10:40pm
Ellis' Mary Jane tendency can be seen clearly in his recent work for Avatar.

Ennis put alot of himself in Jesse Custer, or at least it came across that way.

Millar's Nick Fury seems to be in everything he writes for the Ultimate line.
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post #5 of 16
8/16/10 at 10:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cameron Hughes View Post
Whedon said he loved Shadowcat and used her as the POV character in AXM.
An interesting example, because Kitty Pryde always was such a fan favourite, and kind of written as a reader identification character.

I don't know if Ennis didn't fancy himself more of a Cassidy.
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post #6 of 16
8/16/10 at 11:14pm
Thread Starter 
Chris Claremont was absolutely in love with both Jean Grey and Psyloche. It became apparent in his 21st century work that both were capable of overcoming any obstacle, with or without the help of the rest of the X-Men. In Jean's case she would proclaim "I am the PHOENIX!!!" and all enemies would crumble.

Brian Michael Bendis created a little mini-verse of his own during his run on Daredevil that included Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Spider-Man. All of them, surprise, ended up in different iterations of his New Avengers.

Morrison LOVES Kirby's Fourth World, incorporating elements of that mythology into his JLA, Seven Soldiers of Victory and Final Crisis.
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post #7 of 16
8/17/10 at 4:28am
So...this isn't about Krypto, Streaky and Ace the Bat Hound?
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post #8 of 16
8/17/10 at 5:56am
Roger Stern created Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) in a Spider-Man annual, and later brought her into the Avengers, eventually making her their leader. In fact, Stern was fired from the book because editor Mark Gruenwald wanted his own pet character, Captain America, to take over as leader and Stern refused to do it.

Steve Englehart has a history of bringing the character of Mantis, which he created, into almost anything he writes (even when he wrote for DC and Eclipse, introducing characters that were thinly-veiled allusions to Mantis).

Then you've got Jim Starlin, whose pet characters are Adam Warlock and Thanos.
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post #9 of 16
8/17/10 at 10:26am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeShaynePI View Post
So...this isn't about Krypto, Streaky and Ace the Bat Hound?
Not exactly, although Jeph Loeb brought Kypto back for no discernible reason, and now both he and Geoff Johns use the pup on ridiculous occasions (two second cameo in Hush, whatta wha?).
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post #10 of 16
8/17/10 at 1:22pm
What I don't understand is, WHY do people like Johns have so much affection for characters like Hal Jordan and Barry Allen? They're stupid and boring and there's a reason why they were killed off and replaced with vastly more interesting legacy characters. I honestly can't think of a lot of potential Green Lantern stories that NEED to star Hal Jordan rather than John Stewart or Guy Gardner, ditto Flash stories that NEED to star Barry Allen. I feel like those characters had their time, it's a new era, move on. Indeed, Barry was pretty much defined by his death. Why bend heaven and Earth and spit on the concept of meaningful character death just to bring him back?

As far as I can tell, it's just "because Geoff Johns wanted the exact same Green Lantern/Flash as he had when he was a kid." That's a shitacular reason for writing stories that way.
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post #11 of 16
8/17/10 at 2:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeShaynePI View Post
So...this isn't about Krypto, Streaky and Ace the Bat Hound?
Aw, I was hoping for Garfield, Marmaduke, and Shmoo.
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post #12 of 16
8/17/10 at 2:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster View Post
What I don't understand is, WHY do people like Johns have so much affection for characters like Hal Jordan and Barry Allen? They're stupid and boring and there's a reason why they were killed off and replaced with vastly more interesting legacy characters. I honestly can't think of a lot of potential Green Lantern stories that NEED to star Hal Jordan rather than John Stewart or Guy Gardner, ditto Flash stories that NEED to star Barry Allen. I feel like those characters had their time, it's a new era, move on. Indeed, Barry was pretty much defined by his death. Why bend heaven and Earth and spit on the concept of meaningful character death just to bring him back?

As far as I can tell, it's just "because Geoff Johns wanted the exact same Green Lantern/Flash as he had when he was a kid." That's a shitacular reason for writing stories that way.
I have a term for that. Captain Yesterday. Anyway, I like his GL, but Barry remains dull. Wally was always so much more interesting. The worst Captain Yesterdaying though was when Johns gave Wally his secret I.D. back, he was so much more interesting as a public super-hero.
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post #13 of 16
8/17/10 at 3:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Prankster View Post
As far as I can tell, it's just "because Geoff Johns wanted the exact same Green Lantern/Flash as he had when he was a kid." That's a shitacular reason for writing stories that way.
It's a problem because, much as bam! pow! comics aren't just for kids anymore, many writers seem to view their task as exlusively based around maintaining the status quo of their childhoods (with added dismemberments.)
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post #14 of 16
8/17/10 at 3:40pm
Isnt Stargirl pretty much Johnns Pet character? he created her in memory of his younger sister,who died in a plane crash, and she pretty much was the center of his JSA runs.
Actually, i think she's an example of a good "pet character", if you ask me.
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post #15 of 16
8/17/10 at 5:23pm
Amanda Conner and Power Girl?

And thank you, Amanda!
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post #16 of 16
8/17/10 at 5:28pm
I liked Montoya coming to the forefront as a character, but I hated her being The Question and loathed most of how I saw her written outside of Gotham Central.

Another Garth Ennis pet character would have to be Kev, who first appeared in Ennis' The Authority mini (I think Ennis has retired him). He's not terribly interesting, but I thought the stories that revolved around him were pretty funny, so I didn't mind that he was on the thin side.

Angel (the female Puerto Rican version with insect wings) was an aborted Grant Morrison pet character from his New X-Men run. I recall that he stated in interviews his intention to really build on that character during the course of his run, set her up as generally unlikable, and then have the fans loving her by the end. However his relationship with Marvel and specifically Bill Jemas soured and he cut his run and his plans short so she never really developed into anything.
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