Comic Book Sidekicks: Taking the Mantle

 Greetings Heroes!

Passing the Torch in the Comic World

Legacies are heavy burdens to bear. Whether it be in the real world or the comic world, every character carries a flag, meant to be picked up by a successor once it has been dropped. As long as the flag- our legacy- carries on, we can never really be gone.

Comic Books, however, don’t seem to offer the same oppurtunity to take up the legacy to their sidekick characters.

Every sidekick superhero dreams of one day picking up the legacy of their mentor. Robin dreams of becoming Batman, Aqualad longs to be Aquaman, and Kid Flash dreams of becoming the Scarlet Speedster. I’d like to focus on the latter.

The Flash is one of my favorite heroes. To date, four men have carried the name: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West and Bart Allen. Every hero ran the race and passed the baton on to the next runner…sort of.

The original Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick, originally existed on an alternate earth, with the rest of the JSA heroes. He made his way to Earth-1 and lived as a mentor to the current Flashes.

The Silver-age Flash, Barry Allen, died saving the world in the Crisis on Infinite Earths (See Comic Book Deaths). After his sacrifice, the current Kid Flash, Wally West took up the mantle. Now, in 2008, West remains the Flash. It’s a perfect example of passing on a legacy and natural progression in a work of fiction.

Or is it?

West himself had a sidekick, his own kid Flash, Bart Allen. Bart was the grandson of Barry Allen (the original Flash) from the 31st century. West disappeared for a time during Infinite Crisis (2005) and Bart took up the mantle. It was assumed that Bart would continue on as the Flash until his own sidekick one day began to run the race.

This wasn’t the case. In a move to boost sales, Bart was killed off shortly after his run as the Flash began. It was determined he simply wasn’t as popular as Wally and couldn’t carry the book. Bart was dead, and Wally returned.

This move disappointed me, as the previous actions taken by DC to move the Flash’s story seemed progressive. After Bart’s death, I’ve had to just come to the conclusion that once sidekicks are written as sidekicks, they will forever remain in that mold. It doesn’t matter if they fill the role for a time, the original hero nearly always returns. Batman could be no one other than Bruce Wayne; Green Arrow will always be Oliver Queen; and Superman certainly will never be replaced by the recently introduced Christopher Kent or a cloned Conner Kent.

On the one hand, this bothers me because the policy is a direct result of the desire for higher sales. No one would read Superman is he was anyone other than Clark Kent, because the two names are so synonymous.

In another sense, however, this policy allows for true immortality. The hero and the name become so ingrained that both ultimately represent the mission and represent the heroes we all know, love and desire to be.

I may never see Conner Hawke permanently take up the role of Green Arrow, and Tim Drake will never take up the cowl for good in any mainstream timeline, but perhaps there really is a place for everything and everything in its place.

Now I look forward to seeing how long Bucky will last as Captain America….

STAY SUPER! 

4 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI