In the die and be resurrected, or lose and regain their powers, in just a few issues. As a result, comic book fans never truly trust anything as being "final." Often, these radical changes are just ways to shake up the status quo and get people talking about a title again and then the it's back to status quo after a few issues (in Superman's case) or a few years (like Wolverine).
This trend of replacements isn't going to die any time soon: Marvel currently has a Batman and the Green Lantern. However, much to the surprise of everyone involved, sometimes switching out the character under the mask really works.
Maybe the original character wasn't that popular, or maybe the fresh take on the hero livens up the title after years of stagnation. In some cases the replacement characters become so popular that they get to stick around even after their predecessor returns! We're going to point out some of the best replacements in comic book history. Here are 17 Comic Book Replacements That Actually Worked.
17. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl
Believe it or not, Barbara Gordon is not the original Batgirl. The character first appeared in 1961, with the character Betty Kane under the mask. Kane was the niece of Kathy Kane (Batwoman) who discovered her aunt's secret identity and ed the Bat-Family on their daring adventures. Betty's costume was completely different than the one most associated with the character; she wore a Huntress-like mask, a green cape, and fought crime in a red dress. She and her aunt were scrapped along with the rest of the Bat-Family in the mid-'60s, when the new Batman writers decided that things were getting ridiculous.
In 1967 the showrunners of the ever-popular Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City's police commissioner. From there, history was made; Batgirl rejuvenated the Adam West-led show until its cancellation and became a major player in the comic books.
Barbara Gordon has gotten multiple series of her own, and been front and center in several of Batman's greatest stories. Meanwhile, Betty Kane returned (now going by Bette Kane) and became the superheroine known as Flamebird. Yeah, Gordon definitely got the better end of that deal.
16. Jeremiah Arkham as Black Mask
Whenever a new Black Mask's involvement. Roman Sionis was born to one of the wealthiest families in Gotham City. Unlike Bruce Wayne, however, Roman's parents were terrible. They only cared about their social status, even forcing their son to break off his engagement to the "lower class" woman he loved. In retaliation, Sionis murdered his family and took over their business. However, his cut-throat tactics were too much for his fiancee; after he rushed a product to market that disfigured several customers, she left him. Enraged, Roman went to his parents' crypt, destroyed his father's coffin, and carved a black skull mask out of it. Now, he lives as Black Mask, one of the most feared crime bosses in Gotham City.
In the late 2000s, Sionis' death left a void in the crime world that many tried to fill. There was never a decent replacement until 2009's Battle for the Cowl storyline, when Jeremiah Arkham (the current director of Arkham Asylum) took up the identity. He destroys his own asylum with the intention of rebuilding, but not before allowing its inmates to riot and destroy any of the now-deceased Batman's allies. Later, he returns to the rundown prison and has a mental breakdown, splitting his mind into separate "Jeremiah" and "Black Mask" personas. Sadly, Arkham went back to being a regular guy when the New 52 reboot occurred, but elements of Jeremiah's Black Mask were incorporated into the new Sionis adaptation.
15. Carol Davers as Captain Marvel
Carol Danvers as the new ed away; Marvel tried to replace Mar-Vell through the years but were unsuccessful until 2012.
As Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers had been a Marvel mainstay since her debut in the 1960s. Before his death in '82, Danver's story was tied pretty closely to Mar-Vell; she hung around with Walter Lawson (Mar-Vell's human identity) before being struck with a blast of energy from a piece of Kree technology. Captain Marvel was able to save her, but Carol developed similar powers to the Captain.
However, despite her original ties with Mar-Vell, Carol Danvers went off to become her own character, eventually culminating in taking on the role of her old friend in July of 2012. Now, Captain Marvel is one of the more popular heroes in the Marvel Universe. Danvers has been the leader of the Avengers for a while now and is set to get her own solo film in 2019.
14. Kaldur'ahm as Aqualad
Despite being one of the more unique characters in the DC Universe, Aquaman has been the butt of the joke for years now. We blame it on the popular Super Friends television show back in the day, where his character would use his power in ridiculous ways, like calling upon flying fish and surfing on dolphins. Even the character's sidekick was ridiculed for his ridiculous name... Who could possibly take Aqualad seriously?
The writers of Black Manta and has been kept in hiding all these years.
Although he shares a similar backstory with his television counterpart, Kaldur'ahm got introduced to the world of comics through the story Brightest Day. In the comics he is known under the alias of Jackson Hyde, and has been living in secret with human parents for the majority of his life. Although he didn't show up at all in the New 52, he is set to the Teen Titans in an story set in the DC Rebirth universe.
13. The Falcon as Captain America
Let's get real here, nobody can ever really replace Captain America. Steve Rogers has been Cap since the 1940s. He's a founding member of the Avengers and has the best-reviewed MCU series. But Marvel has definitely tried before.
The first big switch came when Cap, disenchanted with the US after Watergate, gave up the shield and became the superhero Nomad. The second time occurred when Cap was killed at the end of Civil War. Longtime sidekick Bucky Barnes reluctantly took up the mantle but relinquished it after the Fear Itself storyline. Most recently, Steve Rogers was reverted back to his "natural" age. Unable to perform his duties as Captain America, he handed the shield to Sam Wilson.
Our reasoning behind picking Sam over Bucky: Bucky has always worked better as the Winter Soldier. Meanwhile, Sam Wilson was a D-list character before he was brought back in the legendary Brubaker run of Captain America in the 2000s. Even then, few knew or cared about who he was. That all changed with the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014.
Now Falcon is a fan-favorite of the Marvel Universe and sales of his Captain America title are doing quite well. Also, it never quite felt right for Bucky in his current state to be Cap. The Winter Solider committed some major atrocities through the years and would never be as "pure" as Steve was. Falcon, on the other hand, embodies the ideals and spirit behind the symbol Captain America.
12. Kyle Rayner/John Stewart as Green Lantern
Green Lantern has a loophole so its leads can be changed on a whim. The Green Lantern Corps are an intergalactic police force that uses magical rings of green light to defeat any evil's might. There's a whole planet of Green Lanterns; whenever DC wants to change their lead, that the ring simply "chooses another" to report for duty as a protector of Earth. The best known Green Lantern is Hal Jordan; the main character of the series in the Silver Age as well as today.
The first replacement of Jordan occurred in the 1970s. The Guardians wanted there to be a backup Lantern for Earth in case Jordan ever fell in battle. Despite Hal's protests they chose John Stewart. He acted as a backup to Jordan for several years, filling in as the Green Lantern whenever Hal was off on other planets or out of commission. Most famously, Stewart acted as the primary Lantern in the Justice League cartoons of the DC Animated Universe.
In the '90s, Hal Jordan went insane. Possessed by the evil entity Parallax, Jordan turned evil, killed a bunch of his fellow Green Lanterns, and destroyed the Power Battery on Oa (rendering the Green Rings useless). However, a lone Lantern named Ganthet ed the last working Power Ring to Kyle Rayner, a struggling graphic designer from LA. Rayner was reluctant to become a superhero but quickly came around; he acted as the main Green Lantern until Jordan's return to the light in 2004.
11. X-23 as Wolverine
Wolverine has held a special place in the hearts of readers since his introduction in Giant Size X-Men. This was not Logan's first appearance, as he had taken on the Incredible Hulk just a year prior to his introduction as a superhero. Since then, he has become the biggest player in the X-Men franchise; he is the only character other than Xavier to appear in all nine movies. Wolverine is also one of the few X-Men to become a member of the Avengers.
Much like Cap, Wolverine has been around for so long that it's hard to believe that anyone could be a viable replacement. Alas, we've gotten one in recent years in the form of X-23. When Logan died in 2014, we were worried that Marvel was going to replace him with some new character that would fall by the wayside after a year or two and never be heard from again. Thankfully, they chose X-23 to take on the role.
This character started off with a minor, recurring role in the X-Men: Evolution comic series before being adapted into the comics. Over the years she has steadily increased in popularity; gaining a spot on the X-Force and X-Men before being springboarded into the spotlight as the "new" Wolverine. Currently you can find X-23 as one of the main characters of the hit film Logan, where she completely steals the spotlight in an already impeccably-acted film.
10. Flash Thompson as Agent Venom
If you haven't followed the Venom. Everybody knows the story of the symbiote; Spidey got the suit during Secret Wars and brought it back to our world. However, he soon discovered that the costume was really an alien lifeform that was slowly making Peter more and more evil. Spider-Man tears it off and the symbiote finds a new host in Eddie Brock, Peter Parker's rival at The Daily Bugle. The two go on to torment Spider-Man under the mantle of Venom, a villain who has the same powers as the Wall-Crawler but with an immunity to the hero's spidey sense.
However, most people don't realize that Eddie Brock hasn't been Venom since 2008, when he was seemingly dying from cancer and the symbiote left in search of a new host. The symbiote once bonded with Mac Gargan (the Scorpion) for a short period of time, but quickly moved on when Venom 2.0 was defeated by Spider-Man. Then, in 2010, the alien being was detained by the U.S. Government and was given to Peter Parker's longtime frenemy Flash Thompson. Suicide Squad, this series would have been right up your alley.
9. Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin
The Green Goblin debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 and has tormented Peter Parker for decades since. For the first few years the villain's identity was kept in a shroud of darkness before he was revealed as Norman Osborn in the series' fortieth issue. After an amnesia-induced absence, Osborn returned in the '80s and famously killed Gwen Stacy before ending up on the wrong side of his own glider. Unlike most comic book deaths, the original Green Goblin's looked to be permanent. Norman stayed dead for over ten years before the publisher copped out and brought the character back in the '90s.
In Norman's absence, several characters tried to step up and fill the void. The most famous of these was the Hobgoblin, who presented a similar conundrum: a large part of the character was his secret identity and Spidey's quest to discover it. In the end, however, it was Norman's own son who finally made the grade and inherited the role of Peter Parker's greatest enemy.
Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin gave us one of the best hero-villain relationships in comic book history; Peter and Harry had been friends for decades. Now Osborn has the revelation that not only is his best friend Spider-Man, but he's also the one responsible for his father's death. Likewise, Peter was torn on how to go about stopping the new Green Goblin, as he realized that sending Harry to jail would completely ruin his life forever.
8. Wally West as the Flash
Barry Allen is the Scarlet Speedster known to most, but there are some who argue that Wally West is the best of the Flash bunch. Allen starred as the lightning-fast character from his inception in 1956 to his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985. During that time he was ed by his sidekick and future nephew, Kid Flash (Wally West). After Barry was seemingly killed by the Anti-Monitor's weapon in the iconic storyline, his loyal sidekick took up the mantle of the Fastest Man Alive.
The reason that Wally West is so beloved as the Flash is mostly because he held the title for almost as long as his predecessor; Wally was the Scarlet Speedster for twenty-two years without any contention. When the showrunners of the DC Animated Universe needed a Flash for their Justice League cartoon, they turned to the former sidekick, to the celebration of most fans. In many cases Wally ranks ahead of his former mentor whenever people do a "Greatest Superheroes" list.
Most recently the character has appeared on the CW's The Flash in a secondary role to Barry Allen.