"Luke, I Am your Father" syndrome, part I

Madame Rouge- Mystique

Why, your kounterpart kurator asks someone— anyone who may ever read these words— are comic book creators so susceptible to the “Luke, I am your father” syndrome?

The second character cited was introduced in 1980 in the perhaps too-often-referenced “Days of Future Past” storyline: Mystique was a blue-skinned shapeshifter leading a new iteration of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Evidently she was intended by co-creator Chris Claremont as not only the “life partner” of fellow evil mutant Destiny, but, due to the biological quirks of shapeshifting, the “father” of Nightcrawler.

But the time at Marvel, LGBT characters were verboten. Only in the last decade or so (I think?) was this connection revealed.

It’s enough that Magneto was eventually shown to be the father of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. It was also enough that Nightcrawler was a German gypsy of unexceptional parentage, and to limn him to a blue -skinned mutant femme fatale is, frankly, cheap and unimaginative.

As for Madame Rouge, I seem to remember that she was wreeten to ‘ave a conspeecuous french accent.

Commonalities:
Both are shapeshifters who’ve made it into the film/tv arms of their representative franchises.

Differences:
Only that Madame Rouge (who can also stretch!) is an obscure french super-villainess who has not been revived in the DCU.

Alternate histories:

MR: Laura Demille was apparently born in the early 20th century; her preternatural shape-shifting abilities have retarded her aging. She assumes a number of identities and associations, and using the codename Madame Rouge, comes to light as an antagonist of Hawkgirl and the Titans, and as a mentor to a troubled young Terra. She has since worked with and against the Titans, and apparently (and stupidly) has been revealed to be the mother of the Titan Changeling.

MY: Raven Darkholme is modified into a shape-shifter by a criminal mastermind; using the codename Mystique, Darkholme opposes the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Initially, Mystique struggles with a split personality, vacillating from affection for Charles Xavier and hostility towards the Doom Patrol, which she is incorrectly believed to have murdered. She finally dies in battle with the X-Men.

The disco mutant and the supermodel telepath

Looker- Dazzler

Why am I not surprised that, when Marvel was to collaborate on a character with Casablanca Records in 1979, the result involved a musical genre that was already then (and unjustly) considered a national joke? Marvel should have positioned Dazzler as a new wave singer, huh?

As for Looker, she was the creation of Mike W. Barr, a writer most fanboys underrate. Looker was a mousy young librarian with a husband who loved her: as soon as she transformed into a hawt piece of ass, the husband was outta there. This led to Barr making lots of obvious but still useful points regarding how “beauty is only skin deep.”

Commonalities:
Good looking broads, involved in glamourous day jobs: i.e. the kind of woman comic creators and fanboys generally will never get within 100 miles of.

Differences:
Looker has the full complement of psionic abilities: telepathy, telekinesis, etc etc. Dazzler can turn sound into light, which apparently comic creators were able to turn into a useful offense.

Alternate histories:

LO: Emily “Lia” Briggs is an aspiring model who discovers latent psionic abilities in her late teens; taking the alias Looker, she at first assists the Teen Titans, but declines membership in favor of her career. She nonetheless finds herself dragged into superhuman affairs at the expense of her modeling career; Looker eventually joins the Titans, where she meets and marries Booster Gold, with whom she travels to his native future timeline. She recently has returned to the Titans.

DA: Alison Blaire discovers a latent ability to transfer sound into light, and additionally transforms from a “mousy” appearance into an conventionally attractive aspect. As Dazzler, she joins Captain America’s Defenders, but later becomes a vampire. Her current exploits suggest that she is foregoing the traditionally nefarious tendencies common to vampires and continues to act as a force for good.

The mercenary and the private club president

Deathstroke the Terminator-Sebastian Shaw

If the first character cited above, one who’s occasionally been played as an anti-hero, had been characterized more as a “good guy” in recent years, he would have been paired with Wolverine, no questions asked. He was portrayed as more or less beneficent in a solo series in the anti-hero happy early ‘90s.

But Deathstroke the Terminator (the second component of the DC character’s name hasn’t been referenced in funnee books, despite having debuted in 1980, a full four years before the Ah-note film) has been placed firmly in the “bad guy” column for awhile, and as such has been established as a major villain in the entire DCU.

So he’ll be paired with the unambiguously evil mutant leader of a New York private club bent on world domination: y’know, where you can play squash, watch CNBC, and then try to subvert the free world.

Commonalities:
Both are cultured, upper class but very ruthless antagonists.

Differences:
Apart from their differing but similar abilities, Wilson is a man of honor completely unlike the morally destitute Shaw.

Alternate histories:

DT: Aristocrat Slade Wilson is born with the ability to use 90% of his brain, and as such becomes an incredibly formidable combatant and strategist. Wilson becomes the leader of an elite club with the goal of world domination, and is opposed consistently by the Teen Titans.

SS: Soldier Sebastian Shaw is experimented on by military scientists, granting him the ability to absorb kinetic energy and transform it into raw strength. Shaw becomes a mercenary, and becomes estranged from his family. Shaw eventually opposes the X-Men, and enlists the young superhuman Rogue in his efforts to defeat the team. For a number of years, Shaw works alongside the X-Men, but has more recently turned against that organization and has since antagonized other superhuman operatives.

Two third-stringers and one major mutie

Here, three quick and dirty pairings, banged out so that I can detail the Kounterpart-ed version of the infamously ill-conceived Justice League Detroit.

Only the first Marvel character cited could be described as a major player: I may expound upon Kitty Pryde at another time.


Gypsy- Kitty Pryde

GY: Cindy Reynolds joins the Teen Titans shortly after she discovers her illusion-casting abilities; as Gypsy, she has been affiliated with the team since.

KP: Kitty Pryde runs away from home shortly after discovering her ability to “phase” through solid objects. She encounters and quickly joins a short lived version of the Avengers as “Sprite.” She has since worked with the Silver Surfer, Thundra and the Daughters of the Dragon.


Steel - Torpedo

ST: Hank Heywood discovers a quasi-cybernetic battle suit and, using the codename Steel, becomes a part-time crimefighter. He dies in action.

TO: Brock Jones’ body is imbued with a supercharged mechanisms by his quite insane industrialist grandfather. Reluctantly, he takes the codename Torpedo and joins a short-lived lineup of the Avengers; he dies in action.


Vibe - Living Lightning

VI: Paco Ramone joins the West Coast expansion Justice League shortly after an accident creates the ability to emanate powerful vibratory shockwaves, taking the codename Vibe. He has worked with other superhuman operatives off and on since.

LL: Miguel Santos discovers his ability to to transform his body into electrical plasma, i.e. Living Lightning, shortly before he joins a short-lived version of the Avengers. He dies in the line of duty.

Good gals, or bad gals?

Terra- Rogue

Anyone who was reading Teen Titans in 1982-1983 must have had one look at Terra, a sarcastic antagonist-turned-object of-Gar-Logan’s-affection, and thought, “ahhh, this the Titans response to the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde.” She was clearly conceived as an American teenager, but the PTB at the time noticed that a similarly enabled character, Geo-Force, had been established as a prince of a small European nation. So —presto!— she’s also the illegitimate daughter of Geo-Force’s dad.

But when the Judas Contract storyline rolled around in 1984, it was revealed that Terra was bad news; the character was intended by creators Marv Wolfman and George Perez to betray the Titans on behalf of Deathstroke, for whom she functioned as jailbait (a plot point that would never go down in today’s climate). She dies unredeemed during the final confrontation of that storyline: no last minute change of heart saw Terra coming back to the good guy’s side. Another iteration of Terra saw that a nice girl had been turned into the original’s doppelganger…or some shit. Apparently, yet another has recently emerged.

As for Rogue: the character was initially portrayed as a middle-aged antagonist who absorbs Ms Marvel’s abilities. But creator Chris Claremont cottoned to Rogue, possibly because he enjoyed writing dialogue phonetically (“AH CAIN’T BUUUH-LEEV HOW MUHHCH POWAH AH’M UHHHBBBBSORBIN’”) and then reformed her into a teenage X-Man. She’s been a fan favorite and mainstay of the X-franchise since.

Commonalities:
Both were introduced in a manner where you could not be sure what side of the fence they were on. Subsequent iterations of Terra may have been characterized similar to Rogue, for all I know.

Differences:
Their abilities differ: one is a geokinetic, the other siphons superhuman powers, energy and assorted attributes. And after Rogue was introduced as a middle aged redneck, she quickly became a key X-Man, whereas Terra has come and gone as a clone or something.

Alternate histories:

TE: A troubled teenage girl with vast geokinetic abilities named Tara falls in with a criminal mastermind and attacks the Teen Titans and their ally Hawkgirl. After seriously injuring Hawkgirl, Terra reforms and joins the Titans, with whom she has remained since.

RO: A troubled teenage girl with vast mutant siphoning abilities named Anne-Marie falls in with a criminal mastermind; taking the codename Rogue, she infiltrates the X-Men, betrays them and is killed in combat. Another, benevolently inclined young woman with Rogue’s appearance and abilities has since emerged and worked with the X-Men sporadically.

They run their teams from their wheelchairs

Niles Caulder- Charles Xavier

A rumor has persisted for some time that either the Doom Patrol and the X-Men books were unduly influenced by the other . Both books debuted in 1963; both books featured antagonists that belonged to an organization including the words “Brotherhood” and “Evil”; and both were premised on outsiders defending a mistrustful general populace.

But the contention seems to rest on the characterizations of their leaders: both ae super-geniuses confined to wheelchairs. Bob Haney and Arnold Drake, the Doom Patrol creators, and X-Men co-creator Stan Lee denied that any such mischief took place, and in any case, the Doom Patrol seems all around more Fantastic Four-esque to me.

But their similarities work well enough for my purposes, despite that a pairing here necessitates that both must be transferred into franchises that are not paired with one another.

Commonalities:
Both are, like I said above, super-geniuses confined to wheelchairs, and are thus lead their organizations from their respective home bases.

Differences:
Xavier is an omega level mutant telepath. Caulder ain’t. Caulder, though, has a luxuriantly full head of hair and beard.

Alternate histories:

NC: As a youth, Niles Caulder’s metahuman intellect allows him to master multiple scientific disciplines, but an encounter with an alien antagonist leaves him a quadriplegic. Taking the code name “the Chief,” Caulder founds a school for young metahumans: his first class—Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, “Elongated Kid” and Wonder Girl— takes the name the Teen Titans, who often oppose his former friend Black Adam. In the ensuing years, he has intermittently resided in the Vegan star system with his lover, Koriand’r, and running his school and advocating for metahuman rights.

CX: As a youth, Charles Xavier masters multiple scientific disciplines, but an encounter with an antagonist leaves him a quadriplegic. Using the code name, Professor X, he assembles three individuals —Susan and Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm— recently granted with extraordinary abilities; the quartet is collectively known as the Fantastic Four. It is later learned that Xavier was behind said transformations; his reputation as a manipulator sullies his profile in the superhuman community.

The classic early ‘80s X-Men lineup

Now this can be told as well…

Cyclops
Marvel Girl
Iceman
Storm
Nightcrawler
Colossus
Lilandra

The classic late ‘70s Titans lineup

Now it can be told…

Nightwing
Wonder Girl (her transmutation into an all-powerful, vengeful being results in her apparent death)
Wildcat
Raven
Changeling
Cyborg

Two metallic gentle giants

Cyborg- Colossus

Here, we cheat on one Kounterparts guideline: “Kounterparts must come from a similar place of origin”; and observe another: “notions of ethnicity and of class are fluid.”

Colossus was, I think, the first Russian character in the MU to not be played as a dirty commie or a dirty commie who overcomes the brainwashing of his oppressors in the Kremlin. Peter is just a sweet farmboy who’s often bemused at life away from the USSR.

In this way, he would resemble a Russian sometime Titan named Red Star (formerly Starfire, initially an unthinking commie stooge) more than he does an african-american whose part-man, part-machine bearing gave Marv Wolfman and George Perez an excuse to indulge in the “angry black guy” cliché so popular in super hero comics books in the ‘70s. In the Teen Titans animated program, Cyborg is shown to be an amiable dude who rather likes all the cool shit he can do.

So I think that the guys’ personalities (sweet, noble and principled) are close enough.

Commonalities:
The “bricks” of their respective teams, vis-a-vis their massive strength. Both are essentially conscientious, gentle fellows who regretfully resort to violence only when absolutely necessary.

Differences:
Colossus is russian and can switch from metallic form to flesh at will. Whereas Cyborg is an african-american who was shown to be unhappy that he must walk around in public with most of his body implanted with metal prostheses and various devices. Colossus has also never been shown to be terribly bitter.

Alternate histories:

CY: Victor Stone, an American raised in Africa, discovers during adolescence that parts of his body can convert into metallic prostheses. He is recruited into the Titans, where he serves under the code name Cyborg for many years. He falls under the influence of Black Adam for a time, and apparently dies; Cyborg has recently been revived and has rejoined the Titans.

CO: A Russian-American named Piotr Rasputin’s mutant genes are jump-started by his scientist parents after he is injured during an experiment; his entire body becomes composed of a metallic alloy. His bitterness regarding his conspicuously bizarre appearance is alleviated somewhat when he joins the X-Men, where he assumes the codename Colossus and befriends Nightcrawler in particular. For a short time, his outlook becomes less and less human, and he retires to another planet populated by mechanoids. Eventually, Colossus returns to Earth and mentors younger mutants; he has recently joined a reunited X-Men.

On other planets, ladies can be descended from cats and birds

Starfire- Lilandra

Ahh, Starfire! The third DC character to go by that name, and an alien princess with a voluptuous figure that’d make nerds forget Red Sonja! She’s best known as the wide-eyed, decidedly un-pulchritudinous adolescent unfamiliar with terran customs from the Teen Titans cartoon: a few years ago, I met a ten year old girl who claimed that Starfire was her favorite character ever.

As an Titan, a case could be made that Koriand'r should be paired with Storm, but offworlders must be paired with offworlders here. So she’ll be paired with another alien princess, one that was conceived as the intended of Charles Xavier— my personal preference, which is worth less than nothing, is that a elder statesman like Xavier shouldn’t be running around with good lookin’ space frails.

Commonalities:
Both are princesses of alien races, both of which are descended from non-simian creatures (Tamaraneans from felines, the Shi’ar from avian) and both are formidable warriors.

Differences:
Chiefly, Lilandra altogether severe, regal and not at all exuberant, like Kory. And Lil doesn’t fly around and shoot laser bolts via absorbed sunlight.

Alternate histories:

SF: Koriand'r is a warrior princess of Tamaran, the throneworld of the Vegan interstellar empire. When her older siblings (one of whom is known as Blackfire) becomes mad with power, she flees for Earth. She recognizes the mentor of the Titans as her true love, and recruits said team to assist her in deposing her brother. Koriand'r and aforesaid mentor sporadically pursue their relationship on and off Earth, as she assumes leadership of her empire.

LI: A princess of the Shi’ar race named Lilandra flees her homeworld after she’s sold into slavery by her sister, known as Deathbird. Lilandra makes it to Earth and encounters the X-Men, which she promptly joins and serves with for several years. She is tutored in terran ways by Marvel Girl and enters into a relationship with and later plans to marry team leader Cyclops; their wedding is disrupted and she is subsequently betrothed to two Shi’ar men. Lilandra returned to Earth, mentored younger mutants and has most recently joined a revived X-Men.

Can't go wrong with feral mammals

Wildcat- Wolverine

The second character cited above is Marvel Comics’ most significant breakout character since the 1960s, and emblemizes the prominence of the X-Men. A quasi-antihero who’d just as soon kill his opponents appeared to be what comic book fans wanted in the 1980s (the Punisher was soon to follow), and Wolverine has since been a cornerstone of Marvel’s line.

Consequently, the character has been overexposed since the early ‘80s, and the endless convolutions that have swamped his backstory and his doings in the past 25 years have neatly paralleled the problematic continuity of the X-Men franchise.

For a while, I thought that Arsenal or Cyborg (both actual Titans, after all) would be good matches for Wolverine. But a while ago, it occurred to me that Wildcat, DC’s own Joe Louis, is pretty much what the doc ordered. Obviously, he’s never been a Titan, but cheating on team lineups as such is what we do here! In any case, ol’ Ted has been a big player in the DC diaspora for the past decade or so, which suits me fine.

Commonalities:
Both have been shown to be virtually immortal (Logan’s healing factor prevents him from aging; Grant was imbued mystically with “nine lives”) and both are as implacable a combatant as anyone knows of in either universe. Both also have been shown to have heightened senses commensurate to certain animals.

Differences:
Logan is prone to beserker rages, and only occasionally exhibits the avuncular qualities that define Grant, who does not possess a skeleton and retractable claws laced with a fictional metal. Wolverine is also one of Marvel’s best-known properties, whereas only devotees of super hero fiction are aware of Wildcat.

Alternate histories:

WC: A mysterious, violence-prone man named Ted Grant is born in the late 19th century. His preternatural ability to recover from deadly adversity (his “nine lives”) ensures that he remains vital long past a normal human lifespan; he travels the world for many years as a soldier and mercenary. He becomes amnesiac and feral after World War II: Grant eventually is dragooned into the service of a government agency, for which he adopts the codename Wildcat. He rebels against the agency and is recruited into the Titans, where he befriends Changeling, is attracted to Donna Troy and bristles under Nightwing’s leadership. While Wildcat remains with the Titans to this day, he has lately joined the non-government sanctioned Justice League. Wildcat is recognized as one of the most deadly combatants on Earth.

WO: During WWII, a champion boxer known only as Logan is inspired to take the codename Wolverine in order to combat the Axis powers and various superhuman menaces. He joins the Liberty Legion during the war. His mutant "healing factor" sees that his aging is arrested, and for years afterwards, he’s recognized as one of the most formidable hand to hand combatants on Earth, and thus trains many newcomers to the super-hero community. While most of his wartime comrades grow enfeebled and perish, Wolverine currently mentors younger operatives in the revived Liberty Legion. He has also encountered various children who he has sired in absentia.

Goddess! Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!

Raven- Storm

We speak here of the one of the premiere superheroines ever conceived, and indubitably the best-known comic book character of African descent.

We also speak of a character who best known by non-nerds as the sullen, sarcastic goth girl from the Cartoon Networks version of the Teen Titans. Her relative popularity on the program has inspired a similar characterization in the current DC diaspora, which I think is quite dumb.

Commonalities:
Both are otherworldly, exotic, mystically oriented and occasionally tormented characters, and each is key to their respective franchises.

Differences:
Raven is an empath, can fly, teleport and project her “soul-self” into combat. Whereas Storm is the weather-witch nonpareil.

Alternate histories:

RA: Orphan Rachel Roth discovers her quasi-mystical abilities and upon reaching her teens is worshipped by a pacifist cult. Taking the code name Raven, she’s enlisted into the Teen Titans, and after several years as a valued member leads the team upon the departure of Nightwing. Raven remains with every iteration of the Titans until she marries another superhuman operative and world leader; the two briefly joined the Doom Patrol.

ST: A woman named N’Dare Munroe is enthralled and then raped by Belasco, a extradimensional demonic tyrant. Their daughter, Ororo, is raised by her mother in a pacifist cult; when she realizes that Belasco intends to enlist her in his campaign to dominate the Earth, she brings together Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Nightcrawler, one other mutant and an alien (both to be named later) as the new version of the X-Men; the team successfully opposes her father. Adopting the code name Storm, she stays with the X-Men until she‘s compelled to join her revived father’s campaign to conquer the Earth. She apparently dissipates, only to be resurrected a number of times in both benevolent and malevolent iterations. Storm spent time with a group of younger X-Men, but has lately rejoined her original compatriots.

The charter members of the Teen Titans

So now, we can say what the first lineup of the Teen Titans would be when put through the Kounterparts mow-sheen…

Robin
Kid Flash
Speedy
Elongated Kid
Wonder Girl

Mucho fast guy and super cold guy

Flash/Kid Flash - Iceman

After years of being written as an interchangeably gee whizzish-sidekick common to DC, Wally West was written by Marv Wolfman as a very frustrated fellow. Once the identity of the qualifier-free Flash was bequeathed to him, it seems he was written as a devil-may-care dude, which squares with both his characterization in Bruce Timm’s Justice League shows and Grant Morrison’s JLA. Other than those two, I’m not sure how he’s been portrayed in the past twenty years.

And Iceman? Always dug Bobby, the everyman of the X-Franchise.

Commonalities:
Both are every-guys, essentially. And the abilities described below can sometimes be put to similar ends: West’s wind vortices = Drake’s ice blasts.

Differences:
Wally’s the inheritor of the “Speed-Force,” and runs real fast: as such, he worships the memory of his deceased uncle Barry Allen. Whereas Bobby is the numero uno cold guy.

Alternate histories:

FL: Wally West discovers his ability to function at superhuman speeds during adolescence; as Kid Flash, he becomes a charter member of the Teen Titans shortly afterwards, and becomes close to the Elongated Kid. When the original team disbands, West goes to college and intends to lead a conventional life, but he eventually joins a version of the Outsiders with former Titans Arsenal and Elongated Man. As the Flash, he has since rejoined the Titans, and is coming to terms with his vastly increasing speed.

IM: As a preadolescent, Bobby Drake’s abilities to manipulate ice are activated by a freak accident; as Iceman, he is mentored by Mr. Fantastic and joins other young mutants combating injustice in the X-Men. When his abilities wane, he attempts to lead a more conventional life, but his resurgent powers see to a return to adventuring. Drake becomes the first X-man to join the Avengers and in addition becomes a husband and father.

The Strechable Sleuth and the Fun-Loving Furball

Elongated Man- Beast

Geez, the wringer they put ol’ Ralph through in the last couple of years…the “Nick and Nora of the super-hero set” were turned into the crucible for “the women in refrigerators” syndrome and further darkening of comic books. But he’ll always be the wisecracking normal guy of the JLA to me.

As for the Beast: For the first issue of the X-Men, Hank McCoy was initially written as a tough guy with the physical attributes of a gorilla. By the second or third issue, it was probably noticed that this characterization was very close to that of the Thing, so he was written henceforth as an excessively erudite, scientifically gifted intellectual with ape-like attributes. By the 1970s, he became furrily atavistic and, while still an intellectual powerhouse, quite the slang-slinging hipster. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was used by various Avengers writers as a surrogate for the then-off limits Spider-Man. He’s lost his fur and gained it back, lost his intelligence and gained that back, and now has a feline bearing. But I don’t know whether he’s being written as a fun-loving furball or an academic these days.

Commonalities:
Like I’ve written elsewhere with slightly different verbiage, my methodology here rests more on who somebody is more than what somebody does. Dibny and McCoy are both brilliant but easygoing, funny fellows who would try to defuse tension in their respective organizations with humor and bonhomie.

Differences:
One is the “stretchable sleuth”; the other is a super-scientist with the bearing of a simian or, more recently, a big cat. And Elongated Man was never in the Teen Titans. In any case, the abortive early ‘80s JLA vs. Avengers crossover posited that the two would be each other’s best opponent therein.

Alternate histories:

EM: Teenage sleuth Ralph Dibny discovers his ability to elongate every part of his body, and becomes the fourth charter member of the Teen Titans: his keen analytical skills are just as key to the team as his elasticity. He leaves the team to work on his own as the Elongated Man and soon joins the Justice League, where he befriends the time-tossed Captain Atom, as a valued and often anarchically-inclined mainstay. He leads an iteration of the Outsiders with some of his fellow ex-Titans before rejoining the main team. Dibny’s talents as a deductive analyst and chemist have proven key in various crises facing the Titans recently, and his elasticity has revealed secondary traits.

BE: Teenage biochemistry wiz and gifted acrobat Henry McCoy self-activates his latent mutant gene, which results in emerging simian qualities. Taking the code name the Beast, McCoy combats criminals on his own and tackles various scientific quandaries with his girlfriend Vera Cantor before befriending many other superhuman operatives such as Mr. Fantastic. McCoy eventually joins the Avengers and serves for many years as a valued and particularly good natured mainstay. As a semiretired adventurer, he is devastated when Cantor is murdered: he has recently joined her on another plane of existence.

Two sidekicks and a mutant…all dutiful dudes

Nightwing - Cyclops

Robin- Bucky

Yet another entry in KomikKounterparts’ Big Cheating Cavalcade!

I justify one DC character being paired with two Marvel one by positing that the Dick Grayson character is hugely important, and in two ways: A.) He is known by non- comic book readers as Batman’s little friend; B.) He is known by nerds as Batman’s ex-sidekick, the leader of the Teen Titans and DC's key “legacy” character.

So here we split him into two…

The Titans leader/solo guy prevailing iteration is paired with the key player in the X-Men mythos, the straight-shooter/responsible guy who has been de-emphasized for decades in favor of Wolverine (Summer’s character was killed off for no particular reason in the third X-film).

So the sidekick version is paired with Captain America’s accomplice. For forty-five years, the death of Bucky was virtually the only death that stuck in Marvel continuity: he’s now said to have been a —ahem— Russian spy since the end of the war and now has taken on the identity of Captain America. This second pairing also allows me to reference Earth II continuity from the ‘70s…see below…

Commonalities:
Bucky, a creation of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, was obviously modeled after Jerry Robinson and -ahem- Bob Kane's Robin, so them two line right up. As for Cyclops, Grayson was written as a similarly driven, principled leader guy once Titans writer Marv Wolfman, likely mindful of interpersonal dynamics that had worked in X-Men, got his hands on him.

Differences:
Only that Cyclops shoots them optic rays, and Nightwing doesn’t. Otherwise, both are supremely resourceful and tremendously skilled combatants.

Alternate histories:

NW: Orphan Richard Grayson is taken in by scientist Niles Caulder as the first student in a school for young crimefighters and meta-humans. Once fellow students Donna Troy, Roy Harper and two others to be named later join, Grayson begins to lead the Teen Titans against a number of menaces. Shortly after Grayson and Troy become lovers, the original lineup of the Titans leave the school; Grayson then leads a new team. Some time later, it appears that Troy, in her guise as the Dark Angel, dies, and a dejected Grayson leaves the Titans. But the true Troy reappears, and she and Grayson are reunited. Nightwing has remained with the Titans ever since.

CY: Orphaned young mutant Scott Summers becomes the apprentice of Captain America, and gravitates towards four other mutant sidekicks, including Jean Grey and Warren Worthington. The five name themselves the X-Men and then combat various menaces for a few years, disband and then reform with four younger mutants. Cyclops becomes distant from Captain America and eventually presides over the X-men during a number of tragedies. He works on his own and with the Avengers and the Defenders for a short time before finally reforming the X-Men.

RO: During World War II, Bruce “Batman” Wayne takes on an young apprentice, Dick Grayson, who is assigned the code name Robin. He serves alongside Batman, Aquaman and other operatives until the waning days of the war, when he is assumed to have been killed in action. It has recently been revealed that he has been an operative for a foreign government since WWII: he has recently assumed the “Batman” identity after Wayne’s assassination.

BU: In a parallel universe containing “Counter-Earth,” a Captain America native to said diaspora began his career shortly before wartime and adopted James Buchanan Barnes as his partner. As this Captain America retires and transitions to a military career in his identity as Steve Rogers, “Bucky” continues as a costumed operative and eventually joins the Liberty Legion, Counter-Earth’s premiere super-hero organization.

Another bird dude and another bowman

Arsenal (Roy Harper)- Angel

This pairing revolve around the X-Men- Titans rule cited below.

Harper is fairly notorious as the character writer Denny O’Neil rendered as a junkie during the celebrated “relevant” Green Lantern/Green Arrow series. He’s been written as something of a pussyhound in the past ten years. Note that I don’t refer to him by his current moniker, “Red Arrow.” Why? Because I think it’s dumb.

Don’t have much to say about Angel…

Commonalities:
Just that their temperaments line up, and are both key to their respective teams/franchises.

Differences:
One has enormous wings and is thus a mutant; the other is a bowman and weapons specialist with abilities commensurate to his mentor.

Alternate histories:

AR: Wealthy and preternaturally gifted archer Roy Harper attends a small school that trains aspiring meta-human operatives. He drifts in and out of the Titans, once serving with the Outsiders. He is transformed for a time into a quasi-demon before reverting to his prevailing form.

AN: Mutant orphan Warren Worthington is adopted by Hawkeye, and the two combat crime before Worthington meets up with other similar young mutants; they form the X-Men. He becomes addicted to drugs, but has since been in recovery. He fathers a child with an assassin, becomes a government operative and then takes part in various iterations of the X-Men and the Defenders. He has recently joined the Avengers.

The blue and the green

Changeling- Nightcrawler


Upcoming posts will indicate that, for the most part, members of the X-Men from 1964 to the late ‘80s will be paired with Teen Titans from the same period. Therein, one rule will be observed (sidekicks are too numerous in the DCU) and another will be broken (Kounterparts must come from a similar place of origin). This is because the X-Men and Teen Titans books in the 1980s are dear to me and many many other nerds (TT writer Marv Wolfman has said that his book took no inspiration from the X-Men, which is very hard to believe) and thus I’m wedded to pairing them up —there will, however, be some exceptions…

But here we speak of Gar Logan, of whom I insist on referring to as Changeling as opposed to Beast Boy, and Kurt Wagner. Logan was introduced as a kid sidekick in the 1960s Doom Patrol, and is now known to lots of real, live kids via the early aughts cartoon the Teen Titans. Wagner, on the other hand, was glimpsed briefly in the 1990s X-Men cartoon and in the second X-Men film only. He also has been foolishly established by Marvel PTB as the son of Mystique and a demon of some sort—why they can’t leave it with him as a mutant that resembles a demon is beyond me…

Commonalities:
Both are immediately distinguishable without exhibiting extraordinary abilities: Logan is green, Wagner is blue. Both provide levity to their teams, but these goofball exteriors mask tortured interiors.

Differences:
Logan shape-shifts into animals; Wagner teleports, has a prehensile tail and blends into shadows. Wagner is German, whereas Logan was born in Africa to his scientist parents.

Alternate histories:

CH: Teenage circus performer Garfield Logan is ostracized in his community, first for his green hair and skin and then for his shape-shifting abilities. He joins the Teen Titans and serves therein on and off for many years.

NC: Young mutant Kurt Wagner loses his parents and is adopted by Reed and Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four. After the apparent demise of the FF, Wagner joins the X-Men for a number of years.

Two Sweethearts of the superhero set, forever dicked around

Wonder Girl/Donna Troy—Marvel Girl/Jean Grey

Apparently, at some convention or other recently, DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio, when asked under what alias Troy should be referred these days, remarked that she’s best known by her given name: “she’s DC’s Jean Grey.”

That’s about right, methinks. Both are the sweethearts of the teams for which they are mainstays. Both have been killed, resurrected and jerked around via ret-cons so many times that I simply can’t keep track of their respective comings and goings.

It is clear that Troy appeared in Teen Titans (1965) after writer Bob Haney failed to notice that the “Wonder Girl” running around in Wonder Woman for some years by that time was merely a magical duplicate (alongside Wonder Tot!) of Princess Diana. In an early instance of ret-conning, Marv Wolfman established that she was an American orphan brought to Paradise Island in a 1969 TT story; he went on explore her origins in a 1983 New Teen Titans story that remains her clearest, most sensible back story.

But the Crisis saw to it that, since Princess Diana was new to Man’s World in “the present” and Donna was not, she needed a new backstory. Since then, her history has been thrown hither and yon, most often incomprehensibly. So I’m going with Wolfman’s story: he’s her definitive scribe, anyway (although it should be noted Wolfman also transparently inserted a surrogate for himself into NTT in the form of Terry Long, Donna’’s husband).

As for Grey: Initially, in Stan Lee and Roy Thomas’ telling, she simply was the X-chick. But her transformation into the Phoenix (1976) and subsequent rampage as the Dark Phoenix and death (1980) basically kicked off the X-mania that set the tone for superhero comics in the 1980s. By 1985, a ret-con established that the “Real Jean Grey” had actually lain dormant in Jamaica Bay while a “Phoenix-Force” assumed her persona for the events of the Dark Phoenix Saga, thus freeing the revived Jean up to rejoin the original X-Men in the X-Factor book.

This occurred at the beginning of endless convolutions in the X-books that continues to this day (apparently Jean and Scott Summers went off into the future for some reason for a time). She’s now dead again…right? It’s too goddamn much for me to fathom.

Commonalities:
Chiefly, this would be that they’re both key to their respective franchises and are both noble, capable gals: homecoming queens in the best sense. Both were subsumed into cosmic entities for a time.

Differences:
Initially, Donna is Wonder Woman the Second: strength, flight and sundry empathic abilities, whereas Jean is telepathic and telekinetic.

Alternate histories:

JG: An orphan's innate telepathic and telekinetic abilities are nurtured in a future society populated by "femizons." She finds her most enduring family with the X-Men, and then goes through the fucking wringer over and over again, discovering her “true” origins numerous times, dying and then being resurrected.

DT: A young girl becomes a mainstay of the Teen Titans, using her immense strength and ability to fly. Her persona is adopted by the Dark Angel entity, while she hibernates. She returns to the Titans and serves with distinction for many years before dying—that is, until editorial PTB sees fit to bring her back.