On Thursday I asked for help on Twitter listing the most successful original (non-legacy/revamp) DCU characters created since 1990.
My original thought was to look for characters who had solo series lasting at least 5 years, and all I could come up with was Hitman. Maybe Impulse, depending on how you defined original. I asked on Twitter, and @JCorduroy suggested Harley Quinn, whose solo series didn’t last that long, but who has undoubtedly had a huge impact on the Batman corner of the DCU, and I realized the criteria might be a bit too tight.
Thanks to everyone who’s helped me come up with this list so far:
Characters/Teams with long-running series:
- Azrael
- Hitman
- Impulse*
- Static (Milestone)
- Steel*
- Stormwatch/The Authority (WildStorm)
- Birds of Prey – new team with pre-existing characters
*I’m not 100% certain Impulse and Steel qualify as original. They’re spinoffs of existing characters, but they’re new roles and identities, so they’re certainly more original than, say, Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, Cassie Sandsmark as Wonder Girl, Tim Drake as Robin, or Linda Danvers as Supergirl.
Characters with less successful or no series, but who have made a major impact:
- Harley Quinn – import from Batman: The Animated series. Solo series was short, but hard to imagine the Bat-verse without her.
- Renee Montoya – I’m a little less certain about her than Harley.
- Bane
- Doomsday
I’m not counting Young Justice, since there’s so much overlap with the Teen Titans in concept and membership that I’m not sure you can really consider it a new team. A couple of people suggested Resurrection Man, but his series only lasted about two years, and he basically disappeared afterward. We’ll have to see how well the new book does. Chase was also suggested, but sadly her series crashed and burned despite being made of awesome.
So…who am I missing?
Again, I’m looking for original DCU characters created since 1990 that have had a long-running series or made a huge long-term impact on the DCU.
I know there are more Milestone and Wildstorm characters or teams with long-running series, but I’m not familiar enough with them to be able to say which have been the most successful.