Originally published January 18, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1470
Picking up from last week, we’re doing a bit of time traveling backward and forward simultaneously, by reviewing the poll taken in this very column back in 1992 speculating as to the state of our little industry ten years hence… which is to say, 2002, i.e., now.
Yes, cast yourself back to the early 1990s, back when we were bombing the crap out of the Middle East and a guy named Bush was president. Back in that far-flung era bearing no resemblance to our own, fans believed that after the turn of the century: Marvel would be the top company; Image and Valiant were the two likeliest companies to be out of business; and the comic topping the sales charts didn’t yet exist. Now let’s see what else they, and we, had to say.
The following characters will have died and been replaced by someone else bearing the same name:
Iron Man 126 57.53%
Robin 113 51.60%
Punisher 97 44.29%
Captain America 89 40.64%
Superman 67 30.59%
Spawn 65 29.68%
Wonder Woman 54 24.66%
Spider-Man 44 20.09%
Batman 33 15.07%
Wolverine 23 10.50%
Hulk 7 3.20%
Flash 6 2.74%
Green Lantern 5 2.28%
Lobo 3 1.37%
Thor 2 0.91%
Archie 2 0.91%
Daredevil 2 0.91%
Aquaman 2 0.91%
Single votes were also received for, among others, Swamp Thing, Doc Strange, Quicksilver, Jean Grey, Aunt May, and Barbie.
Well… let’s see. At the time the poll was taken, Jim Rhodes was Iron Man. Since then, the armored identity has been taken back by Tony Stark, not to mention teen Tony (and, thankfully, we won’t.) Jim Rhodes did not die, although he is a War Machine. And he won’t work for nobody but you. Robin is still Tim Drake, Punisher is Frank Castle, God knows what’s up with Captain America. Superman was already a goner at the time of the poll, so that hardly counts. Spawn, well, his sales have died, but he’s still around.
But about midlist, we started hitting paydirt. Wonder Woman was replaced twice. First she was replaced by the renegade Amazon, Artemis, as a gambit by her mother, Hippolyta, to protect her. Diana reclaimed her title… and was shortly thereafter killed by Neron, proving once and for all that mother knows best. So Diana was replaced a second time, as her mother stepped into the role of Wonder Woman while Diana was elevated to divinity (yes, that’s right, she was turned into fudge). But she later gave up her divinity to become Wonder Woman again, because it was the heroic and dietetic thing to do.
Then there’s Spider-Man. Oh my God, when it comes to characters being killed off and replaced, where do you even start? There was Peter Parker, and he wasn’t killed off, but he was replaced by Ben Riley because it turned out he hadn’t been Spider-Man in years, except it turns out that wasn’t the case and Ben Riley is dead, and…
On second thought, better not to have started at all.
Batman didn’t die, but the very next year he got his back broken by Bane… and, sure enough, Batman was then replaced by Azrael… who was later replaced by Bruce Wayne.
Wolverine didn’t die, although he came dámņëd near when some idiot suggested Magneto rip out his Adamantium skeleton. However his Canuck citizenship seems dead, as per Origin, since it now appears that Logan did not wander in from the Canadian woods but instead from a bizarre hybrid of Masterpiece Theater and Twin Peaks. Hulk is still with us, Flash is still Wally West, Green Lantern…
Well, hey, Green Lantern, we have a major winner. Whereas others in the poll died or were shunted aside and replaced, but eventually returned to active duty, Green Lantern is now Kyle Baker… I’m sorry, Kyle Rayner, while Hal Jordan is about as dead as one can get, having gone totally postal, getting himself annihilated, and becoming the Spectre. Only Deadman is deader than the Spectre. A measly five respondents saw it coming.
Lobo, Thor, Archie Andrews and Daredevil are still sucking oxygen. Aquaman… hmmmm. Well, two people predicted he would die, and for all I know it was the same two people who were actually reading the series. Whether he’s to be replaced, couldn’t tell you. As for the single vote-getters, Swamp Thing was replaced by someone of the same name, although he didn’t die, but her book did; and Aunt May did in fact die… but then she was replaced by, well… herself, I guess.
And once again, ten years, later, I still gotta ask: Barbie?
The following person will be the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics (should there be a Marvel Comics):
Mark Gruenwald 49 22.37%
Fabian Nicieza 28 12.79%
Peter David 28 12.79%
Tom DeFalco 19 8.68%
Jim Shooter 12 5.48%
John Byrne 12 5.48%
Chris Claremont 10 4.57%
Rob Liefeld 8 3.65%
Bob Harras 8 3.65%
Mike Carlin 6 2.74%
Who Cares 6 2.74%
Todd McFarlane 3 1.37%
Paul Levitz 2 0.91%
Name Withheld 2 0.91%
Single votes also came in for, among others, Joey Cavalieri, Al Milgrom, Roy Thomas, Scott Lobdell, Jim Starlin, Stan Lee, Alan Moore, and Renee Witterstaetter.
The most obvious, and depressing, note is that—of course—Mark Gruenwald, who advanced to Chief Executive editor of all Marvel product lines, and Editor-in-Chief of the FF and Avengers titles, died of a heart attack in 1996 at age (bloody hëll, can you believe it?) 42. We’ll never know what Marvel today would be like were Grueny around, but considering where he placed in the voting, a lot of fans then had a good deal of faith in him.
The list sports three former editors-in-chief (Jim Shooter, Tom DeFalco, and Bob Harras). The most amazing thing, to me, is that not a single person on the list currently has an editorial job at Marvel. Or even a staff job. Not even Stan Lee. How whacked is that? And—as I’m sure you’ve noticed—the name “Joe Quesada” appears nowhere. So congrats, Joe. You beat the odds.
I will take this opportunity to make note of the fact that the Mark Gruenwald Memorial Scholarship, designed to provide opportunities for students of the arts at his alma mater of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, continues to this day. And while I’m busy being bummed out, I will further note the passing of Dan DeCarlo: A comics great, a true gentleman, and someone who deserved a hëll of a lot more peaceful existence in the last few years than he got. He will be missed, and his characters…his characters, not theirs, his… will live on.
More views of the future past next week.
(Peter David, writer of stuff, can be written to at PO Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705.)
• 
The passing of Mark Gruenwald still feels as unfair as it did all those years ago – like it was some kind of mistake that should have been rectified immediately. While I count myself among those who think that Mark, if given proper leeway, would have been great as a Marvel EIC, who knows how well he would have been able to operate as EIC in the corporate craziness that Marvel became. That consideration, however, pails in light of the simple fact that, by all accounts, he was a really good guy who just went way too young.
RIP Grueny.
As to the first question of this article gets revisited again now:
The moniker of “Robin” changed hands a few times in recent years, no suprise there, with any deaths being later being reversed, even if the character doesn’t reclaim the role.
Iron Man, arguably the easiest to replace, has stayed with Stark.
Capt. America has had “Bucky-Cap” and “Falcon-Cap”.
Spidey has had Venom posing as a Spider-Man (without actually replacing him). Does the “Doc-Ock’s Brain” version of Spidey count?
Similarly, Wolverine had an alternate version upsurp (but not replace) the role (along with half the characters in the Dark Avengers)
Bruce Wayne “died” (actually lost in time) and was replaced by Ðìçk Grayson (note that the article misses Ðìçk’s prior stint as Batman after Azrael was ousted and Bruce was not quite ready yet.)
Hulk has gotten several “spinoff” characters who’ve held the name, but now known with some qualifing term.
Wonder Woman has stayed with Diana since the article.
Hal Jordan is now not quite so dead, but technichally the entire GL Corps is made of replacements for dead members, save for those who were brought in during the GLC’s expansion from 3600 to 7200.
Not mentioned in the article, but it did happen during that interval was the 27th Century Flash (John Fox) taking over for Wally West in the 20th Century while Wally was… (I forget, knocking about in time?) Since then Impulse/Kid Flash “graduated” to the role briefly, before dying and returning to being Kid Flash.
And of course Barry Allen himself was brought back to life. Though technically he never ‘died’, just trapped in the Speed Force, which was proven to be escapable by Kid Flash, and Superboy-Prime.
Thor’s now got his distaff replacement.
Daredevil was briefly replaced by Iron Fist, during Matt Murdock’s incarceration.
Aquaman was replaced for a time.
Doctor Strange lost the “Sorcerer Supreme” title to Brother Voodoo for a time. But Strange kept active as an Avenger. “Dr. Strange” was never a nom-de-super-hero.