Marvel Comics started telling superhero stories in the Golden Age, but were nowhere near as successful as DC was. They got out of the superhero business in the ’50s but the success of DC’s Silver Age reboot saw them get back into it with Fantastic Four #1. Since then, the Marvel Universe has been going strong, redefining what a superhero story could be. The creators at Marvel changed a lot about the superhero, but one thing that they didn’t change is legacy. Comics are a business that plays into nostalgia and this has meant new characters being put into old mantles. While DC is better known for their legacy characters, Marvel has more than most fans imagine.
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Marvel got into the legacy game almost immediately. In fact, some of the most famous Marvel heroes of all time – including some characters who were made into household names by the MCU – are legacy heroes and most don’t even know it. The whole point of legacy heroes is to improve upon the original, and Marvel’s first legacy heroes did this with varying degrees of success. These are Marvel’s first ten legacy heroes, people who tried to step into the shoes of giants to protect the innocent.
10) Sam Wilson
Sam Wilson has become Captain America, but it’s been a long road getting there. He started his career as the Falcon, working to fight for his neighborhood and teaming with Cap. Technically, there was no other Falcon before him, but he’s still considered a legacy hero since he was Steve Roger’s sidekicks for years. As far as improving over Steve, Sam is a great hero but he’s nowhere near Rogers’ stature. Steve is the greatest leader in the history of the Marvel Universe and one of the most formidable hand to hand combatants ever. He’s stared down gods and universe-eating monsters, never flinching. Sam is a good leader and a great fighter, but he’s just not on Steve’s level. That said, he still deserves his place as the second Captain America. He brought something new to the mantle and this has made him a favorite of fans. He also has one of the coolest Cap costumes ever.
9) Angel
The X-Men were a unique team when they first came out, introducing a new kind of superhuman to the world. While it might seem like they are all original characters, there was technically a legacy hero among them – Angel. The winged mutant was the X-Men’s least useful member; sure he could fly, but he didn’t have any kind of offensive abilities. He even had hollow bones to help him fly more easily and wouldn’t actually become a useful hero until he was transformed into Archangel. Back in the Golden Age, there was another Angel. Thomas Holloway became a costumed vigilante back in the days of World War II, battling against the greatest threats of the ’40s. Warren has some great stories, but most of them all deal with the same things nowadays and as far as having a personality, he doesn’t really have one. The original Angel wasn’t amazing, but he honestly wasn’t better than his predecessor, even after he became Archangel.
8) William Burnside
Captain America’s return in 1964 revolved around a massive retcon to his history. This story revealed that he had been frozen before the end of World War II, but this contradicted the real life ’50s Captain America comics, ones that felt like they starred a completely different Sentinel of Liberty. This led to those stories being retconned as well down the road. Now, the US government made a new super soldier serum and gave it to William Burnside, who became the “commie-smasher” Cap, driven mad by the serum. He’d return in the modern day as an evil Cap and eventually ended up fighting against Bucky when he was wearing the stars and stripes. Burnside is stronger than Steve, which is an improvement, but other than that, he’s nowhere near as cool, experienced, or skilled. It was an interesting idea to make Burnside into a villain, though, because there’s just something about a villainous Captain America that is fun. He hasn’t been seen in a while, but that doesn’t mean he can’t come back.
7) Jack Monroe
Jack Monroe is an interesting example of a double legacy hero, once after the fact. When the William Burnside retcon was established, it was revealed that his Bucky was Jack Monroe. He fought alongside Burnside when he returned in the modern day, but Cap was able to help him see that what they were doing was wrong. The former Bucky would end up becoming the new Nomad, taking up the identity that Steve had taken after his fight with the first Secret Empire. He was never very popular but he still got two series’ in the early ’90s, a mini and an ongoing, which followed him and his adopted daughter Bucky on adventures across the United States. They weren’t exactly great series’ (but they also wasn’t bad either; I bought several issues of the ongoing off my local gas station spinner rack) and would end up cancelled. He’d eventually become the Scourge of the Underworld before getting killed by the Winter Soldier. He wasn’t all that much of an improvement over the original Bucky, but he was cooler than he got credit for.
6) Goliath II
Hank Pym is one of Marvel’s greatest heroes, one who has created numerous legacies over the years. He started out as Ant-Man, using his Pym Particles to shrink. Eventually, he’d perfect the ability to make himself grow larger, first becoming Giant-Man then taking the name Goliath. Eventually, another man would take over the mantle of Goliath – Bill Foster. Bill was basically a C-list hero for most of his career. He’d show up on the lower level teams, but rarely got any solo spotlight outside anthology books. There were years where he completely disappeared, but he would return in Civil War and end up getting killed by the cybernetic Thor clone Ragnarok. Hank Pym has a complicated legacy in Marvel Comics, but he is one of the best characters out there, his struggles with his mental health making him rather interesting. Bill is just a run of the mill superhero character; at best he’s not an improvement at all over Hank and at worst, he’s nowhere near as cool.
5) Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
Bucky has had a greater career than anyone would have guessed, especially those of us who started reading comics at any time before 2005. Captain America’s first sidekick was introduced in Captain America Comics #1, becoming an integral part of his early adventures. He’d become one of the most important Golden Age Marvel characters, fading away in the ’50s. He would get retconned in Avengers (Vol. 1) #4, revealing that he had been killed at the end of World War II. For decades, there was an unwritten (but much talked about in fan circles) rule that he would never come back. All of that changed in Captain America (Vol. 5) when it was revealed that the Soviets made him into the Winter Soldier. This led to Cap trying to save his old friend, succeeding right before he was assassinated after Civil War. Bucky would eventually take up Steve’s mantle, becoming Captain America from ’07 to ’10, when Steve was resurrected (Captain America Reborn is amazing and you need to hunt it down). He’s since went back to being the Winter Soldier and has been floundering ever since. He’s not really an improvement over Steve at all, but he is a great character in his own right.
4) Toro
The original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, was the first Marvel superhero (along with Namor). He was a robot that had fire powers and he ended up facing off against the Sub-Mariner before joining the battle against the Nazis in World War II. Because it was the Golden Age of Comics and Robin had just made a massive splash in 1940, he was give a sidekick six months later: Toro. He’d end up hanging out with Bucky a lot and burning Nazis to death, which is really what every young boy wants to do with their life deep down (okay, maybe not so deep down… wait, am I the only one who wanted to burn Nazis as my future career?). He never got to take his mentor’s place though, as the Marvel superheroes went the way of the dodo in the ’50s. He’s been killed, resurrected, and revealed to be an Inhuman in the decades since. Jim Hammond burnt Adolf Hitler to death; you can’t really get much better than that. So, Toro is another example of someone who isn’t an improvement over their mentor, but he’s still an amazing character.
3) Black Widow
The Avengers turned numerous villains into heroes, including Black Widow. When she first appeared, Natasha Romanoff was a Soviet spy who was trying to steal the plans to Iron Man’s armor. Her origin was greatly expanded upon after she became a hero, revealing that she had been trained by the Winter Soldier in the Red Room and dosed with the Infinity Formula to keep her young and spry. Since becoming a hero, she has been a member of the Avengers and the Champions, often working with SHIELD and Daredevil, her former boyfriend. Most fans don’t really know that she’s a legacy hero. In the Golden Age, there was a woman named Clair Voyant, a medium who became the servant of a demon and gained magical powers. She was honestly a lot cooler than you can imagine and was brought into the modern age by The Twelve, which starred 12 Golden Age heroes you’ve never heard of. While Black Widow is something of an improvement over her predecessor, the old Black Widow is an amazing character.
2) Johnny Storm
Johnny Storm is the brother to Sue Storm, part of the crew that sneaked onto Reed Richards’ Marvel-1, along with pilot Ben Grimm. The four of them were exposed to cosmic radiation and crashed to Earth, becoming the Fantastic Four. Johnny gained the power to control fire and took up the name the Human Torch, the same one as Jim Hammond. He was the young hothead of the group, always ready to burn any enemy in front of him. He’d become one of the most popular superhumans on Earth, using his notoriety to date every pretty woman he came across and become a worldwide superstar. Johnny has had quite a time as the Human Torch, saving the universe numerous times and proving that he was more than just an impulsive, callow youth. On the one hand, he’s definitely an improvement over Jim in many ways; he’s more popular and a better character with a great history and a pretty well-rounded personality. However, Johnny didn’t get to burn Hitler to death. So, while he’s definitely an improvement, he’ll never be as cool as the original Human Torch.
1) The Vision
The Vision was created by Ultron to be his ultimate weapon against the Avengers. The mad android created the synthezoid, basing his brain off Wonder Man’s, and wanted him to destroy Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. However, he saw that they were amazing heroes and great people, so he decided to join them. Since then, he’s become one of the most stalwart members of the group, a powerhouse who rarely gets the credit for just how powerful and important he is. The Vision is a legacy character for two different characters (technically three if you count the fact his brain was based on Wonder Man’s); the first is obviously Ultron, who created him, and the other is the Golden Age Vision. He was an alien policeman from the Smokeworld, come to Earth to battle evil. The Vision is a massive improvement over him; the chances you’ve heard of the original Vision or knew that Vision was a legacy hero at all is close to nil (unless you’ve read two different articles I’ve written at two different websites who have talked about him).
What’s your favorite Marvel legacy hero? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
