This summer I ♥ Comics returns to Blog@Newsarama. Each Wednesday comics bloggers and creators will discuss the things they love about the medium.
This week our guest contributor is Johnny Zito, co-creator of the Black Cherry Bombshells at Zuda Comics. He lives in a big house with three of his childhood friends where they jump on beds, bake cupcakes and stay up real late reading comic books.
by Johnny Zito
My definition of an ego character; like most of the facts and opinions contained within this article, is fast and loose.
The ego character appears in team books and crossovers, almost arbitrarily, to remind readers ‘Hey, we still exist’. Take your favorite ‘other guy’, the also ran or b-lister and drop them into the middle of the action. The result can be an amazing character study or a reviled exercise in vanity. Either way, when a creative team dusts off an old character to make them relevant again I get excited.
Ego Characters provide a chance for under used, under developed or unknown characters to get some well deserved exposure. Some of my favorite super heroes are ego characters, probably a few of yours too.
Think of it like this: You’ve just been handed the reins to Justice League of America and you can put whoever you want on the team. Obviously Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman get an automatic pass. You can’t sell books without name recognition. Next, you look to see what other big guns are available; maybe Green Lantern and The Flash. The roster is still looking a little thin not to mention stale so you better keep adding.
What you do with the rest of the team; adding Gypsy, Vibe, Aquaman or Owl Woman will determine the success of your league. Ego characters and your ability to convincingly justify their presence is what the team will be judged on before issue one ever drops.
New additions to an all star team will stir debate and a healthy argument can be a good thing. Big teams are subject to fandom’s worst scrutiny and ego characters face the danger of being labeled as party crashers. Writers are accused of playing favorites but if they didn’t we’d never see Firestorm, Geo-Force, Cloak & Dagger, Deathlok or Howard the Duck. These properties would waste away in back issue bins because they aren’t marquee names.
However, when a writer/series/character all click together; those ego characters can become top tier in their own right.
For instance, I wasn’t a Luke Cage fan until Bendis introduced him in Alias. Luke was filling out the background and adding texture to the detective story. At first he was just a reoccurring character; a possible romantic interest. Since then he’s become leader of The New Avengers, a husband and a father. I’m not sure if I remember him as anything more than a Marvel Trading Card before 1999.
As an ego character Luke Cage has thrived. Plucked from 70’s obscurity he is endowed with parallels to Bendis’ own life; a wife, a child and the challenges of leadership. Luke Cage evolves into a righteous leading man who commands a team of outlaw bad asses. I’m so blown away by the organic shift in his story that when Captain America was killed off I strongly lobbied for Luke Cage to take up the mantle. That’s how much I respect the character now. Bendis made me see what he sees in Luke Cage.
Even while writing this I feel like I’m justifying the ego character’s existence to a skeptical audience. Readers can find it over-indulgent when Norse enthusiast Mike Oeming has Beta Ray Bill join Alpha [Omega] Flight in spite of his -um- non-Canadian status. Others might call it pandering when Manitou Raven is specifically invented to join the Justice League as a thinly veiled update of Super Friends staple Apache Chief. But new additions like this can make me pay attention to a character and pick up a title I would have otherwise passed over.
Recently, Alex Ross lent his Kingdom Come Superman to Justice Society of America. The shake up immediately drew my attention and I’ve been glued ever since. Sure, he brings a new perspective to the book’s central theme of legacies but that hardly compares to the sheer geek-joy of having KC Superman joining the DC Universe proper.
I know KC Superman has to go home to his ending on Earth 22 eventually. In the meantime, I eat it up with a big spoon whenever he shares a scene with the ‘real’ Superman. There are fantastic new possibilities for the series because Ross has dipped his toe into on-going continuity and brought an underutilized ego character with him.
Today, Power Girl is leading the Justice Society and Ms. Marvel calls the shots in The Mighty Avengers. Both had fallen from top billing years ago, now they’re back and more important than ever. Villains like The Hood, Cat Man and Taskmaster are getting the ‘ego’ treatment; being given weight and menace. Echo, Vixen, Sentry, Aztek, Kid Devil, and Night Nurse are all recent inventions rescued from obscurity and thrust into big title lime light. Ego characters rule the big two. Heck, The Initiative was one giant ‘ego’ book with Dan Slott showering love on every 90’s Marvel character they’d let him touch. It worked, too. I care about Slapstick now.
I care about every ego character when the creative team cares enough.
I’m interested to know who your ego characters would be. If you could put together the X-Men, who would you pick? What about the Avengers or the Justice League? Which forgotten characters do you love enough to make everyone else fall in love with, too?
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:49 am
I’ve got a few ego characters.
Two of my favorites are U.S.Agent and Tigra. And being a kid of the 90’s I really like Darkhawk and yes, I’ll admit, even Scarlet-Spider and Kaine.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Woo! Slapstick! The only character from the nineties I actually cared about. (Because Speedball is technically from the 1980’s)
My Ego Avengers would be Speedball (not this Penance crap), Slapstick, and, hell, the whole cast of GLA.
My Ego Justice League would be so ego-filled and so insane that they’d never publish it: Hawk & Dove, The Creeper, Shade the Changing Man, Jack Knight, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Blue Devil, Elongated Man, Captain Atom, The Question, the Ryan Choi Atom, Maya, and, what the hell, since we need a selling point, let’s give the reins to Wonder Woman. Although I don’t see how a book that includes Blue Devil and Jack Knight as the new “Blue & Gold” couldn’t be a selling point in itself.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
While I love and adore PG running the JSA, I’m ridiculously happy that Red Arrow (despite my lack of enthusiasm for the name change) is in the JLA. I’m glad the character has been recognised to be on a par with his mentor, in a way that none of the other founding Titans could manage (consider - Nightwing and Troia are unlikely to ever be considered the true equal of Batman or Wonder Woman; Barry is currently dead, which makes it difficult to match Wally against him, rather than his revered memory; and I’ve no idea what’s even happening in the Aqua-stable with Tempest and Aquaman). Roy is Ollie’s equal - perhaps currently less experienced at the JLA level, but as good a fighter as Ollie, probably a better teammate, and unquestionably a better father. I hope he’s there for a good long while, and properly matures in the role. I’ve not seen much of Firestorm, but I sincerely hope the creative team can sell him to me.
Next! I want Mia/Speedy II in the Birds of Prey. Also, Connor Hawke in the JSA. My ego characters are all Arrowclan. The rest of the team can be filled with other people’s ego characters, as I’m generous like that (also, I love finding out about other people’s big loves, even the ones I find daft)
(Thinking on it - the only two ‘headline’ books I pick up are Wonder Woman and Green Lantern Corps. I don’t buy Batman, Superman or the Flash. I care vastly more about the B/C/Z-listers than the supposed Main Events)
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Very well said. I couldn’t agree more on Luke Cage and Ms. Marvel.
Alias, on a whole, did a hell of a lot more for the B-List (or even C-List) Ego Character then any other Marvel book I’ve read. (Can’t say anything about DC since I’m a Marvel diehard) Ms. Marvel went from the “chick Rogue crippled-or-something” to this unbelievably cool, sassy and confident leader. I feel that the very existence of Jessica Jones - even though she was ‘manufactured’ to be an Ego Character as she was retconned into existence - serves as a shining example as to what an ego character can do for a story/book. If she did exist early on, she’d be in the same boat as… Speedball. A character meant simply to flesh out the roster, maybe add a bit more diversity to the two-page action spread but would likely do little to advance the story on their own. Put them on the spotlight and give them the right history and holy crap, you have an A-List alternate!
My favorite ego character - and I know it’s kind of a cop-out since we’re still talking about the same book, but what a book it was! - would have to be The Purple Man. That guy was such a JOKE until he appeared in Alias. As a villain in Alias though, he really almost stole the show. His “relationship” with The Jewel/Jessica Jones and how it turned her against herself and the Avengers, the way his dialogue just leapt off the page (almost literally, as it broke the fourth wall) and Luke Cage’s reaction to him in the pages of one of the first issues of New Avengers really substantiated his existence for me.
The Falcon is a close second. I had a “WTF” moment when he lead the Secret Avengers in Civil War, but I tell you what, he carried his wait and I wiki’d the heck out of him and even recently bought an issue of Captain America just because he was on the cover, haha.
Again, great article. It really provoked a lot of thoughts in me.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I love Longshot. His addition to Exiles made me come back to the book after a long hiatus. I mean besides his completly naive wide eyed personality, his power is that he’s really lucky! “Oh wow! how did he just do that!” is his power.
I also love Thanos. This may be due to Infinity Gauntlet being one of my first comics. But I love the idea of a villian who’s sole motivation is an unerring (and literal) love of Death.
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
As someone who doesn’t read comics regularly, I’ve never really thought of the concept of “ego characters”. It makes sense, though, the reason they are created and how one could fall in love with them almost as easily as the main hero.
I’d have to go with Slam Bradley from catwoman as being my favorite ego character. He is such an interesting character. He was created a while ago but never fully explored until recently in the newest catwoman. That’s when I was introduced to him. I grew to love him and really looked forward to seeing him in the next story. I even got a special, tingly feeling when he and Selina got together.
I would love to continue to see more of him.
Awesome article
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Yes on Thanos, Speedy and Tigra.
Hell Yea! on LongShot and Falcon. Falcon is killing it in Captain America. He was practically headlining for a minute.
I kinda wanna jump in now…
My Teen Titans: Super Girl, Robin, Kid Flash, Mary Marvel, Aqua Girl, Krypto. When it’s SO BAD you can’t ask your parents for help, you go to your friends.
My Challengers of The Unknown: Animal Man, Star Man, Adam Strange, Swamp Thing. The framing device would be weekly group therapy sessions with The Golden Age Sandman.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
What are the Ego characters but the next generation waiting to come into their own? There are more than you could possibly count littering the pages of any comic book that you might pick up and it has always seemed to me that they are just waiting for their moment to shine, to become the main event. There are the classic heroes that we all know and love but what would they be without a supporting cast with their own quirks and abilities and histories? You make an Ego character good enough and soon they have their own fan base and cult worship status. Its a great way to uncover what the fans want and what works and they can totally be spun into becoming something bigger and greater than they started out to be.
Its interesting because while I have read a good deal of comics, I am nowhere near as knowledgeable on these different characters as many others here may be. However I can think of these kind of Ego characters in every book I’ve read or television show I’ve watched. Those seemingly minor players that soon become something much more than their creators perhaps had ever intended on their becoming (Ben from LOST is the first example to pop into my head) They are something different and fresh and since they are not the main event, they can retain certain traits that the traditional hero may not. There can be darker shades to them, they might even be a villain.
That actually takes me onto another tangent which might make a good followup article, Ego villains? How many of those have we seen? In a way, many villains start out as an ego character and slowly become something so much more, something to rival even the hero. How often does the complexity of a villain become more fascinating than the purity of the hero?
Great article, hope to see more from you soon!
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I’d like to tip my hat to some of the fine scribes at DC for introducing me to Booster Gold and Ted Kord in the last few years. As Mr Zito noted with Luke Cage, during the 90s these guys were in my “Mystery Trading Card Guy” pile that I would either skip over or trade in order to get my hands on something like a Wildstorm Swimsuit issue… But now they are both two of my favorite characters to read and have had a HUGE impact on the DCU in recent years.
Kudos on the article, and now I think I’m going to dig out some ‘Alias’ trades at Con over the weekend.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Ego characters really allow a writer to shine, along with Blue Beetle and Booster Gold a personal favorite is Mr. Cage’s good friend Danny “Iron Fist” Rand An exaple of an Ego character not used to his potential is Red Tornado, all he has done in the new JLA is get destroyed….Seriously.