Ever since Fantastic Four #1 hit newsstands in 1961, Marvel comic books have been in continuous publication. Countless iconic characters have thrilled and entertained readers over the course of the subsequent 57 years, including the likes of Spider-Man, X-Men, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor and Captain Marvel. In order for the characters and their stories to stay relevant throughout the changing state of the world and the changes in value systems held by society, many of these characters have been refreshed or renewed in some way. Everything needs to change with the times, and Marvel characters are no different. Whether it is a simple update in their costume, or whether it's a drastic change in the character's fictional status quo, this change has always been inevitable.
Sometimes these character makeovers are unqualified successes, connecting with readers and critics in significant ways, leading to a revitalized character rife with story potential. Talented writers and artists have been able to accomplish this task many times in Marvel history and it's always a wonderful thing to behold. But, equally, there have been a huge number of makeovers that have fallen flat on their face. Maybe the changes attempted have betrayed something at the core of the character in question, or maybe they have failed to appropriately match the change to the historical context of the world, leading to something that doesn't resonate with readers. Here are 10 Marvel makeovers that turned D-list characters into superstars (and 10 that turned A-listers into duds).
20 STAR: BUCKY BARNES BECOMES THE WINTER SOLDIER
Arguably the best example of a D-list character being transformed by a makeover into a genuine A-lister, Bucky Barnes' resurrection as the brainwashed Russian assassin Winter Soldier was nothing short of incredible. Bucky, Captain America's best friend and war-time sidekick, hadn't been seen in anything except very scattered flashbacks after 1968 and most fans maintained he should always stay gone.
Yet, when Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting brought him back in 2005, fans embraced this new version of the character. He has gone on to become a mainstay in Marvel comics for the last decade, and has been played by actor Sebastian Stan in several excellent Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
19 DUD: HYDRA CAP
When Steve Rogers uttered two words on the last page of 2016's Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 in 2016, fandom erupted in a storm of fury. The two words in question, of course, were "Hail Hydra" and they were the beginnings of the crossover story "Secret Empire' which saw Cap revealed as a sleeper agent loyal to the villainous organization Hydra.
Even though the story ended with Cap's allegiance revealed to be a product of mind control, many fans were still too upset and angry at Marvel to let it slide. Some felt Marvel had tarnished a beloved character simply to drum up controversy and sell books. But, even worse than that, others felt that turning Cap (who was created by two Jewish men) into a fascist was tantamount to anti-semitism.
18 STAR: FRANK MILLER REDEFINES DAREDEVIL
When Frank Miller took over art duties on Daredevil in 1979, the series was selling so poorly that Marvel were considering cancelling it. He drew the book for nine issues, but disliked writer Roger McKenzie's scripts and almost quit. But then editor Denny O'Neil gave him the chance to both write and draw the title, and over the course of the next two years he transformed Matt Murdock into one of Marvel's most popular characters.
Most of the best aspects of the character we know today were incorporated by Miller during this run, including Stick, the Hand, the Chaste and the overall focus on martial arts. Miller also brought Spider-Man villain Kingpin in as Murdock's nemesis, redefined Bullseye and created the uber popular ninja mercenary Elektra.
17 DUD: DAREDEVIL LEADS THE HAND IN 'SHADOWLAND'
The 2010 Daredevil crossover event 'Shadowland' was something of a wet blanket for fans, given that it came after 12 years of some of the best Daredevil stories ever told. From 1998's "Guardian Devil", through the Bendis/Maleev era and then the Brubaker/Lark run, the Man Without Fear had seen some stellar storytelling.
But when Daredevil became the leader of the Hand, built a temple/prison in Hell's Kitchen (the eponymous Shadowland) and displayed some extreme tactics (including the demise of Bullseye), fans were worried about what Marvel was doing to the character. The subsequent reveal that Matt Murdock had been possessed by a demon (the Beast of the Hand) was then seen as a cop-out which removed any genuine pathos from the story.
16 STAR: THOR, THE GODDESS OF THUNDER
In 2013's Thor: God Of Thunder #12, Dr. Jane Foster was diagnosed with cancer. As Thor's longtime love interest, he was desperate to save her, but she refused all magical treatments. Then, during the "Original Sin" storyline, Thor lost the ability to wield the hammer Mjolnir. It was picked up by an unknown woman (Jane, obviously), proving herself worthy to be the Goddess Of Thunder, despite her physical weakness from chemotherapy.
She would go on to join the Avengers, all while keeping her identity secret. In the end, she sacrificed herself in battle with Mangog, allowing Thor to reclaim his mantle, but she was resurrected at the gates of Valhalla by Odin and Thor as she had gained their deepest respect.
15 DUD: SAM WILSON BECOMES CAPTAIN AMERICA
Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, is currently as popular with mainstream audiences as he have ever been thanks to his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he is played by Anthony Mackie. Marvel tried to capitalize on that popularity when they installed him as the new Captain America in late 2014, but it didn't exactly go as planned.
Steve Rogers had been aged into an old man, so couldn't fulfill his superhero duties, and he passed the mantle to Sam. He was given his own ongoing title, Captain America: Sam Wilson, but in its 21st issue he handed the shield back to Steve Rogers. As an African-American, Sam stood up to authority and fought against prejudice, but unfortunately fans never truly embraced him in the role.
14 STAR: FLASH THOMPSON IS AGENT VENOM
Flash Thompson's journey from Peter Parker's high school bully, to Iraq War veteran, to the host for the alien symbiote Venom was one of the most interesting character trajectories in modern Marvel comics. Flash was awarded a Medal Of Honor for his time fighting in Iraq, but also lost the use of his legs after they were destroyed in a hail of bullets.
Both legs were then amputated below the knee, causing Flash to jump at the chance of being bonded with Venom as it allowed him to walk again. He became Agent Venom, a military-style symbiote working for the US Army. Flash could only stay bonded to the symbiote for 48 hours at a time, lest it completely take control of his body. He even joined the Guardians Of The Galaxy at one point too.
13 DUD: LEE PRICE BECOMES VENOM
Following its adventures with Eddie Brock and Flash Thompson (amongst others), the symbiote was bonded with psychotic discharged Army Ranger Lee Price. The symbiote was actually scared of Price, and tried to convince him to be a hero like Brock and Thompson, but Price was intent on using the symbiote for his own personal gain. Thus, Venom became a fully-fledged villain again, which hadn't been the case for decades.
While this switching of the usual Venom power dynamic was interesting, Price was never truly embraced by fans as anything more than a one-note character. His tenure as Venom lasted a single year, but he now goes by the name Maniac, having bonded with a different symbiote named Mania.
12 STAR: EMMA FROST JOINS THE X-MEN
Prior to Grant Morrison's seminal 2001-04 New X-Men run, Emma Frost, aka the White Queen, was mostly known as either a villainous member of the Hellfire Club or as the mentor of Generation X, a group of teenage mutants. A character with a somewhat flexible morality, Morrison saw potential in her as a genuine member of the X-Men and during his time writing her she became one of the most important mutants in the Marvel Universe.
Her "psychic affair" with Cyclops was arguably the starting point for the dark path the usually stoic and boring Scott Summers would go down, and her mentorship of the Stepford Cuckoos (telepathic quintuplets) was incredibly interesting and blackly funny. Morrison also created her diamond form, a secondary mutation.
11 DUD: WOLVERINE IS A LUPINE, NOT A MUTANT
Due to the fact that long-running comic books are built upon decades of ever-shifting continuity, there is always room for finding new stories that could exist between the cracks. New writers often like to change everything the reader has ever known about a character by introducing new elements that cast history in a different light and this is just what Jeph Loeb did in 2007's Wolverine #53.
A new villain named Romulus told Wolverine he was not a mutant, but in fact a lupine (a new species of human evolved from canines). It was also revealed Romulus had been manipulating Logan since birth by orchestrating all the awful events of his life from the shadows. This was all retconned in 2012, because the revelation hurt Wolverine's mystique. Oh, and fans hated it.
10 STAR: UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL
Squirrel Girl was created in 1991 by Will Murray and iconic artist Steve Ditko and was an intentionally light-hearted character in a sea of grim n' gritty antiheroes. She stayed resolutely D-list for years, however, even going a decade without appearing in any comics before she was revived in 2005's Great Lakes Avengers. She still made very little impact, but all that changed with the release of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl in 2015.
Ryan North and Erica Henderson's effortlessly charming and funny series sold brilliantly in collected editions in the YA book market and since then several original graphic novels have also been released. Squirrel Girl, who is now a bona fide A-lister, even joined the Avengers (both New and U.S. versions)!
9 DUD: DEADPOOL BECOMES AGENT X (SORT OF)
As hard as it is to believe, given he is one of Marvel's biggest cash cows these days, Deadpool's sales had fallen almost to cancellation point in 2002. Marvel took the risk of re-branding their X-Men line of comics, and Deadpool became Agent X... well, sort of. Agent X was Nijo Minamiyori/Alex Hayden, a mercenary with a healing factor and a flippant demeanour.
Hints were dropped about his relationship to Wade Wilson, and several characters even thought he was Wade, but it was eventually revealed they weren't one and the same. In fact, Wade later referred to Agent X as his Earth-2 counterpart (in a dig at DC's multiverse). This bizarre new take lasted for 15 issues, before Deadpool was teamed with Cable and everything made sense with the world again!
8 STAR: LUKE CAGE JOINS THE NEW AVENGERS
Luke Cage debuted in 1972, and spent most of the following two decades as a 'Hero For Hire' teaming up with Danny Rand, aka Iron Fist. In 1992 he starred in a new series Cage, which lasted for 20 issues and he then finished the '90s in another low-selling revamp of Heroes For Hire. In the early 2000's his profile began to rise, however, with his appearances in Alias, which explored his relationship with superpowered P.I. Jessica Jones.
Writer Brian Michael Bendis had grounded Cage in gritty realism; gone were the original yellow shirt and headband, replaced by a more realistic T-shirt and jeans combination. Bendis then featured Cage in his New Avengers line-up and the character finally became a power player in the Marvel Universe.
7 DUD: TEENAGE TONY STARK
In the 1995 Avengers storyline "The Crossing", Tony Stark was revealed as a double agent who had been working with Kang the Conqueror for years. He ended Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara) and Marilla, the Inhuman nanny of Quicksilver's daughter Luna. In desperation, the Avengers travelled back in time to before Kang began brainwashing Tony, and brought the teenage version of him back to the present to battle his older self.
Teen Tony took over as Iron Man for a period, but fans rejected it, leading to him being written out of continuity during the "Heroes Reborn" event. When Iron Man finally got his own title again in February 1998, Tony Stark was once again an adult, and a proposed story detailing what happened to teen Tony was cancelled.
6 STAR: THE HOOD BECOMES KINGPIN OF SUPERVILLAINS
Parker Robbins, a small-time thief, made his debut in the Marvel MAX miniseries The Hood in 2002. Created by Brian K. Vaughan, Kyle Hotz and Eric Powell, Robbins stole a magical cloak and boots from a Nisanti demon and used the levitation and invisibility powers they bestowed upon him to commit a plethora of crimes.
The character then languished for a few years after, only appearing in the 2006 miniseries Beyond, before Brian Michael Bendis plucked him from obscurity and began to mould him into one of the Marvel Universe's top villains. In the aftermath of Civil War, with very few heroes left active to stop him, the Hood formed a deadly group of villains (including Jigsaw, Crossbones and Sandman) to go up against the Avengers.
5 DUD: CAPTAIN MARVEL IN CIVIL WAR II
Marvel's Civil War II, which arrived in 2016 (a full decade after the original 2006 event), was controversial in a few ways. Many fans felt it was released simply as a way to cash-in on the hype surrounding the Captain America: Civil War film, and this was confirmed when Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso revealed they only had 3-4 months to plan the event.
But it also angered fans for its characterization of Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel. A genuine success story of modern Marvel, the former Ms Marvel had become one of their most popular characters. Then this series had her act completely out-of-character, making her a de facto supervillain who imprisoned fellow heroes due to the mere possibility of them committing a crime in the future.
4 STAR: HAWKEYE BY FRACTION AND AJA
"Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, became the greatest sharpshooter known to man. He then joined the Avengers. This is what he does when he’s not being an Avenger." These are the opening words of Matt Fraction and David Aja's superlative Hawkeye series, which began in 2012 and ran for 22 issues.
Taking the character of Clint, an ordinary guy who regularly teams with superpowered beings, and putting him in a grounded series that showed him defending his apartment building from the Russian Mob (and befriending a canine nicknamed "Pizza Dog") was a stroke of genius. It transformed a D-list character into an A-lister by actually leaning into his status as an also-ran in the superhero community. He was an everyman and fans loved him for it.
3 DUD: SILVER SURFER AS MESSIANIC ALLEGORY
The 2003 Silver Surfer ongoing series, which was a dramatically different take on the character than fans were used to, was a noble experiment. The pitch sounds interesting: small children from around the globe are vanishing without a trace, and reports of the appearance of a gleaming alien figure at the time of their abductions are growing in number.
Over the course of the tale, readers would unravel the Surfer's motives, questioning whether he was plotting mankind's salvation or its ultimate destruction. Unfortunately, the execution left fans cold. The Surfer barely appeared in his own comic, with the main character instead being a single mother fans had never read about before. The story was also painfully slow-moving and heavy-handed with its religious themes.
2 STAR: THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST
Just like his best buddy Luke Cage, Iron Fist spent a hefty chunk of his comics career as a D/C-list character. He was written off in Power Man and Iron Fist #125 in 1986, and it took a full five years for him to be resurrected (in the pages of Namor The Sub-Mariner, no less). A few miniseries' and scattered appearances throughout the Marvel Universe followed, before The Immortal Iron Fist debuted in 2006 and totally revitalized interest in Danny Rand.
Written by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction, the series dived deep into the stories of the different Iron Fist's throughout history, including Orson Randall and Wu Ao-Shi (the first female Iron Fist). Artist David Aja delivered a visually stunning comic, and the series won an Eisner Award in 2008.
1 DUD: BEN REILLY TAKES OVER AS SPIDER-MAN
Ben Reilly, one of several Peter Parker clones who caused controversy during the original Clone Saga in the mid-'90s, was resurrected by Marvel in 2016 as a mentally unstable villain/antihero. He went on to star in his own series, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, which lasted for 25 issues. This proves that the character could be well-received by fans in the right context.
However, his initial run as Spider-Man/Scarlet Spider, spanning most of 1996, was nowhere near as welcomed by fans. During this period Marvel actually toyed with the idea that Reilly was the real Peter Parker, and the one fans had known for 30 years was the clone. This went over very badly with a fanbase loyal to the Peter they had grown up loving.