Appearances
I’ve been running through all of my characters as part of my general book-keeping, and I’ve noticed that the slightly haphazard way that I’ve cancelled and launched titles has created several strange gaps. Today, I’m just going to mention them, with solutions coming in the retcons phase.
There are six big issues:
Madame Liberty: Despite being the most venerable and theoretically one of the two most popular characters of Venture Comics, Madame Liberty keeps vanishing! In the Bronze Age, she loses her own series in 1975, then vanishes completely for a few months when Champions of Truth is cancelled in 1977 before returning for the new Liberty’s Dream. Then, after being big throughout the Iron Age, she vanishes in 2005 and doesn’t return until the Champions of Truth reform in 2010, at which point she’s still just part of the team and doesn’t have her own comic.
Reverie is another one who sort of comes and goes. She’s highly active from her introduction through 1998, then disappears for four years, comes back for a short-run series from 2002 to 2005, and then is entirely absent from 2006 to 2018. This is an issue, because I like her. I may give her some major billing in Cryptic Trails and make it a classic anthology book with two or three leads.
The Drifter keeps drifting away, which is perhaps fitting but also a little weird. After a series of stories to set him up throughout 1970-1973, he disappears completely for seven years, comes back to a single miniseries in 1980, vanishes again and then comes back in 1983 for the short-run lead-up to the end of the universe. Then he’s a headliner in the popular Broken Mirrors series from 1985 to 1994, after which I do not have a single reference to him anywhere in any of my comics for the entire rest of the timeline.
Zeitgeist is even worse. After being a key part of Earthwatch from 1979 to 1989, he leaves with the dissolution of the team and is never mentioned again for the next thirty years. I guess it’s possible that everyone actually stopped writing him, but ten years of popularity first.
Hyperstar is the opposite problem. She’s introduced in 1978, becomes a key part of Earthwatch for ten years, gets a limited series in 1990, and then vanishes for seven years before inexplicably becoming one of the Champions of Truth.
And finally, after being introduced, becoming a key part of the setting, and even joining the Champions of Truth, Penitent leaves the Champions to join the Elemental Fury limited series in 1997-1998, and then never appears again.
There are also a lot of smaller issues, some of which I’ve already technically solved:
Flatfoot vanishes at the dawn of the Iron Age, but he doesn’t come back for ten years. That’s a long time for a main character to be gone. It’s sort of claimed that it’s because the company didn’t have faith in an anachronistic robot detective, but… I dunno, I feel like I may need to make some adjustments there. On top of that, his writeup says that he was one of the two leads of Company Town during his time, but he’s not mentioned as still being there after Paradox joins the Rogue Agents and Company Town becomes their title. I think I may need to move his return date up a bit and codify what happens in Company Town.
Knightgrave is a big deal from 1985 to 1996, and then his comic is cancelled and he vanishes. We’ve discussed that he has a one-shot in 2002, shows up every 1-2 years in the Plutonium Age, and appears in 2019, but it does seem like he should have more runs.
Big Brain, Irogane, and Half-Life previously had no appearances after the end of Covert Tactics in 2002. They are now all part of the new version of the team, but still vanish after 2011 (Big Brain joins the Vanguards in 2016, but their comic ends at the end of that year so he’s still not around.) Revenant has the same problem, except that he was actually gone for a little bit longer, having left the pages of Company Town after the Rogue Agents took it over.
Aquila is a big part of Greenheart’s comics from 1976 to 1995, but after Into the Green is cancelled, he’s gone forever. I just brought him back as part of Covert Tactics in 2002, which keeps him around until 2011, after which he’s vanishing again.
Similary, Alchymia vanishes with the rest of the Remnants in 1995, but comes back for Elemental Fury before joining Liberty’s Dream. Then it’s cancelled and I have no references to her post-2005. She’s minor enough that she might actually have faded away. Not sure.
Wicker and Golden Retriever don’t have any appearances after the end of Earthwatch in 2013. This may be fine, because the setting is slowly falling apart, but I do like them so I need to remember to give them guest appearances in various places.
Synthesis is part of Earthwatch for four years, then vanishes for eleven years before joining the new Earthwatch. This is probably okay; she was introduced for a specific storyline, and I expect that she has a guest appearance as a prisoner/scientific advisor every year or two in various comics.
And Partisan leaves the Vanguards in 1989, and does not return until 1999, ten years later. I had a note about a limited run series for him in 1990, but no details, and nothing for the next nine years.
Also: I do not have a single millionaire superhero. This is not necessarily a problem that needs to be solved, but it’s definitely unusual.