Child of the Storm has quite a lot of these thanks to the author's penchant for reimagining characters, as well as throwing in those characters at the last minute, later developing them into prominent figures in the story.
- The two main examples come in the form of Carol Danvers and Diana of Themyscira, both of which were added in at the last minute, apparently entirely on a whim, and praised as original takes on the characters. They've both grown from fairly minor characters into two of Harry's closest friends, two of the more badass characters in the story and bona fide fan favourites - in a poll of favourite new or reimagined characters, Diana was the runaway winner, with Carol being joint third behind (unsurprisingly) the Winter Soldier, who's even more of a Woobie than usual thanks to the sections from his perspective, and sharing third place with Huginn and Muninn. Indeed, Carol's grown into a full on Breakout Character, being close to a Deuteragonist with Harry, and she and Harry are now the Fan-Preferred Couple (with Harry/Diana being close behind). As of the second book, they're an Official Couple.
- Huginn and Muninn barely appear at all in the comics and tend not to be all that interesting when they do. Here, they're characterised as Those Two Guys who are outwardly ridiculous, incongruously Brooklyn accented (apparently they heard the accent once and decided they liked it) and marshmallow/eyeball obsessed Deadpan Snarkers who are repeatedly implied to be much more dangerous than they appear and take a liking to Harry. They provide a snarky, though sometimes serious, commentary on events.
- On the villainous side of things, Gravemoss started out as a minor, creepy Necromancer who was the villain of a minor arc in Excalibur and included simply for variety. He quickly grows into a major league villain and a character that fans love to hate.
- Then you have Lucius Malfoy who is the epitome of From Nobody to Nightmare. He started out as just an underling for Lord Voldemort but gradually grew into not just a Magnificent Bastard but into a more formidable opponent for The Avengers. He even succeeds in taking over the world, even if it was temporary. While doing it with such style and sophistication.
- Jean-Paul Beaubier a.k.a. Northstar and Uhtred Ullrson.
- The former is a fairly minor member of the X-Men and the latter began as a minor Original Character Asgardian who was apparently set up to be The Rival to Harry. Both become two of his closest friends, with the former developing into a deceptively harmless Camp Gay flirt with considerable Hidden Depths, the ability to pull off an absolute absent minded Sherlock Scan and be arguably the most ruthless of the kids in a fight, which all lead to comparisons to Natasha. He also functions as the younger generation's Only Sane Man. Also, as of chapter 60 he seems to be this world's version of the Flash.
- Uhtred, meanwhile, is developed from a fairly Flat Character whose primary motivation was resentment at the attention Harry got simply for existing, while his hard work barely got him any, to (one shared Near-Death Experience later) Harry's loyal (if snarky) oathman and Sworn Sword, a major league badass who knows his way around an axe and a forge, and has a surprising amount of insight into others. Also, he and Jean-Paul are a surprisingly cute Battle Couple.
- Sean Cassidy is added for the sake of variety to Peter Wisdom's Excalibur squad, but despite initial uncertainty by fans, grows into a popular mentor figure to Harry, something helped by his nature as an Adaptational Badass grandpa who gently reins Harry in when he looks to be going too far and shares a bond with Ron and Luna Lovegood.
- The Winter Soldier is creepy enough in canon, but rapidly became one of the most popular characters due to his sheer badassery, the enormous fear he inspires in everyone from SHIELD agents to Loki himself, and his Dark and Troubled Past.
- Gone is Voldemort's Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?, replaced with being an Adaptational Badass who out-fights and genuinely scares both Harry Dresden and Thorson, quite literally toying with the former (and when he gets serious, he nearly kills Dresden in about three seconds, only failing because Wanda Maximoff stepped in). In just two scenes, he proves himself more than capable of keeping up in a very different world, and only steps up from there.
- Shou-Lao appears in all of two chapters (three if one counts the teaser), but earned a lot of praise from readers for his both stern and compassionate mentoring of Harry, helping him move past his issues and understand how to wield, not just control, the Phoenix. The fact that he's a total badass and Deadpan Snarker doesn't hurt, either.
