My Real Daddy / Comic Books

• Alan Moore is this for a few characters:
  • He was not the first or the last comics writer to work on Swamp Thing, but virtually everyone regards his run as the definitive one. This was when the Swamp Thing gained all the traits fans associate him with: The Green, the Parliament of Trees, his gothic elements... He also made Alec and Abbie a couple, which has become one of the most beloved pairings in all of comics. Finally, he also wrote the most influential issue in all of the Swamp Thing mythos: the reveal that the Swamp Thing isn't Alec Holland.
  • The Alan Moore and Alan Davis run on Captain Britain, "A Crooked World" very much defined the tone and setting for future stories. Forty years on, it's still the defining story for Marvel's Merlyn and the Alternate Universe interactions of the multiverse as well, and the reason why the 'main' Marvel earth is always known as Earth-616^note Moore didn’t choose the number, his predecessor Dave Thorpe did, but Moore's arc popularised it.
  • When people talk about both Marvelman and Supreme, it's almost always his take on the characters they're talking about.
  • He would be one for Glory, but his plans for her never went beyond issue #0 and finally the title was snatched from him by Joe Keatinge and Sophie Campbell, who rewrote her entire history and redesigned her as something much cooler than the Ms. Fanservice she previously was.
  • He also happened to be on the other end of this trope at least once. Back when he was writing Wild CATS Wild Storm he created an antagonist known as T.A.O., but these days when somebody talks about this character it's probably in context of Ed Brubaker's Sleeper (WildStorm).
• Artemis Crock was a fairly forgettable enemy of Infinity, Inc. and the JSA. Then Young Justice (2010) used her as a main character, bringing her to a whole new audience and hinging a lot of the show's mystery and plot development on her. Co-Producers Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman deserve equal credit here — Vietti was the one who suggested they use a female archer, instead of Speedy I, Roy Harper, and Greg Weisman suggested Artemis rather than any of Green Arrow's associated female archers. They reasoned that her parents being two supervillains, Sportsmaster and Huntress, would be a good touchstone — then decided that super assassin Cheshire/Jade Nguyen would be an interesting addition to the family unit, and thus gave Artemis and her mother a Race Lift, making them Vietnamese.
• Mark Millar is this to The Authority as the team's glory days were during his run, but it's an arguably less benign example as the team collectively Took a Level in Jerkass, growing more arrogant; no longer being reluctant but willing to resort to lethal force, but willingly defaulted to using it; and they began acting unilaterally in world affairs without a care for the valid concerns of others or a plan for the aftermath — and even after Millar left, these personality changes were kept in place, as the team overthrew the U.S. government for a few years and even after they gave up control and tried to take a level in kindness, they reverted to the behavior of the Millar days. The Superman story "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" and its Animated Adaptation, Superman vs. the Elite, owe their existence as a response to Millar's run.
• The Avengers have Roy Thomas; Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may have created the title, but Thomas created the definitive original Avengers character, The Vision, and two of his major recurring villains — the Grim Reaper and Ultron — and introduced a number of ideas, characters, and tropes to the franchise that are used to this very day. Even the 2003 redefinition by Brian Michael Bendis calls back to the Thomas era fairly often.
• Batman's status as Long-Runner owes itself greatly to the ability of several artists to adapt him and take him to different directions:
  • Starting right at the beginning, Bill Finger actually did far more to create Batman himself than his more famous boss, Bob Kane (who did come up with the name). It was Finger who invented the idea of Batman as a detective, the design of the costume, the Bruce Wayne identity and origin, Robin and the Rogues Gallery: Catwoman, the Joker and the name "Gotham City". The number of Unbuilt Tropes in the original comics, Joker's original unfunny characterization, greater violence, Batman's overall harshness, means that it remains a touchstone for later writers, with Finger's stories being Armed with Canon by Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. Finger finally started to get credited by DC in late 2015.
  • The Dick Sprang era introduced the aesthetic of Batman that eventually transferred into the Batman (1966) TV Show. Bright splashy colours, multiple sidekicks, goofy and gimmicky villains, multiple puns, the "Holy...Batman" speech patterns, and a greater than usual quotient of homoeroticism and Camp. Whether you enjoyed it or not, Sprang defined the imagination of Batman and Gotham for three decades.
  • Dennis O'Neil has possibly the farthest-reaching influence on the character in his long history. It was him (with artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo) who took Batman from the sci-fi and camp of the 50s and 60s (both in print and on screen) to the Dark Knight people recognize today. He also introduced Arkham Asylum, basically invented the idea of Batman's Rogues Gallery being both mentally ill and reflections of Batman's own psyche, and introduced a host of new and revived villains (including Ra's al-Ghul and Two-Face). Later, he would become the editor of the Batman line and be the central creative influence on post-Crisis Batman, including editing Frank Miller's era-defining work and 90s mega-events like Knightfall and No Man's Land.
  • Batman fans tend to be divided over which 'reboot' of the character best redefined him for the new generation; Frank Miller's bleak near-Deconstruction The Dark Knight Returns, Tim Burton's gothic films — Batman (1989) and Batman Returns — which introduced the idea of Gotham City being a blend of Bizarrchitecture, and gave Batman a Grappling Hook and Line Launcher leading to Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett's more family-friendly but still Film Noir-flavored Batman: The Animated Series, which kicked off the DC Animated Universe. It can honestly be said that Timm, Burnett, and Paul Dini were Mr. Freeze's daddies for giving him a tragic backstory, and in this vein, also Mike Mignola, who designed Mr. Freeze for the animated series.
  • The Joker's origin story in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. Although Joker was already re-defined as we know him in the '70s, for example by Steve Englehart, the idea of Joker and Batman being mutual Shadow Archetypes of Order Versus Chaos (a dynamic transferred to the DC Animated Universe, The Dark Knight and the Batman: Arkham Series) comes from him. Likewise, one can say that Heath Ledger was responsible for Joker's revival as an anarchist nihilist, with only minimal grounding in the clown and show-business motif that had typified him for decades.
  • Bill Finger and Dick Sprang may have created The Riddler, but Frank Gorshin's portrayal of him on the 1960s Batman TV show is what made him a major member of Batman's Rogues Gallery for years to come. Some portrayals of him have dialed back the camp, but without Gorshin's manic popularity, there would be no Riddler today. He was also the one who designed the character's now-iconic "green suit and bowler hat" look, because he hated wearing the original spandex outfit. (And surprisingly, he also had a great influence on the portrayal of the Joker - Gorshin's split-second flips from manic laughing to hissing, homicidal determination was a major influence on the Joker's 70s character revival.)
  • Though Poison Ivy has been around since the '60s, before Neil Gaiman's Secret Origins issue about her, she had little personality beyond being a Femme Fatale who was immune to poison and had a plant theme. Gaiman established her plant obsession and detachment from humanity, and implied her powers went a lot deeper, which have endured as her defining character traits, and been reworked into the film and animated versions.
  • Kite Man is a joke villain that no one cared much about before Tom King and his Batman run. After that he became a joke villain that people liked for giving him more of a backstory and characteristics (and a catch phrase: Kite Man. Hell Yeah).
• LEGO:
  • Greg Farshtey started out as the writer for the BIONICLE comics in 2001 (as a side-gig to his main job, which is writing and editing LEGO's magazines) before expanding to almost all of the line's written story material in 2003, from the novels to guide books, short stories and online serials. Not only that, but Farshtey let fans contact him personally with questions, leading to a few bits of Ascended Fanon. He also revealed tidbits of storyline info that helped mend the universe together. Over a decade after the franchise's discontinuation, Greg continued to act as BIONICLE's sole official connection to fans, still accepting and canonizing Official Fan-Submitted Content until he left LEGO in 2022.
  • Christian Faber has eventually all but replaced Farshtey in a lot of fans' eyes when it was revealed how much he had contributed to the development of the franchise's universe, its subthemes, overarching stories and visual media. Likewise Alastair Swinnerton, whose passion for serious mythology-building lead to much of the brand's initial appeal.
  • Ryder Windham was this for the ill-fated reboot's media, which were otherwise infamous for their shallow and constantly self-contradictory writing, something that even Windham himself has complained about and tried to rectify. His comics and books expanded the story and world and assigned basic things like names, genders and personalities to the side characters and embellished the villains' side of the story. He is practically the only person involved with the reboot whose name fans remember.
• Black Adam has Geoff Johns, who reworked the character into a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and gave him a dead family and his Affably Evil aspect.
  • Before Johns, Jerry Ordway was Adam's Real Daddy during the 1990s. He revamped Teth-Adam's origins during The Power of Shazam and elevated Adam into Billy's most powerful and dangerous foe (displacing Dr. Sivana from that perch). The beginnings of Adam's Heel–Face Turn (which Johns would complete) also occurred during Ordway's run.
• Black Panther:
  • Christopher Priest is this for the character, to the point that it's made it nearly impossible for any other writer to have success with the character. Reginald Hudlin's series did OK... right up until he stopped copying Priest and started trying to do his own thing, at which point sales immediately tanked. This is an odd case, because Priest's run didn't sell particularly well, but has nonetheless become the go-to interpretation of the character.
  • Don McGregor as well. He was the first writer to really do serious world-building for Wakanda, and introduced Erik Killmonger, who went on to become one of Black Panther's most popular villains. Most subsequent runs (including Priest's) have drawn on McGregor's work to some degree. (Notably, the movie blends major story elements from both McGregor's and Priest's runs.)
• Blackhawk was created by Will Eisner, Chuck Cuidera, and Bob Powell, but the Golden Age Blackhawk is most often associated with artist Reed Crandall.
• Although Marv Wolfman created Blade in 1973, David S. Goyer's film version of the character significantly altered his origin and mythos and helped popularize him. The comic was altered to better reflect film continuity.
• Blue Beetle: Similar to what happened to his friend Booster Gold, Ted Kord was created by Steve Ditko in the 1960s, but he is mostly associated with his time in the Justice League International under J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen.
• The Books of Magic were started by Neil Gaiman, but it was John Ney Rieber who wrote the series in which Tim Hunter really came into his own, and gave the series a world and mythology of its own.
• Cable has two:
  • He was created by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld as a paramilitary counterpart to Charles Xavier, but it was Fabian Nicieza who softened his character by giving him a strong paternal instinct and later introduced his friendship with Deadpool.
  • Scott Lobdell wrote much of Cable's early years. While it was Bob Harras, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio who decided to merge the Cable and Nathan Summers characters into a single entity, it was Lobdell who actually did something with it. Lobdell established the world that Cable grew up in, his childhood being raised by Scott Summers and Jean Grey and his time forged in war growing up.
• Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the Captain America character, predating the US's entrance into WWII no less, but it was the characters revival in the 60s by Kirby and Stan Lee that reintroduced Cap to a younger generation and established his signature "Man Out of Time" story.
  • When sales were low again, Steve Englehart was allowed to write the mag, and decided to stress Cap's idealism. This became his defining character trait.
  • Ed Brubaker is credited with reinventing Captain America again for the modern comics world the same way Lee reinvented him for the Silver Age. Typically, this isn't universal, and others might give that status to Mark Gruenwald or Mark Waid for their own lengthy runs on the character - Brubaker himself credited Waid with bringing back Sharon Carter, saying that if Waid hadn't done it, he'd have had to.
  • Brubaker is also credited for turning Bucky Barnes from a Joke Character and footnote in comics history who was a blatant attempt at copying the success of Robin into a darker, more serious and much more complex character who went on to become a Breakout Character under Brubaker's pen, first as the Winter Soldier, then taking over the Captain America mantle after Steve's death, then as the Winter Soldier again in his own spy-thriller solo series, as well as writing a believable fan favorite romance with Natasha, to the point where he's now her definitive Love Interest.
  • The writers of Captain America: The First Avenger mentioned Brubaker's run as the primary inspiration for their take on Bucky. Brubaker was also consulted by the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It's to the point that Brubaker actually had a cameo in the movie itself.
• Captain Marvel: Jim Starlin for Mar-Vell and Peter David for Genis-Vell.
  • Roy Thomas created Carol Danvers, but Chris Claremont made her awesome. It's also why she's more or less an unofficial member of the X-Men.
• Majorie Liu is this for Logan's offspring, Daken — it was once she joined his creator, Daniel Way, at writing the character, that he became the Depraved Bisexual Magnificent Bastard Troll people love. To be fair, Brian Michael Bendis putting him on Dark Avengers and other writers using him for cameos with the rest of the team probably helped a bit.
• Moon Knight: Depends on who you ask. The most commonly cited are Bill Sienkiewicz, Warren Ellis, and Charlie Huston. Chuck Dixon is probably fourth. Jeff Lemire is a more recent contender, for bringing back Marc's mental illness after Ellis did away with it, and playing with it to a mind-bending genius level.
• The New Universe line has a couple of examples:
  • Justice (New Universe) has Peter David, who delivered a huge Wham Episode at the start of his run and then turned the character of Justice into the terrifying vigilante that became the iconic version.
  • Psi-Force has Fabian Nicieza, who introduced foes like Rodstvow and the Medusa Web, raising the stakes from the original "psychic teens on the run" and making the main cast much more interesting.
• Nova was a forgotten B-list (at best) hero before Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA) took over the character for the original Annihilation crossover. They effectively transformed what was a Green Lantern expy into a deep and interesting character, taking him from guilt-ridden survivor all the way to becoming a grizzled war veteran and even later on the social conscience and oftentimes Only Sane Man of the cosmic side of the Marvel universe.
  • DnA tried to do this with the entire cosmic side of Marvel, starting with their revival of the Guardians of the Galaxy using both B-list cosmic characters and the original members and their later adoption of The Inhumans and later former X-Men staples, the Shiar. While the Guardians revival (as well as the other books) were Cut Short due to poor sales, their take on the team was a major influence on the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
• Stan Lee and Bill Everett (with some elements from Wally Wood) may have created Daredevil, but today, several creators have a very strong claim to being the definitive writer of the character.
  • Frank Miller's run in the 80s is still to this day a reference. It transformed Daredevil into the Noir-inspired Marvel version of Batman; gave him a religious identity as a conflicted Roman Catholic; made the Kingpin, previously a minor Silver Age Spider-Man villain, into Daredevil's Big Bad as well as one of the most influential villains in comics in The '80s (inspiring the post-Crisis version of Lex Luthor and post-resurrection Norman Osborn); introduced characters like Elektra, the Hand, and others; elevated Bullseye from a minor villain to Daredevil's other Arch-Enemy as the psychotic assassin obsessed with ruining Matt's life; and, generally, elevated Daredevil from C-List to one of Marvel's most important characters.
  • The Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker runs are considered high points of American comics in the early 21st century (Bendis was even nominated in the prestigious Angoulême festival for best album). Mark Waid managed to bring back the character's light side, while being widely acclaimed by fans of earlier, darker takes on the character.
• Deadpool was originally created by Rob Liefeld as an Expy of DC's Deathstroke. But then three people happened:
  • Fabian Nicieza (to whom this was practically a habit, having also fleshed out other Liefeld character designs like the aforementioned Cable, Shatterstar and Domino into lasting characters) distinguished Wade from Deathstroke by giving him a cruelly ironic origin story, a sidekick (Weasel), and a sense of humour that quickly made him popular enough to support a regular series written by Joe Kelly. He also greatly expanded on the one non-Expy trait Liefeld had given Deadpool, his Motor Mouth tendencies, into the constantly-wisecracking occasionally-Heroic Comedic Sociopath we all know and love.
  • Joe Kelly wrote Deadpool's first ongoing series, giving him a larger supporting cast (now also including T-Ray and Blind Al in addition to Weasel), a more detailed origin story, and his penchant for Breaking the Fourth Wall.
  • Gerry Duggan took over starting with the Marvel Now series, toning back his randomness a bit after previous writer Daniel Way overdid it in many fans' eyes, while establishing Wade's most widely accepted backstory, eventually establishing details about his family, as well as exploring his humanity and morality.
• Dick Grayson was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger shortly after his mentor in 1940, and he was well-defined in his "Robin" persona until he was turned into Nightwing during Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's successful run on Teen Titans in 1984. He struggled to find a niche after that, but it is Chuck Dixon's run on the 1996 Nightwing series that is considered to be the defining run that codified the character ever since.
• For the Doctor Who Magazine comic, Steve Parkhouse's run on the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, particularly psychedelic epics "The Tides of Time" and "Voyager", is seen by many as the defining one; among other things, it introduced characters such as Shayde, Max, Dogbolter and Frobisher, and was the first to demonstrate that the Sixth Doctor could be Rescued from the Scrappy Heap of his TV run. Scott Gray gives him a close run for his money, particularly for his epic run on the Eighth Doctor.
• Carl Barks is largely seen as the father of the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, to the point that Disney broke its tradition of not heavily featuring artists' names on its comic covers.
  • Barks was the creator of Scrooge McDuck, Gladstone Gander, the Beagle Boys, Gyro Gearloose, Magica DeSpell and the entire supporting cast and Rogues Gallery of that world. Only Donald, his nephews, and Daisy Duck were created before by Disney and his animators. And in the case of Donald, one can argue that Barks more or less made him into a three-dimensional character and comics icon since as noted by Art Spiegelman, he was not like "that short-tempered little thing in the animated cartoons". Barks' Donald had grit, persistence, and a tenacity that were legitimately compelling virtues to mix with his bad luck and other self-destructive qualities, making him a highly relatable, flawed and tragic character, beloved across the world.
  • This is buoyed by the fact that DuckTales (1987), much beloved by nostalgic 1980s babies, is mostly taken from Barks' work and DuckTales (2017) is even more faithful to Barks' comics, treating it as canon. To better understand this, consider that before him, all Donald Duck stories had Negative Continuity. Now, Barks stories are considered continuity that almost all writers follow.
• DV8 were created by Jim Lee, Brandon Choi and Scott J. Campbell as a bunch of Psycho Rangers for Gen13. Once Ellis got his hands on them, in only eight issues he made them much more complicated and interesting, and every writer that took their series later followed in his footsteps. Fourteen years later however, he would pass the title of their real daddy to Brian Wood, who earned it thanks to the extremely popular Gods And Monsters miniseries.
• Etrigan: Though the Jack Kirby series is still held in fair regard, Len Wein, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman created the idea that Etrigan Rhymes on a Dime, and the idea of him as The Trickster rather than simply evil. Notably, Jack Kirby himself wasn't all that proud of Etrigan; he created the character on a whim, disliked horror titles, and hated that upper management cancelled his beloved New Gods in favor of the Demon.
• The Fantastic Four will always be defined by the immortal hundred-issue starting run of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Second place goes to John Byrne, who wrote and drew the definitive modern FF.
  • Out of all the people who worked on Marvel's First Family after Byrne, the two most fondly remembered runs, which had the most lasting impact and helped redefine the characters for new audiences, are respectively Mark Waid's and Jonathan Hickman's.
• Flash writers tend to have, appropriately enough, long runs. Cary Bates was the Barry Allen writer, with around 150 issues to his credit during his 13 years on the title. And although Wally West owes a lot to Bill Messner-Loebs, his Real Daddy is without a doubt Mark Waid. Waid added Jay Garrick and other speedsters to the supporting cast and established the Flash Family concept, brought an epic feel with the introduction of the Speed Force, and made Wally one of the most relatable heroes around; he brought The Flash back from B-list to A-list status, and the title has stayed there ever since. Noticeably, the Speed Force has made it to every adaptation of the Flash since its first appearance, and if the Flash inhabits a world where the Legacy Character concept exists, there will be a Flash family.
  • If Waid gets parental rights to Wally, then his successor Geoff Johns gets parental rights to the Rogues. Under his pen, they went from a group of gimmicky, two-dimensional characters into one of the more twisted, yet complex rogues galleries in the DC Universe.
• Birds of Prey was created by Jordan B. Gorfinkel, but is primarily associated with Gail Simone. She pulled the series out of the nosedive caused by Chuck Dixon's departure and used it to make Black Canary, Huntress and Oracle three of the most well-developed heroines ever. In particular, Simone is the reason fans tend to like Barbara Gordon better as Oracle than as Batgirl. Simone also has this distinction for most of her Secret Six team, but especially Cat-Man. As well as the Six itself; few fans realize that several distinct teams predate hers, including one Real Life.
• Grant Morrison:
  • Animal Man isn't much talked about when they aren't involved. They made the previously flat and generic superhero into one of the best examples of Meta Fiction and Postmodernism in comic book history and introduced the idea that Buddy is both a vegetarian and an animal rights activist.
  • Nor is Doom Patrol. It was Morrison who really turned the team into "The world's strangest heroes", making them battle some of the weirdest villains ever put to paper and created some of the most famous characters in the series, like Crazy Jane, Rebis and Mr. Nobody. The also wrote arguably a turning point in the franchise: The revelation that the Chief was the mastermind behind the accidents that turned the team into freaks.
    • Rachel Pollack is this to Dorothy Spinner, however. While created by Paul Kupperberg, she was largely a one-shot character. Morrison wrote some Character Development for her and implied her powers came from her menstrual cycle, but it was Pollack who developed her backstory, ran with the idea of her menstruation being the source of her powers and gave her a fixes cast of imaginary friends.
  • Also, Justice League of America. Suffice to say, if you call them the JLA (and not for the sake of expediency), you're a Morrison fan. If you call them the Justice League, it's the DCAU or others.
  • If you like Marvel Boy, then it must be the Noh-Varr version introduced in the eponymous Marvel Boy mini-series instead of the Golden Age Bob Grayson.
• Green Arrow has had three major parental adoptions in his career: Dennis O'Neill and Neal Adams, whose teaming him with Green Lantern transformed him from a rip-off of Batman to the social conscience of the DC Universe. Mike Grell whose Longbow Hunters series made him an urban Robin Hood fighting the villains of the 1980s. And Kevin Smith, whose mini-series of him effectively removed all the detritus that had become attached to the character during the Dark Age. His New 52 real daddy is by far Jeff Lemire, who managed to save his failing book and turn it into a major seller.
• Geoff Johns is undoubtedly this for the entire Green Lantern mythos. This is especially true for Hal Jordan and Sinestro, who Johns had turned into one of the most complex and prominent villains in the DCU.
• Also, Hank Henshaw, under Geoff Johns' stewardship (as part of the Sinestro Corps War), is one of the best villainous tearjerkers EVER.
  • Bruce Timm and co. can be considered this for John Stewart. Prior to their handling of him, John probably wasn't even in the top 10 of characters a fan would think of when "Green Lantern" was mentioned.
  • Guy Gardner was originally created by John Broome and Gil Kane, but it was Joe Staton who gave him his famous costume, and Steve Englehart his well-known Jerk with a Heart of Gold characterization, which was developed further by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis during their run on Justice League International.
• Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created Marvel's Hercules, no question, but Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak really made the character their own in the pages of The Incredible Hercules. Before Van Lente and Pak, Real Daddy status probably would've gone to Bob Layton whose Hercules: Prince of Power miniseries in the early 1980s established Herc as the loutish, womanizing Boisterous Bruiser we all know and love.
• Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker's run on Immortal Iron Fist, which laid down a lot of new ground for the character and was almost universally praised. It introduced the grittier martial arts tone, the idea of a true Iron Fist legacy as well as the tournament between the cities. In addition, the two elevated Davos from a one-note bad guy into a character with a strong history with Danny's father and someone looking for a purpose in life.
• Iron Man:
  • While the original creators like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Don Heck created much of the elements of the character, it was the team of David Michelinie and Bob Layton in the late 1970s and early 1980s who established the definitive modern take of the character. This includes inserting Jim Rhodes, the specialized armors, and Stark's emotional frailty problem, especially concerning alcohol.
  • Rhodey is especially notable for taking over as Iron Man for a while after their run. Michelinie clearly didn't like this idea (the first thing he did when he returned to the title was get Rhodey out of the Iron Man suit), but it stuck; Tony soon gave Rhodey a unique suit with the codename War Machine, which he still uses today.
  • Michelinie and Layton had two runs, the first of which contained Demon in a Bottle, the second of which contained Armor Wars. They got to define Iron Man, and then go back and redefine him a few years later.
  • Also while Iron Man's archenemy, the Mandarin, was created by Lee and Heck, the character suffered severely due to Values Dissonance and was in danger of being phased out entirely. Matt Fraction used his epic-length Invincible Iron Man run to completely overhaul the character, ditching the Yellow Peril elements and making him a brilliant Magnificent Bastard villain who was Iron Man's Moriarty. He redefined the character and brought him back from the brink of obscurity.
  • In addition, while Michelinie and Layton established the definitive modern take of the character, it is the Marvel Cinematic Universe's take of Iron Man that turned him into one of the biggest Marvel superheroes of the modern era. Before MCU, Iron Man was considered at best a B-list superhero; but Jon Favreau's take and Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the character brought a great deal of characterization to Tony and elevated Iron Man's status into a central part of the Marvel Universe and in the wider culture. MCU's effect to the character is so big that Iron Man's comics post-Iron Man used elements of Downey's appearance and characterization as the basis of the main-verse Tony Stark.
  • The Brian Michael Bendis-created character of Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, wasn't exactly warmly received under Bendis' pen, when readers saw her as being overly callous. However, opinions regarding her changed when Jim Zub inducted her into his run of Champions (2016) where he reframed her odd behavior as her having No Social Skills and being Innocently Insensitive, which the other Champions took note of.
• Judd Winick didn't create Jason Todd, but he did bring him Back from the Dead as the Red Hood while writing for Batman, and made him badass and sympathetic. It's generally agreed upon that every interpretation of Jason afterwards, including Grant Morrison's, is inferior to Winick's — to the extent that most fans ignore everything done with Jason after that iconic storyline.
• As with Captain Marvel, Jim Starlin didn't create Adam Warlock, but his interpretation eclipses what came before.
• Jonah Hex: Michael Fleisher took over writing duties for the character from creator John Albano in 1974 and continued to write the character until 1987, when the character's series was canceled. Over this 13 year period he wrote at least 125 Hex stories over three series (Weird Western Tales, Jonah Hex and Hex), more than any other Hex writer. The Justin Gray/Jimmy Palmiotti writing team almost certainly count too, writing over 100 Hex issues from 2005 to '14.
• A minor example: when Mike McMahon started drawing Judge Dredd, he gave the Judges a chunkier, more menacing look than Carlos Ezquerra's original vision. This look proved so popular that even subsequent Ezquerra-drawn strips used it.
• Many of the characters featured in the Giffen/DeMatteis era of the Justice League International were never as beloved before or since that run — so much so that the post-52 Booster Gold series (which some consider better than most of the stories told in JLI) constantly refers back to that time, as does Justice League: Generation Lost.
• Roy Thomas is the adopted father of Golden Age DC heroes after writing Justice Society of America and creating Infinity, Inc., with James Robinson, David S. Goyer and especially Geoff Johns taking over this role since the new millennium.
• The most fondly remembered version of the Justice Society of America in the modern era is definitely Geoff Johns, who took over after James Robinson left the book, and built upon the team's family dynamic using a large cast composed mainly of the earliest Golden Age superheroes and legacy characters, which would remain the defining characteristic of the team for the rest of the post-Crisis era.
• The character of John Constantine, who Moore created during his tenure with Swampy before being spun off into his own series, has this relationship with Garth Ennis. Jamie Delano and/or Mike Carey are also in the running for this.
• Christopher Yost was this for Kaine, previously a classic '90s Anti-Hero in the worst way and one of the worse products of the Clone Saga, before returning for a fairly well-received Heroic Sacrifice in Grim Hunt, then a return in Spider-Island a year later. However, it was Yost who, in his 2012 solo series, made him a grumpy Knight in Sour Armor Reluctant Hero with a much darker version of Peter's snark, gave him a Morality Pet and a fun supporting cast, explored his past, his differences to Peter, his guilt over his past deeds, particularly his torment of Ben Reilly and his response to, effectively, having been given a second chance, as well as the mystical side-effects of his resurrection. While it was cancelled at issue #25, Yost carried him over to the reboot of New Warriors and he remains popular enough to get a key role in Spider-Verse and a Scarlet Spider who is almost certainly him (or someone with Kaine's costume, powers and personality - the latter suitably toned down) has a starring role in Season 4 of Ultimate Spider-Man (2012).
• Kieron Gillen has quickly become this for a few characters;
  • His take on Mr. Sinister as a Mad Scientist has been embraced as the most interesting the character has been in years.
  • His take on Loki in both Thor and Journey into Mystery (Gillen) came with massive amounts of character development as both an adult and a child.
  • America Chavez debuted in Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta's Vengeance miniseries. Jamie McKelvie's Civvie Spandex redesign in their 2013 run of Young Avengers turned her into a Breakout Character.
• Legion was created by Chris Claremont as a New Mutants opponent and was, since then, written by many people. But Simon Spurrier was the one who gave him a complete revamp and reintroduced him as a Magnificent Bastard in the pages of X-Men: Legacy vol.2, which quickly gave the character a dedicated fanbase.
• Paul Levitz is frequently considered this for Legion of Super-Heroes, as he wrote the series during its height and wrote the defining story arcs for many of the franchise's heroes and villains. Jim Shooter also has quite a claim, having created most of the Legion's most recognizable rogues (the Fatal Five, Dr. Regulus, Universo, Mordru) and penning the iconic Ferro Lad Heroic Sacrifice that established the Legion's attention to continuity and Anyone Can Die aspect.
• While Marjorie Henderson Buell created Little Lulu for the Saturday Evening Post, it was John Stanley's nearly 15-year run on the Little Lulu comic books which defined the character.
• While Brian Michael Bendis can be polarizing, Luke Cage has become more of a mainstream character under his pen.
• Even though Neil Gaiman created the version of Lucifer from The Sandman, it's Mike Carey's run on the spin-off Lucifer that really defined the character.
• Just like Moore is remembered for Swamp Thing, Steve Gerber's reimagining of similarly-swampy hero Man-Thing is considered definitive.
• The creation of the "Marvel Method" in the Silver Age actually left a lot of open paternity questions for many of Marvel's iconic characters.
  • Stan Lee — among others — got a flat "Writer" credit for contributing anything from (alleged) full panel-by-panel scripts to a little dialog polishing, regularly obscuring who created what. This debate certainly gets bitter when it turns to compensation, as virtually every artist who worked with Marvel in this period feels they were not compensated for the writing they were doing, and subsequently got hosed on royalties and copyright ownership later on.
  • The little research we know about the authorship clarifies that the costumes, visual design and general plots of the early Fantastic Four, Thor and Spider-Man comics were entirely done by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, while Lee worked on the dialogues, may have suggested certain plots and was heavily involved in the marketing (the general perception is that without Lee's sales hype, the comics would not have found the audience demographic and cultural impact it did at the time). The distinctive rhythm of 60s Marvel, the alliterations and the Purple Prose captions are primarily Lee.
• For Marvel Comics as a whole, most comic fans and the general audience view Stan Lee as this for the company. Marvel had been around since the late 1930s and did have previous success with Captain America, but it was under Stan Lee's leadership starting in 1961 as writer & later as lead editor that truly began the "Marvel Revolution". It was largely Stan Lee, along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, who created the "flawed hero" archetype that is still the standard for virtually every Marvel Superhero to this day. In fact, while other writers & creators under Marvel, as seen on this page alone, could still be considered the "Real Daddies" of their respective characters, it was still Stan's approach that served as the bedrock as to how these characters were handled. It was also under Stan's leadership that Marvel transformed from a small magazine company into the single largest American Comic Book Publisher as it is known for today.
• Mampato : Eduardo Armstrong and Óscar Vega were the creators of this remembered Chilean comic, however, after the first story published (“Mampato in Rome”) they decided to abandon it, apparently due to overwork, with Themo Lobos being the one who wrote and drew most of the stories, in addition to creating most of the characters that accompanied Mampato on his adventures.
• Floyd Gottfredson is often considered the Mouse Counterpart to Carl Barks. Though the Disney shorts eventually toned down Mickey's character (which made him more marketable but caused him to suffer badly in comparison to characters that retained their edge like Bugs Bunny), Gottfredson maintained Mickey Mouse's adventurous spirit for several decades, which are considered an influence on modern interpretations of Mickey.
• Peter David gets this with The Hulk, adding a lot of depth and characterization to Bruce Banner and other supporting characters. He also gets this with several characters in X-Factor, with David taking the credit for taking a team of C-List Fodder & making them interesting characters (something he actually expressed an actual preference for). Some examples:
  • Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man) was originally a purely gimmicky background character, his power being that he could make multiple clones of himself. David actually bothered to take full advantage of this concept, as well as getting inside the head of a man who could never really be "alone", and turned Madrox into an interesting character. Specifically, he introduced Jamie's philosophical bent, his indecisiveness and his fascination with pop culture.
  • Layla Miller was originally the Living MacGuffin in the House of M Crisis Crossover. Under David, she moved from knowing stuff, to travelling to the future as a tweenager and returning an attractive young woman who is dealing with the fact that her power isn't knowing the future, but the ability to bring beings back from recent death, but without a conscience. He also presented her as a creepy child and chessmaster.
  • Quicksilver was often considered to be, for a long time, the son of Magneto who often switches between wanting approval from his father and completely trying to distance himself from the super villain. David actually incorporated a reason for him to be so much of a dick, by revealing that he does everything at super sonic speed, including thinking, and it makes him frustrated that the world seems to be in slow motion for him, as well as secretly enjoying being a hero despite his disdain of everything.
  • Shatterstar might be his most triumphant example. Added to the X-Factor roster because nobody else would want him, he went from being a throwaway Rob Liefeld creation, to an adorably Large Ham Ensemble Dark Horse bisexual interested in anyone, but determinedly forging a relationship with his teammate Rictor.
• While Damian Wayne and Jon Kent were respectively created by Grant Morrison and Dan Jurgens, Peter J. Tomasi is the one who helped really define both as characters — giving Damian his relationship with his father which has become his most important point as a character and giving Jon his super Nice Guy aspects, brought Damian back after his creator killed him off, and established their partnership in Super Sons.
• Mary Joe Duffy is considered to be the reason Power Man and Iron Fist is such a fondly-remembered series.
• Garth Ennis has this status for The Punisher, being one of the first to nail down a consistent characterization of the vigilante in his 2000 reboot. And before Garth Ennis came along, Chuck Dixon's lengthy run on Punisher's solo title cemented the character who started out as a Villain of the Week in Spider-Man.
• Steve Ditko created The Question as a mouthpiece for Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy, but Dennis O'Neil's run on him in the 1980s is considered the definitive version of the character: a martial artist with insatiable curiosity. By contrast, some fans feel that the most memorable and iconic version of the character was the one in Justice League, who was a reclusive and paranoid conspiracy theorist clearly inspired by Rorschach from Watchmen (who was himself originally inspired by the Question). Ironically, this could mean that Alan Moore (the author of Watchmen) is responsible for the most iconic version of the Question, even though he never actually wrote the character himself.
• Renee Montoya was originally just a minor character from Batman: The Animated Series who got lucky enough to get introduced into the main canon. However, it was only when Greg Rucka started writing for her that she slowly turned into an awesome, multi-layered detective. For details, see Gotham Central, 52, and The Question.
• Neil Gaiman's Sandman series stars almost entirely original characters, with only cameos by the Golden Age hero who inspired it. Nonetheless, it brought an otherwise completely forgotten character back into public perception, setting the path for Matt Wagner's Sandman Mystery Theatre to define Wesley Dodds for modern readers.
• James Robinson has taken the position of the Scarlet Witch's Real Daddy, after writing a well-received solo series and pointing out that if you ask people to define Wanda's personality, it's either "aloof and quiet" or "completely batshit insane."
• Though he didn't come onboard until around halfway through Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)'s lifespan, writer Ian Flynn is considered to have been the best writer for the series, taking characters and concepts from the previous Audience-Alienating Era and reworking them to much greater acclaim (before legal issues ended up gutting them from continuity). Ian is even considered to be the best writer for the Sonic franchise as a whole (even including the games), in part due to his handling of characters largely ignored by Sonic Team since around 2010, and though the sentiment is far from universal, his return for IDW's comic was largely well-received. Many Sonic fans across different media also rejoiced when he was announced to make his debut as a writer for the games themselves, starting with the Compilation Re-release Sonic Origins and the following mainline game Sonic Frontiers.
• Peter Milligan for Shade, the Changing Man. He completely reinvented Steve Ditko's character into a trippy heavily philosophical Reality Warper and now hardly anyone remembers what the original was like.
• Between adding her to replace Ben Grimm in the Fantastic Four and her solo title, which was one of the longest running featuring a female character as the star, John Byrne better defines She-Hulk than her creator, Stan Lee. Notably, Lee only wrote a single issue of She-Hulk's first book, mostly to ensure Marvel's claim on the concept in case CBS introduced their own version for The Incredible Hulk (1977). For the remaining 24 issues of that first series, David Anthony Kraft slowly developed her into a distinct character from her cousin who could control her transformations and eventually decided to stay as the She-Hulk 24/7, which eventually became cemented, popularized, and further refined in The Avengers under Jim Shooter and Roger Stern, before Byrne took over the character after Secret Wars (1984).
• The Spider-Man character Silk was created by Dan Slott, but it's hard to find a fan of her that prefers Slott's characterization. Under Slott, Silk got a lot of flak for basically having all of Spidey-Man's powers but better, instantly becoming his new love interest thanks to said powers causing Fantastic Arousal (something Slott would sheepishly apologize for years later), and being a smug Know-Nothing Know-It-All who caused more problems than she fixed. It was her solo run under writer Robbie Thompson and artist Stacey Lee where the character started developing a fanbase; they toned down her power set "superiority" to Peter by tweaking her into a Fragile Speedster, everything regarding the pheromones were immediately thrown out (including changing her dynamic with Peter from love interest to Like Brother and Sister), and her personality was completely overhauled to being an adorkable Womanchild with anxiety issues.
• Fans are divided on just who Spider-Man's Real Daddy is, both in terms of the artist and the writer.
  • Depending on who you ask, Spidey's definitive artist is either co-creator Steve Ditko or John Romita, Sr., and Spidey's definitive writer is either co-creator Stan Lee or J.M. DeMatteis. And then there's the endless debates over whether Stan Lee or his artists (primarily Ditko and Romita) deserve more credit for the original Silver Age stories. All three debates have a tendency to turn quite vicious. In any case, Ditko, as per Lee himself, came up with the costumes, design and looks of not only Spider-Man but his supporting cast and Rogues Gallery, and did most of the plots near the end. John Romita, Sr. on the other hand redesigned the look of not only Peter Parker (giving him an Art Evolution that has mostly been Peter's default look across cartoons and other media) but also created Peter's gang (making Harry Osborn his best friend, starting the Love Triangle between Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane, and designing the classic looks of both characters). Romita's features more or less shows up across many adaptations, with Harry Osborn being retroactively made into Peter's best friend (as can be seen in the Spider-Man Trilogy), relegating many of Ditko's run to Early-Installment Weirdness.
  • Gerry Conway, the first writer who took over from Lee introduced characters like Hammerhead, the Jackal, and likewise is the author of the first and the least confusing clone saga. He's also seen by many as Mary Jane Watson's true creator. He first hinted at her character depth and moved her away from Lee-Romita Sr. hedonistic party girl (which Conway felt was an affect), and of course Conway wrote The Night Gwen Stacy Died specifically to move MJ into the center of Peter's life and get rid of Gwen. That iconic story also led eventually to Harry Osborn becoming the Goblin and to Norman's first iconic death scene (being impaled on his own glider). Conway later wrote the graphic novel Parallel Lives about their relationship.
  • Roger Stern's run is also considered to be a big highlight of the character's history, namely for raising up Peter's Super-Strength and battle skills. He also created the Hobgoblin — the most prominent villain and storyline developed during his run — considered to not only be a fan favorite character, but one of the last great Spider-Man villains. Stern also made Felicia Hardy Peter's sidekick and anti-hero girlfriend and built up the third romance after Gwen and MJ. Stern also conceptualized part of Mary Jane's past with Tom DeFalco who later wrote the issues explaining that she had known Peter was Spider-Man and then describing her past.
  • Brian Michael Bendis has had the biggest influence on the Spider-Man franchise since Ditko and Romita. His run on Ultimate Spider-Man was so successful and influential that many parts of it were adapted into games, cartoons and every Spider-Man movie since its first publication in 2000. As part of that run on Ultimate Spider-Man, he also made his mark as co-creator and writer of Miles Morales, the most popular character to take on the Spider name outside Peter Parker, and who went on to headline his own theatrical film less than a decade after his creation.
  • There's also the battle over Venom, split between Jim Shooter (who introduced the black costume in Secret Wars (1984)), Randy Schueller (a fan who drew up the black costume), Mike Zeck (who finalized and introduced the costume), David Michelinie (who created Eddie Brock and merged him with the symbiote) and Todd McFarlane (who designed Venom). This was bitter enough to prompt McFarlane to leave Marvel and start Image Comics. Michelinie is usually given the My Real Daddy status.
• Most people who know Spirou & Fantasio consider André Franquin as the series' father, regardless of whether or not they know it existed before: Franquin made it the Spirou we remember, and artists Tome and Janry were faithful to that (except maybe towards the end).
• Will Murray and Steve Ditko may have created Squirrel Girl, but it was Dan Slott that made her into the character that she is today. Ryan North and Erica Henderson are latter-day paternity candidates for their work on Squirrel Girl's 2015 series. While both Slott and North portray her as a relentless optimist, Slott's Squirrel Girl is generally a comedic foil in rather dark plots while North's is more earnest, empowering, and child-reader-friendly.
• Chuck Dixon considers himself this for his creation Stephanie Brown aka "the Spoiler," stating on his forum that he doesn't read anyone else's stories with the character because she's so alive in his head that any other interpretation wouldn't feel right. Despite that, a good majority of her fans tend to see Bryan Q. Miller, who wrote her ongoing series, as this; while Dixon is often respected for creating her and would be this without question otherwise, BQM managed to become synonymous with the character, and make her a competent hero on her own when many saw her as a sidekick's sidekick.
• James Robinson's Starman put that name on the map. And note that that's multiple Starmen — Robinson has stated that he believes he did more to develop Ted Knight's character in four issues of The Golden Age than anyone had in fifty years of history before that, and he's really not bragging; it's just the truth. And David Knight and Mikaal Tomas both received far more depth during the 90s Starman title than they had had previously. He also gets credit for making Starman (and occasionally Flash) rogue The Shade into the morally ambiguous immortal he is today.
• Suicide Squad has John Ostrander, who took the idea of a team of Boxed Crooks and made it work. And even among the ranks of the Squad, Deadshot stands out as the character whom Ostrander most redefined, to the extent that all subsequent versions of Deadshot are basically riffs on his. Second to Deadshot is Captain Boomerang, who was a joke character best known for regularly getting his butt handed to him by the Flash. While keeping the comedic elements, Ostrander added the sociopathic elements of the character that have become his defining personality trait since then.
  • Barbara Gordon was created for the 1960s show and was paralyzed in the pages of The Killing Joke but didn't really become a hero in her own right until the late 80s. John Ostrander and his late wife Kim Yale got their hands on her on the aforementioned run of Suicide Squad and gave her the name Oracle. This take on the character was the definitive one until the Flashpoint reboot where she was made Batgirl again.
• Superman
  • Mort Weisinger had a massive influence over what Superman would become during the Silver Age and the Bronze Age. As Batman was his favorite character at the time because of how his enemies actually challenged him, Weisinger sought to give Superman the same sort of challenge by giving him opponents that could actually physically stand up to him. Weisinger also ramped up the Science Fiction element of Superman by introducing foes such as Brainiac and revamping Lex Luthor into a Mad Scientist, and by introducing more technological elements such as Superman's high-tech Fortress of Solitude and the Bottle City of Kandor. As such, much of DC's later staff point to Weisinger as the one who would truly shape the concept of Superman after he was created by Siegel and Shuster.
  • From Max Fleischer's work on the Superman Theatrical Cartoons we get "Faster than a Speeding Bullet, More Powerful than a Locomotive, Able to Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound," (although a similar narration appeared in the radio show) as well as Superman's ability to fly (animating the super-jumping he'd originally been intended to do was a pain in the arse, so Fleischer just said "forget it - he's Superman, so he can fly!") (although, it had done it before in the comics, where Leo Nowak drew Superman as flying instead of leaping.)
  • Elliot S! Maggin for the Bronze Age Superman. He was the only comic writer who also wrote novels about the character and tried to greatly expand the mythos of Superman.
  • Longtime Silver/Bronze Age artist Superman Curt Swan is probably the most prominent Superman artist of all time after Joe Shuster. Wayne Boring might be Superman's most popular non-Shuster Golden Age/early Silver Age artist.
  • Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster originally created the early Superman villain "The Ultra-Humanite" (who was Superman's first archenemy before Lex Luthor), but Gerry Conway and George Pérez created the visual design for the character that most fans know today, while Bruce Timm and Paul Dini came up with his most well-known personality. In the 1940s, he was a fairly generic wheelchair-bound mad scientist who was eventually written out of the comics due to being way too similar to Luthor, but Conway and Perez came up with the idea of him permanently implanting his brain into the body of an enormous albino ape when they reintroduced him in the 1980s. Later, Timm and Dini came up with the idea of making him a snobbish intellectual with refined tastes in art and music when they introduced him to Justice League in the 2000s, which proved to be memorable enough to make him a fan-favorite.
  • The Prankster has been around since 1942, created by Jerry Siegel and John Sikela, but he spent most of the intervening years largely hanging on by tradition and not much else. He was a prank-themed villain who mostly just operated as a second-rate version of Toyman, leaving many writers and fans questioning why a guy using joy buzzers and squirting flowers was a Superman villain. Kurt Busiek's run redefined the character, declaring that Prankster's status as a nonthreat to Superman was intentional, and that he was actually a supervillain-for-hire who acted as a "professional distraction", committing highly visible and public crimes that tie Superman up long enough for his clients to enact their own schemes. This idea proved to be by far the most popular take on the character, to the point that post-Rebirth, after having spent some time as an In Name Only version introduced in the pages of Nightwing, Prankster was essentially un-rebooted back to the Busiek Prankster.
• Supergirl was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino in 1959, but they had little to do with the character afterwards.
  • Jerry Siegel made sure to set her apart from Superman and created her first enemies, love interests and most of her initial supporting cast. Jim Mooney was her main artist during that period.
  • Paul Kupperberg wrote Pre-Crisis Supergirl's best stories, making her step out of her cousin's shadow for good.
  • Mark Waid and later Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle rehabilitated Post-Crisis Supergirl after a dreadful Audience-Alienating Era and created one of the definite runs of the character. Sterling Gates also came up with her "Hope, Compassion and Help for all" motto.
• Stormwatch:
  • The Image/WildStorm team was originally created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi, but Warren Ellis' Darker and Edgier run on the title is considered the point where it Grew The Beard. The Authority spun off from characters, plotlines, and themes introduced in Ellis' run — which speaks for itself.
• The team of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez didn't create Teen Titans, but their much-celebrated run is responsible for the title as we know it today. The duo revamped the series with their run on The New Teen Titans, creating a more diverse cast by adding characters such as Raven, Starfire, and Cyborg and creating their most iconic adversary Deathstroke. Wolfman and Perez' run was one of the most successful series that DC Comics had seen in the while, setting the standard for all subsequent Teen Titans comics and becoming the basis of the just as beloved animated version.
• Walt Simonson's Thor. It's telling that any list of the greatest Thor stories of all time will be largely populated by stories by Simonson, who injected a sense of myth and epic (particularly the battle between Thor and Jormungandr, when the entire issue was written in epic verse) to a previously forgettable series, making Loki far more complex and interesting than his previous incarnations. Basically, he did for Thor what Claremont did for the X-Men.
  • The question of who Thor's modern dad is remains open, though some posit Straczynski, who brought Thor back after Ragnarok, while others posit Jason Aaron's Thor run — even fans who dislike the new Thors (first Jane Foster, then the new "War Thor" in Volstagg) admit that his initial Thor run, which explored the Nine Realms more, created new antagonists in the spectacularly creepy Gorr the God Butcher and the deceptively dangerous Roxxon CEO Dario Agger (who can transform into the Minotaur, though he's actually less dangerous like this, since Thor can beat the crap out of him with impunity), and explored Thor's insecurities and personal doubts over his worthiness and the worthiness of gods in general, as well as bringing Malekith the Accursed back after over a decade of being Put on a Bus (aside from a brief, comical appearance in the Incredible Hercules) as an Ax-Crazy Magnificent Bastard and making him the central villain of the series going forward. On the flip side Aaron absolutely cannot measure up to Kieron Gillen's (or Al Ewing's, and many others') interpretation of Loki in the eyes of most fans.
• Chuck Dixon is undoubtedly considered this for the third Robin, Tim Drake, thanks to three miniseries and the Robin (1993) 100 issue book.
• Transformers:
  • The Transformers (Marvel) comic was originally written by Bob Budiansky, but it was the work of Simon Furman, who started out writing filler strips for the UK reprint, that is the most celebrated and respected today. In fact, Furman has probably had more influence on the entire Transformers mythos than any other writer.
  • The Transformers (IDW) continuity began under Furman's pen and was built on by Shane Mccarthy and Mike Costa when his run was Cut Short. However it was the combined work of James Roberts and John Barber who pulled the verse out of a lengthy Audience-Alienating Era and redefined the series with their critically acclaimed books, The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye and The Transformers: Robots in Disguise. They singlehandedly transformed the IDW comics from a franchise footnote to one of the most acclaimed comics in years.
• Wolverine actually has several candidate daddies;
  • Back in 1974, original creator Len Wein established that Wolverine's powers were his "natural-born speed, strength, and savagery."
  • In 1976, Chris Claremont revealed that his claws were part of his body, rather than his uniform as previously thought, and introduced his Super-Senses. In 1977, Claremont created the first civilian identity for Wolvie when a random character calls him "Logan". Claremont and John Byrne first hinted that Wolvie has "unbreakable bones in 1978, and revealed in 1979 that his entire skeleton is laced with adamantium. The original idea for the name "Logan" was that only a select few people knew about it and the X-Men were not among them. In 1980, Claremont and Byrne had Nightcrawler become the first X-Man to find out and soon enough the rest of the team started using it for their teammate. Also in 1980, the two of them introduced the backstory that James and Heather Hudson found Wolverine in a feral state and managed to help him recover his humanity. In 1981, Claremont and Byrne introduced Wolvie's Healing Factor.
  • In 1983, Dennis O'Neil created the notion that the adamantium-lacing process was created by Japanese mastermind Lord Dawkwind, and also introduced Darkwind's daughter Yuriko. As Lady Deathstrike, Yuriko would become an essential addition to Wolverine's Rogues Gallery.
  • In 1986, Bill Mantlo established the mystery about who or what gave Wolvie his adamantium, and also introduced the notion that Wolvie is older than he looks. Specifically, Mantlo established Wolverine as a World War II veteran. In 1990, both Claremont and Larry Hama picked up on the reference and fleshed out his World War II background in two separate stories. Also in 1990, Jo Duffy created an origin story for Wolvie which has him cast out by humans and managing to survive on his own in the wilderness of Canada. While later contradicted by other origins, this basic element has stayed with the character through Broad Strokes adaptations.
  • In 1991, Larry Hama introduced the concept of Wolverine's memory implants and essentially gave him a Multiple-Choice Past. Also in 1991, Barry Windsor-Smith published a 12-part origin story about the mysterious project which gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton and turned him into a Living Weapon. The story was called "Weapon X" because that was the codename for the test subject, Wolverine. The name "Weapon X Program" was established by Larry Hama in 1992.
  • The origin by Barry Windsor-Smith hinted that Wolverine had bone claws prior to his encounter with the Program. Once Wolverine lost the adamantium in 1993, it was Larry Hama who fleshed out the concept and established that the claws were part of the original mutation. He also worked out what these less-durable claws could and could not do.
  • Finally the definite origin story for Wolverine, the real name "James Howlett," and his family background were all established by Paul Jenkins in 2001.
• Wonder Woman was created by William Marston, but for the modern take on the character, George Pérez and his Post-Crisis recreation of the character is definitive to the point that director Patty Jenkins, creator of the Wonder Woman feature film, considers his work on par with Marston himself. A number of fans also put Greg Rucka on a similar level, due to his modernizing of the Greek Gods and the increased presence of Diana on the political stage.
  • DC clearly intended for Brian Azzarello's take to be definitive (particularly given that a version of his origin was used for the DECU movie), but Greg Rucka's subsequent DC Rebirth run moved away from it. However, Rucka's run itself was moved away from once it ended, and in popular consciousness (and due to the movie's popularity), aspects of Azzarello's run have stayed with the character, most notably her being the daughter of Zeus in one way or another.
• Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost created X-23, but didn't introduce her to the Marvel Universe (she's a Canon Immigrant), putting her in the hands of Joe Quesada and later Chris Claremont, probably with the intention of invoking this trope; when it didn't work, they started writing her themselves. While their take was seen as superior to Quesada's and Claremont's and laid groundwork on the character, it still had its share of problems. It was Marjorie Liu's run on Laura's solo title that definitely did a lot to make fans like a character they previously called Girlverine.
• Warren Ellis is seen as this for Nate Grey a.k.a. X-Man (counterpart of Cable), along with Dan Abnett. While the character was created by Jeph Loeb, as part of Age of Apocalypse, and written by Terry Kavanagh for the majority of his solo run, Ellis storyboarded the 'Shaman' storyline as part of the Revolution revamp of the X-books, which removed the previous plot tumour of Nate's genetic degeneration and drastically changed the series, making it more philosophical and cosmic-themed, changing Nate from a conventional Hot-Blooded Knight in Sour Armor and Jerk with a Heart of Gold to a purposefully weird Crazy Sane Anti-Hero with a Messiah Complex who took up a Doctor Strange-like role protecting reality. While the series only lasted another 12 issues, the depiction stuck (Uncanny X-Men (2018) and Age of X-Man leaned hard into the Ellis depiction), being tweaked by Dan Abnett to restore Nate's sarcastic sense of humour and dorkier traits, gently poking fun at his occasionally pretentious philosophy, while maintaining his role as an authority on reality-jumping/warping. Most readers admit, whether they like the character or not, that he is at least now somewhat distinctive.
• X-Men:
  • Chris Claremont, pushing it from a failed Silver Age idea into the Marvel Universe's biggest cash cow. Magneto can especially be considered his "baby". While the character existed long before he came along (having been introduced in the very first issue), he was, in his original form, your typical over-the-top villain Card-Carrying Villain and then some. It was Claremont who fleshed him out into the Well-Intentioned Extremist we know him as today, before bringing him through an affecting Heel–Face Turn. (This turned out to be the first of many, though.) To the fans, he's known as the "Father of X(-men)". It was also during the Claremont era that the X-Men came to be seen as an allegory for the Civil Rights Movement and as a metaphor for minority rights.
  • Even though Fabian Nicieza is largely seen as the definitive writer for Gambit (writing his original series), Claremont's take on Gambit is still considered by many to be the superior version as far as the fact that Claremont's Gambit was a happy-go-lucky thief as opposed to Nicieza's brooding, angsty version. It also helps that Claremont loved pairing Storm and Gambit up together as a platonic duo whereas Nicieza preferred pairing Gambit up with Rogue for wangst-fueled storylines.
  • Weir and DeFilippis are this for two minor X-characters they took under their wings — Icarus and Dust. Icarus debuted in a 1984 Rom: Spaceknight story as an extra, created by Bill Mantlo, and remained an obscure background character until 2004. Then writer Chuck Austen cast him as a main character in the storyline She Lies With Angels, which unfortunately was one of the most hated stories in his, already controversial, X-Men run. When Icarus turned up as a cast member in New Mutants, he was not exactly a popular addition. As for Dust, her original portrayal by her creator, Grant Morrison, was full of Unfortunate Implications. Neither was well-liked until Weir and DeFilippis gave them rounded personalities and started building a close friendship and possible romance between them.
  • In an example that isn't technically a character, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original version of the Sentinels (introduced in X-Men #14 in 1965) were considerably different from the version that most fans know: they were roughly the size of ordinary people, their bodies were predominantly red and blue, they were often drawn with a scowling expression, and they weren't built by the government (Bolivar Trask was a self-employed scientist who hated mutants for personal reasons). Neal Adams and Dennis O'Neill introduced their more familiar design in 1969, reimagining them as towering monstrosities with unsettling expressionless faces and a distinctive purple and magenta color scheme. Later, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's classic 1981 story "Days of Future Past" would depict them as anti-mutant weapons deployed by the US government, effectively framing them as walking symbols of government persecution; this idea proved popular enough that it was reused for virtually all of their subsequent appearances, as well as most adaptations.
• When Vibe was introduced, he was a breakdancing stereotype. However, thanks to the New 52 reboot and the writing of Sterling Gates, he has become a much more likable and relatable character with a small, yet dedicated, fanbase.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW) writer Jeremy Whitley started getting this after the show's Season 9 premiere — which ignored his Character Development and Worldbuilding for the villain King Sombra, and brought him back as a Same Character, But Different many saw as too jarring and underwhelming. A big consensus is that — whatever flaws Whitley's stories may have — his take on Sombra was the more-consistent, more-interesting, and more-satisfying return for him.
• It is also fairly common for some of Marvel's recurring super-villains:
  • Silver Samurai was created by Steve Gerber in 1974, as a new foe for Daredevil. From 1977 to 1989, nearly all of the character's stories were written by Chris Claremont. Claremont gave him a backstory as Mariko Yashida's illegitimate half-brother and established their sibling rivalry, established the Samurai's partnership and enduring love for Viper, defined the Samurai's mutant powers (and how he looks when not wearing his armor), turned the Samurai into a reluctant ally of Wolverine, and gave him a sense of honor.
  • Viper/Ophelia Sarkissian was created by Stan Lee and Jim Steranko in 1969, but they only used her for a single story arc and killed her off. Steve Englehart turned her into a recurring character, removed her from HYDRA's ranks, and redefined her character and motivations. Chris Claremont then gave her a love life, a new partner-in-crime in the Silver Samurai, and turned her into a recurring foe for Spider-Woman and the X-Men. Viper's nihilism, her mass-killing tendencies (which tend to disturb other villains), and her habitual use of opium were then all introduced by J. M. DeMatteis in 1983.
  • Mother Night was introduced as a one-shot villain by Stan Lee in 1970. She was reintroduced in 1989 by Mark Gruenwald. He turned her into a recurring foe for Captain America, placed her into an abusive relationship with the Red Skull, used her as a surrogate mother (and former nanny) for Sin, and eventually redefined her as a love interest and morality pet for Cutthroat (a villain who felt great empathy for abused women). Few other writers bothered to even use the character.
  • Rose/Richard Fisk was created by Stan Lee in 1970, merely as the Kingpin's son who hated his father and schemed against him. He was reintroduced by Gary Friedrich in 1972, as a super-villain in his own right. His Rose persona was introduced by Tom DeFalco in 1984, who turned the character into a memorable and distinctive crime-lord.
  • Plantman was created by Stan Lee in 1963, and he has had many appearances over the decades. In 2001, Fabien Nicieza effectively reinvented him, after adding the character to the Thunderbolts. He gave him an origin as an orphan raised in slums, with little formal education and several unfulfilled dreams. Nicieza also reinvented his powers, giving the character a connection directly to Earth's Verdant fields. This eventually came with involuntary shape-shifting into a plant form and indications that Plantman was no longer human. Basically Plantman became a tragic figure, and no longer looked or acted as he had in previous years.

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