- Hank Pym must always have had Janet as a starting partner, as well as had his initial breakdown from his backstory.
- The X-Men must always have originally been recruited by Charles Xavier for the pursuit of peace between humans and mutants. (Unless you have the son of Xavier go back in time and kill his own daddy, then anything goes.)
edited 3rd May '13 5:19:59 PM by kkhohoho
I want to make it mandatory that the Venom symbiote must have more depth than "it makes you EVIL," but unfortunately, the people responsible for the adaptations disagree with me.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.The Flash must always gain his powers in some kind of chemical, or otherwise scientific, accident. In my opinion, anyhow.
Superman must always have been rocketed to Earth as an infant from the planet Krypton. I personally would prefer that Krypton had exploded and he was the only survivor (I actually feel that these are essential elements to the myth, with a point stretched on the last factor, under duress, to allow Supergirl and the Phantom Zone and etc) but so long as he's the lonely infant castaway, I suppose that'll do in a pinch.
Like Aquaman above, The Mighty Thor, it goes without saying, needs some connection to Norse Mythology. Whether he's a doctor who finds a wooden stick, a (supposedly) delusional guy with a big hammer, or some other third thing.
Embroiled in slave rebellion, I escaped crucifixion simply by declaring 'I am Vito', everyone else apparently being called 'Spartacus'.

Let's face it: Nearly every character will have their backstory retconned, upgraded, and/or expanded at some point. Despite this, there will usually be at least one part that remains unchanged:
Any other mandatory factors?
Embroiled in slave rebellion, I escaped crucifixion simply by declaring 'I am Vito', everyone else apparently being called 'Spartacus'.