During this week’s Dueling Review, it occurred to me that, despite being the most iconic of Steed’s partners, Mrs. Emma Peel was NOT the first or even the second. Apart from giving an excuse to once again showcase the loveliness of Diana Rigg, this revelation got me thinking about the concept of the replacement character in general. On the one hand, even as a hardcore Deep Space Nine fan, I can’t justify the troubling existence of Ezri Dax, but I also can’t imagine Cheers without Woody’s boneheaded antics.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) doesn’t have to listen to you ’cause you’re not my real dad, you’re just Gary, asking: What replacement characters do you like MORE than the originals?
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I’ll probably be one of many when I say Wally West. He had quirks, he had flaws, and we got to watch him grow as a character. He had one of the few romances I really enjoyed in all of fiction. Barry’s stories are about the interesting things happening to him; Wally’s stories are about the interesting things he did. I tried to be diplomatic, but I just miss him & his awesomeness too much.
You have to go a long way down my list of favorite X-Men before you hit any of the originals.
Once again I’ll state that I liked Ezri, but a big chunk of that was a crush on the actress. It is the same reason I preferred Karone over Kendrix as the Pink Ranger in “Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy”.
In Green Lantern, I liked John, Guy and Kyle more than I liked Hal most of the time. The biggest reason is they were all more easy to relate to than Hal, particularly Kyle since he took time to grow in to the skilled ringslinger that he eventually became. He actually had to grow by making mistakes, training and getting tips from other heroes (including past GLs like Alan, John and Guy), which appealed to me since I always hated heroes suddenly being experts with their new powers.
And I know some people are going to hate me for saying this, but I like Terry McGinnis as Batman much, much more than I like Bruce Wayne as Batman. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate “present day” Batman, I just happen to like the sci-fi near-future Batman more.
Korra. She deals with conflicts that are realistic for someone her age. She has flaws that she has to overcome, but never seems weak. She has confidence in spades. She has a more interesting villain to defeat. Aang is great, but Korra is better, in my humble opinion.
This is going back a ways but I much preferred B. J. Hunnicutt over Trapper John McIntyre. BJ was a much better foil to Hawkeye than Trapper.
In Comics, its easy to forget that Cap isn’t technically a founding Avenger, though he is their first recruit. For me, through all the varied rosters the group has gone through, it’s still not a real Avengers line up, unless Cap’s quarterbacking it.
On the M*A*S*H theme, I like Winchester over Frank Burns. Larry Linville did a good job with the character, but Burns was a one trick horse.
Winchester was just as nasty and snide, but became multifaceted over the years.
I’d go with that. Winchester gave as good as he got.
I do have a soft spot for Dick Grayson as Batman