User:Exvicious/Legacy character

A legacy character is term to describe a fictional individual that is the latest in a long line of superheroes. A character may use the codename and costume of the original, or just carrying on the tradition because of familial ties.

DC Comics
At the dawn of the Silver Age of comics, Gardner Fox relaunched and revamped several Golden Age characters starting with the Flash. This created two characters with the same codename. The success of the new Flash opened the door for new versions of Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Atom, and more.

In The Flash #123 (1956), Barry Allen and Jay Garrick meet for the first time. It is retconed that the heroes of the Golden Age lived on a parallel world known as Earth-Two and the Golden Age heroes have aged in real-time compared to the contemporary heroes of the Silver Age. This opened up the idea for generational heroes. The older generation, in the Justice Society, are shown actively training proteges. Following retirement, Robin even replaced Batman in the Justice Society. Superman (Kal-L) even resigned as to not overshadow Power Girl's coming of age.

Some of the older characters refused to retire, however, and their sidekicks were denied membership in the Justice Society. Along with the Star-Spangled Kid, they formed Infinity Inc., a team of legacy characters.

Crisis on Infinite Earths
Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, the histories of Earth-One and Earth-Two (along with Earths S and 4) were merged. This effectively created three generations of superheroes since World War II: the Justice Society, the Justice League, and the Teen Titans & Infinity Inc. To keep Superman and Batman modern, they became associated with the League and their generation.

The original Titans "grew up." Dick Grayson shed his Robin identity to become Nightwing. Roy Harper became Arsenal. Aqualad became Tempest. Donna Troy became Troia and even suceeded Diana as Wonder Woman for a time. After the death of Barry Allen, Wally West became the Flash.

To replace the now grown up versions of the Titans, a fourth generation of heroes started to appear with the third Robin, Tim Drake. Following his appearance, a new Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl made subsequent appearances forming Young Justice and the current Teen Titans.

DC Comics
Robin
 * Dick Grayson
 * Jason Todd
 * Tim Drake
 * Stephanie Brown

The Flash
 * Jay Garrick
 * Barry Allen
 * Tornado Twins
 * Bart Allen
 * Wally West

Superman
 * Clark Kent/Kal-El
 * Superboy
 * Kal-El
 * Kon-El
 * Superboy-Prime
 * Power Girl
 * Steel
 * Supergirl
 * Kara Zor-El
 * Matrix
 * Linda Danvers

Speedy
 * Roy Harper
 * Mia Dearden

Green Lantern
 * Alan Scott
 * Jade
 * Obsidian
 * Hal Jordan
 * Guy Gardner
 * John Stewart
 * Kyle Rayner

Sandman  Green Arrow
 * Wesley Dodds
 * Sandy Hawkins
 * Oliver Queen
 * Conner Hawke
 * Red Arrow Roy Harper