Fathers and Sons
I'm not exactly sure what got this idea into my head, but I was wondering if there were any teams or pairings in Comics, that combined Fathers and Sons? The only one that I can think of, off of the top of my head, is Alan Scott/Green Lantern and Todd/Obsidian over in the Justice Society, as well as Ted Grant/Wildcat and Tommy/Wildcat Jr., ALSO over in the Justice Society.
There is Oliver Queen and Connor of course, but have they ever really run around fighting crime together for more than a simple story arc or so? The name of the current book is Green Arrow/Black Canary, not Green Arrows. Roy and Mia are surrogate children of course, but that's a 'nother whole can of worms.
So many superheroes are orphans that it's hard for them to team up with their Dads. And Ollie aside, not THAT many superheroes have kids. Well, there's Wally of course, and he DOES fight with his son and his daughter. Not only that, but they are still KIDS! That's a bit unnusual. There is Batman and Robin of course, but I think that the Robins all fall under the surrogate title. On the other hand, he's out and out adopted Tim, so perhaps that counts as a Father/Son dynamic duo.
There are still a lot more Father/Son combinations that Mother/Daughter ones. There is Hippolyta and Diana of course, and Black Canary Sr. and Black Canary Jr. Mothers don't seem to show up as often as Fathers do. There is Ma Kent, Guy's crazy Mom, and Tora's nice Mom. That is about all the mothers that I can think of. Kyle's Mom was nice, but they went and killed her off.
Can anybody think of any parent/child combinations?
posted by SallyP @ 8:21 AM
16 Comments:
Mrs. Reyes and Blue Beetle!
There's also J. Torres' family dynamic. That's got two parent/child teams.
Oh! There're the two Wildcats! Ted and...Tommy, I think?
The problem is, most parents and children fight about whether or not the kid's allowed to be a superhero.
Hmm...does Arrowette and her mom count?
Well, magneto used to team up with his kids all the time. It was usually to do something considered villainous (and I don't know whether he knew they were his kids at that point).
I know Cyclops and Cable have been on the X-Men at the same time, but I think they were in different books, so I'm not sure that counts. I don't think Rachel ever got to be on the same team with Cyke for any extended period of time.
Ray and Happy Terril used to work together in Ray's old series. You know, when Happy wasn't going Silver Age Superman on poor Ray.
Stargirl used to fight crime with STRIPES, but he's her step-dad, so I don't know if that counts either.
On occasions where he's come out of retirement, Spider-Man's teamed up with Spider-Girl a few times. But it's usually for about one arc (which is how long it takes Pete to decide she doesn't need his help). That's all I've got right now.
Other than those mentioned, I can't think of any. And you know, I'm not even sure how many of those count, because there's an entirely different dynamic involved when a child doesn't actually meet their parent until they're already grown up (like Alan and Todd or Ted and Tommy). The relationship is a little different when the parent has been the one to raise, teach, and discipline the child for his whole life.
I think it would be interesting to explore the concept of an aging hero fighting alongside his/her own grown son or daughter. I'd love to see an Alan and Todd miniseries of some sort! Or even Ted and Tommy. I'm not a huge fan of Tommy, but Ted Grant does own one of the few tiny little pieces of my heart that aren't already claimed by Lanterns.
If you mean cloned kids who coincidentally become their involuntary donors protégées you’ve got Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond and Emma Frost and the Stepford Cuckoos (though I didn’t particularly care for any of that revelation…).
Hm, noticing my icon after posting that I'm wondering whether Zatanna and Zatara ever actually worked together much...
I don't know if you want to count Nate Grey, who breifly lived and fought besides Scott and Jean while Scott and Jean were living in Alaska. Nate is kind of their son from another dimension so...
Wolverine and his crazy son Daken seem to be on the same page now, even though this is a bit of a stretch, since Daken is brainwashed.
Mystique and Rogue worked together on both sides of the law, but Rogue is Mystique's adopted daughter. I think Mystique and Nightcrawler were both X-Men at one time together.
Odin and Thor?
Corsair has worked with Cyclops and Havok on many occasions.
Franklin Richards battled alongside his parents(Sue and Reed) as a little kid as well as a teenager.
Over in the DC world, there in Damian and Batman. Damian obviously wants to fight along side Bats, but I can't recall them ever fighting side by side.
Impulse battled alongside his Mom once or twice in the future.
Figure I'd throw this one out there as well, Lex Luthor did consider Superboy his "son", since SB was 50% Lex's clone(that's a real STRETCH though).
Most of mine are longshots, but if you want to be really flexible on your definition of the parent/child dynamic, some of these examples work.(Sorry I was so longwinded...)
When it comes right down to it, there really aren't THAT many examples. I guess it is because so many superheroes seem to be orphans.
I completely forgot about Mystique and Nightcrawler, but they've been adversaries more often than allies, it seems. Blue Beetle and his parents also seem to be in a whole other category, wherein the parents/siblings/friends enthusiastically support the hero! He's one of a kind!
I too would enjoy a mini with Ted and Tommy, or Alan and Todd.
I thought of Odin and Thor, but they used to fight all of the time too. Odin is just an old crankypants.
I think that Wonder Girl's mother has grudgingly accepted the fact that her daughter is a hero.
I think you're probably right with Thor and Odin though... Odin always seemed to be "punishing" Thor more then helping him.
This topic kind of has me thinking about the whole sibling dynamic now. I think there are a lot more pairs of siblings who work together then Parents/Children. Maybe a topic for another day...
Oh, and I'd love to see a Ted- Tommy mini. Tommy's character still hasn't really been explored very much yet.
I imgane there aren't gonna be many strong examples, 'cause superheroes were originally set up as escapist fantasies where kids could imagine going off and being heroes without their parents bogging them down. :-) I think that attitude is changing, though.
Really, the only super-hero family team that comes to mind is The Incredibles.
Green Lantern Rocks!!!
Has anyone seen this site:
http://metalphene.com
If anyone remembers the lame-asses that were the Fantastic Five I imagine they count. (In what ever form they were in.)
What about Superman and Christopher Kent? (Or maybe Zod and Lor-Zod?)
AND DON'T FORGET RIP HUNTER AND HIS DAD BOOSTER GOLD!
Well, there was the Ted Knight/Jack Knight dynamic. While Ted wasn't out on the streets, you could argue Jack's career was an on-going team-up with his dad. Though there was the time him and David went back in time, so I guess that kinda counts.
We never got a clear reading on whether Orson was Danny Rand's grandpa, but they had a pretty hefty team-up (don't know if that counts).
Drax and Moondragon teamed up on occasion. So there's that.
Plus, you have to give credence to all of the times that Reed used Franklin as a deus x machina to save the day for the FF.
That's what I got.
There's Grösshorn Eule and Fledermaus, the Nazi "Batman and Robin" counterparts from Young All-Stars.
The creepy Hitler-youth Fledermaus is notable in my mind as hands-down the absolute most loathsome version possible of the "kid sidekick" concept. Despite his youth, you're glad when the little Nazi bastard gets killed.
Hm, noticing my icon after posting that I'm wondering whether Zatanna and Zatara ever actually worked together much...
I believe not, and that actually seems fairly typical.
Another example who seemed to leave a huge number of "missed opportunities" behind is the Earth-2 Huntress. Reading her '70s stories from a 21st Century perspective, it's striking that, with such a neat concept (daughter of Batman and Catwoman), she barely interacts at all with either parent before they're killed off.
I suppose the idea was to establish more parallels between Huntress and her father (product of tragedy, orphaned, etc.), but I'd rather see them have a chance to work together!
I completely forgot about Ted and Jack Knight, which was a great dynamic. Ted worked with TWO sons. Too bad about David.
I don't know if Booster and Rip really works as a father/son team-up if one of them doesn't even know about it. Perhaps they are headed in that direction however. There is also the team-up...if you can call it that...between Booster and Daniel and Rose, who are his umpteeenth great grandparents or something.
In DC's "Captain Action" comic, which ran for 5 issues in the late '60s, Captian Action and Action boy were actually archaeologist Clive Arno and his son Carl.
And there was a 1940s series called "Supermind and Son," about a scientist who gave his son super-powers, and transported him to trouble spots that he viewed on a monitor in his lab.
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