Marvel and DC both do this... re-imagining their superheroes, basically just keeping their names and maybe one or two abilities and changing all the rest. DC's Tangent Universe, Marvel 2099...

Let's do this. Pick a superhero and re-imagine them.

For me, I'll re-imagine the Hulk (yeah yeah, no surprise there).

I think I'll have this new character based on Norse Mythology. The character will be a troll/frost giant hybrid living in Jotenheim. He'll be smaller than the other giants he lives with due to his half-troll heritage (think a cross between Ulik the Troll and Utgard-Loki). I think I'd have him found guilty by the giants of showing compassion and, during a "ritual of shame," tribal shamans curse him with green skin (frost giants hate the color of spring, after all). Finally, they banish him to Midgard (Earth) to live out the rest of his days as a lowly human being. While on Earth, our troll giant discovers that he can overcome the curse and regain his form when he's sufficiently enraged. However, when his battle rage subsides, he once again takes on the form of a human (although each time he does this, his human form changes in appearance... so he never looks the same transformation-to-transformation).

Something like that. Go.

Adam Warlock

Genetically engineered as part of an afternoon science project by Reed Richards, Adam Mark One has been concocted in a test tube and grown inside a cocoon that looks like a McRib sandwich to be the ultimate expression of human evolution. Going out for a jaunt in his private rocket Reed deposits the about to de-McRib Adam upon an uninhabited world full of prehistoric critters and then deploys some sattelites to see how long it takes the immortal hyper-man to move from primitive stone age tools to building his own rocket in order to return some overdue DVDs back to Blockbuster on earth. Contrary to plan, Adam embraces his primitive side and engages in all manner of superstition, getting really tight after eating a bunch of sentient mushrooms that wouldn't stop taunting him. Going on a vision quest he makes contact with the primordial mystic world-mind of the alien planet and consumes it - -moving not from stone tools to nanotech, but from crude shamanism to the highest levels of alchemy and wizardry. Teleporting back to the world of his birth the newly dubbed Adam Warlock sets about restructuring the world into a shape more pleasing to his heightened sense. First task? Destroy Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four.

Besides my Huntress as Dick Grayson's cousin (keeping the Uncle Bruce element I love from the Earth 2 version) here goes.

Man-Thing. Coming from a race of monsters, Man-thing, due to an unfortunate accident, now turns into a human and can only return to his natural state for brief moments when he focuses his will. Traveling the world as a man, he is completely perplexed by the human condition and seeks a cure to his awful condition.

Blackwing. Inspired by the Batman as a young kid, Charley Bullock is determined to be a hero just like his idol, to his people. He trains from that moment on (mostly by the Bronze Tiger) to become one of the best martial artists of the world and becomes a new hero fo the night, Blackwing. Protecting his part of Gotham, he often comes into conflict with those around him due to his no excuse, non victimization, self-reliant attitude.

The Atom, an explorer of the microverse, Ray Palmer jumps from micro-world to micro-world seeking adventure and the one element that is the basis of all life.

The Black Cat. Raised by a wonderful and caring man, who could never catch a break financially, yet called himself the luckiest man in the world for having his daughter, Felicity Hardy. Felicity had a very happy childhood until the day her father had the misfortune of going down the wrong alley and was murdered. A freak circumstance sealing his fate, Felicity is determined to be the unluckiest thing that will ever cross the path of criminals everywhere. Whenever she is made aware of an injustice, she not only takes down that villain, but systematically ruins his or her life, making it appear that their luck has turned bad. She also makes sure that the victim is rewarded financially with what she takes from the perpetrators who go to jail moaning about how they should never have crossed the Black Cat.

Love the Man-Thing concept! If I was a writer / artist I would want to steal it

Sorta close to my Hulk idea, too. Oh well... that kind of thing happens all the time.

Didn't even realize it but yeah.

It might be good for the Ultimate universe version.

I'm trying to think of other B level heroes we could re-imagine.

I've read an alternate verison of Superman's origin that Siegal was considering while creating the character; rather than a highly evolved being from another planet, he'd be a highly evolved being from our planet-- only in the distant future. Jor-El is a scientist in the distant future, where humans have evolved to mental and physical perfection, bu Earth's reached its end and our star was going to go supernova. To save his only child, he placed him into an experimental time machine an sent him to the 20th century.

A comic set in the Great Depression with this Superman, written by Mark Millar and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, would be sweet.

Terra-Man

A geologist stumbles onto a strange mineral deposit which bonds to him as he touches it and seeps into his body. In the following days he finds his body getting heavier and his flesh turning grey. He finds he has no more need to breathe, eat, sleep or for any other normal human functions, and his body can assume the properties of any type of earth - be it hard and strong as granite, porous as clay or as magnetic as magnetite. He uses his new abilities to become a soldier of fortune for hire, but the condition leaves him despondent as the years pass and he realizes he does not age as he watches those he cares about grow old and die. Fearing he will live forever, he begins to feel moral issues of right and wrong do not apply to him and begins accepting offers from shadier and shadier organizations and heroic groups, as long as the money is right. Each mission he finds himself on places him on a different side of the law... will he fall completely into the dark path of the criminal, or will he be able to rediscover the humanity in himself to fully return to the side of the angels? Only time will tell - but right now both sides want him on their team.

Very interesting, Ross!

Howard The Duck - a genetically engineered superduck, originally created by the High Evolutionary. Estranged from his fellow "new men" because of his non-mammalian status, and dissatisfied with life in general, he leaves Mount Wundagore in a huff and then travels the world alone, eventually becoming a kind of "genius for hire", creating odd but devastating weapons for guys like Dr. Doom and Namor. He also (sometimes) helps the good guys if it suits him. He would be a Hugh Hefner type figure; constantly accompanied by a posse of bikini clad female bodyguards, all carrying exotic weapons.

People would still exclaim "You...you're a duck!" the first time they saw him, though.

I don't feel my favorite characters need re-imagining. I like them the way they are -- that's what makes them my favorites.

I'd rather re-imagine characters that I hate into ways that I would actually enjoy them instead. Hulk, Thor or Namor, for instance.

Thor wouldn't be all that difficult for me, actually -- I'd just go back to the original version of the character: this doctor with a bad leg discovers a magical artifact that transforms his body and gives him powers resembling those of the Norse god of thunder and storms, and he uses these powers to become a super hero and calls himself Thor. That's fine right there. It's as soon as you make him the actual Norse god of thunder that I lose any interest in the character.

That's what makes the character unique rather than just another Shazam type hero; it also builds in a huge backstory and history to draw villains and stories from.

I don't like bringing mythological characters into super hero comics. I know it's a trope that goes all the way back to Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, but I don't like it and never have.

(And it's hardly unique when you also have Hercules and Ares and who knows who else running around. But I know what you're saying. I still don't like it. The notion of the Norse god of thunder and storms just palling around with Captain America in modern times fighting guys like Absorbing Man rubs me the wrong way. Now, retelling the Norse myths in comic form? Awesome. Some guy calling himself Thor fighting Absorbing Man with blasts of lightning and hitting him with a magic hammer? Awesome. Mixing the two together? Suck.)

Hey, we all have our likes and dislikes. I personally like it quite a bit.

Well, yeah. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with liking or disliking anything. But if I were re-imagining Thor, I'd take out all the "genuinely being" Thor and make him a guy who channels the powers of Thor instead. I might even throw the real Norse gods in there, actually, but I would make Thor the god separate from Thor the super hero. Someone that he occasionally has to answer to. In fact, that might be neat -- in the middle of a fight, showing mercy to his foe, and the god Thor takes his powers away for not upholding good, proper Norse ideals of combat...

I guess you would have liked the Eric Masterson era of Thor; from about 430 thru 450, he took over as Thor and was a regular guy with Thor powers. He later became Thunderstrike.

Stop being reasonable

And i understand how he feels. I feel that way at times. A Thor book set only on Asgard would be fine for fantasy fans, it's the co-mingling that is awkward.

I think the merging of the two is what makes it work. If you have Thor just on Asgard, it becomes a fantasy book. Yawn. If you have it set solely on Earth, it becomes like every other superhero book. Yawn.

By mixing the two, you're providing a unique character and title. It's what attracted me to it to begin with.

What did you think of the Ultimate Thor, before the big reveal that he WAS an actual Asgard god?

Didn't read it.