Given comics as a long-running medium, both DC and Marvel have their share of heroes who outgrew how they were initially introduced. Batman’s original Robin, Dick Grayson, is the perfect example of this — a hero who was given a new codename and look when he outgrew his original appearance — from his updated costume to his iconic codename Nightwing and his relocation to Blüdhaven. When a rebrand works, it breathes new life into a stale character and veers them towards fresh stories.
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A rebrand doesn’t always work. Sometimes it’s the costume, other times it’s the codename. For whatever reason, fans don’t take to it, preferring the previous version of the character and insisting on it when the comic inevitably resets to the status quo. As is the case for Wonder Woman’s mod-girl spy era, rebrands can fail, with writers sometimes even forgetting why audiences liked the character in the first place.
4. Spoiler/Robin/Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)
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Stephanie Brown is a character of many names, and none have quite stuck. She started as Spoiler — and has reverted to it often — before becoming a female Robin. Following her presumed death, Brown returned as Spoiler before Cassandra Cain gave her the moniker and costume of Batgirl. Under the tutelage of previous Batgirl Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown finally proved herself to Bruce and the rest of the team.
Of course, Stephanie Brown is reset to Spoiler when she’s reintroduced in the DC Universe in 2014, following the universe’s reboot in 2011. Brown later would pick up the Batgirl moniker again, sharing it with Barbara Gordon and Cassandra Cain. In current comics, Stephanie Brown is just as likely to be referred to by Steph as one of her numerous codenames.
3. Changeling (Beast Boy)
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When returning to Marv Wolfman’s original New Teen Titansrun, most of the broad strokes are consistent with contemporary comics. The keyword there is most because New Teen Titansis insistent on calling Garfield Logan Changeling. This is opposed to Beast Boy, a name he’s referred to in almost everything else.
The change was explained by an issue of Doom Patrol in which an enemy mocked the name Beast Boy, ruining it for Gar. Changeling persists as his main identity until the 1999 Beast Boyminiseries, where former teammate Flamebird and those suspecting Gar of murder refer to him solely as Beast Boy, causing Changeling to fall by the wayside. Since then, Beast Boy has occasionally brought back Changeling or other names, but has always reverted back to his original codename.
2. Red Robin (Tim Drake)
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Given the fact that his creation was a sort of rebrand in itself — Tim Drake was created to replace Jason Todd, who’d been killed off in “Death in the Family” — it makes sense that his original moniker has stubbornly clung to the character. Tim Drake has also been popular with readers, with multiple solo minis early in his publication history. DC even greenlit a Robin ongoing series in the early ‘90s, less than five years after the character’s introduction.
While Tim Drake flirted with the idea of hanging up Robin to be more present with his father — causing the mantle to go to girlfriend Stephanie Brown before her presumed death — Tim Drake wouldn’t officially go by a different codename until after the mini-series Batman: Battle of the Cowl.Tim Drake’s mantle changed from Robin to Red Robin, allowing the Robin mantle to be passed down to Batman’s biological son Damian Wayne. DCgreenlit a new ongoing series for Tim Drake, now Red Robin, which ran up until the New 52 reboot.
While Tim Drake remained Red Robin throughout DC Rebirth, ultimately the character returned to the Robin mantle for Young Justice.This was likely a resetting of the status quo for the character. In Young Justice, he briefly tried out the codename Drake, but once again he returned to Robin, which he still goes by.
1. Phoenix II / Rachel Grey / Prestige
In terms of a character so often limited by the inevitable return to the status quo, none fits the bill quite like Rachel Summers. Rachel Summers was initially introduced in the “Days of Future Past” storyline before returning to X-Men comics as part of Excalibur. In Excalibur,Rachel Summers took on her mother’s mantle, serving as a proper legacy character. As the second Phoenix, Rachel showed a version of the Phoenix Force that didn’t have to be destructive or overwhelming. Unfortunately, Rachel Summers hardly needed to be Phoenix when Marvel Comicslater resurrected Jean Grey from the dead.
Following Jean’s resurrection, Rachel Summers entered a sort of limbo. Unable to be Phoenix and annoyed with her father’s romantic choices, Rachel Summers became Rachel Grey. For combat missions, her codename became Marvel Girl, taking on Jean’s original codename. In 2013’s all-female X-Menbook, Rachel would adopt the codename Prestige, a name that would follow her up until Krakoa.
During the Krakoa era, Rachel Summers was usually referred to as herself, eventually dropping the Prestige codename. While adventuring in Otherworld with romantic interest Betsy Braddock, there are nods to Rachel Summers embracing the codename Mother Askani. The acceptance of Mother Askani wasn’t a full rebrand, but rather a soft move towards connecting threads of Rachel’s character that had been untethered for decades.
& 1. Butterfly (Betsy Braddock)
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’s been headed towards a full-scale rebrand for a while. Krakoa soft-launched multiple changes for her. With the power of Krakoan resurrection, Betsy was able to genetically change her hair color from blonde to purple. Betsy attempted to make it right with Kwannon, stepping away from the body-swapping confusion that had plagued the character for decades. She also entered into a relationship with Rachel Summers while taking on the responsibility of Captain Britain, her brother’s previous mantle.
Despite critics both in and out of the comic, Betsy Braddock’s assumption of Captain Britain was a success. It gave the character a clear purpose separate from a ninja assassin identity, and gave Betsy a new distinct look. Still, the character felt a little bogged down by a title that had belonged to her brother Brian Braddock for so long.
As a potential fix, a new codename for Betsy Braddock was unveiled. Instead of Psylocke or Captain Britain, the purple haired Braddock would be going by Butterfly. Butterflies had long been part of Betsy’s unique psychic signature with fans noting its absence during one stretch of the Krakoan era. Unlike prior names, Butterfly is solely Betsy’s. Whether it will stick is yet to be determined, and it’s yet to be shown whether it’s a name that audiences and writers alike will take seriously.
Hero rebrands can be both exciting and dreadful — let us know in the comments which one has stuck out to you the most!
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