Favorite Hero Who Adopted their Superhero Identity

I’ll be the first to admit that the title of this thread is a bit wonky. I was trying to edit my query down to a few words. What it comes down to is this, though:

Every so often an established hero cannot carry on being a named-hero for a variety of reasons. Most of the time it’s because they’re “dead”, but it can also be they’ve retired or been rejected by whatever commission oversees their superpoweredness.

For example, Thor was Eric Masterson but the current Thor is Jane Foster. Batman has always been Bruce Wayne except when he was Jean-Paul Valley Jr., Dick Grayson or Jason Todd, etc... Diana Prince had to give up the title of Wonder Woman for a while as Artemis assumed the role. These days, I think Captain America is Sam Wilson (formerly The Falcon) but has also been “Bucky” Barnes and a few others.

Then there are the gender-swap versions. Lynn Michaels assumed the skull icon of the Punisher for a while. Stephanie Brown has been both Robin and a version of Batgirl. And, my personal favorite, Kate Bishop adopted the Hawkeye name when Clint Barton “died” and kept using it when he returned to be Hawkeye again.

My question isn’t so much about alternate reality characters, Elseworlds’ versions, or the female variations of male heroes like She-Hulk to Hulk and X-23 to Wolverine. I'm just curious if others have read a superhero book and said, “say that guy (or gal) isn’t the real [Blank], but they’re pretty cool anyway.”

@penguindust: That i dont know. There is Connor Hawke but he is male version of Kate Bishop´s example. There also are both Deathstroke and Jason who use the Batman´s codename to commit crimes and Jason also use once Nightwing´s codename for that to. Jason also use Red Robin´s codename in Coutdown even with Tim Drake being alive. There also are the Batman on Batman all nations or Batman Inc which is diferente people using Batman and Robin figures as their nationality version of Batman and also being stereotype at same time.

Amanda Sefton as Magik wasn't bad

So you mean Legacy characters?

Scott Lang is my Ant-Man

Flash and Gargon as Venom come to mind also, though neither are as cool as Brock

@avenging_x_bolt:Yes, "legacy characters" was probably the phrase I was looking for. Thank you.

@vitalius: Connor Hawke would have been the type of character I was talking about. Come to think of it, Kyle Rayner was probably one as well, but I get confused when there appears to be so many Green Lanterns of Sector 2814.

Jason Todd as the most recent Red Hood would probably be my favorite Legacy.

Dick as Batman.

Captain Marvel

Mmm I'll go with Kate Bishop as Hawkeye

@penguindust: If it´s about legacy, Black Canary is all time favorite, she is legacy of all her mentors and sensei and made and she one of example what somethings being the original doesnt mean that is the best one. Sometimes it´s hard to concerd all lanterns as legacy heroes but Kyle Rayner is also good example. Sector sometimes are a mess.

Wally West as the Flash.

dinah taking her mother black canary name

Flash Thompson donning the symbiote to become Agent Venom is the greatest Venom to date in my opinion (yep, even more than Brock).

I loved when Dick Grayson donned the Cowl to become Batman. Too bad it had to end.

I loved Bucky as Cap.

Dinah took the Black Canary mantle from her mother and is a total badass.

Then of course there's Carol Danvers who currently has taken the mantle of Captain Marvel.

A lot of great legacy characters out there, some even better than the originals.

Flash Thompson as Venom all the way. Much better than Brock IMO.

Terry McGinnis fully embracing the mantle of Batman in Epilogue is also one of my favorites.