Well, not my intention. Just wanted to give credit to the guy, since the topic was about NTT...

Aside from the Teen Titans characters mentioned, Marv Wolfman created Blade, Nova, Black Cat.

Not grade A characters, but still… you gotta give credit to the guy for creating something NEW.

Sorry, but I still think that creating new characters was the norm in Marv's day, not the exception. Gerry Conway created a bunch of new characters over at DC like the Detroit League and Firestorm while creating Punisher and Tombstone over at Marvel. Englehart created Mantis, Dr. Phosphorus and others. Len Wein created many of the New X-Men while Claremont created lots of other X-Men, the Hellfire Club, the New Mutants and the Hellions as well. JM DeMatteis created new characters, as did Roger Stern.

You make it sound like Wolfman is an anomaly for daring to create something new in his day.

Not grade A characters, but still... you gotta give credit to the guy for creating something NEW.

J, while I’d agree that Marvel is making the effort . . . THE ORDER is reportedly canceled with #10, and I don’t think it’s too far over the line to guess that NEW WARRIORS isn’t far behind.

That’s what makes NEW TEEN TITANS so amazing. Four new characters, yes, but four new DC mainstays?

Uhm.. Isn't that pretty much what I was saying? I didn't mean to tone down Perez and Wolfman's effort, I just wanted to point out that it's the staying power that's exceptional, not their creation as new characters. Brian's comment about creator willingness struck me as a bit off in that regard.

And Hitman. The only character that was even remotely interesting from Bloodlines

I mean, Slapstick is the father of the Silver Age!

I think the Dolemite hair would have been less embarassing.

they ended up giving her braids later, though, right? that was even weirder.

Then there's people like Garth Ennis, who will create a complete and interesting supporting cast of new characters and then kill them off before he leave the book. (Hellblazer, anyone?)

As to how important the character was ... how important was the uncannily similar Kimiyo Hoshi Dr. Light?

For my money, the best new Big Two characters in recent history are the Young Avengers ... too bad Marvel is allowing this property to languish, waiting for the perennially-late Allan Heinberg to return to the characters. Get someone on this book before the window of relevance closes on this title!

"Even the New Teen Titans were victims to this. I mean, Raven turned evil, then died, then turned evil again. Cyborg was a vegetable for awhile. And Starfire, well, I’m not up to date with her, but I remember that her planet was also destroyed (or eaten)."

I'd say this argues for another point, actually: sometimes a character's creator stays with them too long, and changes them from what made them good characters in the first place (or, at least, can't protect them from editorial mandate). Wolfman was on-board for Raven's turning evil/dying, Tamaran blowing up the first time, and Cyborg's virtual lobotomy. (Also the awful period when Changeling could only turn into monsters to reflect the darkness he felt in his soul.)

I'm not sure how much of this was driven by Wolfman (though I do get a sense of burnout from his last 4-5 years on the title) and how much of it was editorially driven, but the fact does remain that sometimes characters' creators aren't necessarily their best defenders.

But now that you mention it, the fact that she was used for Secret Wars is pretty significant, when you consider that not every character WAS used (no Vision or Scarlet Witch, for instance).

I dunno, Colin, I mean, Marvel even featured her on the cover of their games at the time!

Well, those games were using the art from Secret Wars.
Now you could comment that she was on the cover of the major crossover of the time, which was due to her being prominent in Stern's Avengers, qed.

Look at how Claremont's protected Sage over the last few years.

To reinforce some of the comments as raised before, the Titans were based on the blueprint of the “New” X-men.

Actually, according to Wolfman he says he was actually going for more of a Fantastic Four vibe, even though everyone thinks it was actually X-Men. It makes sense when you see the parallels between Ben and Johnny's relationship and Vic and Gar's, although the latter had way cornier dialogue.