The Incredibles 2 comes out this weekend and I am very, very excited! The first movie is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies and the sequel is long in coming. Me being the pop culture friendly blogger I am, I knew I needed to make a list that would coincide with the movie. How about famous comic book families? Just like the Incredibles!

Yeah, nah, that list would be comprised of the Fantastic Four and all the other famous comic book families that everybody already knows.

Not enough super teams having matching uniforms

I could make a list full of characters and superhero families that everybody already knows, but where is the fun in that? I want some deeper cuts! Then Marvel announced the new Asgardians of the Galaxy comic, which features a character I barely knew about, but is a son taking up his father’s legacy. Boom! There’s my idea! Dash and Violet in The Incredibles are picking up their parents’ superhero legacy, so how about a list of comic book characters who also take up their parents’ superhero legacy? And lets have even more fun by adding the wrinkle of making them smaller, more obscure characters!

Any website in the world will tell you all about how the Flash’s kids also became super speedsters, or about Peter Parker’s various spider-kids. But here, I’m going to tell you all about the minor, forgotten legacy characters who nonetheless exist and are pretty awesome in their own right!

This list probably isn’t going to light up any search engines, but it’s my blog and I want to have dorky comic book fun! Join me after the jump!

6. Tomcat

‘Black Panther’ was taken

The original Wildcat is Ted Grant, an aging boxer who was a longtime member of the Justice Society of America. That team is filled with legacy characters and heroes, but Wildcat is special because of how weird his son turned out to be. That would be Tomcat, Tom Bronson, who showed up in Ted’s life well into adulthood, the result of a one-night stand from Ted’s youth. The hilarious thing about Tomcat is that here’s a were-panther! Whereas Ted just wears an outfit and calls himself ‘Wildcat’ for a fun, Tom literally turns into a black cat monster. So I guess it was in his genes all along?

5. Excavator and the new Bulldozer

The supervillain equivalent of following your pa into the coal mine

The Wrecking Crew is one of the oldest and most versatile villain teams at Marvel. Four guys with construction themes using magic-infused construction gear to fight superheroes. They’re great! And some of them have kids! Excavator is the son of Piledriver, and he was given an enchanted shovel. He got beat up by the Runaways. The second Bulldozer is the daughter of the first Bulldozer, who took on her father’s mantle after he died. She tried to take on the Fantastic Four with the rest of the Crew, but that never goes well for anybody.

4. Malcolm Dragon

The resemblance is uncanny

Did you know that Savage Dragon had a son? I had no idea until I made this list! Savage Dragon is one of Image Comics’ longest running series, still written by Erik Larson all these decades later, after is 1990s debut. Malcolm is the son of Savage Dragon and Rapture, one of his lady loves. Then some bad guys named The Covenant of the Sword kidnapped Malcolm at birth, faking his death, and tried to raise him as their own. But Savage Dragon kicked butt, saved his boy and eventually started raising the kid himself, teaching him to be a good guy.

3. Sebastian Druid and Jerry Sledge

Nick Fury has had better ideas

The Secret Warriors was a team of young heroes put together by Nick Fury following the Skrull invasion. He had a whole list of kids whose parents were either heroes or villains, and he decided to make a team out of those kids. Two of those kids took on their parents’ legacy and fit this list. Sebastian Druid was the son of Doctor Druid, possibly the lamest Avenger of all time. Sebastian knew some of his father’s magic, but not enough to stay on the team and be helpful. Jerry Sledge is the son of the Absorbing Man, who attained some of his father’s powers, mostly the ability to turn into stone. That’s why he went with the name ‘Stonewall’ instead of something like ‘Absorbing Boy’.

2. Offspring

Teen Titans reject

A lot of superheroes at DC Comics have kids who carry on the power legacy. I could have picked any of them for this list (like Wildcat!). But I wanted to get weird and obscure, so how about Plastic Man’s kid? Plastic Man is a pretty wild and crazy guy to begin with, so its no surprise he didn’t stick around with Luke’s mom. But once Luke was old enough to have his own shapeshifting powers, Plastic Man had to do what he could to be a good dad and a good role model. Why Luke chose a name like “Offspring” is anyone’s guess. Pretty sure everybody in the world is someone’s offspring. Why not go with Plastic Boy?

1. Thunderstrike

Big AC/DC fan!

Here he is, the character that inspired this list! Kevin Masterson is the son of the original Thunderstrike, one of those replacement Thor characters from the 1980s. Kevin was a supporting character in the original Thunderstrike book, so unlike a bunch of other characters on this list, he’s not a retcon. When the original Thunderstrike died, Kevin eventually inherited his father’s magic Asgardian mace, and he decided to carry on his father’s legacy — except he’s pretty bad at it, having only been a normal dude before the mace. He’s gotten some training from some pretty heavy hitters, though, so I’m sure he’ll be fine as one of the Asgardians of the Galaxy!

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