Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett looks at the plethora of character revival announcements coming out of Comic-Con this year:

There was a lot of news coming out of Comicon this year and strangely enough most of it concerned character revivals…

MARVELMAN:  I confess I never thought I'd live to see the day.  Of course like most recent "big announcements" just about everything in this one is TBD, though both reprints of the Mick Anglo material from the 50/60's and collecting/completing the Alan Moore/Neil Gaiman revival appear to be on the table.  Both have their appeal; I've read enough of the Silver Age stories to know they have a quirky charm quite distinct from the Golden Age Captain Marvel (but collections of these will undoubtedly do better in the UK).  And as someone who could hardly wait for the next installment of Marvelman in Warrior I'm as eager as anyone to see the story end the way Gaiman intended.

However there's part of me well aware of the possibility of disappointment; what was once cutting edge might have become antiquated in the interim.  One reason this series is so well remembered is because it has been unavailable and that reputation might diminish after it's actually been read.

But as I see it there's a problem with the franchise; Marvel undoubtedly paid a large sum of money for a character that has 'Marvel' in the title but can't interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe.  As I understand it Gaiman's run is supposed to involve the definitive end of the character and if the report from the ComicMix website is to be believed any new material will be "the continuing adventures of the character, not a reboot."

Of course there's no such thing as "can't;" when the company needs another event Marvelman could easily pop over to Earth-616 to remake it into a paradise (a truly appalling idea I agree but not quite as dreadful as my other one; Marvelman vs. The Marvel Zombies).

They'll also no doubt want to spin him off into other media and while I think deconstructing superheroes is seriously past its sell-by date I've got to concede dark superhero movies are currently hot.  And though it seems highly unlikely if Hollywood can turn Watchmen into a movie why not the Alan Moore version of Marvelman?

But I can also see commercial possibilities in the Mick Anglo incarnation; he's got a great costume, an unmistakable chest insignia and a distinctive worldview, all of which makes him a lot more than just a cheap clone of the original Captain Marvel.  I'd love to see a modern creator, Jim Starlin springs to mind for some reason, and contrast it with the darkness of the current Marvel Universe.

DOCTOR SOLAR, MAN OF THE ATOM, MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER, TUROK SON OF STONE, MIGHTY SAMSON:  As a retailer I've got to admit it's nice to see Dark Horse launching a line of adventure titles based on old comic books instead of old TV series and movies, and my heart hasn't grown so cold I can't appreciate Jim Shooter getting another chance at these characters.  And if they're taking requests I'd like to see a revival of Kona, Monarch of Monster Island please.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R AGENTS:  In our field nostalgia can be a powerful sales incentive but it's hard to imagine there's a huge demand out there for Dynamo and company after the several failed or aborted attempts to revive them.  But the real problem as I see it is finding a way to make them distinguishable from every other superhero group currently on the market.

FIGHTING AMERICAN:  I'm just not sure we need another patriotic superhero done straight let alone as a satire.  But as a hardcore Kirby fan I do like Dynamite's talk of creating a 'Kirbyverse' including characters such as Captain Victory and Silver Star though as a retailer I'm really not sure just how many more superheroes the market will bear.  And since he was about a lot more than superheroes, why not do a revival of Boy Explorers or at the very least the completion/collection of this lost Simon/Kirby treasure.

In my column from 7/15/2009 I wrote about Super Zombies and would be remiss if I didn't mention that David LoTempio was good enough to write and remind me that Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neil's Marshal Law did deal with the superhero as zombie concept way back in 1992 in the Dark Horse one-shot Marshal Law: Super Babylon.  If you want to see a sex and violence drenched superhero saga and are capable of taking a joke at the expense of the genre Marshal Law is definitely worth checking out.  But be forewarned; Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis may have problems with superheroes but Pat Mills really hates them, to such a degree I've always wondered; what, exactly, did they ever do to him?

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.