Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics/Character alternate version guidelines

Issues

Types of alternate versions

List of alternate version types:

1. other characters who officially took the same name within the same fictional reality
2. other companies' versions
3. alternate universe versions
4. alternate timeline versions
5. future versions
6. unrelated alternate continuities (e.g., Spider-Ham?)
7. other parodies
8. appearances in other media
9. imaginary story
10. dream

Prominence of appearance

Prominence of alternate version within its source:

1. title character (e.g., Superman: Red Son)
2. a lead character
3. prominent supporting character
4. prominent cameo
5. background character

Importance/notability

Importance of the source:

1. ongoing series about alternate version (e.g., Marvel's Ultimate titles)
2. within the main character's source (e.g., Superman-Prime's adventures throughout DC stories)
3. limited series or single story that had notable impact on industry (e.g., Dark Knight)
4. other stuff

Fit the real world implications into this list somewhere.

Reasons for Amalgam removals

Per past WikiProject Comics talk page discussions, references to Amalgam Comics characters have been removed from the articles of the DC and Marvel characters upon which they were based, for any of a number of reasons:

1. Fiction versus metafiction: Some Amalgam characters actually appeared in the comics. Some were never characters at all, though, but were instead mentioned in places like Amalgam's bogus letter columns as if they had appeared in comics that were, in real life, never really published.
2. Lack of source for character's debut: Hundreds of alleged Amalgam characters were mentioned in DC or Marvel character articles with no references citing when (or if) they ever appeared in the comics. Therefore, readers cannot know whether any given character actually appeared, was one of the abovementioned metafictional references, got named on a trading card after having had no comic book mention whatsoever, or was some kind of fan fiction, error, or hoax.
3. Lack of source regarding which characters merged: Rarely did the articles mention any source to confirm which characters were merged. Within the source material, the comics themselves, only a few merges were depicted and even fewer (e.g., Dr. Strangefate) directly affected the story in DC vs. Marvel or its follow-up limited series. Despite how obvious some merges might be, which characters merged in other cases could be less readily apparent, and no matter how obvious a merge might seem, for any editor to assert that they merged without blunt confirmation from DC or Marvel would violate WP:V, WP:CITE, WP:NPOV, and WP:NOR.
4. Lack of importance to the original characters: No Amalgam character exerted lasting influence upon the ongoing history of the original characters. Superman and Captain America are important to Super-Soldier, but Super-Soldier had no effect on either Superman or Captain America.
5. Questionable notability overall: Regardless of the notability of the DC/Marvel Amalgam event itself, readers do not all agree that any Amalgam characters were themselves notable.

Suggested guidelines

• The goal of the alternate versions section is that it be formatted in prose and with real world context, not as a list. Efforts should be made to convert instances where the section is in a list format into prose, retaining and fleshing out the information already included. Elements that either cannot be fleshed out or are solely in-universe items may be removed in this conversion. This does not bar such elements from being added back, but such reintroductions should fall with in the preferred style for the section.