It's amazing that SHADE, THE CHANGING MAN was the most successful Ditko creation at DC, but I never read the Vertigo version so I don't know how close it stuck to the original premise.

I've thought about buying the collections of THE QUESTION as I've always liked Denny O'Neil's writing, but Denis Cowan's art and the redesign look hopelessly 80's (shoulder pads and a mullet?), so I just can't bring myself to do it.

I believe the latest SPIDER-MAN launch has Peter Parker as a successful inventor now, so that might be similar to what the Ted Kord BLUE BEETLE would have been like in the modern age.

In some sense, Kord is reminiscent of the visuals of Spider-Man. The carefree gymnastics, the open eyes. He's a gadgeteer, as Spidey himself was early on when he invented his web-shooters, spidey-tracers, and the device to cancel out the Vulture's powers. In these respects there's some carry-over from the Spider-Man concept perhaps. I don't think Kord is literally the character Ditko believed Parker should evolve into and therefore the same guy in different drag. I do think there was some differentiation taking place in the concept. 

Not that he would have removed himself from Spidey, but if Lee had finally thrown in the towel to keep Ditko onboard and said, "You're so smart, you script the book as well!" I don't think the Blue Beetle is the Spider-Man we would have gotten.

Ditko has had a tendency to bring visual elements from one project to another. His Shag resembles the Creeper, for instance. The Missing Man (a possible self-portrait?) has elements of the Beetle villain, the Specter. Mr. A has elements of the Question. And in many respects, that's all to the good. It creates a sort of "brand loyalty" outside the confines of the company system allowing Ditko books and characters to remain identifiably Ditko. But is Shag just a "mustache version" of the Creeper? It's debatable.

Having Parker as a super-smart, self-sufficient, self-motivating type, becoming a billionaire industrialist was certainly within his wheelhouse. As Eric pointed out, we're seeing that now in the current Marvel version (which is also sort of a left-handed version of What If #19 in which Spidey is a billionaire movie-star with far too little sense of responsibility and far too much self-interest. "What If," the title that keeps on giving... Of course, if you followed the book, everything Marvel does today and going forward seems kind of old hat.) But there are a dozen other directions to have gone as well before Parker became the objectively Objectivist ideal hero so many of Ditko's characters were.

Killjoy, however? Killjoy is totally Spider-Man. :-)

The "Bwa-Ha-Ha-Just-Shoot-Me-In-the-Head" version is what they decided to do with the character later after the book didn't sell and cleared the path for DC to do what Ditko himself did, which was re-invent the character from the ground up for the modern age.

Captain Atom was also a complete misfire, attempting to start the hero over again with a post-Crisis, Watchmen-esque vibe. Just yuck. Nightshade became instant super-team fodder, one more face in the crowd of whatever team book they sidelined her into. Sarge Steel of course became a bad guy in the all-corrupt, all-the-time government of post-Crisis DC.

Peacemaker was given his own mini-series, as I recall. I assume it was as Giffen-esque as that creator's involvement suggests.  Did they do anything with Judomaster aside from his involvement in the L.A.W. mini-series in which DC tried to make Charlton over again into a company-within-the-company as they'd attempted earlier with Impact and the MLJ heroes?