Outgunned Superheroes

[Reynard]

The art is great, but I would be completely unsurprised if they had to dial it back on some of their iconics.

it is super (NPI) lazy.

 

[Aldarc]

The art is great, but I would be completely unsurprised if they had to dial it back on some of their iconics.

Sometimes it's surprising what other comic books have gotten away with when it comes to stealing from each other. Maybe that is par for the course in the superhero comic genre?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sometimes it's surprising what other comic books have gotten away with when it comes to stealing from each other. Maybe that is par for the course in the superhero comic genre?

I think DC and Marvel in particular have a bit of mutually assured destruction going on. If they start picking at suspiciously similar characters in the other company's stable, the other company can come right back at their stable.

Wolverine was created in large part to rip off a Legion of Super-Heroes character and I don't think Marvel wants a judge potentially deciding that Warner Brothers owns a piece of him.

 

[Reynard]

I think DC and Marvel in particular have a bit of mutually assured destruction going on. If they start picking at suspiciously similar characters in the other company's stable, the other company can come right back at their stable.

Wolverine was created in large part to rip off a Legion of Super-Heroes character and I don't think Marvel a judge potentially deciding that Warner Brothers owns a piece of him.

The book "Slugfest" goes into some detail on this. Broadly speaking, most of the homages were good natured jibes or references by the writers, often without corporate approval.

 

[Aldarc]

I think DC and Marvel in particular have a bit of mutually assured destruction going on. If they start picking at suspiciously similar characters in the other company's stable, the other company can come right back at their stable.

Wolverine was created in large part to rip off a Legion of Super-Heroes character and I don't think Marvel a judge potentially deciding that Warner Brothers owns a piece of him.

In particular, I was thinking of how Deadpool (Wade Wilson) started as something of a parody of Deathstroke (Slade Wilson).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The book "Slugfest" goes into some detail on this. Broadly speaking, most of the homages were good natured jibes or references by the writers, often without corporate approval.

I haven't read the book, but it was my understanding that the Marvel Bullpen really wanted some of that LSH action, so we got Wolverine as a riff on Timber Wolf and the Imperial Guard as a riff on the LSH more generally. Both have moved away from their inspirations quite a bit, but I was always told that there were clear marching orders in their creations initially.

 

[overgeeked]

I think DC and Marvel in particular have a bit of mutually assured destruction going on. If they start picking at suspiciously similar characters in the other company's stable, the other company can come right back at their stable.

Exactly. They both have literal decades of swiping each other's characters.

Here's an incomplete list of characters and their original.

Wolverine was created in large part to rip off a Legion of Super-Heroes character and I don't think Marvel wants a judge potentially deciding that Warner Brothers owns a piece of him.

Exactly. It's 100% mutually assured destruction at this point.

I haven't read the book, but it was my understanding that the Marvel Bullpen really wanted some of that LSH action, so we got Wolverine as a riff on Timber Wolf and the Imperial Guard as a riff on the LSH more generally. Both have moved away from their inspirations quite a bit, but I was always told that there were clear marching orders in their creations initially.

Each character swipe is unique. Sometime the editors knew, sometimes they didn't. But most times the people working in comics are fans enough to spot the swipes. A whole lot of the early days of comics were basically the Wild West of swiping other companies' characters.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The art is great, but I would be completely unsurprised if they had to dial it back on some of their iconics.

Yeah, the other three they've shown so far can probably pass, but the Iron Man and Batman expies are probably a bit too on the nose.

 

[Reynard]

I haven't read the book, but it was my understanding that the Marvel Bullpen really wanted some of that LSH action, so we got Wolverine as a riff on Timber Wolf and the Imperial Guard as a riff on the LSH more generally. Both have moved away from their inspirations quite a bit, but I was always told that there were clear marching orders in their creations initially.

It is well worth reading.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah, the other three they've shown so far can probably pass, but the Iron Man and Batman expies are probably a bit too on the nose.

I dunno, I've seem expies, especially in the late 1990s/early 2000s from non-DC/Marvel outfits, who were I'd say closer than that and generally didn't attract any kind of legal attention. I think naming and powers would be much more the issue - so long as the names are clearly distinct (i.e. no Iron or Man for power armour lady, and no "Bat" or "man" for the cloak guy), and they have some kind of power difference (like cloak guy has some sort of supernatural or superpowered element) they'll be fine.