The Man Who Was Once a Marvel

Captain Marvel was a Fawcett Comics character who originally premiered in 1940. He was immensely popular. As a magic-based hero, the Big Red Cheese (one of the Captains nicknames) was a breath of fresh-air. Another comic book publisher, DC Comics, bought the rights to the character a little over a decade later. You can imagine their surprise when they were forced to change the character’s name nearly 70 years later because a rival comic book publishing company, Marvel Entertainment, took DC to court to get a different character to be declared the real Captain Marvel, or rather “Shazam”. There are a lot of “yeah, but’s” around this. You could say “DC’s Captain Marvel has been around for much longer than Marvel’s.” Then someone else might say “Yeah, but Marvel has a right to their name, plus everyone already thought that Captain Marvel was named Shazam so it’s not too big a change.” Then, you would say “Yeah, but aren’t there more blatant rip-offs to deal with?” and then that other person would say “. . . huh?”

There are a lot of comic book copycats in the world so it’s interesting that Captain Marvel was the one who got hit. For a genre of fiction where every hero has unique abilities, there are very few unique heroes. Almost every DC character has a comparable Marvel counterpart. Some of my favorites include, Green Arrow and Hawkeye, Deadpool and Deathstroke, and of course the Flash and Quicksilver. Those are just a few of the more well- known doppelgangers. The Amazing Spider-man has multiple lesser known copycat characters, but most of them reside within the same Marvel universe. These characters seem to exist without any consequences since they’re all owned by the same company.

The only people who seem to care about this blatant similarities (if not outright theft) of characters seem to be the readers themselves. The topic of who is the better character is largely debated in comic book stores across the nation as well as in website forums across the internet. Yet very rarely does it reach the courtroom. I can think of some possible reasons off the top of my head including: The powers of a character are not copyrightable (almost every character has some form of super strength). The various may have different names, as well as different secret identities, which a company can point to has being a significant difference in helping delineate one character from another. Or the seeming lack of concern may be due to some clandestine meeting where Marvel and DC (the two current top comic book publishers) were able to come up with some form of mutually beneficial treaty in which they admit that with the massive amount of characters each franchise possess, they’d both run out of characters in a matter of months if each character had to be totally unique. Better to go with characters and archetypes that will be readily recognizable to readers.

Comic books may be the most obvious arena to suffer from copycat creations, but it isn’t the only creative industry in which this sincerest form of flattery thrives. How often have you heard that Hollywood has run out of ideas? IMDb lists 101 remake and reboot movies to be released within just the next four years alone. New movies, featuring what seem to be new ideas, do come out every now and then, but how can such a form of mass media that has to constantly churn out new product ever really be “new”?

Franchise movies are usually based on best-selling books, comics, or games. One reason this crossover development occurs is because it’s easier to make something for an established fan base than it is to go out and drum up a new fan base. In the multiplex these days, it seems as though when you make a superhero movie that features previously established characters, you are guaranteed to make box office receipts that ring up in the millions, if not billions.

Why then would the studios make anything else? Why risk the extensive amounts of money required to develop new product for something as trivial as originality? It’s easy to ask that loaded question of Hollywood, but it’s more than a little unfair. It’s not Hollywood’s fault that originality is dying because originality has been dead for a long time. It’s important to ask, though before you start placing blame for the lack of originality, is this reworking (and reworking) of other materials a bad thing?

Going back to comic books, Hawkeye first appeared in Marvel’s Tales of Suspense in 1964. He was originally a villain, who became an anti-hero and then developed into a full-fledged hero on his own. The masked archer in purple used a variety of “trick arrows” to compete with his super-powered opponents. The character of Hawkeye (“real” name Clint Barton) was clearly inspired by the Green Arrow (“real” name Oliver Queen). The Green Arrow is a DC character who first appeared 23 years prior to Hawkeye’s arrival. The two have a number of similarities, both in design and character, as well as in their abilities. Both these heroes became mavericks who operated by their own rules. They even use the same term for their arsenal of arrows that range from dangerous to ridiculous.

Green Arrow, however, cannot be considered a totally original character either. He obviously draws inspiration from another archer. From design to idealism, Green Arrow is based on the legendary hero, Robin Hood. His physical appearance and costume are taken directly from the movie featuring Errol Flynn, as opposed to the designs that appeared in woodcut illustrations of the original text. These facts do not devalue either Hawkeye or Green Arrow. Just because they aren’t 100% originals doesn’t mean they don’t have value as a creative work. Both heroes have been featured in stories that are considered to be milestones in their individual comic book pantheons.

Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. First released in 1938, this feature length cartoon was one of the first entries in what would become the Disney industry of fairy tale films. But although Hollywood writers fleshed out the stories and characters, the original source material for these movies can be traced back to the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. The fact that this is common knowledge has done nothing to dim the power of these stories, as is evident from the recent popularization of the fairy tales with gritty retellings in pop culture. NBC’s Grimm series has enjoyed a few successful seasons by following this formula and reworking this material. Rival network ABC has even developed a similar series of its own that uses this material. And in a blatant act of making the connection even more crystal clear, this series is entitled Once Upon A Time.

West Side Story is one of the most successful musicals of all time. It isn’t ashamed of it’s heavy inspiration from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s generally the first thing anyone will tell you when describing it, “a modern Romeo and Juliet.” While it’s plot is basically lifted straight from it’s inspiration, West Side Story has many creative elements that differentiates it from the source material. Beyond the obvious modernization of the setting, the classic music and dance scenes have become ubiquitous. Snapping fingers in unison has never been so menacing.

One Piece, was originally a japanese comic book (manga) created by Eiichiro Oda. One Piece is currently the best selling manga in the world and has been featured in the New York Times for it’s enormous amount of sales. The series features a pirate adventurer on a quest to find a legendary treasure. In multiple interviews, Oda has mentioned that the idea came from his childhood fascination with pirates and his favorite cartoon, Vicke the Little Viking. Many of Oda’s characters in the series are designed based on real world people. Oda has confirmed a few of the people he based certain characters off of. Others are very obvious and are talked about with intrigue between fans, but Oda has not confirmed or denied many of the claims.

The video game industry seems to have taken a step back graphically. Along with the recent popularity of independent (indie) game developers, many games are being made with a classic 8-bit or 16-bit style. They are reminiscent of games from the 80’s and 90’s. Shovel Knight sold so many digital copies online that Nintendo partnered with the indie company Yacht Club Games to sell hard copies in store. Nostalgia may play a huge part in the success of these games, but the creators put just as much work into their game as Nintendo would.

I have a personal anecdote as well. For a few years I worked on a novel about young adults with super powers. The story was going to be about these teens who escaped from a facility had held them hostage. They escape to stop one of their other fellow superhumans from taking revenge on the world for hating them for being different. I showed the first few chapters to some of my family and friends. Most of them praised the story and complimented the ideas and characters. I was a sophomore in high school, and was pretty happy that I had actually accomplished the simple act of writing a story. Looking back on it now, the praise meant nothing. However, one of my closest friends commented, “This is just the X-men.” This comment actually upset me because I had worked on the story for a long time. Unfortunately, it hit me hard because I was afraid he may have been right. I had no case to argue so I went back to work on the story.

I made numerous changes. I changed the setting, some of the characters, and over a long period of time, the story became completely different. I left the manuscript alone for a while and when I came back to read it, it now read like one of my favorite anime, One Piece. I wasn’t thinking about either of those series as I wrote, however, they worked their way into my story. Inspiration is unavoidable and all creative work is derived from other work because all literature is a reflection of the experiences of the creator. They do it more as a homage, trying to recapture those ideas that so excited them when they first came in contact with the original source material.

Please don’t misunderstand. I am not referring to the official legalities of copyright. The point of this essay is to think about the moral justification of creators. All creative industries share this idea of taking inspiration from other work and in many cases, great new works are made. More and more, I find originality to be an unfair requirement for creative works. It’s impossible to not draw inspiration from somewhere, but at the same time, you can’t just rip a story and slap your name on it. I think there is some middle ground that can be agreed upon.

Don’t be afraid to use someone else’s work as a starting point for your creativity. Don’t be ashamed of it and don’t hide it. Remember, if a company wants to claim your creative work due to slight similarities, tell them that you’ll change your work when DC gets to change Shazam’s name back to Captain Marvel.