Congratulations to the Siegel family for winning the copyright to Superman material published in Action Comics #1, the comic that basically created the entire super-hero genre.
After enduring so many indignities through the years - injustices that are not erased by stipends and bylines - it’s reassuring to see the family score a victory against the evil corporate empire.
As for the “fans” who consider the Siegels greedy and ungrateful, get a friggin’ life.
There are a few things more important in life than getting your monthly dose of four-color, testosterone-fueled melodrama. National Periodicals, and later Warner Communications, have made millions upon millions of dollars on the Superman Family.
The men responsible for creating that character deserve more than a pittance for making such profits possible. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of Superman comics, movies and other crap to purchase.
(We’re always amazed by fans’ allegiance to corporate publishers. If you’re all so supportive of big business, why not take a cut in your own pay so employers can rake in even more dough?)
Just letting you know I included your commentary in my own on my blog
http://pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2008/03/good-start.html
The radical in me loves the thought of a DC without Superman, maybe because the dramatic challenge of restructuring the company without the lynchpin is almost as exciting as the fiction itself.
Obviously Superman comics aren’t exactly funding the company. I hate to think of the revenue DC would lose on Superman as a mass market license, but the comic side of things remains intriguing.
Almost equally tantalizing in this tale of parallel worlds is what the Siegel’s would do having won the character. Would we be left to ask, “whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?,” or would the bidding begin for one of the world’s most recognised icons?
As much as I’m sure most fanboys would throw up the thought of Marvel snatching big blue; I tend to imagine an upstart C-grade company coming to the fore, only to whore the character out in the most atrocious of ways. Maybe a Virgin Comics, if I can disrespect them that much.
They would say: “why don’t you take a cut, Keeper, if you think it’s such a good idea?”
Because they are point-missers.
It’s not a word I like to use in polite company, but…fie upon them.
I wonder if this will put the kibosh on any future Superman TV or movie projects?
If DC loses Superman do they then lose Kousin Kara due to her derivation from the original S & S source material?
And does anyone out there really think if by some “strange twist of fate” WB loses the Superman copyright & trademark that the Siegel family (none of whom seem to jack about comics) can do right by the character?
Hey I want whats right for the Siegels and the Shusters, which in my mind is a big payout, but DC and the WB for better or worse is the devil I know when it comes to Kal El and Kara Zor El.
Be careful what you wish for dats all I can say.
Oh, I dunno.
It might be fun to see Superman & Co. bolt over to Dynamite Comics. Then Kara could form a super-team with Xena and the Bruce Campbell character from Army of Darkness!
More than likely, the new publishers would simply decline use of the character or else kill her off in order to keep the new property “unique and special”.
So, no different from DC then.
“It might be fun to see Superman & Co. bolt over to Dynamite Comics. Then Kara could form a super-team with Xena and the Bruce Campbell character from Army of Darkness!”
Oh.
My.
WORD.
I would buy four copies.