Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I was at the comic shop yesterday picking up issues 1, 2 & 3 of All Star Superman and asked the guy why Superman/Batman isn't titled Worlds Finest Comics as that is what it strikes me to be (Superman/Batman #1 SHOULD have been Worlds Finest #324) :?  he told me that he has heard that a new Worlds Finest series is in the works, does anyone have any info on this?  Thanks.

No clue, but Dan Didio has confirmed that very soon, there is going to be a new ADVENTURE COMICS series (and there have been hints there is going to be a Kal-El Superboy after INFINITE CRISIS).

And the new SUPERMAN/BATMAN series is a lot of fun in a turn your brain off kind of way. Sure, we've got a non-cerebral Superman in caption boxes babbling this or that about "growing up on the farm," but if you ignore that, it's a decent read with a Silver/Bronze Age sense of wonder. The recent issue about the gender-switched universe was fascinating - the giant penny in the batcave having a female Abe Lincoln on it just made my day. Ditto for the idea that there is a female Darkseid called "the Black Queen," which conjures up images of a Caroline Munro or Sarah Douglas type.

And it features the Bizarros. Those guys are a trip!

A new Adventure Comics?  Now THAT would be cool , I wonder who will star in it?  It would be nice if it were an anthology series with different artists doing their take on classic DC characters in a rotating basis but I suppose that is too much to ask.

DC seems to be ready to bring back the one true Superboy, not only is this hinted at in IC No. 6 but Dan Didio stated that Adventure Comics will be returning, plus the one true Superboy will be the star of the new Legion Cartoon.

There were some rumors (not confirmed) that the Brave and the Bold would be returning, but nothing about World's Finest.

I think it *has* been confirmed that Brave and the Bold is in the works.  In fact, Mark Waid's been named as writer.  It won't be the old "Batman and..." book, though.  I think it's going to be a team-up book with rotating leads, as the book was for a while in the early 60s.

I'd love to see Adventure return in its original format as an anthology series (and I mean ORIGINAL original, as in non-superhero action), but everything I've ever seen from anyone at DC or Marvel says that anthology books don't sell.

Should be interesting to see just what "World's Finest" would be if not a Superman/Batman book.  With that name, they could always make it about some kind of international police force.  Or even some kind of global defense force battling aliens or something.

I wonder how this squares with the Siegel lawsuit?  It seems that DC is doing its darndest to kill off all Superboys in the Crisis series that people are discussing here.

They won the copyright of Superboy back in 2004, the lawsuit has to do with the TV show NOT the comics. They are not killing Superboys because of the lawsuit, or else he would had died two years ago and never brought back SBP.

Hate to disagree, but the lawsuit has everything to do with the comics.  The Seigels have the rights to Superboy (comics or anything else) now.  That much was decided.  The issue of the TV show (Smallville) is still up in the air.  Having the rights to Superboy doesn't mean they have the rights to the young Clark Kent (at least from WB/DC's eyes).  It will be up to a jury to decide whether or not Smallville is a story about Superboy...

This is going to get tricky.  

-First of all, WB is releasing the Superboy TV series this summer. Will the Siegels get money from that DVD release, or will WB argue that the tv show was made before the Siegels got those rights?

-Is Maggin getting money from the use of Superboy Prime, or even credit? Probably not.

- Clark has rarely been referred to as "Superboy" in Smallville, but the times that he has have been since 2004. I hope they win this suit, because the stakes are this:

If any Clark Kent is legally considered Superboy, then there is no point in a Superman origin that doesn't include him. But if Superboy and Clark Kent are separate characters, then DC will be encouraged to continue the separation and eliminate Superboys.

I think they have a good case: Smallville, Lana Lang, etc. were introduced in Superboy comics. Fortunately for the Siegels, the Byrne era excluded Lex from Smallville, meaning that the appearance of Lex in Smallville is a "Superboy" characteristic.

This just confuses things.  I believe Maggin's creation falls under the "work for hire" category, so he got paid to make a comic, and doesn't have rights to the future use of the character.  But as Siegels have the rights to Superboy, I believe they have the rights to Superboy Prime.

From what I remember, back in the 40s they ruled that Superboy and Superman were two separate creations, and that Superboy infringed on Siegel's creation.  From that line of reasoning, anything derivative of Superboy (Superboy Prime, the Conner Superboy, etc.) also should be in their hands now.

Lana, Lex, and other characters that were later created in the Superboy series are separate issues, and the Siegels don't have rights to them.  However, the jury may use them as contextual evidence to decide that Smallville is truly about Superboy.

Regarding the future of things, and the Superboy DVD, I believe the Siegels have the rights to any use of Superboy.  If we were to date it as anything created post-2004, that would mean you would have in a sense two copywrites, with DC allowed to publish Superboy archives and such.  I think they have the entire rights, but since most of the Superboy $ is in Smallville, they are focusing there first. Once that is decided I think what needs to happen next is either selling the rights back to DC...again...or arguing over percentage of back/future profits.

Tricky indeed.

None of those things were created by Jerry Seigel, were they?  I thought Lana, Pete and even the name "Smallville" were all the work of later writers.  Jerry did come up with the name "Superboy" and made a pitch to DC based on it (by all accounts a pitch utterly different from anything DC ever printed) but I can't imagine how that would give him the rights to every character or concept that ever appeared in a DC book with the name "Superboy" on it.

I think the Seigels and DC will forever be locked in a death grip over Superboy and Superman.  The Seigels have the lead character, which is a lot in terms of merchandising but not much if you want to put out comics with the familiar supporting cast.  DC owns (so far) everything that makes Superman interesting and familiar outside of his costume and powers...the Planet, Lois, Jimmy, Perry, Lex, etc.  Neither side is going to accomplish much without the other.

I don't know much about law, but it seems to me the Seigels don't even have the rights to "Clark Kent" as a creation, since he pre-dates the Superboy concept.  And considering it took them 50 years to win rights to Superboy, I don't think any of us will live long enough to see them win rights to every other facet of the mythos, case by case.

Whoops, sorry...looks like binarysunrise covered some of the same things I did, only before me.  But he also said this:



Maybe.  But I think you could turn that argument on its ear.  A side-by-side analysis comparing Silver Age Superboy and the Smallville show (both featuring Lana, Lex, Pete, etc) to Jerry's proposal (which had none of those and featured a bratty prankster Superboy) could convince a jury that DC's Superboy is another creature altogether from Seigel's, and no more a "rip-off" of his "property" than Marvel's "Captain Marvel" is a theft from the Fawcett original.

In other words, if Lana, Pete and Lex are your litmus test, then Jerry's creation wasn't "truly about Superboy" either.