Tempering Expectations About Public Domain Superman

The other post that showed up isn’t due to at least tomorrow or as filler. Sorry for the confusion. There’s only one article that should have gone live tonight, and it was this one.

On a recent Thinking Critical podcast (hat tip to Bleeding Fool), Mark Millar discussed being ready for Superman to hit public domain in eight years and Batman in nine. That sounds close, but remember each year is 365 days. That makes a rough calculation of 5113 days, give or take a few months, before that happens. It seems early to be ready to jump in on Superman, but Millar already has an artist on retainer the moment he’s legally able to make a Superman comic. He’s even talking about snagging DC artists to help him make the comics. He’s ready…or is he?

Debuting in Action Comics #1, Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane are the only characters to make it past those early comics. The Kents were introduced later and the only standout from that first issue, Zatara, is mostly known these days not for his own adventures but being the father of Zatanna, a dominate member in various versions of the Justice League. Given the treatment of those characters and their circle of family and friends over the years, from constantly killing off Jonathan Kent while making his namesake grandson lose his childhood so they could age him up to CW friendly (making him bisexual to me was just to keep from changing him back as the fun free mindset that DiDio put in place is still dominant), to letting people make comics and movies who aren’t just incapable of understanding Superman but are downright antagonistic to what he stands for regardless of writing talent or lack thereof, many think it can’t be a moment too soon.

Hold up, though. While everyone is so excited to start their own Superman stories, let’s remember a few things. The Superman and cast you know are not going to be available. In fact, only Superman and Lois will be available at launch. Just like with Mickey Mouse, there are a few rules that need to be followed before you start telling the Man Of Steel’s adventures…like not being able to call him the Man Of Steel, or many of his other nicknames. The copyright will be in public domain, but the trademarks aren’t, and there’s still a stopping point even for the copyrights.

See all the cool things public domain Superman won’t be able to do for quite a while?

As seen in the introductory page above, edited from when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster envisioned Superman as a newspaper comic before taking it to DC, Superman’s powers are not what we know them as today, and this is very important. Currently everything about Mickey Mouse up to Steamboat Willie is available, maybe a handful of other cartoons that came out since then. The outdated 1930s rubber hose art style, the voices that are nowhere close to the Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse as we have come to know them as well as the early version of Pete are what you’re allowed to work with if money is your goal. In the same vein, Superman can’t fly, can’t use various vision powers, super breath, or any other powers that we’re familiar with. Flying was introduced in the Fleischer Studios shorts because they didn’t think jumping around looked as cool when making the cartoons. (There is a short that proves it.) He can still leap tall buildings, so long as their 1/8th of a mile high. He is strong, but can’t juggle planets or even a bus. He may or may not be more powerful than a locomotive, but he can outrace one. And invulnerability is reduced to “anything less powerful than a bursting shell”, so not the level of punishment we know him to survive without flinching.

It’s not just the powers that he won’t have. Krypton and his Kryptonian parents aren’t there in the first issue. It’s just sent from the doomed planet to explain his powers, into the orphanage, and Superman. No yellow sun power source. Clark’s powers originally came from being a space baby, but one from a planet far in development in body. Even the planet with higher gravity wasn’t out there yet, never mind the solar power. He would still be stronger than normal people. Just not punching a mountain strong.

As for his supporting cast, Lois is it. The Kents aren’t showing up for a year, with Action Comics stating he grew up in an orphanage after a passing motorist, single, found him. No word what happened to the rocket and Clark didn’t know about Krypton until a long time later. (Though there were plans to speed that up.) If you ever wondered why the Fleischer shorts had him as an orphan, now you know where it came from. However, they die in the comics in Superman #1 as part of Clark’s expanded backstory, later explained as picking up a virus while on an adventure with Superboy. Nowadays they always find a way to kill the father off first no matter how long the Kents have been around. No Perry White and no Jimmy Olsen for awhile, none of the other Daily Planet staff that didn’t even show up until the 1980s and 1990s. In fact no Daily Planet. It’s the Daily Star until time and lapsed copyrights expire. The editor is George Taylor until a year later, after the comics followed the radio show. Jimmy also came from the show, so you will see him and Perry eventually, but not for at least another year.

Even Millar notes that the rogues gallery is going to be pretty sparse. Lex Luthor shows up in 1940 but he’ll need red hair for awhile and he won’t be the businessman most of you know. He started out as a mad scientist out to prove his superior intellect through crime and resented Superman because Lex was an elitist snob who didn’t think someone with Superman’s muscle could also be intelligent enough to challenge him…and then Superman beats him. He was otherwise just another mad scientist, which Superman clashed with almost as often as the mob because that’s the 1940s. It won’t be until 2034 that Mr. Mxyzptlk will get to run around Metropolis trying to find McGurk as part of messing with everyone. The rest of his villains have even longer waits. Millar said he wanted to create other villains in the meantime, but he doesn’t have a choice.

Admittedly it’s still a cool outfit.

He might not be the “big blue boy scout” everyone knows, either. Millar’s style aside (though he has written some stories that do reflect that attitude properly), that wasn’t his Golden Age persona. He did everything he could to remain unknown. Nobody knew there was a Superman for awhile. Not having the powers and power level he has now, Clark tried the best he could to stay out of the papers, but his exploits soon made that harder. He was also a lot rougher with his unpowered villains because he had to be and because he could be. You also have his outfit. The familiar S Shield will most likely be a triangle with an S in it because the S in a shield of any kind took awhile before it showed up in actual stories. Personally I think the triangle looks better. He’ll be able to have the red trunks, inspired by circus strongmen who didn’t want to show off those particular dumbbells, if you know what I mean, and the cape with smaller red boots. The “s” curl in his hair won’t even be available for awhile, though that seems to have disappeared in recent years anyway.

If you want a Superman more like today’s you have fanfics, fanfilms, and even fan comics, but the creators can’t legally make money off of any of those. At best you could create characters analogous to the ones we know with enough deviation or being done in honor of Superman. I’m happy someone is trying to do something besides turn another kid-loved character into a slasher movie, though I don’t know that Millar’s Superman will even be kid friendly. It’s not the type of stuff he tends to do on his own. So in that vein, I’m not sure what he’d do different with Superman than current comic and movie/TV/streaming writers. It’s going to be a lot longer before we get the versions we know. So while it sounds cool, I’m not ready to get excited yet.