BW Media Spotlight

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.

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