Superhero names...

[Hotwire]

I know, but it depends. You can do that with some characters, of course. This new character of mine doesn't require that.

Could we get a description of this character?

 

[HauntedKnight]

Hello.

I'm in the process to create a character.

Is the "hyphen" trademarked by Marvel?

Spider-Man
Spider-Woman
Ant-Man
Giant-Man

And so on. DC Comics never uses the "hyphen" or so it seems.

Superman
Batman
Catwoman
Animal Man

I remember that MARVEL sued FILMATION because they created a (cool) character called "WEB WOMAN" long time ago, in 1979 or so.

Honestly, how do you like a superhero name being written?

Example:

Foxman
Fox Man
Fox-Man

Which is the most correct form in English?

Hope this doesn't come off as rude, not my intention: Is this for fun or something you'll seriously want to try to make something out of? If the former, good luck and enjoy! Nothing is better than exploring creativity. If the latter, this isn't the right question to ask. Your character should be original enough and different enough to not borrow from the standards like using a hyphen. Think of something new. My 2 cents.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Recently an indie publishing house found out the hard way that Marvel and DC share a surprising trademark.

Cup O Java Studios' title A World Without Superheroes recently got slapped with a cease-and-desist from both Marvel and DC. Why? It turns out they jointly own the trademark to the term superhero. In fact, they apparently own the right to every permutation of the word, regardless of spelling.

 

[KevanG]

That's why I see a lot of books/shows and other things calling them variations of such. Personally I call them Supers in my writings. There's varieties of Supers but the general catch all for anyone with powers or just likes to run around in a costume is Super.

I think the Incredibles did the same thing.

Here's more info on it.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

I wonder if there are any other trademarks they own we don't know about.
Marvel has Thor & Hercules, who are universal characters.
Would they be allowed to hold one on those characters?
What about the word zombie? is that trademarked?

 

[KevanG]

I believe you mean zuvembie.

At one point Zombie was banned by the comics code and they had to use zuvembie instead.

I think Marvel trademarked Zombie back in the 70's but it got shot down in the 90's.

As for the classical characters like Hercules and Dracula, they tend to be more free use due to the amount of time they existed. If you tried to copy the exact same version of something Marvel or DC used for Herc down to the same way of his speech, design and whatever then they could sue you but not just for using the character since it's too old to have one originating creator. Dracula had the trademark lapse I think so he's hung around with the X-Men and bit Superman once (guess how that ended).

Characters like Peter Pan are still held by either the owners estate or the inheritors of the characters so I think you'd get sued by them.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

I believe you mean zuvembie.

At one point Zombie was banned by the comics code and they had to use zuvembie instead.

I think Marvel trademarked Zombie back in the 70's but it got shot down in the 90's.

As for the classical characters like Hercules and Dracula, they tend to be more free use due to the amount of time they existed. If you tried to copy the exact same version of something Marvel or DC used for Herc down to the same way of his speech, design and whatever then they could sue you but not just for using the character since it's too old to have one originating creator. Dracula had the trademark lapse I think so he's hung around with the X-Men and bit Superman once (guess how that ended).

Characters like Peter Pan are still held by either the owners estate or the inheritors of the characters so I think you'd get sued by them.

I would imagine if Dracula tried to bite Superman , his skin being more dense, he would have broke his fangs,lol.
At least thats how I would have written it.

 

[KevanG]

Dracula's magic which negates the invulnerability thing. Drac bit him, got a big swallow of sunlight enhanced blood then went poof.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Dracula's magic which negates the invulnerability thing. Drac bit him, got a big swallow of sunlight enhanced blood then went poof.

Would have been interesting to have seen Superman get infected by Drac's vampirism. How would he recharge from the sun if Superman is a vampire? I think DC missed a good story opportunity.

 

[KevanG]

Unless Superman was depowered then I doubt he'd be able to be turned. He'd be useless as a vampire since he needs solar power which is the only reason they'd want him as a vampire.

Batman was a vampire for a few Elseworlds. He also got Supermans powers in Batman/Superman books. That's about as close as you can get.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Probably true Kevan.
Well maybe it would be better that Batman , the symbol of darkness, gets bit by Dracula & becomes his underling.
Maybe he goes goes crazy and kills off his rogues gallery 1 by 1.
Maybe Green Arrow & Nightwing team up to cure Batman or take him down.

 

[KevanG]

He did do pretty much that. By the end he finally killed the Joker then went after the rest in the second one until Gordon and the others teamed up to kill him at the end. I think it worked but they may have had a sequel after they 'killed' him. I know he showed up in Convergence and had a fight with Swamp Thing which eventually became a teamup which was pretty awesome.Turns out Swamp Thing is a natural Vampire killer, he grows garlic, has no blood and can make his hands into pointy stakes to stab them with.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

He did do pretty much that. By the end he finally killed the Joker then went after the rest in the second one until Gordon and the others teamed up to kill him at the end. I think it worked but they may have had a sequel after they 'killed' him. I know he showed up in Convergence and had a fight with Swamp Thing which eventually became a teamup which was pretty awesome.Turns out Swamp Thing is a natural Vampire killer, he grows garlic, has no blood and can make his hands into pointy stakes to stab them with.

Better idea then I would have come up with. Swamp Thing : Vampire Hunter has a unique ring to it.