Superman in the Marvel Universe (a purely theoretical discussion)

[Anubis]

Actually, cut away all the years of character development by DC and the Iconic characterization that the character attained over the many Decades at DC Comics, (which is what DC actually owns) and you have a very different character. (Which is what the Siegals would actually be left with.) A crooked Politician punching, wife beater stomping, gritty little everyman with incredible strength, average emo Marvel Character.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

meh i dont see supes coming over to marvel... some of his characters would come, others DC would keep the rights too... and to be honest i don't see many people at marvel would do that out of respect.

personally i think DC losing the rights will just mean that the family will be getting paid for DC using him. It's not like there going to try to publish supes on his own, they'd get no money out of that.

 

[Anubis]

Don't they still have to pay the Kain family for Batman? This would be no different.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Oh no, I haven't read a Spiderman comic in awhile...are you saying that his public unmasking in Civil War has been undone with magic? That sounds weak...

As Teardrop said, his unmasking still happened and people remember Spider-Man going up and unmasking himself, they just can't remember the face or the name. And Peter Parker's name has been dropped from the SHRA Database so he is no longer registered.

The only people who know that he is Spider-Man are the Fantastic Four, New Avengers, and Mary Jane.

 

[hippie_hunter]

yeah thats one thing that I dont like much about the current Marvelverse...too many public identities

on topic: Superman is just a very different from the Marvel characters. Maybe its just because Im used to him in the DC universe but I cant picture him talking to and cooperating on MArvel heroes on a near regular basis

I like how pretty much has a public identity in the Marvel Universe. As a matter in fact, I hate Spider-Man now having a secret one. It sets up a good difference between Marvel and DC. DC has the traditional secret identities with Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, the Flash, etc. while in Marvel people know that Thor is the Asgardian god Thor and Matt Murdock is the OJ Simpson of superheroes.

 

[Anubis]

People don't know that Thor shares a body with a not so crippled doctor.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

Personally, I think Joe Quesada is a very professional man, unlike his DC counterpart, and would not integrate Superman into the Marvel Universe out of respect to DC Comics and it's fans, even if the Siegels and Shuster Estate went up to him and offered it to him. That and various legal reasons concerning DC's trademarks that I don't think Quesada would even want to touch upon.

Also, Superman in the Marvel Universe would just be awful. He really doesn't fit in there IMO. Marvel is a universe where asides from Spider-Man due to magic, every major superhero there has a public identity. Everyone knows who Captain America is, who Iron Man is, who Thor is, who Daredevil is, etc. Superman's secret identity, especially with the way he hides it, would look just silly there.

Metropolis would feel odd on account of every major hero asides from the X-Men, being based in New York City.

And a Marvel Superman would be incredibly gimped due to DC owning all of the trademarks concerning Superman. He wouldn't have the famous \S/ symbol, he can't fly, etc. He'd just be an incredibly strong man which Marvel already has with Luke Cage. And the only interesting villain of Superman's rogues gallery that would be transfered would be Lex Luthor, all of the other good ones like Brainiac, General Zod, and Bizarro are owned fully by DC.

Luke Cage is incredibly strong? o.o



At any rate, Superman definitely wouldn't fit in with the atmosphere of Marvel either. Much like others said about identities being public, Superman likes his secret identity, and in Marvel, glasses wouldn't fly. Then there'd be the new love interest, new villans, some Marvel villans beating him down here and there.

It would just all wash really badly with fans. Well, look at BND with Spidey. There's a ton of negative reaction to it, as it changes some of the core of his character. With Superman, there'd be a lot -more- change to it.


On the public identity thing? I think it's pretty cool that people know, and that they tell them in some ways.

 

[kguillou]

Public identities just dont work for certain superheroes though. Spiderman is one of them. He has too many friends and family that could get hurt or killed from Spiderman's enemies. His personal life would constantly be in danger, hell look at Daredevil, his life has been complete s*** since he was ousted and his enemies wont stop targeting his loved ones. It kinda makes me wonder if Marvel has a sort of "One More Day" planned for DD as well, because obviously this public identity thing cant go on in his book forever...can it?

 

[hippie_hunter]

People don't know that Thor shares a body with a not so crippled doctor.

But they're two completely different people really. Thor is Thor and Donald Blake is Donald Blake. It's not really a secret identity but two people sharing the same vessel.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Public identities just dont work for certain superheroes though. Spiderman is one of them. He has too many friends and family that could get hurt or killed from Spiderman's enemies. His personal life would constantly be in danger, hell look at Daredevil, his life has been complete s*** since he was ousted and his enemies wont stop targeting his loved ones. It kinda makes me wonder if Marvel has a sort of "One More Day" planned for DD as well, because obviously this public identity thing cant go on in his book forever...can it?

Look at all the friends that the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America, etc have and their identities are public. You don't see Alicia Masters, Pepper Potts, Captain America's friends, etc. getting killed off. Marvel just prefers to put all that tragedy onto Spider-Man and Daredevil for some reason.

And I doubt that they have a OMD planned for Daredevil. They seem content on his current status quo where "officially" he isn't Daredevil by the authorities, but pretty much anyone with common sense knows that he's Matt Murdock.

 

[Anubis]

But they're two completely different people really. Thor is Thor and Donald Blake is Donald Blake. It's not really a secret identity but two people sharing the same vessel.

Yeah, and people don't know that.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Yeah, and people don't know that.

The best analogy for Daredevil is that he's like OJ Simpson. While he's been found innocent, pretty much everyone in the general public thinks he did it. Same for Daredevil, despite the authorities coming out and saying that he's not Daredevil, the people know he is, especially all of his enemies.

 

[Anubis]

I was talking about Thor/Blake.

 

[greenrage36]

Well, I'm not gonna go to far into the legal ramifications of Clark actually showing up in the MU, most of the previous posters hit on various things I had also thought of and probably stated it better than I could.

I can see him being able to work with a pretty good portion of the superhero's/groups within the MU, but I can't really see him, as a character, actually FITTING within the MU. If the trademark issue could somehow be bypassed, (Maybe via a deal with Mephisto? I've heard that's the rage these days...), I could kinda see a few story arcs where he could fit...MAYBE:

- If he was able to retain a good portion of his powers, I could see Norman Osbourne wanting to know more about him..possible one-shot or something there...

- If he was used strictly as an additional alien race..maybe he might be included in the War On Kings story...(this might be a stretch)...

I dunno..none of the above idea's sit too well with me, but that's just what I came up while pondering the OP's thread title...heck, maybe Brother Voodoo pulls an all-time oopsie and teleport's him in to guest star in his upcoming series...lol.

 

[Franklin Richards]

Continuing Conversation in that Other Thread.




In all fairness though... at least the FF live in a fortress. If DD and Spidey lived in Avenger's Tower... kinda like Spidey did... I'm sure Aunt May and MJ would be alright. Jarvis has at least. Despite getting his ass beat.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I was talking about Thor/Blake.

Well you posted after I was talking about Daredevil and you edited your post

But just because people don't know that Thor shares a body with Don Blake doesn't mean that Thor's secret identity is Don Blake.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Thor/Blake is confusing even to me. It went from being basically Thor-as-Don Blake/Thor-as-Don Blake with Thor's powers to Thor/Thor with Don Blake's medical knowledge. It's only since Ragnarok, after which Blake got his own consciousness and body, that he's really been a separate person. He was initially just Thor's soul in a human vessel. Now they're two sides of the same soul but each has his own personality and thoughts.

 

[kguillou]

Originally posted by Hippie_Hunter

Look at all the friends that the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America, etc have and their identities are public. You don't see Alicia Masters, Pepper Potts, Captain America's friends, etc. getting killed off. Marvel just prefers to put all that tragedy onto Spider-Man and Daredevil for some reason.

And I doubt that they have a OMD planned for Daredevil. They seem content on his current status quo where "officially" he isn't Daredevil by the authorities, but pretty much anyone with common sense knows that he's Matt Murdock.

Thats a good point Hunter, i suppose people like DD and Spiderman appear to be easier targets than people like Ironman, Cap, Thor, the FF4 etc. I mean logically, if i was a bad guy i would rather take my chances screwing with DD than I would with Thor you know? lol
In the case of DD though, i'm not conviced marvel's ready to make DD's public identity his permanent status quo, i feel like there's an endgame planned that will somehow put his identity crisis to rest, otherwise his life's just gonna get worse and worse and worse.

 

[Wally West]

Here is the REAL thread.

Sorry about starting the new thread. I went back through the last year looking for one, obviously I didn't go back far enough...

 

[Evil Twin]

Personally, I think Joe Quesada is a very professional man, unlike his DC counterpart, and would not integrate Superman into the Marvel Universe out of respect to DC Comics and it's fans, even if the Siegels and Shuster Estate went up to him and offered it to him. That and various legal reasons concerning DC's trademarks that I don't think Quesada would even want to touch upon.

Also, Superman in the Marvel Universe would just be awful. He really doesn't fit in there IMO. Marvel is a universe where asides from Spider-Man due to magic, every major superhero there has a public identity. Everyone knows who Captain America is, who Iron Man is, who Thor is, who Daredevil is, etc. Superman's secret identity, especially with the way he hides it, would look just silly there.

Metropolis would feel odd on account of every major hero asides from the X-Men, being based in New York City.

And a Marvel Superman would be incredibly gimped due to DC owning all of the trademarks concerning Superman. He wouldn't have the famous \S/ symbol, he can't fly, etc. He'd just be an incredibly strong man which Marvel already has with Luke Cage. And the only interesting villain of Superman's rogues gallery that would be transfered would be Lex Luthor, all of the other good ones like Brainiac, General Zod, and Bizarro are owned fully by DC.

A couple of thoughts.

Lex Luthor is not coming along with Superman. The latest ruling cuts off the Siegels claims of copyright to "(1) Action Comics No. 1 (subject to the limitations set forth in the Court’s previous Order); (2) Action Comics No. 4; (3) Superman No. 1, pages three through six, and (4) the initial two weeks’ worth of Superman daily newspaper strips." Lex Luthor fall well outside that window. Basically, you have the origin, Clark, Lois, the newspaper job, and a limited set of powers. And plenty of copyright you could trip over.

Right now, the Siegels own half the copyright (what exactly is part of the latest ruling), while DC owns the Shuster half (because the heirs missed the 2009 filing window) and all the trademarks. In 2013, the Shuster heirs can potententially regain their half which would leave DC without Superman unless they work out a deal with the families in the meantime. (I expect that DC would likely just "park" Superman and Lois in a finale like the end of All Star Superman and carry on in their main universe with Supergirl or whatever else the creators can think of.)

One of the things that may be attractive about the Marvel universe for the Siegel and Shuster heirs is the sheer amount of villains that are already available and protected by Marvel's copyrights. It's too late now to argue that Dr. Doom is the equivalent of Lex Luthor. Or Thanos the equivalent of Darkseid.

 

[Spider-Vader]

I don't see Marvel getting Supes. I have a feeling DC/WB will go all out if there was a bidding & I don't think Marvel would buy him just to be nice to DC. They're rivalry right now is more friendly.

I do think Supes could work in the MU. But he'd work better if he was there since (atleast) the '70s.

 

[hippie_hunter]

A couple of thoughts.

Lex Luthor is not coming along with Superman. The latest ruling cuts off the Siegels claims of copyright to "(1) Action Comics No. 1 (subject to the limitations set forth in the Court’s previous Order); (2) Action Comics No. 4; (3) Superman No. 1, pages three through six, and (4) the initial two weeks’ worth of Superman daily newspaper strips." Lex Luthor fall well outside that window. Basically, you have the origin, Clark, Lois, the newspaper job, and a limited set of powers. And plenty of copyright you could trip over.

I forgot about that. So basically no interesting villains would come along and Superman would be utterly crappy.

One of the things that may be attractive about the Marvel universe for the Siegel and Shuster heirs is the sheer amount of villains that are already available and protected by Marvel's copyrights. It's too late now to argue that Dr. Doom is the equivalent of Lex Luthor. Or Thanos the equivalent of Darkseid.

Siegel and Shuster might try and go to Marvel, but I can't see Marvel accepting them. I think Quesada is a very professional man who has respect for DC Comics and would not accept them for that reason.

Also I don't want Dr. Doom fighting Superman, I want him fighting the Fantastic Four. And Thanos is dead.

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

JQ had no respect for Spidey, if you ask some people.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I forgot about that. So basically no interesting villains would come along and Superman would be utterly crappy.


Siegel and Shuster might try and go to Marvel, but I can't see Marvel accepting them. I think Quesada is a very professional man who has respect for DC Comics and would not accept them for that reason.

Also I don't want Dr. Doom fighting Superman, I want him fighting the Fantastic Four. And Thanos is dead.

Not if you count Pet Avengers.

 

[Franklin Richards]

I want Dr. Doom to switch bodies with Superman... then put his armor back on and he won't have to worry one bit about Kryptonite.