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Topic: The Vagaries Of Lawsuits (Comics) (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 11:30am | IP Logged | 1  
When I first read that DC sued Fawcett over Captain Marvel, I was surprised. A cursory glance does reveal similarities between Superman and Captain Marvel, but they are tenuous at best (in my opinion). Still, if I have my history right, it did happen.

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was threatened with a lawsuit by Marvel in the early 90s when they had a character called Arachnaman on their programming (he wore purple and yellow, but had a Spider-Man style costume!). Fair enough.

And yet some characters who are very similar have gone on being published without any lawsuit or threat of lawsuit that I know of. Seems odd.

I mean, I'm not totally familiar with the character, but USAgent seems very familiar to a certain Mega-City One lawman, both in temperament and look. One could argue, and please feel free to disagree, that there are more similarities between Judge Dredd and USAgent than there are between Superman and Captain Marvel.

I don't want to turn this into a film topic, but I feel the same with film/TV. The film TIME OF THE APES (actually episodes of a Japanese TV series) is very similar to PLANET OF THE APES and I wonder how it ever got made/released without any legal action. Yet despite a tenuous resemblance, didn't George Lucas attempt legal action against BATTLESTAR GALACTICA which really isn't that similar to STAR WARS (in some ways, maybe, but not others).

And MAC AND ME might as well have been called E.T.: THE REHASH.

My point, if I have one, is that the legal world seems inconsistent. There are a lot of differences between Superman and Captain Marvel, but DC still initiated legal action against Fawcett many decades ago; yet two very similar characters, USAgent and Judge Dredd, have not had any legal action pertaining to them. 

I am not saying I want to see legal action (probably already too many lawyers in the world - just kidding), but it does seem very inconsistent over time. Some things seem obvious and blatant, almost like the creators are begging to be sued, yet other things have a tenuous similarity at best, but end up with a court case.

Any thoughts?
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John Byrne
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 11:48am | IP Logged | 2  
Wasn't it the makers of GALACTICA who sued Lucas, claiming that his rebel fleet running from the Empire (and not a part of the original STAR WARS) was too much like their own "ragtag fugitive fleet"?
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 11:51am | IP Logged | 3  
Could be. Been years since I read the article. :)
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Don Zomberg
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 1:00pm | IP Logged | 4  
makers of GALACTICA

Glen Larson(y), as Harlan Ellison called him?
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Bill Collins
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | 5  
Robbie,look at `Justice Peace` in Walt`s FF! 
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Bill Mimbu
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | 6  
Wasn't it the makers of GALACTICA who sued Lucas, claiming that his rebel fleet running from the Empire (and not a part of the original STAR WARS) was too much like their own "ragtag fugitive fleet"?

***

Well, GALACTICA was originally going to be called "STAR WORLDS", which apparently prompted some legal noise from Fox / Lucasfilm. Universal apparently countered by claiming Lucas ripped off the Drones from SILENT RUNNING for R2-D2...

There is even a claim by the late Space Battleship Yamato producer, Yoshinobu Nishizaki, that Glen Larson contacted him in the late 70s, to basically clear it with him that Larson was using 1974 Yamato series as his "inspiration" for GALACTICA in his legal defense against Lucas (mainly the "Saga of a Star World" and "Gun on Ice Planet Zero" episodes, which were originally intended as stand-alone TV movies).
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 2:15pm | IP Logged | 7  
I am not saying I want to see legal action (probably already too many
lawyers in the world - just kidding), but it does seem very inconsistent
over time. Some things seem obvious and blatant, almost like the
creators are begging to be sued, yet other things have a tenuous
similarity at best, but end up with a court case.

-----

I don't see an inconsistency. Regardless of whether one has a case or
not, filing a lawsuit requires time and money. It still depends on the
resources of the plaintiff and whether the benefits of any award
outweigh the costs of a lawsuit.
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Mike Norris
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | 8  
I mean, I'm not totally familiar with the character, but USAgent seems very familiar to a certain Mega-City One lawman, both in temperament and look. One could argue, and please feel free to disagree, that there are more similarities between Judge Dredd and USAgent than there are between Superman and Captain Marvel.
****************************************************8
USAgent was a riff on Captain America. Even using a variation of the costume Steve Rogers used as "The Captain". He's just Cap with an attitude (as it was common to create bad ass versions in the 90s). 


Edited by Mike Norris on 18 September 2016 at 3:35pm
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Brandon Scott Berthelot
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | 9  
USAgent did receive a new costume later (in the Maximum
Security crossover) that looked a lot like Judge Dredd,
but by that point he had fallen pretty far down the
ladder, d lister at best IMO. And it did not last long.
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Joe Zhang
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | 10  
I still don't know how Rob Liefeld got away with Supreme. I imagine there will one day be a Supreme movie that will give DC well-deserved conniptions. 
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | 11  

USAgent was a riff on Captain America. Even using a variation of the costume Steve Rogers used as "The Captain"

**********

A variation? I thought it was the same one. 
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Mike Norris
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Posted: 18 September 2016 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | 12  
Yeah, looking it up it was the same. 
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