quote:Originally posted by Dave: Actually, DC's case was pretty much without merit - they just wanted to shut down their most successful competitor.
Good point. But legally they used the 'black hair' and the 'chin' as an excuse.
quote:Originally posted by Dave: This is my view on it.
That is very interesting.
quote:Originally posted by Dave: It sounds to me as if Supreme has a certain element of parody. The Blaxploitation Supreme, the Kong Kong Supreme, Transformer Surpreme, and the others suggest that Moore is having a little fun at the idea of parallel universes. moore is also specifically having a parodic shot at comics in the 90s when he has a Supreme say (paraphrased), "Oh you 90s heroes are so angst-ridden."
You make a great point.
I can agree that there's a difference between parody and rip off just like there's a difference between rip off and homage and homage and parody.
quote:Originally posted by Dave: Having Supreme affected by something so silly as "Supremium" is also a parody.
The ridicolous name says it all, lol.
quote:Originally posted by Dave: Having said that, parody by its nature is not particulary original, except to the extent that it does lampoon.
Agreed.
quote:Originally posted by Dave: I empathise with ManoftheAtom's complaint to a degree: comic books generally are sadly lacking in originality. They dance around the edges of copyright infringement (Liefeld barely - just barely, in my opinion, gets away with it in creating Supreme). The Silver Age re-hashing of Green Lantern, the Flash, the Atom, Hawkman etc. might have been novel for its day, perhaps, but it was not terribly original.
Yeah, that's a problem with super hero comic books (well, technically it's a problem shared by all genre stories. I mean, just how many variations of 'cop who plays by his own rules', 'lawyer that plays by his own rules', etc can you have when doing a cop and/or lawyer story, right? Same with super heroes. How many variations can you have?
The problem is when the imitations go beyond the look and start using the same plots. That's just wrong).
quote:Originally posted by Dave: Worst of all, in my opinion, is Astro City. This is totally lacking in originality. Its a vehicle for Busiek to tell the stories he wants without editorial restraint. The characters are almost devoid of originality. Calling the imprint "Homage Comics" is almost a white flag to criticism.
I just had a discussion with a friend about how Samaritan, Supreme and Superman are similar but not exactly the same.
While Supreme and Superman share certain characteristics like both having been teen heroes, both having super dogs and both being vulnerable to green colored rocks, Samaritan has neither of those characteristics... yet all three work at a newspaper, wear a cape and fly.
By far Samaritan is the most original of the Superman clones I've ever seen, but that's just my opinion.
(Specially after what Jurgens did to Gladiator!)
quote:Originally posted by Dave: I can't help but think a lot of the problem is that traditonal superheroics are in a rut. This is one of the reason why the Authority (itself having a fantastic parody of the World's finest couple) had such an impact. But there are only so many permutations of a guy in tights with a cape and superpowers you can come up with.
