Superman is a fictional character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1933. The duo created this marvelous superhero intended to be a telepathic villain, whose goal was to achieve world domination. This idea of Superman dramatically changed when the two creators made Superman into an iconic superhero with superhuman strength, speed, hearing, flight, and many other extraordinary powers. These two men are the creators of a worldwide iconic figure that has made billions of dollars since the creation. However, has their sale to Warner Brothers and DC Comics caused them to lose all rights to the incoming money their creation is bringing? While Shuster and Siegel sold all rights of Superman for simply $130, Warner Brothers and DC Comics have made billions of dollars more, over the past few decades. Siegel and Shuster fight for their earnings over many years of this thrilling legal battle over the rights of Superman. But, does the duo really deserve earnings over their creation? Even after they sold their copyrights? Throughout this case, Shuster and Siegel find themselves in a series of difficult situations.
The fight over the possession over debatably, the greatest superhero of all time, began in the very early stages of his creation decades ago. This prolonged court case has been brought up many times, back and forth favoring the Siegel/Shuster heir on appeals, and others favoring the Warner Brothers and DC Comics. In 1947, Shuster and Siegel battled for the rights over the copyright of Superman against DC Comics for $5 million because Siegel and Shuster suspected the royalty checks from DC Comics were a scam. Siegel and Shuster lost their case to take back Superman. However, the duo did manage to recover the copyrights on Su...
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Works Cited
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Tye, Larry. SUPERMAN. New York City: Random, 2012. Print.
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Bruce Wayne, Batman’s secret identity, is an American billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and owner of Wayne Enterprises. Batman is one of the most well-known and well-liked superheroes of all time probably because of all of the comics, TV shows, movies and video games with him in it. Many are interested in Batman mainly because he is human, has no super powers and no special abilities just like a normal person but continues in many super human things using his gadgets, a body suit and a brilliant mind. Not only are these some of the differences between him and some other super heroes but he wants to see justice served and to defeat his enemies because he focuses on what is right and what is wrong. Batman has starred in about fourteen films both as a starring character and as an ensemble character beginning in 1943 and the latest in 2012 with two more coming in 2016 and 2017. Having earned a total of U.S. $1,900,844,295, the Batman series is the fifth-highest-grossing film series in North America. The first full-length movie of batman made in 1989 shows that to overcome great diversity one must step out of the bounds of what is socially and morally acceptable though the characterization of Batman, the contrast between
How close does Man of Steel fly towards the Superman legacy, and are its changes for the better or for the worse? Many fundamentalist fanatics have mixed feelings amongst Man of Steel, and are critiquing director, Zack Snyder, due to the vast range in which the concept of the movie is from the origins of Superman. Some fanatics question if the Snyder fully understands the origins of Superman due to the far fetch theory of the film opposed to the comics. The disappointment has left mixed feelings amongst the audience. Some express that the twists were a nice addition to the films; while others feel as if the story should stay the same. The film goes off on a complete tangent from the origins of Superman. Zack Snyder has made voluminous inaccuracies due to the fact that Superman does not get his full potential powers until three-fourths of the way through the film, he has lack of concern for the citizens, and most importantly he executes General Zod.
The mythology of Superman is a paradigm that embodies the cultural reality of the era; constructed around an archetype of ideology, fantasies of human spiritual ambiguity, a religious messiah, and a semiotic representation of modernity. In further study, Superman can be identified to have specifically changed to adhere to American culture in three distinctive periods; midst the Great Depression and WWII, post WWII and finally the socially progressive change of the Vietnam period. In each chapter Superman was re-imagined to meet the definition of the period, a tool of propaganda over that of entertainment. Currently, America is entering a new phase of cultural shift, and thus Superman will be redefined to represent the ideologies of truth, justice, and the American way of that required era. Yet, the mere surface mythology of Superman has applications to cultural ideologies, questions of human freedom, dreams in a Freudian nature, and the complex relation of fantasy and reality which required introduction before in-depth research.
The pressures of society and many factors against us can at times seem impossible to overcome, however, these limitations are only the ones we place on ourselves. Whether it’s during the adolescent years as Sherman Alexie explained in “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, about the struggles of overcoming the stigma bound by his culture where “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike”, as well as having the courage to break free for his own benefit. In addition, this theme was also explored in the later years of adulthood as demonstrated in Malcolm X’s essay, “Learning to Read” where he’d become so frustrated while kept in prison, unable to quite express himself as he did
Grossman, Lev. "The Problem with Superman." TIME Magazine. Www.time.com, 10 May 2004. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. .
Alexie, Sherman. "Superman and Me." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1998. Web. 14 May 2014. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/19/books/bk-42979
On one end of the spectrum lays Superman, an alien who from birth is comparable to god, and on the opposite side lays Lex Luthor, a genius human who comes from nothing and created a financial empire. Superman
If neither character was constrained by their ethical code, this is an uninteresting battle. Fighting at full strength, Superman would instantly and utterly annihilate Batman. The neurons in Bruce Wayne's brain responsible for even comprehending the situation he's in would have just begun to fire before he was hotter than a supernova and the atoms comprising him distributed evenly across the width of a galaxy.
Shortly after Superman made his appearance in 1939, a noted psychologist by the name of William Moulton Marston wrote an article in Family Circle magazine, praising comic books. According to Les Daniels in Wonder Woman: The Complete History (Chronicle Books, 2000, pp. 22-24), his article caught the eye of M.C. Gains of DC Comics. Gains was so impressed by the article, he hired Marston into a new position at DC Comics. Within a year, at the urging of his wife, Marston set out to create a female superhero. By February 1941, Marston handed in his first script for ‘Suprema: The Wonder Woman.’ (We owe a debt of thanks to whoever dropped the Suprema.) Marston created a unique heroine, based loosely on Greek Mythology. Diana was the Princess of Paradise Island, a mystical place inhabited by Amazons. Her mother, Hippolyte (sometimes referred to as Hippolyta), Queen of the Amazons, wanted a child and petitioned the Goddesses of Olympus to give her one. She was instructed to sculpt a child from clay. When she was done, the...
Superman has had many alterations by American artists throughout the years. In the year 1938, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel sold the well known American Icon Superman to DC Comics. They created this character as high school teens in 1933. In a short period of time Superman was being seen from newspaper strips to television programs, films and video games. Siegel grew up loving science fiction to the point of writing stories and submitting them to publishers only to be denied; this did not make him give up. Shuster also had a passion for science fiction stories and when he met Siegel in 1931 they instantly connected as they both had a very strong taste for the genre. One might portray Superman differently than the other but Shuster and Siegel originally created him to wear a blue costume, red cape, and a red and yellow “S” shield on his chest. Some changes made by artists include modifying of his costume by adding gloves and sometimes short sleeves and differences of his face and body structure.
The Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne, these are all aliases for an enigmatic character in popular culture most commonly known as Batman. While having his humble origins in the pulp magazines of the late 1930’s, over the span of his existence, he has expanded into a full-blown franchise. There have been 3 TV shows on him, 4 movies (1 more still in the making), various videogames, and over 20 comic book series that currently feature his name. Even after 60 years of being in print, it was a Batman issue that was the highest selling comic book of the last week of November, 2004. It is the aim of this project to explore the reasons why this one particular comic book superhero has managed to keep his relevance where so many others have faltered, with a focused look into how Batman artwork has changed over the sixty years of his existence.
Society favors the outlaw hero because we relate with that character more. We see ourselves more so in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the child like talents that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem that the outlaw hero lives more of a fantasy life that we all wish to have. Superman’s image has remained unchanged over the years. A blue suit accompanied by boots, a belt and cape have always been the Superman style, along with the Superman emblem on his chest. Superman’s real name is Kal-El, a descendant of the Kryptonian family of the house of El, with his father known as Jor-El and mother Lara. Krypton was discovered to be in the last seconds of life due to the coming supernova of its sun by Kal-El’s father. The other members of Krypton did not believe Jor-El could not tell others of his answers and examinations. Jor-El promised that neither he nor his wife would leave and with every last possible choice eliminated, Jor-El would send his newborn son to the planet Earth. Kal-El then crash landed into the care of Jonathan and Martha Kent, two farmers in Kansas. He then adopted the Kent family name,...
Batman was created after Detective Comics (D.C.) wanted a new super hero to follow-up after Superman. In May of 1933, Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Batman. Bob was born on October 24, 1915 and died November 3, 1998. Bill was born February 8, 1914 and died January 1974. Bill always loved comics as a child and still when he went to high school at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx New York. He and Bob went to the same high school but never socialized because they were in different classes. Bob meet Bill when Bill was working as a shoe salesman. They worked on many comics together for kids comic books and local newspapers. When they found out that Detective Comics (D.C.) wanted a new super hero they went to work. One day Bob came to Bill with a character, Batman. Bill liked the idea but said it looked too much like Superman. The original illustration had a Robin style mask and red outfit. So Bob took a Webster’s Dictionary and found a picture of a bat. He added bat ears to the mask, giving the full mask a more mysterious look. He changed the colors to black and yellow and added a cape that was cut like bat wings. When writing the comics Bill made Batman’s personality a...
Collapsing to his knees, Batman admits defeat at the hand of comic book legend, Spider-man. Throughout the years, many people have argued about whom of these two super heroes is better. Both Spider-man and Batman have their own unique stories, abilities, and set of super villains and no one can argue that both aren't exceptional super heroes. However, through proven facts, statistics, comic books, television shows, and movie references determine for all who the better super hero is between these two. If were to ever happen, in a fight to the death, Spider-man would destroy Batman with his marvelous super powers, courage, and intelligence.
My previous two columns have focused on the story of my short-lived involvement with a group of investors seeking to purchase Marvel Comics in January, 1998. As I related last time, my role in examining the Marvel documents was to analyze the licensing division with an eye as to how much potential revenue we could anticipate from this area. In the end, I had to tell my fellow investors that there really wasn't a whole lot of licensing potential left. Either the rights were hopelessly entangled due to bungling on the part of Marvel's legal staff, or that most of the decent licensing properties had already been sold for many years forward, in exchange for upfront cash payments in previous years.