Holy crap. DC loses the rights to Krypton.

[AncientSpirit]

I hate this whole mess, and especially that one of the creators have no heirs to benefit from this.   

DC acted shamefully for years, and I believe S&S lived for many years on the verge of poverty while the company made so much.  If my memory serves me, it was only at the protests and urging of countless dedicated fans that S&S got those stipends in the first place, and I don't believe they were a lot.   In some ways, I thank Stan Lee that they got paid at all - because before him, I don't think artists and writers got much recognition at all.

If DC symbolized ZOD and S&S symbolized the whole EL clan, this would almost be a reversal of the classic movie line:

"One day you will bow before me Jor-el -- and one day your heirs!"   

I only wish S&S could have benefited more from their work.   They gave me so much pleasure ... all for just a dime!

[deano_ue]

I will say that anyone who thinks Marvel could do a better job with Superman than DC/TW is just wishing.  The current staff over there has already managed to butcher Spider-Man and Captain America, both also iconic characters, so I wouldn't expect any better treatment.

a little off topic but i have to disagree, yeah spider-man isn't at his strongest i'll give you that, but caps comic is one of the best on the market and one of his best arcs ever

[GogglesPizanno]

From what I remember reading, the rights to Superman's Origin, Cape and Clark Kent persona will revert to the Seigel estate in 2013 as well.

[Xenolith]

But what about his super-cake baking abilities?  What about THOSE!?!?!?!

[lugaru]

From what I remember reading, the rights to Superman's Origin, Cape and Clark Kent persona will revert to the Seigel estate in 2013 as well.

Unless supes spins around the earth and turns back time.

[bearded]

*agrees -- to an extent*

I think some people get so caught up on blaming new/modern writers for everything they don't like that they forget that 20+ years ago (or whatever era you read), those people were "modern" writers and were making their own mistakes. Of course now we all have the benefit of looking at things in rose-colored glasses with a sense of nostalgic value. I, myself, have a tough time reading some golden age Superman stories, and I'm generally tolerable of that era.

what an interesting insight.  consider 20 years from now (when comics are really going to be bad.  i mean think about it.  all the fanboys will be in charge.) 20 years from now we will nostalgicaly cherry pick our favorite moments and forget the rest.  like superman electric red and blue will be hardly noticed, but all star superman is what we compare.
maybe if dc totally loses superman, they will have to bring back superman red and blue.
if there are no heirs to the throne, who is getting the legacy bucks?
i'm also reminded of King solomon's wisdom.  remember the baby with 2 mothers?  "split the baby in half."

[BlueBard]

I will say that anyone who thinks Marvel could do a better job with Superman than DC/TW is just wishing.  The current staff over there has already managed to butcher Spider-Man and Captain America, both also iconic characters, so I wouldn't expect any better treatment.

a little off topic but i have to disagree, yeah spider-man isn't at his strongest i'll give you that, but caps comic is one of the best on the market and one of his best arcs ever

I understand Captain America has been excellent as of late, but I am referring to some of what led up to the current status.

Not that DC hasn't done their own share of tinkering with the icon in less-than-successful ways...

[Previsionary]

a little off topic but i have to disagree, yeah spider-man isn't at his strongest i'll give you that, but caps comic is one of the best on the market and one of his best arcs ever

I understand Captain America has been excellent as of late, but I am referring to some of what led up to the current status.

Not that DC hasn't done their own share of tinkering with the icon in less-than-successful ways...

I dunno, Bluebard. You may not have liked the way it went down, but it's pretty evident, especially now, that Brubaker had a plan for all of that, and he's written all of the current volume of Captain America. I mean his work basically put Cap back on the map for a lot of people. I think fans can judge that "death" storyline a lot more accurately after the Reborn storyline, as I can't help but think all that hype from the media and Joe Q altered some views (Joe Q has a habit of overhyping stories, insulting fanbases, and spewing nonsense from time to time). Now, if you mean the Civil War lead up, then all that flak belongs to Mark Millar and the team around him.

And to speak swiftly about Spider-man, I know people disliked OMD a lot, but BND is seen as a return to basics by a good portion of that fanbase. While I may not agree with a lot of the changes and what they now allow in Spidey's book, I can't deny that BND helped to make Spider-man semi-fun again because his book was ALREADY damaged before OMD. Let's not forget that they hit him with Civil War while still having him cry over his dying Aunt for almost 2 years. Long depression with limited cast members (in the main book) was never a good idea for Pete and his gang. The cause for the change was a bad idea, the effect reinvigorated Spidey's verse to a degree that is acceptable to a portion of his fanbase, who buy the book 3 times a month.

what an interesting insight.  consider 20 years from now (when comics are really going to be bad.  i mean think about it.  all the fanboys will be in charge.) 20 years from now we will nostalgicaly cherry pick our favorite moments and forget the rest.  like superman electric red and blue will be hardly noticed, but all star superman is what we compare.

Typically, after the creation of company-owned characters, their fans do take over in writing or in the art... so "fanboys" have already been in charge for awhile. You don't hear many stories of non-fans being placed on a book because it's counter-intuitive. Not saying it doesn't happen, but writing tends to be better if you like whom you're writing, I.E., a fan of the character.

If comics get much worse than what people already paint this era with, despite all the talented people that write (and draw) very good stories and only have the fault of coming into the field post the 80s, and the prices continue to rise, we might not have a "20 years from now" where an even worse team is put in control of our favorite characters. Makes ya think, no?

[herodad1]

ive been a comic fan, reading /buying since i was a wee lad.ive bought tons of comics over the years.i only buy one book monthly and thats thor.the characters have been messed with so bad that ive lost interest in them all together.i only read my old comics and mY collection of ESSENTIALS.

[Zippo]

In my opinion, Superman should just go public domain.

As for the state of modern comics, I have to say I like 'em. Everyone else is entitled to complain all they want about how their favorite characters are getting "ruined", but seriously, it's fiction, it's fun. Y'know what would be boring? The same hero, fighting the same sort of gimmick-based string of villains, or even the same reoccurring villain, while touting the same heroic values for the past 50 years. Why should I continue to read comics if it is a set-in-stone fact that a given character is morally incorruptible, and has walked away from every major threat for as long as I can remember? Characters should die, and if they are lucky enough to get a successor, they shouldn't be the same character as the original. Otherwise what is the point? People were predicting Captain America's imminent resurrection from the get-go. Many were complaining that it just cheapens his death, and many of those same people complained about how Bucky was handling the role of Cap. I firmly believe that having Bucky take over as Cap and being different in name only would have cheapened his death even more (same goes for Dick and Batman). Resurrections are a fact of comic-book life. Stagnant characters don't have to be.

Blah blah blah, I'm rambling I suppose...

Back to the topic at hand; while I generally root for the guy going against the big company, the heirs of S&S didn't create superman. As far as I'm concerned, they have no more right to Superman as anyone else. (The law, of course, sees things differently than I do)

[daglob]

*agrees -- to an extent*

I think some people get so caught up on blaming new/modern writers for everything they don't like that they forget that 20+ years ago (or whatever era you read), those people were "modern" writers and were making their own mistakes. Of course now we all have the benefit of looking at things in rose-colored glasses with a sense of nostalgic value. I, myself, have a tough time reading some golden age Superman stories, and I'm generally tolerable of that era.

what an interesting insight.  consider 20 years from now (when comics are really going to be bad.  i mean think about it.  all the fanboys will be in charge.) 20 years from now we will nostalgicaly cherry pick our favorite moments and forget the rest.  like superman electric red and blue will be hardly noticed, but all star superman is what we compare.
maybe if dc totally loses superman, they will have to bring back superman red and blue.
if there are no heirs to the throne, who is getting the legacy bucks?
i'm also reminded of King solomon's wisdom.  remember the baby with 2 mothers?  "split the baby in half."

From my point of view, the fanboys are in charge NOW!

[marhawkman]

*agrees -- to an extent*

I think some people get so caught up on blaming new/modern writers for everything they don't like that they forget that 20+ years ago (or whatever era you read), those people were "modern" writers and were making their own mistakes. Of course now we all have the benefit of looking at things in rose-colored glasses with a sense of nostalgic value. I, myself, have a tough time reading some golden age Superman stories, and I'm generally tolerable of that era.

what an interesting insight.  consider 20 years from now (when comics are really going to be bad.  i mean think about it.  all the fanboys will be in charge.) 20 years from now we will nostalgicaly cherry pick our favorite moments and forget the rest.  like superman electric red and blue will be hardly noticed, but all star superman is what we compare.
maybe if dc totally loses superman, they will have to bring back superman red and blue.
if there are no heirs to the throne, who is getting the legacy bucks?
i'm also reminded of King solomon's wisdom.  remember the baby with 2 mothers?  "split the baby in half."

Erm... Actually the fanboys took over about a decade ago... Or more.

[DrMike2000]

It's called a shake up. I'm all for them once in awhile. Been due one for a bit. I say Supes comes to Marvel. It is a completely different game over here.

Superman- "And who are you supposed to be? A ball and chain? Buddy, that won't even phase me."
Absorbing Man- "Names Crusher Creel. Most folks call me the Absorbing Man." Starts to swing ball and chain.

Oddly enough that would actually work.... Crusher can duplicate the properties of ANYTHING he touches, including people. He does that with Titania all the time. And the Ball and chain is a MAGIC ball and chain, and as we all know Superman isn't invulnerable to magic. Supes would probably clean his clock anyways though.

Supes has enough experience with the Parasite to deal with Crusher Creel. The Parasite doesn't even need to touch him to absorb his power.

I wouldnt say its a different game at all over in the Marvel U, just different people in tight costumes hitting each other, really. Drop Superman in the Harry Potter universe and see how he copes though...

[herodad1]

lex luther is behind it all!

[Tomato]

Meh... I suppose to me I just couldn't see him outside the DCU... Especially not in Marvel. His very existence would severely upset the character dynamic of the universe, in the same way as moving Batman, spider-man, Professor Xavier or Captain America would... they each shape the foundations of their universes. Plus... I'm sorry, but having an on-its-own Superman story can be done well, but in the end I feel like the times characters really shine is when they're with other characters in the universe... Superman is character that can balance the darkness of Batman, or who could play sort of a mentor role to Wally or Kyle, or who can stand as an equal to Wonder Woman... Yeah, you can have approximations of that in any universe, but it's hollow without the history behind it.

Furthermore, to Zippo's point... I have to say, as much irritation as we have with the writing ALREADY, despite DC or Marvel having editors and executives in place to shape ideas and so forth... can you even imagine what would happen if we gave the right to control the character over to the general population? And I'm not talking guys like Benton or Prem, who might do a good job with some minor mistakes, but generally know what they're doing... I'm talking about the army of general populace who will come out en mass to have super-farts and super-belches and super-bad-writing?

I'm not saying I'm entirely happy with DC's work most of the time, or with copyright laws in general (being able to sue a school for having a Disney character on a children's banner=dumb. Cease and desist letters for fanart and fan parodies=dumb.). But I'd much rather have a company with an invested interest in seeing the character succeed steer him then a frat boy who thinks "Super-drunk" would be an awesome super-power.

[Zippo]

If Supes was in the public domain, it's not like DC wouldn't write him anymore, and I sincerely doubt Joe Fratboy is going to start publishing comic books. Most of the usages would go completely unnoticed, especially since all his villains and most of his supporting cast would still be owned by DC. Anything anyone else did wouldn't be cannon either. It'd be similar to the use of Greek and Norse gods in comics, I think. Anyone can use Thor, and many comics do (an example off the top of my head is The End League), people understand that there is a difference between the Thor used by marvel and the one in mythology or the one used in some other comic.
I guess, though, I just have no attachment to Superman whatsoever. I don't think I'd care if they killed him off permanently. But, since that's never going to happen, and he probably will never go into the public domain (at least in my lifetime), it's a moot point.