At The Legion Omnicom, Michael points out an interesting change in press-release language for the upcoming Legion of Super Heroes cartoon, presumably in response to the ongoing legal squabble over the rights to Superboy.
In the original press materials, announcing the Kids’ WB fall lineup, the character with the “S” and spit curl was referred to as “the young Superboy”: “… While their intentions were good, their time travel skills were not, and Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Bouncing Boy and Timber Wolf end up going too far back into the past, accidentally retrieving the young Superboy instead” (emphasis added).
But in the current press release, quoted by The Legion Omnicom, the character is “the young Superman, before he moved to Metropolis”: “… While their intentions were good, their time travel skills were not, and Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Bouncing Boy and Timber Wolf end up going too far back into the past, accidentally retrieving the young Superman, before he moved to Metropolis” (emphasis added, again).
There had been a lot of discussion on message boards about how the lawsuit might affect the animated series. It looks as if “young Superman” may be Warner Bros.’ solution.
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:04 am
I’m suprised they just don’t call him Superlad :p
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:53 am
WHY IS BRANIAC 5′S HEAD STREACHING LIKE THAT?
June 23rd, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Oh Bruce Timm, why have you forsaken us?
June 23rd, 2006 at 12:47 pm
http://i4.tinypic.com/15ei680.png :p
June 23rd, 2006 at 1:15 pm
This means nothing, really. I mean, I think there is no real question regarding DC’s ownership of Superboy: It doesn’t. I think the litigation between the Siegels and DC will come down to whether or not the court will force the Siegels to license Superboy to DC and/or force DC to give up/share ownership of Superboy-applicable trademarks.
Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, the new press release might have nothing to do with the Superboy case, but rather with Superman Begins. The S-shield in the logo is not unlike the one used in the movie promos and there is no indication the character in the pictures isn’t Superman. Additionally, by emphasizing the Superman connection in the new press release, released rather close to Superman Begins’s premiere, helps connect Superman with the cartoon even more without having to introduce the possibly confusing–to the non-comic-reading public–”Superboy” into the mix. When the cartoon airs, the character will be called “Superboy” because names can’t be copyrighted, and everything will go along as if this new press release never happened.
June 23rd, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Live from Licensing 2006 in NYC (June 20-22)…
http://home.earthlink.net/~t.joseph/legion.jpg
… it’s “The Adventures Of Superman When He Was An Oddly-Proportioned Boy. I Mean Seriously, His Waist’s No Wider Than His Head, And His Legs Look Like Popeye’s Arms. And Could They Have Made Brainiac Look Any Creepier?” (working title)
June 23rd, 2006 at 3:36 pm
How would he ever become Superman if he is in the future?? Guess it’s up to Bibo to save Metroplois from Luthor.
June 23rd, 2006 at 3:41 pm
I thought it was gonna be Supergirl and the Legion? :confused:
June 23rd, 2006 at 4:17 pm
“I thought it was gonna be Supergirl and the Legion?”
Unfortunately not … I originally assumed that the new Legion cartoon was a spin-off from the Justice League Unlimited episode featuring Supergirl and the Legion, but actually it’s completely different, more in the style of the new Batman cartoon or Teen Titans than a continuation of the “Dini-verse.”
June 23rd, 2006 at 6:22 pm
I have no idea what’s up with Brainy’s neck.
June 23rd, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Or they could just call him Kal El on the cartoon.
Hell, it worked for “Slade” on Teen Titans.
(Really? Kids don’t like “DEATHstroke?”)
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:04 pm
I’m not sure about how this copyright thing works exactly. However, what I basically surmise is that Siegel now owns the old Superboy concept. A young Superman, wearing a costume and operating as a teenage superhero before he moved to Metropolis. So, DC can publish a book about a different Superboy, like Kon-El (RIP) if they want. Warner Bros. can also make a TV show about a young Clark Kent before he became Superman if they want, like Smallville. However, if it’s a young Clark Kent operating in costume as Superboy before he came to Metropolis, that’s Siegel’s. Names can’t be copyrighted, but concepts put all together like that can, I think. Which could lead to trouble for this show. I could be wrong.
Anyway, about Braniac 5. I’m assuming that they’re going with the idea of Braniac as a “living computer”. So, this Brainy may be an android and have some old-style “Go, Go Gadget” type of robotic transformations in his arsenal. I doubt they’ll be as wacky as the aforementioned Inspector’s though. Probably just extendable limbs and neck, as well as maybe tools built into his fingers. Something like that.
June 24th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
[...] Blog@Newsarama » What’s Interlac for ‘Run this by legal’? [...]
June 24th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Why don’t they just suck it up, grow a pair, and hire Nicholle Tom to do her Supergirl from the Timmverse, and make it Supergirl and the Legion? It’s a much more dynamic choice, rather than straight up ripping of the Silver Age of Legion. It would tie in with JLU, and that established version of Kara, which many of us would prefer. And god forbid a female character led a DC animated series. God for-fragging-bid!
Who needs a “young Superman” anyway? I’d rather have Timm and the gang do more STAS episodes, like they hint at in the featurettes on the last DVD.
June 24th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Right, except they’ve already been in production for Legion for quite some time. It’s way too much trouble…impossible at this point, really, to turn it into a “Supergirl & Legion” show.
June 24th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Yeah, I guess what I’m saying is “dumb decision, assholes.”
But don’t you think it’s going to be a little awkward to ADR all the episodes they’ve made to replace them with “Supes,” “Kal-El,” “Super Lad,” “young Superman,” etc? How many times can they say “yo, Boy of Steel” before it gets old?
It would almost be better if they shut down production and do it right.
June 24th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Excuse me? You can’t copyright names but you can trademark names! The battle is as much about the use of name “Superboy” as it is about the concept.
June 25th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
You are correct, names can be trademarked, which in the long run is the more valuable. DC owns the trademark for the S-shield, a male figure in the traditional “Superman” suit (a search of the USPTO Website pulls this up and it is an easy argument to extend it to a younger male figure), and Superboy. In court, I think, there are going to be two battles:
(1) DC will argue that it has too much invested in the “Superboy concept” (which is why, IMO, we are seeing almost a resurgence of Superboy in the current DCU, at least regarding his place in DCU history) to lose the right to the character completely. Because of that, minimally, DC will ask the court to order the Siegels to license the character back to DC “at a reasonable rate” and to order the Siegels not license it to another comic book company.
(2) The Siegels will argue that the Superboy concept is meaningless if they cannot use the trademarks controlled by DC and will request that DC’s ownership be transferred to them or, barring that, they and DC share ownership of the trademarks.
June 25th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
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