Soon I Will Be Invincible

[ffutures]

Loved this book to bits, a really good riff on the superhero / supervillain theme. But as an RPG fan the fact that

• The main superhero group is called The Champions
• The "comic book covers" at the end of the book are labelled The Champions and have some generic similarity to supplements for the Champions RPG and the comic that was based on the game

surprised me a little. I was expecting to see some sort of credit there, and there's nothing. Anyone know if there has been any sort of deal cut on this, or legal action in the works?

Comments

[averageshmoe.livejournal.com]

Not certain. The author is a game designer, writer, and player so it's possible he might have had more than a little contact with the game.

However, I recall that there was at least one superhero group that used the name, The Champions, and as far as I can tell there was never action taken by the comics group, Marvel, against the RPG makers.

I think in a case like this the use of such a generic name and, more or less, standardized characters might invite the attention of the legal staff but they might also conclude that it would not be worth pursuing.

pgavigan

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I suppose so - there are some other points of similarity, but they're fairly generic comic-book looks in other ways so you're probably right.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, you expect people to be more litigenous than they are. You'd make a great American citizen!

The Champions were a Marvel 1970s super group that pre-dated the game (the first issues were in 1975) and the game's comic didn't come out until 1986. But since one of the owners of Hero is a lawyer, they may have successfully blocked a new Marvel Champions comic. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_(comics)

While I loath Wikipedia for anything important, roving bands of angry nerds do seem to keep the comic pages pretty clean.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You're right, I do seem to be pessimistic about that sort of thing. No idea why.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

I take it back: it wasn't Steve.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=115267

Litigious!

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

If my ARC is any guide, they didn't start off being called the Champions. My impression is that the team they most closely resemble is the Teen Titans, 20 years after founding (A mix of legacy and non-legacy types, with an older group playing JLA to the TT).

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Was there ever an Earth II version of the TT or LoSH?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Not the LOSH but Infinity Inc. is pretty much the E2 answer to the TT.

[vitruvian23.livejournal.com]

There's also the issue that there's a big difference between having a group called the Champions somewhere in your story, and having that as the title of your product. There's usually only a trademark issue if something is used as part of the 'trade dress' of a product, and copyright doesn't extend to such generic concepts.

So, since Hero Comics (an offshoot of the people that produced the game) got a trademark on the Champions name for comics, and Marvel never kept the trademark from their 70s series, Marvel just now had to rename a new comic from The Champions to The Order.

However, when a similar situation came up before with the Captain Marvel name, DC was still able to revive the old Fawcett Captain Marvel character, they just had to name the comic book itself Shazam.

I think the Champions in the book (which I liked very much) are distinct enough from any other team of the same name that it's not an issue, especially considering that they don't feature prominently in the title or other trade dress.