I wonder how Mark Waid and Alex Ross feel about Bendis basically recycling whole scenes from Kingdom Come, putting Norman Osborne in the Lex Luthor role and then trying to pass them off as a new story.

Erik

Of course, it's entirely possible that they haven't read the Savage Dragon story but then again not many people did.

It's quite an allegation to accuse Marvel of "thievery". Do you know they read your book? Do you have insider info that would sugges they did?

It's also interesting you used a "image-altering villain" previously so I could say, for argument's sake obviously, you "stole" that idea from Marvel as Chameleon is a Marvel character that you would be well aware of. As for Presidents being impersonated, there was a Hulk story with art by Trimpe and Severin that featured Nixon and his gang being replaced by robots/LMDs of some sort (my memory is a bit hazy on the details) so it's hardly an original idea and then there is Heinlein's Double Star which features an actor playing an elected official on Mars (now that was a good book).

Barack Obama is big news and with him being a Spider-Man fan, it's hardly unlikely that Marvel wouldn't use his election to boost their sales and public profile. So they wrote a pretty unoriginal story to celebrate (if that's the word) Barack's election.

No, I don't think Marvel is the House of Stolen Ideas but more like House of Unoriginal Ideas, but originality is an overated virtue in the arts.

I don't think Marvel need "inspiration" from anyone to put out a variant cover - it's one of the things they do.

As for the "terrorist" fist jab - well, it's in the public domain and no one writer can claim it as his own, can he?

Trying really hard to miss the point, don't you?

It's not about A variant cover, it's about a Obama variant cover, a move someone did before, a move that got enough coverage that there is no way on earth that Marvel didn't know about it.

And it's not about their legal right to do it, it's just not a great move to rip off somebody who did it first.

How is the analogy incorrect?

Millar and Hitch's version of the FF is more than just "influenced by" the Lee/Kirby FF.

Savage Dragon is "influenced by" the Lee/Kirby FF.

Millar and Hitch's version of the FF actually IS the Lee/Kirby FF, as done byMillar and Hitch.

Same songs different band. Maybe remixed a little, and a new twist, maybe they are even better musicians, but they are NOT writing new songs.

So since Savage Dragon has a variant cover with Obama on it, Marvel can't do the same when he's in a Spider-Man comic. Does Erik Larsen own the copyright on doing that? Is that what you are saying? Because if it is, you're just being silly.

It's about morality and being innovation. Is it a classy move to look what another creator did and say: Hey, this could work for us, let rip the idea off. I don't think so.