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Post by foxley on Jun 17, 2019 20:31:22 GMT -5
Outside of Marvel, costumed heroes with excellent detective abilities include the Spirit (and his Quality clone Midnight), Domino Lady (although she debuted in the pulps), Green Hornet (started on radio), and Spy Smasher.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2019 20:38:16 GMT -5
A recent indy costumed crimefighter in the Batman vein is Francavilla's Black Beetle from Dark Horse...   -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 17, 2019 22:27:10 GMT -5
Night Thrasher definitely popped to mind immediately to me as well. but the huge difference in popularity makes it hard to make the case... even when Thrash had his own book he was barely on the radar (and I say this as a big NW fan)... he's been gone from the MU for some time now.
I mean ,he even had his own Robin (I definitely recall him adopting Rage toward the end of his time with NW).
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Post by berkley on Jun 18, 2019 1:12:16 GMT -5
Outside of Marvel, costumed heroes with excellent detective abilities include the Spirit (and his Quality clone Midnight), Domino Lady (although she debuted in the pulps), Green Hornet (started on radio), and Spy Smasher. Is it more or less acknowledged that the Spirit was one of the main inspirations for Batman, or is there still some question about it? The more I read of the Spirit, the more obvious this feels to me, but this might just be a matter of me getting to feel more familiar with the character.
Never really paid much attention to Midnight before, but visually at least he looks like a blatant Spirit clone - so much so that I'm surprised there weren't any legal repercussions - or were there?
Someone pointed out in another thread a few months ago that The Shroud was a deliberate Batman stand-in, even down to his origin - was that carried on to include the detective aspect?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2019 1:17:48 GMT -5
Outside of Marvel, costumed heroes with excellent detective abilities include the Spirit (and his Quality clone Midnight), Domino Lady (although she debuted in the pulps), Green Hornet (started on radio), and Spy Smasher. Is it more or less acknowledged that the Spirit was one of the main inspirations for Batman, or is there still some question about it? The more I read of the Spirit, the more obvious this feels to me, but this might just be a matter of me getting to feel more familiar with the character. Never really paid much attention to Midnight before, but visually at least he looks like a blatant Spirit clone - so much so that I'm surprised there weren't any legal repercussions - or were there?
Someone pointed out in another thread a few months ago that The Shroud was a deliberate Batman stand-in, even down to his origin - was that carried on to include the detective aspect?
Batman's debut in Tec 27 was cover dated May 1939. The first Spirit section ran June 2, 1940, so Batman was around in print for a year before the Spirit appeared in print. Hard for him to have been inspired by the Spirit. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2019 1:24:03 GMT -5
Addendum to previous post...
Now the Shadow and Doc Savage were more likely inspirations for Batman, as both predated both Batman and Superman in print by a number of years.
-M
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Post by foxley on Jun 18, 2019 2:00:17 GMT -5
Addendum to previous post... Now the Shadow and Doc Savage were more likely inspirations for Batman, as both predated both Batman and Superman in print by a number of years. -M The Shadow and Doc Savage are both generally acknowledged as inspiration for Batman, along with Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel. Minor pulp character the Black Bat is sometimes credited as the inspiration for Batman's costume, although Bob Kane has always claimed he drew his inspiration from the 1930 film The Bat Whispers. |
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Post by berkley on Jun 18, 2019 2:53:38 GMT -5
I imagine Doc Savage was an inspiration for Superman too, or did Suyperman come first?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2019 2:58:19 GMT -5
I imagine Doc Savage was an inspiration for Superman too, or did Suyperman come first? Shadow was '31 in print ('30 on the radio I believe) and Doc Savage was '33, so both predated the earliest super-hero comics. -M |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 18, 2019 7:50:13 GMT -5
Never really paid much attention to Midnight before, but visually at least he looks like a blatant Spirit clone - so much so that I'm surprised there weren't any legal repercussions - or were there? [/div][/quote] Quality publisher Busy Arnold was instrumental in setting up the deal that allowed Eisner to start the Spirit newspaper section and allowed Eisner to retain the copyright to the Spirit. Arnold retained the rights to publish the Spirit in the comics but had Jack Cole create Midnight as a hedge in case Eisner was killed in the war. While technically Eisner might have sued it would have been incredibly bad form given that The Spirit would not have existed without Arnold. |
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Post by MDG on Jun 18, 2019 8:34:55 GMT -5
If you're considering actual detectives, my favorite Marvel detective would be Dakota North. A former fashion model who ended up running a troubleshooting agency, she had her own short-lived series back in the 80s.  It only lasted 5 issues and was apparently considered a knock on Ms Tree by Collins and Beatty. ... The Ms. Tree team met it head on: |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2019 8:47:01 GMT -5
I'm going to to check whether Dakota North and Ms. Tree have any trades out.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 18, 2019 9:23:36 GMT -5
I'm going to to check whether Dakota North and Ms. Tree have any trades out. Any Ms. Tree trades are long out of print. However, it looks like Titan Comics is going to be bringing out new trades through their Hard Case Crime imprint. First one appears to be due in September. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 18, 2019 9:37:44 GMT -5
[/div][/quote] Quality publisher Busy Arnold was instrumental in setting up the deal that allowed Eisner to start the Spirit newspaper section and allowed Eisner to retain the copyright to the Spirit. Arnold retained the rights to publish the Spirit in the comics but had Jack Cole create Midnight as a hedge in case Eisner was killed in the war. While technically Eisner might have sued it would have been incredibly bad form given that The Spirit would not have existed without Arnold. [/quote][/div]
Arnold actually commissioned *three* clones of The Spirit--Midnight, The Mouthpiece, and 711--as a hedge against Eisner's death. In the case of Midnight, Eisner was okay with it after convincing Jack Cole to put his unique comedic spin on the strip. Thus, despite their identical appearances, Midnight was a radically different series than Spirit.
Cei-U! I summon the decarbonated carbon copy!
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