So Marvel have had the rights to Marvelman for two years and all they've produced is a set of reprints of the 50s/60s issues. With all due respect to creator Mick Anglo, a bunch of old Captain Marvel-style kids' comics are only likely to have a limited nostalgia appeal.

What fans really want is a reprint of the Alan Moore run and a reprint/continuation of the Neil Gaiman run, yet this material seems to be stuck in Legal Hell. Back in March, Big Ben creator Dez Skinn still hadn't been approached about the prospective use of BB in any reprints.
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...1&postcount=11

Honestly, who benefits from this ridiculous legal stand-off between McFarlane, Gaiman, Skinn, Anglo, Tom, Dick and Harry? Surely it's time to decide once and for all who owns what?

kids comics? Sounds perfect for Disney, Marvel's owner.

I don't think Marvel know quite what they're doing Though I guess they have at least prevented anyone else from using the name, which was probably their main consideration...

It'll be fascinating to see how he's incorporated into the Marvel Universe - if indeed he actually is. Marvelman was basically designed as a rip-off of characters like Superman and Captain Marvel. Will he now become Marvel's equivalent of Superman? Power-wise he's right up there.

I thought he was more like Captain Marvel than Superman, with his secret word and everything?

It would be pretty difficult to incorporate the Moore/Gaiman version into the Marvel Universe, seeing as MM pretty much restructured society in the 1980s. In the MM Universe, we're all supposed to be living in a Utopia ruled by superheroes. (Until Johnny Bates escapes again and cocks it all up.)

Yes, I've always assumed they'd basically ignore all that and incorporate him into the proper Marvel Universe. Perhaps they won't - but Marvel doesn't really have an equivalent of Vertigo does it.

Anyway, we'll find out eventually I suppose.

It would be a massive disappointment if Marvel chose to reboot the character as a standard superhero in the Marvel Universe. Without the Alan Moore continuity, Marvelman is just a rip-off of Captain Marvel.

Either that or he just falls through a dimensional portal.

Phazer

For some reason, I always suspected the mind numbingly boring Robert Reynolds AKA the Sentry would turn out to be a dimensionally displaced Marvelman buried under a false identity. It would have made him almost interesting if that had happened.

Not sure how Marvel would stand legally if that were to happen.

I supposed they would have to state that this move was not planned prior to 2009. The rights are in enough of a tangled mess without discovering that Marvel brought in the character through the back door a decade before they acquired the rights.

Marvel could use something like their imprints MAX or
Icon to publish Marvelman, though the downside is that so far Icon been's used for creator-owned superheroes,
which is certainly not the case with MM ....

I'd go with this - just establish that Marvelman Universe is Earth-something or other, and have him arrive by some curious means

It would, of course, mean that we'd not get a continuation of where it left off, which'd be a shame. Although that could theoretically be covered in some future 'flashback' issue. Mind you, would there not then be a rights issue to the back story?

I get confused with this sort of thing.

When they bought the character, that presumably includes his backstory.

I read that Dez Skinn believed the character to be in the public domain when he launched the new version in Warrior. Now it all seems to be a tangled mess with Marvel reaching agreement with original creator Mick Anglo over the original 50s/60s version, but still not coming to any arrangement with anyone involved in the 80s/90s version. Also, bear in mind that various crossover elements of the 80s/90s strips such as Big Ben and the Warpsmiths would require negotiations with their copyright holders.

I'm not sure, but I think when one of the Alan Moore Marvelman
stories was reprinted Big Ben was renamed do to a copyright
issue.

We need Dez back on here to tell us!

I'm not sure if that ever happened in a reprint. I know the character was renamed as British Bulldog when he was brought back for a cameo during the Eclipse run.

I think that's what I was thinking of-BB was renamed for
the Eclipse period. There may have been other renamings
I'm not aware of in this time.

No, only his backstory prior to 1982.