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by **LOLtron** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:04 pm

DC Confirms Loss of Rights to The Spirit, Doc Savage, Other Heroes No One Wants to Read About

It has been suspected since DC cancelled its First Wave line of comics a few years ago, but Dan Didio has confirmed that DC no longer holds the rights to these pulp heroes.

Source: The Beat

Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat reports that Dan Didio has confirmed that DC no longer holds the rights to pulp heroes The Spirit, Doc Savage, The Avenger, and any other non-DCU characters that were a part of the short-lived First Wave line in 2010. "Sorry to say but none of these characters are still at DC but here’s hoping that another publisher gets them back in print soon," said Didio on Facebook.

Characters like Savage and The Spirit were created during the Golden Age of comics and were essential to the development of the comics medium as we know it today, but readers don't give a shit because they aren't Batman or Wolverine. "The Spirit is not Batman," said one reader, adding, "and Doc Savage is not Wolverine."

There is no news of the characters being picked up by another publisher, nor is there any word of whether the Spirit Archives reprints will be continued. Meanwhile, Wolverine stars in no less than ten comics, which all of you dummies buy every copy of. C'est la vie in the world of comics.

Written or Contributed by Jude Terror

READ THIS ARTICLE ON THE FRONT PAGE, HUMANS!

by **Jubilee** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:44 pm

Very interesting news.

by **Zechs** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:58 pm

Cue Dynamite buying the rights.

by **chap22** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:09 pm

i don't know how big this news is. tbh, i generally don't care about these characters. hell, even as a comics nerd, i've never read a single panel of Eisner's Spirit, and i'm probably consigned to an eternity of reading Chuck Austen X-Men comics in hell for that fct. but i've said it before, and i'll say it again:

despite all that i said above, Cooke's 12-issue Spirit run is damn near perfect comic books. and i'm thankful that DC had the rights to these guys, even for just a short period of time, so that the creation of that comic became possible. beyond that though...meh.

by **Jubilee** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:11 pm

I just think it's a smaller bit of information that adds up to one pretty big fact:

DC are undergoing a massive cost cutting process IMO.

by **Victorian Squid** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:30 pm

Doc Savage and The Avenger are great characters, but DC bungled the 'First Wave' so badly that the fans of those characters who were initially excited quickly became disgusted and dropped the books. Add to that the "cross-over" character, a pulpy Batman, was never really exploited fully--not that he belonged in a fictional world with Savage and the rest.

It would have been a stretch to sell fans of the pulp books on $4 comics anyway, but DC didn't have a chance with readers old or new. So stupidly done.

by **GLX** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:40 pm

Zechs wrote:Cue Dynamite buying the rights.

Don't be surprised if IDW picks up The Spirit.

by **Victorian Squid** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 2:42 pm

Chris Roberson is one of the few comics professionals I would trust those rights with, and I hope he gets them for his new comics publishing venture.

by **Lord Ice** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 3:01 pm

GLX wrote:
Don't be surprised if IDW picks up The Spirit.

An Artist's Edition of all of Cooke's Spirit would be sweet.

by **GHERU** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 3:40 pm

Victorian Squid wrote:Chris Roberson is one of the few comics professionals I would trust those rights with, and I hope he gets them for his new comics publishing venture.

I eagerly await his "After Eisner" series of Spirit books

by **holtom2000** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 3:47 pm

I love this part

Characters like Savage and The Spirit were created during the Golden Age of comics and were essential to the development of the comics medium as we know it today, but readers don't give a shit because they aren't Batman or Wolverine. "The Spirit is not Batman," said one reader, adding, "and Doc Savage is not Wolverine."

It's funny because it was written that way on purpose (I can tell) ... yet I had many young reporters write in that exact same style for me. I'd tell them, set up the quote, don't put what's in the quote in the sentence leading up the quote.
Thanks for the laugh!

by **Herald** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 4:24 pm

I said it before, and I'll say it again: Dan and the Gang can't get the characters that DC owns right, so the LAST thing they needed to do was run out and get some more! :roll:

by **Amoebas** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:01 pm

The problem I had with Doc Savage was that you could never tell 'when' the story was taking place. It looked like the 1930's but people had cell phones :smt017

And I'll second Chappy's love for Cooke's Spirit. :smt023

And a huge kick in the ass for Chappy never have read a single panel of Eisner's Spirit. :smt011

by **DMM** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:38 pm

holtom2000 wrote:I love this part

It's funny because it was written that way on purpose (I can tell) ... yet I had many young reporters write in that exact same style for me. I'd tell them, set up the quote, don't put what's in the quote in the sentence leading up the quote.
Thanks for the laugh!

dude, Jude and 'copter are brilliant.

by **Victorian Squid** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:56 pm

Amoebas wrote:The problem I had with Doc Savage was that you could never tell 'when' the story was taking place. It looked like the 1930's but people had cell phones

And that was just laziness, because it had no internal consistency or sense. That was "we don't know the period stuff well enough and are too lazy to do the research".

Amoebas wrote:And I'll second Chappy's love for Cooke's Spirit.
And a huge kick in the ass for Chappy never have read a single panel of Eisner's Spirit.

The stories didn't click with me, at all. It was the closest to the mark, that much I can agree with.