Yellowjacket
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By KalMorris
Posted on: May 10th 2008 at 1:38 PM |
Replies: 3
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Hey Don. I'm just curious. Have you ever heard anything about Stan Lee's revolutionary Marvel stuff being admitted as or accused of being a lift from Golden Age characters that had passed out of circulation? Silver Spider (could be misnaming him) has almost an exact match outfit to Spider Man, Yellowjacket's not a big jump when he keeps the same name. Just curious.
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Posted by: Don Markstein
Posted on: 2008-05-11 at 05:04:13 AM
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I don't think anybody ever questioned the fact that superheroes, even those of Stan Lee Himself, contained a lot of derivative concepts by the 1960s. "Silver Spider" (who never made it into print as such) is almost an exact match to Spider-Man? Well, yeah. That's the "reality peg" Kirby used in claiming he created Spidey.
But I don't think a coincidence of names between a '40s superhero who explored depth of meaning in the word "obscure" and a name assumed by a washed-up series star who could only make it as a minor group member, means much. Unless you know of some reason to believe anybody making comics in the '60s ever even heard of Yellowjacket.
But that doesn't have much to do with Stan Lee. By the time Ant Man/Giant Man/Goliath/whatever started calling himself "Yellowjacket", Roy Thomas had been writing The Avengers for years.
The Thing was the name of a horror comic in the 1950s. Thor had been used as a superhero in the '40s. Bozo the Robot was called "Iron Man" as early as the late '30s. You don't have to dig as deep as Yellowjacket to make the point that Marvel comics of the '60s were treading familiar ground.
Quack, Don
But I don't think a coincidence of names between a '40s superhero who explored depth of meaning in the word "obscure" and a name assumed by a washed-up series star who could only make it as a minor group member, means much. Unless you know of some reason to believe anybody making comics in the '60s ever even heard of Yellowjacket.
But that doesn't have much to do with Stan Lee. By the time Ant Man/Giant Man/Goliath/whatever started calling himself "Yellowjacket", Roy Thomas had been writing The Avengers for years.
The Thing was the name of a horror comic in the 1950s. Thor had been used as a superhero in the '40s. Bozo the Robot was called "Iron Man" as early as the late '30s. You don't have to dig as deep as Yellowjacket to make the point that Marvel comics of the '60s were treading familiar ground.
Quack, Don
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Posted by: Ed Love
Posted on: 2008-05-12 at 08:09:44 AM
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With Thomas, I'd be surprised if it wasn't intentional. You'd be harder pressed to find a character he created that didn't have a name or some connection to golden-age characters. Some of his more obscure ones like Ghost Woman and promoting Steel to Commander Steel are from Canadian comics.
As far creators on Yellowjacket, one of the stories from issue 4 was a direct copy of a Hangman tale suggesting possibly the saem writer.
As far creators on Yellowjacket, one of the stories from issue 4 was a direct copy of a Hangman tale suggesting possibly the saem writer.
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Posted by: Don Markstein
Posted on: 2008-05-13 at 08:23:39 AM
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That may be, Ed, but as Freud once said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
In the '50s, Dell did a Peter Pan story and a Captain Hook story that were both ripped off, scene-for-scene, from "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold". I don't know who wrote them, but I'm reasonably sure it was neither Jack Hannah nor Carl Barks. Another Barks rip-off was the story where Donald goes to South America to look for a rare stamp, which was swiped for Mickey Mouse story by Carl Fallberg and Paul Murry.
Not that this proves anything, but the fact that stories are identical doesn't necessarily mean they were written by the same person. Granted, Carl Barks was more worth stealing from than most people in comic books, but even lesser writers get plagiarized.
Quack, Don
In the '50s, Dell did a Peter Pan story and a Captain Hook story that were both ripped off, scene-for-scene, from "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold". I don't know who wrote them, but I'm reasonably sure it was neither Jack Hannah nor Carl Barks. Another Barks rip-off was the story where Donald goes to South America to look for a rare stamp, which was swiped for Mickey Mouse story by Carl Fallberg and Paul Murry.
Not that this proves anything, but the fact that stories are identical doesn't necessarily mean they were written by the same person. Granted, Carl Barks was more worth stealing from than most people in comic books, but even lesser writers get plagiarized.
Quack, Don
