By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Nov. 13, 2014 -- If you saw Big Hero 6 and are looking for the Marvel Comics it’s based on, well … you won’t find any. Why not? It’s complicated.
Yes, the movie credits say “Based on the characters published in Marvel Comics.” But that’s only partly true.
Marvel did indeed publish a three-issue miniseries titled Sunfire and Big Hero Six in 1998. But aside from a few names, what came out in print 16 years ago bears little resemblance to the movie that premiered in the U.S. on Nov. 7.
Sunfire and Big Hero Six #1 (of 3) launched the characters that eventually ended up on the movie screen, even if they don’t look much like it. Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.
The Sunfire of the title, for example, is a Japanese mutant with the power to generate nuclear plasma, and an occasional X-Man. As the national hero of Japan, he was called upon when that country’s government wanted to form its own superhero team. He was allied with another character from the X-Men books, a sometimes hero, sometimes villain named Silver Samurai, who dressed in historic, silver armor and whose mutant power was a “tachyon field” that allowed his sword to cut through almost anything.
These two guys were joined by four new Japanese heroes who may sound a bit more familiar: Hiro Takachiho, a 13-year-genius; Baymax, Hiro’s synthetic bodyguard, which could transform into a dragon; GoGo Tomago, who could transform into a ball of energy; and Honey Lemon, whose “Power Purse” could access any object.
If that seems like the movie characters looking through a funhouse mirror, it gets even weirder in their second miniseries, the five-issue Big Hero 6 (2008).
Big Hero 6 #1 (of 5) showed a more Japanese influence. Copyright Marvel Entertainment Inc.
First it should be noted that the first miniseries was written and drawn in the style of the X-books of the time: loud, flashy and very Western superhero stuff. The second series, however, was done with a manga sensibility. That’s probably a bit closer to the movie, except for the unfortunate hyper-sexualizing of the female characters. (Some things seem to cross all cultures.)
In this second miniseries, Sunfire and Silver Samurai were, for a variety of reasons, no longer with the team. Instead, they were replaced by doppelgangers with similar powers named Sunpyre and Ebon Samurai. And if the team didn’t have enough characters named for food in Tomago and Honey Lemon, the team was joined by Wasabi-No-Ginger, a Japanese chef who could use his “Qi-Energy” to create knives that could paralyze opponents.
I only wish I was making this up.
Fortunately, when Disney bought Marvel in 2009 and plucked Big Hero 6 from its files to develop as a movie property, they decided on a few changes. As is obvious from the movie, Disney was going after a younger audience than Marvel usually courts. They gave Hiro a new last name (and a big brother); changed Honey Lemon, Wasabi and GoGo into “supernerds” who invented the gadgets that give them powers; and inserted Fred because … well, they inserted Fred. They also turned Baymax into the wonderful, big-hearted softie that has charmed audiences across six continents.
The Big Hero 6 of the movie make more sense than their comic book counterparts, and are a lot more charming. Pictured (from left) are Fred, Honey Lemon, Hiro, Baymax, GoGo Tomago and Wasabi. Copyright 2014 Disney.
Which, according to rumor website BleedingCool.com, Marvel didn’t like at all. Marvel wanted Big Hero 6 to be like its other movies, aimed at a young adult audience, and wouldn’t support the movie with comics. Disney, BleedingCool said, countered by saying they’d do their own comics. Eventually, so the rumor goes, that an agreement was reached that Marvel would keep its distance, and Disney would only do Big Hero 6 comics in Japan.
These rumors became so pervasive that Disney-Pixar chief John Lasseter addressing them in public at the Big Hero 6 concept rollout in August, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He denied any friction. “We have a fantastic relationship with (Marvel),” he said.
And, you know, that makes sense – I mean, Disney owns Marvel, so how could the latter throw a tantrum? And Disney couldn’t use all the original characters if it wanted to, because the movie rights to Silver Samurai and Sunfire are owned by Fox, along with the rest of the X-Men catalog. So it must be nonsense.
Of course, there are no Big Hero 6 comics currently being made by Marvel. Nor is Disney making any in the United States. Nor are the original Marvel Comics being reprinted in support of the movie.
Well, as I said, it’s complicated.
The new John Carter: Warlord of Mars is described as the cornerstone of Dynamite’s ERB books. Copyright Dynamite Entertainment Inc.
Speaking of which, another famous property has gotten a little less complicated lately.
John Carter, the Earthman hero of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, has been around for more than 100 years in one form another. Debuting as a pulp character in The All-Story magazine in 1912, ERB’s Martian stories were collected in both hardback and paperback throughout much of the 20th century. Comic books got into the act as well, with publishers such as Dark Horse, Dell and Marvel all trying their hand, beginning in 1940.
So when Dynamite Entertainment started publishing Warlord of Mars in 2010, and later titles like The Green Men of Mars and Lords of Mars, most folks assumed that Dynamite was simply the latest lessee of the franchise rights. That opinion wasn’t even swayed much even when the books were published with the disclaimer that they weren’t approved by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., the company that owns and leases the rights to all Burroughs’ work. After all, Dejah Thoris was incredibly hyper-sexualized, moreso than even most comic book heroines. (Some things never change.) Most people, including your humble narrator, assumed ERB Inc. disapproved of the depiction, and were simply distancing themselves until the contract ran out. Also, it was odd that John Carter himself didn’t headline a book, but hey, maybe that cost more or something.
Then the John Carter movie came out in 2012. And even though it didn’t do well at the box office, a comics adaptations of the film, and a sequel, came out anyway – from Marvel Comics. It turns out that Dynamite didn’t have the comic book franchise rights to John Carter after all! So what th-?!
Fortunately, it’s all moot now, because recently Dynamite announced that not only had it achieved a comprehensive licensing agreement with ERB Inc., but on Nov. 5 launched John Carter: Warlord of Mars #1. It’s beautifully drawn (by Indian artist Abhishek Malsuni), and it’s written by fan-favorite comics veteran Ron Marz. Marz writing about Mars? It seems like fate.
Dynamite.com explained the situation this way: “Dynamite’s John Carter: Warlord of Mars comes on the heels of the reacquisition of comic book rights by Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., that had been held by Walt Disney Pictures and its Marvel Entertainment subsidiary, as well as a recent legal settlement with Dynamite that cleared the way for Dynamite to introduce key characters and plot elements from the John Carter backstory that were, until now, absent from recent comic book interpretations.”
Got all that? Me, neither. It’s complicated!
Reach Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), the Internet (comicsroundtable.com), Facebook (Captain Comics Round Table) or Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
Something has to be wrong between Marvel and Disney. There are NO Big Hero 6 comics or trade paperbacks out at all!!
Nightman made no comic book appearances at all the entire time his tv show was running.
How could Disney have the rights to John Carter but not Dejah Thoris? That would be like...like making a Fantastic Four cartoon show while somebody else had the rights to the Human Torch.
Dynamite does the same with Red Sonja. It says something when strong liberated women are treated like sex kittens because of the way they're dressed. But then it also says something when strong liberated women are dressed like that. Vampirella once beat somebody up for assuming she was a prostitute.
The only Big Hero 6 characters I ever heard of are Sunfire and Silver Samurai.
Could somebody tell Dynamite that Dejah Thoris hatched from an egg and thus does not have a navel? That chain must be piercing her stomach.
Some of Burroughs's Martian books can be found at Project Gutenberg. I take it those are likely in the public domain in the US. As I understand it, if so anyone could use elements introduced in those books, but they would be violating copyright if they used elements introduced in the under-copyright books in the series, or under-copyright derivative works such as the issues of Marvel's John Carter, Warlord of Mars. So an unauthorised publisher might legally use Dejah Thoris without ERB Inc's permission, but could get sued if ERB Inc. decided it had used details from those other sources. ERB Inc. may also hold trademarks on some of the names, e.g. "John Carter". That would prevent unauthorised parties using them in their titles, or on their covers.(1) But I'm no lawyer.
(1) According to an item here DC used the "Captain Marvel" name in the masthead of Shazam! for a year, and was told by Marvel to stop doing so.
So someone might use Jane Porter as long as they didn't say the name of her husband?
Marvel must wish they'd trademarked the name Radioactive Man.
They could probably use "Tarzan" in the comic, just not on the covers; just as, until recently, DC continued to use the Captain Marvel name inside its comics.
I would have preferred Captain Thunder over calling him the old wizard's name. That just causes confusion. A lot of people still think Jackson Bostwick played a guy named Shazam.
The caretakers at Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. neglected to renew many of their story copyrights. (They were probably too busy with Tarzan licensing in other media!) Thus, Ace Books and a couple of other publishers were able to reprint certain books in the early 1960s without any negotiation. The books filled a void, as very few Burroughs books had been reprinted throughout the 1950s.
A lot of people either failed to renew their copyrights or got the dates mixed up and tried to renew a year too late. Somehow a handful of Three Stooges shorts became public domain. (Hold hands you lovebirds! is the best known of these.) Also several of Paramount's Popeyes.
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