Wonder Comics #1 (1939)
by Will Eisner
Let’s go back to the earliest days of the Golden Age for a historically significant character that almost nobody has heard of. The first Superman ripoff to be sued out of existence.
To give you an idea of how early this is, it shares the same cover date of Batman’s first appearance.
More on the history of the creators and the lawsuit later: let’s first have a look at the story.
All we get for Wonder Man’s origin is just on the first page: he’s given super-strenght from some guy in Tibet, possibly thanks to a magic ring.
And of course his secret identity is a timid guy.
Notice Wonder Man is called “champion of the oppressed”, which was a nickname so frequent for Superman in the early years that it was already there in Action Comics #1.
Let’s try keeping up with how many things these two have in common and what are the differences, because at least Wonder Man is not a COMPLETE ripoff.
Similarities: 3 (super-strenght, champion of the oppressed, meek civilian identity)
Differences: 3 (human, is an inventor instead of a journalist, wears a mask… just not on the cover)
His love interest is the daughter of his boss (+1 difference), is a nurse (+1 difference), who doesn’t care at all about his civilian identity (+1 similarities).
Similarities: 4
Differences: 5
Despite refusing to accompany the girl to her trip to the fictional country of Tatonia, our hero changes his mind when his invention shows him that Tatonia is at war.
I have no idea where Tatonia is supposed to be. The implication should be an European country, but it can be reached by a monoplane flying for 12 straight hours.
The love interest has a fiancée. Already she’s completely different from Lois Lane.
Similarities: 4
Differences: 6
The enemy planes are about to bomb the hospitals, so the love interest… just leaves with her fiancée, leaving her father’s employee behind to die.
The love our our hero’s life, ladies and gentlemen!
This looks like a job for Wonder Man and his strip-teasing powers!
Hands down the best action sequence of the issue.
But Wonder Man also helps the refugees, including a guy who exclaims “Great Caesar!”.
You’d think this was a ripoff of Perry White’s catchphrase… except Perry White didn’t even exist yet! He was created for the radio serial in early 1940 and wouldn’t show up in comics until the end of that year. And “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” wouldn’t become his catchphrase until the 1950s TV show.
The plane with the girl and her fiancée was intercepted by the leader of the invasion… who amazingly is called General Attila.
The fiancée is a piece of work.
Time for Wonder Man to attack his stronghold! I do like the chance to view the people under Attila’s regime as people.
Wonder Man is also bulletproof.
Similarities: 5
Differences: 6
Time for another good action scene, as Wonder Man wrecks Tatonia’s military.
Good thing Attila’s men are dumb enough to allow their prisoners to KEEP THEIR GUNS.
Also, even when they bother drawing it, Wonder Man’s mask hides significantly less than half his face!!!
Of course she’s into him despite not caring about him when he doesn’t have a mask.
Similarities: 6
Differences: 6
Then Wonder Man bullies the fiancée into doing crowd control, and SHOCKINGLY it fails so much that Wondy has to do it himself.
Then he breaks into the huge vault where Attila keeps all the food. (???)
There are tons of Superman stories where he helps poor people and refugees, even in the Golden Age, but I can’t think of many where he actually distributes food to each person.
Wonder Man gets a kiss as a reward.
And she gets harrassment, because he kisses her back only after she faints from exhaustion!!!
Yeah, uhm, he’s a bit of a creep. (+1 similarity)
Similarities: 7
Differences: 6
Is this some kind of fanfiction Lois Lane wrote?
And once he beats up Attila, Wonder Man is off into the night.
And at the end we even find out that the fiancée took all the credit.
Closing with the promise of more Wonder Man stories to come.
Hey so he DOES get powers from the ring after all! (+1 differences)
Similarities: 7
Differences: 7
Historical significance: 0/10
Since I don’t take into account real life events, there’s nothing there since is the last Wonder Man story. Although since he’s most likely in the public domain now, maybe he showed up somewhere.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
This is basically a Golden Age Superman story. Which is kind of Wonder Man’s entire problem.
How close is this to the modern character?
Was this a Superman ripoff? 8/10
Honestly he’s not THAT much of a ripoff. He does have nearly all of Superman’s original tropes, but as we have seen there’s enough difference.
Even though he was created by legendary artist Will Eisner, who hopefully needs no introduction, Wonder Man would have been forgotten by time like hundreds of minor Golden Age heroes… if the law didn’t get involved.
“Wonder Comics” was published by Fox Feature Syndicate, and its founder Victor S. Fox had been DC’s accountant… so there’s the implication that he put into motion the ripoff once the sales figures of Superman’s first issues came up.
Will Eisner (together with Jerry Iger) was running a studio that supplied comics to various publishers, and he was given one task for this one: to make it a Superman clone.
DC reacted very quickly to this, and the moment Wonder Comics #1 hit the stand Fox was hit with an injunction against using Wonder Man again. There’s a Wonder Comics #2, but it doesn’t have Wonder Man in it.
Fox instructed Eisner to lie on his testimony, but Eisner told the truth in court putting an end to any chance to see Wonder Man again.
Or at least that’s how the testimony is narrated in Eisner’s autobiographical graphic novel “The Dreamer” from 1985, changing the names (presumably for legal reasons, ironically).
At the time the graphic novel was published, the records of the proceedings were not publicly known; which is why you can still find some references to this version.
However in 2010, the proceedings were found by the Comics Detective site. And they showed that in the trial Eisner falsely claimed to have created Wonder Man before Superman.
The case itself, Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications, Inc., is far more interesting and significant than Wonder Man.
I’m no lawyer, but even to a layman this is a fascinating read.
The attributes and antics of “Superman” and “Wonderman” are closely similar. Each at times conceals his strength beneath ordinary clothing but after removing his cloak stands revealed in full panoply in a skintight acrobatic costume. The only real difference between them is that “Superman” wears a blue uniform and “Wonderman” a red one.
Fox was found guilty of copyright infringement, but then appealed to the Second Circuit.
It didn’t go as they hoped.
Defendants attempt to avoid the copyright by the old argument that various attributes of “Superman” find prototypes or analogues among the heroes of literature and mythology. But if the author of “Superman” has portrayed a comic Hercules, yet if his production involves more than the presentation of a general type he may copyright it and say of it: “A poor thing but mine own”. Perhaps the periodicals of the complainant are foolish rather than comic, but they embody an original arrangement of incidents and a pictorial and literary form which preclude the contention that Bruns was not copying the antics of “Superman” portrayed in “Action Comics”. We think it plain that the defendants have used more than general types and ideas and have appropriated the pictorial and literary details embodied in the complainant’s copyrights.
But the same decision also wasn’t the kind of victory DC wanted, because the court also made sure DC wouldn’t go TOO wild with claiming copyright infringement.
Since the complainant is not entitled to a monopoly of the mere character of a “Superman” who is a blessing to mankind (Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 2 Cir., 45 F.2d 119), we think the language of clause 4(c) of the decree somewhat too sweeping. It should be modified so as to read as follows: “(c) From printing, publishing, offering for sale or selling, or in any way distributing any cartoon or cartoons, or any periodical or book portraying any of the feats of strength or powers performed by `Superman’ or closely imitating his costume or appearance in any feat whatever.”
The following year DC would sue Fawcett Comics for the same reasons claiming that Master Man was also a Superman ripoff.
Since it’s not the first time it happened I won’t give Master Man a full review, but it should be noted that like Wonder Man he ALSO wasn’t an alien.
The same problem would come into play again in 1951, when DC Comics was suing Captain Marvel for copyright infringement with National Comics Publications, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc.
Fawcett lost the lawsuit, but decided against appealing: by that time superhero comics weren’t selling as much, and there we losing a lot of money keeping the trial going.
So instead Fawcett settled out of court, paying 400,000 dollars to DC Comics for “damages”, agreeing to stop publishing Captain Marvel altogether.
So that makes 3 successful attempts by DC Comics to sue another superhero out of existence. But their luck ran dry in 1983 with Warner Bros. Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc where they tried to claim The Greatest American Hero was infringing Superman’s copyright.
It was a completely ridiculous lawsuit, and the court’s opinion highlights how laughable it is.
Superman looks and acts like a brave, proud hero, who has dedicated his life to combating the forces of evil. Hinkley looks and acts like a timid, reluctant hero, who accepts his missions grudgingly and prefers to get on with his normal life. Superman performs his superhuman feats with skill, verve, and dash, clearly the master of his own destiny. Hinkley is perplexed by the superhuman powers his costume confers and uses them in a bumbling, comical fashion. In the genre of superheroes, Hinkley follows Superman as, in the genre of detectives, Inspector Clouseau follows Sherlock Holmes… The overall perception of the way Hinkley looks and acts marks him as a different, non-infringing character who simply has some of the superhuman traits popularized by the Superman character and now widely shared within the superhero genre.
For the record, the last episode of the TV show aired one month before DC lost the appeal.
As commented by series producer Stephen J. Cannell notes:
The show looked like it was going to be a hit and all of a sudden Warner Bros. comes in there and tells us that they own the entire super hero genre, that no one else could ever create another superhero with a cape. They believed they owned it and we won that suit and in fact redefined copyright law. That’s a landmark suit.
STEPHEN J. CANNELL
And isn’t it kind of poetic that after Superman successfully defeated Wonder Man, Master Man and Captain Marvel… he was ultimately defeated by Ralph Hinkley?
