Batman, by Bob Kane and Bill Finger ©1939

Despite what the official credits say, Batman was the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger.  Kane was assigned by his editor to come up with another character in the vein of their hit “Superman” hero, and with substantial input from Finger (who steered him from a bird to a bat, and suggested a gray costume instead of red), came up with “the Batman”. (Finger also created important elements of the Batman franchise, including “Gotham City”, the Joker, and Robin.)

Batman was the cover feature in issue #27 of the anthology Detective Comics (May 1939), which he went on to take over completely.  His publisher even changed their name to “DC” to take advantage of the brand recognition.  A whole family of characters grew around him, including some of the most memorable villains of the 20th century, making him a ripe subject for numerous TV series and feature films.  He’s arguably more successful, more popular, and more widely recognized than that guy with an “S” on his chest.

He should have entered the Public Domain at the end of 1995.  That wouldn’t have prevented the dreadful Batman and Robin movie from coming out a year and a half later, nor the critically acclaimed and highly profitable Nolan/Bale movies in the early 2000s: Warner (which now owns the character) would still have the right to use the character, and has all of the key elements of him protected by trademarks: the distinctive profile, the chest emblem (and its variations), and of course the name and nicknames such as “the Dark Knight”.

But if Finger and Kane’s character was in the Public Domain, it would leave an opening for other filmmakers to do their own interpretation of the character.  They could file off just the trademarks and create a film about the orphaned son of gunshot victims, who uses his inheritance to become a shadowy vigilante in a cape and cowl, without fear of copyright lawsuits. They wouldn’t have to hide behind a “parody” defense by making it satirical.  They could just “do it right (in their opinion)”.  So fans who groove on the campy fun of the 1960s TV series could have their caped crusader, fans who like the raspy darkness of the Nolan/Bale movies could have their dark knight, and both people who liked the Schumacher/Clooney version could have their sculpted-nipple chest armor.

And instead of online petitions about the casting of Ben Affleck (or whoever), the question of “who’s right” to play Batman could instead be settled at the box office.  Or in each fan’s heart.

Captain America by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, ©1941

Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, in the early years of World War 2, before the U.S. formally entered the war.

The character is a study in irony.  His creators were Jewish, but Steve Rogers and his sidekick Bucky Barnes were WASPs, indistinguishable from the Aryans they fought. They served as cheerleaders for America to get involved in – and then help win – the fight against the Nazis.  After the War, Cap was recast as a “Commie smasher”.  Following a hiatus during the 1950s when superheroes had fallen out of popularity, he was brought back as part of the genre’s revival in the 1960s, again serving in the decades since then as an icon for whatever the prevailing notion of “patriotism” has been.

When copyright terms were extended in the 1970s, Congress acknowledged (on some level) that this was a free windfall to copyright holders, and included a provision to allow the original creators of works sold to corporations to reclaim them when the original 56-year term expired.  Kirby had already died by that time (Simon asserted that Kirby, then a Marvel employee, had little involvement in creating the character), but Simon filed to reclaim the copyright in 1999.  Eventually Simon – old and in poor health – settled out of court for royalty payments.

Popeye by Elzie Segar ©1929

The comic strip known today as Popeye began in 1919 under the name Thimble Theatre. The character of Popeye wasn’t a member of the original cast, which included Olive Oyl, her brother Castor Oyl, and Olive’s boyfriend Ham Gravy; all of those characters are in the Public Domain.  Popeye the Sailor, however, was introduced in January 1929, and should have joined them at the end of 1985.

He was supposed to be a temporary character, part of a storyline in which Ham and Castor hire him as part of a get-rich scheme.  He was apparently killed off at the end of the story, but readers like him, so he got better.

Not only did Popeye take over Thimble Theatre, he quickly became a pop culture hit.  Fleischer Studios started producing animated shorts in 1932, and he was the star of a radio series in the mid 1930s. He has since appeared in comic books, original-for-TV animated stories, and a love-it/hate-it live-action film starring Robin Williams.

Another copyright-related wrinkle to the Popeye story involves his nemesis Bluto. Or is it Brutus? When production of the TV shorts began, they producers thought that they didn’t have the rights to use Popeye’s barrel-chested rival Bluto (thinking that he had been created for the theatrical shorts), so they created an essentially identical character with his chest lowered to his belly, and called him “Brutus”. In fact, Bluto originated in the comic strip, so Brutus was just as available for the TV cartoons as Olive Oyl and Swee’pea.