We've talked about comic book movie rights before here on The Panel Biter (trademark), but there's another side to the cold grip we call the movie industry, Embargoes. An embargo usually pertains to the banning of trade or any other commercial activity with another country, but here in comic book land it holds a much different meaning. Well, kind of.
When the term "comic book embargo" is used, it typically means that a character/series of characters cannot be used on a television program because of the character's/series of characters appearance on a feature film. An easy example of this is with the long-running series "Smallville" starring Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superboy/Superman/The Blur/Tom Welling. Ten whole seasons and notice out of all the DC characters to appear on that show-Aquaman, The Flash, Green Arrow-who do we never see? Why, Bruce "Da Batman" Wayne of course! The reason? Christopher Nolan. See, Nolan had been given all rights to Batman and Batman characters when he signed on to make "Batman Begins" so the guys over at "Smallville" were legally prevented from using anything Batman-related. But hey, when "Smallville" moved on to becoming a comic book, Batman was the first new character they introduced. Another early example of "comic book embargo" is with the 1994 "Spider-Man" cartoon. That show had all of Spidey's greatest foes: The Green Goblin, Venom, Doctor Octopus, Sandman. Oh, wait. Sandman was never in the Spider-Man cartoon! In 1994 director and undersea explorer James Cameron was in the process of making a Spider-Man film with Sandman and Electro being the main villains, and because the producers of the cartoon didn't want Cameron's movie clashing with their show they never used Sandman and filled his role with the villain Hydro-Man, Electro himself didn't appear until later in the cartoon after Cameron's movie was cancelled. CW's Arrow had a character embargo early on before characters like The Flash and Ra's al Ghul were introduced. Because the first season of Arrow was heavily influenced by Nolan's Batman films, they were unable-and saw no reason to-use Batman characters. It was only after their Flash show smoked Arrow in ratings that they decided to open their universe up to more DC characters. The upcoming CBS Supergirl show also has an embargo in place that keeps other DC shows from using Superman characters. Dang, I was really looking forward to Arrow vs Doomsday or a Brainiac cameo on Gotham! Oddly enough it doesn't seem like Warner Bros/DC Comics are setting embargoes in place for their cinematic universe, no doubt this will cause some confusion as we're bound to have two Flashes, two Supermen, and four versions of Bruce Wayne in TV/movie media. DC's most notable animated embargo was in 2004 when "Justice League Unlimited" and "The Batman" both premiered. Because the latter show was it's own universe cut off from The DC Animated Universe later episodes of JLU were restricted from using Batman characters as they didn't want to raise confusion between the two shows, it was also because of the 2003-2006 "Teen Titans" cartoon that JLU was unable to use both the Teen Titans characters and the group name itself. Simultaneously, "Teen Titans" was unable to use or mention Batman because of his appearances on two other cartoons, Robin could only make reference to Batman within the show. However, 2013's "Teen Titans Go" was produced far after the embargo and as such can use both Batman and other characters in the DC Universe. This would be later rectified with 2010's "Young Justice" cartoon which fused the best elements of Teen Titans and JLU by having the entire DC Universe to play with. Although it has never been stated, THIS harebrained host has the feeling that the reason Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were not included in the failed 1997 "Justice League of America" pilot was because these three characters were under some sort of embargo with "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman", "Batman & Robin" and one of Wonder Woman's many un-produced TV reinventions being the respective means of the embargo. Then again, not even The Trinity could've made that JLA pilot any better. In the case of "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" the X-Men/X-Men characters were hardly used because of the film rivalry between Marvel Studios/Disney and 20th Century Fox. Luckily, Marvel Comics 90's cartoons were allowed to crossover as The X-Men, Fantastic Four and Avengers characters made appearances in the 94' Spider-Man cartoon. Unlike our dirty friend, Sandman. You dirty boy.
Comic book embargoes are a two way street in my opinion. While it is a bummer that some shows are forced to create limitations because of other shows or films, it's also an effective way of avoiding comparison between two products. I mean after Avengers 2 came out what was everyone thinking about Quicksilver? Okay, the second thing everyone thought? Was he better than the Quicksilver in "X-Men: Days of Futures Past"? Well, yes. But really as annoying or beneficial as comic book embargoes may be, they're systems with purpose and won't be going anywhere for a long time. When the day comes when Fox gives The Fantastic Four and X-Men back to Marvel Studios and Warner Bros/DC Comics wake up and connect all their movies and shows, then maybe we'll see the end of comic book embargoes. Coincidently, that'll be the same day I emerge from my cocoon, become a pure Super Saiyan and avenge my family. Thanks for reading!
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