Ultraverse Appreciation 2024!

[Zauriel]

I'm surprised Jones is out of jail already.

But yeah, I imagine that might be one thing that keeps Prime in limbo. The first headline we'd see on Yahoo or some click bait article would be 'Marvel uses pedo underaged character'.

Yes, Gerard Jones was released from prison in December 2022. He was sentenced in August 2018 by a San Francisco court to six years in federal prison. He should be out in 2024, but he got an early release.


https://bleedingcool.com/comics/gera...ber-last-year/

[K7P5V]

It was the 90s. Just about everything was successful.

Indeed. Best time to be Alive (IMHO):

[Gaastra]

See I disagree with "never use them again." Marvel fully owns them. Why not use them? You mean to tell me there has not been a single creator in comics history who did something really bad? Bob kane took all credit for batman, stole batmans first story from shadow, stole many ideas from others than did some crappy things later. DC should never use batman?

Heck let's look at tv--ren and stimpy creator did some awful awful things even worse than the prime creator! Did nick ban ren and stimpy? Nope. New cartoon in the works, merch and shows up in video games. Why. People love the characters.

Rurouni kenshin creator did a bad thing. Ban his manga and show? Nope. Book still in print and remake anime series coming. Why? People love the characters.

Cosby show--You know what bill did! Cosby show still on dvd and streaming and so is fat albert. Why? People love the characters.

Amazing sea monkeys creator turns out was a nazi! Really! Still can buy them and they are on shirts today. Why? People love the characters.

Yes, what the creator did was bad, but you separate the characters from the creator or just ignore it and don't buy it and ultraverse is a work for hire anyways like any marvel and dc hero.

Nick announced a new ren and stimpy they didn't get reporters slamming at their door over the creator. Heck most younger readers don't even know the ultraverse or behind the scenes same as they don't know about the crazy now comics and dreamwave comics histories.

If an interviewer brings that up decades later if marvel puts out an ultraforce epic collection that's pretty crappy of that interviewer.

[Zauriel]

Yes, true. Gerard Jones served time and paid his debt to the society, although I don't know if he has fully paid restitutions to his victims.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr...ributing-child

In addition to the prison term, Judge Chhabria sentenced the defendant to a five-year period of supervised release and ordered Jones to pay an assessment of $10,200. Judge Chhabria also scheduled a hearing for October 4, 2018, to determine the amount of restitution to be paid to his victims.

[danielsan52]

Indeed. Best time to be Alive (IMHO):

I wouldn’t mind these characters coming back but not on Earth 616 which already has too many characters. They should be in their own universe with their own Captain Britain.

[Ultimate Captain America]

How work rights laws in these cases? When the corporation owns the rights to the IP but don't use them, I mean. Don't those rights return to the creators first before pass to public domain? Or the names first get free of trademark like what happened to the Captain Marvel name?

Copyright lasts for as long as the law says, regardless of what the owner of the rights does with it (even if that means doing nothing). Trademark law is a different thing, unrelated to copyright.

[comicstar100]

I know these characters from the Ultraforce cartoon. Were any of the comics worth checking out?

[Thor-Ul]

Copyright lasts for as long as the law says, regardless of what the owner of the rights does with it (even if that means doing nothing).

95 years? I think as it was explained with the Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Poh cases.

Trademark law is a different thing, unrelated to copyright.

How different exactly? It is the case of Captain Marvel name an example of trademark? Could another editorial publish a line called Ultraverse, in example?

[Thor-Ul]

I know these characters from the Ultraforce cartoon. Were any of the comics worth checking out?

There were some good comics, there were bad comics, but in certain aspects the Ultraverse was very innovative. Graphic violence was more evident in a time when it was more diguised (see the death of Pixx by George Perez) and they touched topics uncommon in their time.

[Thor-Ul]

Indeed. Best time to be Alive (IMHO):

I wouldn’t mind these characters coming back but not on Earth 616 which already has too many characters. They should be in their own universe with their own Captain Britain.

That would be the ideal thing to do, but I don't think that would be possible in the modern context. ANy appearance of the Ultraverse characters in regular format only could be possible as part of a Marvel book set in the marvel Multiverse. Maybe an Exiles book with one or two Ultraverse characters as memebers could be a first step.

Mmm, the Exiles name make wonders how Marvel never had any problem using that brand, even if it was a totally unrelated concept to the original idea without any problem.

[Gaastra]

The second ultraverse exiles had members from other universe (like mu juggernout) so the members of other universes started in the ultraverse also!

[Ultimate Captain America]

95 years? I think as it was explained with the Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Poh cases.



How different exactly? It is the case of Captain Marvel name an example of trademark? Could another editorial publish a line called Ultraverse, in example?

I'm not quite sure. There are many ways a work worth of copyright may be produced and published. A known author that makes it, an anonymous work, a work for hire for a corporation, published with or without a copyright notice, in this or that year... for a given work, one of several options is the one that applies, and it says how long will copyright protection last. For a work made for a corporation (such as a comic made for a publisher), I understand that's 95 years. If Ultraverse started in 1993, that would be 2088. I doubt any of us will be alive that long (or even if we are, that we still care by that point, as we'll be elders). And before that, Marvel can do whatever they want with Ultraverse, even if that is doing nothing, unless they sell the rights to someone else.

My (limited) knowledge of copyright law is because I was an admin of Wikimedia Commons some time ago. I don't know about trademarks.

[Thor-Ul]

The second ultraverse exiles had members from other universe (like mu juggernout) so the members of other universes started in the ultraverse also!

Yeah, I remember that. never read them. Let's say it was not for me. But I suppose the appearance of the Marvel charaters was enough to play whatever legal gymnastics used to move the title from the Ultraverse to the most famous IP of Marvel.

[Thor-Ul]

I'm not quite sure. There are many ways a work worth of copyright may be produced and published. A known author that makes it, an anonymous work, a work for hire for a corporation, published with or without a copyright notice, in this or that year... for a given work, one of several options is the one that applies, and it says how long will copyright protection last. For a work made for a corporation (such as a comic made for a publisher), I understand that's 95 years. If Ultraverse started in 1993, that would be 2088. I doubt any of us will be alive that long (or even if we are, that we still care by that point, as we'll be elders). And before that, Marvel can do whatever they want with Ultraverse, even if that is doing nothing, unless they sell the rights to someone else.

My (limited) knowledge of copyright law is because I was an admin of Wikimedia Commons some time ago. I don't know about trademarks.

Interesting (and heartbreaking) information. Thanks for sharing.
Honestly, I don't think Marvel is interested in doing something with the Ultraverse. Not even using the name anymore, and the whole reason to buy them out was to take them out. And oviously they don't pretend to use them in any fashion, which is kind of sad.
Ah, poor Ultraverse and its characters. It shined too bright and fast, and it burned too quickly.

Still, I wonder if the trademark of the names of the characters can be used by others in a similar fashion on what happened with the Captain Marvel. I think that name became free because there was no use of the character for... how long?

[Zauriel]

I'm not quite sure. There are many ways a work worth of copyright may be produced and published. A known author that makes it, an anonymous work, a work for hire for a corporation, published with or without a copyright notice, in this or that year... for a given work, one of several options is the one that applies, and it says how long will copyright protection last. For a work made for a corporation (such as a comic made for a publisher), I understand that's 95 years. If Ultraverse started in 1993, that would be 2088. I doubt any of us will be alive that long (or even if we are, that we still care by that point, as we'll be elders). And before that, Marvel can do whatever they want with Ultraverse, even if that is doing nothing, unless they sell the rights to someone else.

My (limited) knowledge of copyright law is because I was an admin of Wikimedia Commons some time ago. I don't know about trademarks.

Frankly, I wish the copyright protection should last no more than 30 years, so anyone including the original Ultraverse creators can freely use this Ultraverse concept without worrying about the lawsuits.

If Disney/Marvel have no intention of using and publishing this IP ever but letting it lie in limbo, to hell with copyright.