Imperial Guard

[DDM]

I bet Jason Aaron would be up for it. Their recent Mighty Thor appearance was great.

[JKtheMac]

The Imperial Guard had a limited series in the 90's, set I think after Onslaught. I don't see any difference between them having a book and Squadron Supreme (a Justice League analog) having a book.

You may not, the Marvel lawyers may disagree. As I have already argued SS tends to come under satire, parody or commentary.

They had a 5 issues mini series about 6 years ago that was a tie in to the Realm of Kings event also. It was written by Abnett/Lanning and had art by Kevin Walker.

I repeat, I can't comment on their content but the legal landscape changed coincidently in that same year, and consequently the writers and editors may be more cautious now.

[Zero Hunter]

They have had a Hyperion book just last year and he is flat out copy of Superman so they can do what they want. There is nothing at all to stop Marvel from doing an Imperial Guard series if they wanted too. I don't know why anyone thinks there is.

[JKtheMac]

I am plainly not saying they can't. I am saying it is unlikely, and there are things to take into account before Marvel did this. Hyperion is more than a copy of Superman and always has been. Squadron Supreme likewise. Imperial guard, just a reskinned group of heroes with very little added context that were originally conceived as a DC property but rejected by them. They haven't been used as satire, they don't comment on DC's property in any meaningful way. In short they fall into a very grey area of derivative characters.

In the 2010 court ruling over Angela's derivatives, the judge scrutinised the context of the other angelic characters and decided they were clearly based upon the copyright established by Gaiman. This could potentially prove challenging to any derivative character that isn't protected by the normal caveats of copyright. Context would be everything. The Imperial Guard have a very thin vaneer of Marvel context. This would expose any useage of them as straight heroic characters, making that difficult to justify if challenged. Whereas the SS characters can easily dodge such claims.

In short Marvel could make such a comic but it wouldn't be the comic the OP was wishing for.

[Dreaded Porcupine]

Mark Gruenwald's 12 issue Squadron Supreme was brilliant. He was able to do with them what DC could never do with the JLA. Still one of my favorite story arcs of all time. Marvel could do the same thing with the Imperial Guard. They would need to find the perfect writer for it.

[Nix Uotan]

I had kind of wanted Hickman to had written a Smasher and the Imperial Guard book. Either him or maybe Jason Aaron.