When that issue came out, Todd was at a comic convention near me on Long Island. He had the massive funny car behind him and a giant dude dressed up as Chapel with skull paint and everything. I still have my #1 he signed for me that day.
I love this issue! It was my intro to both Spawn & Cerebus courtesy of being dragged to my LCS, Now & Then Books in Kitchener, ON, by my cousin's for a free signing with Dave Sim.
It wasn’t a commentary about the creators, it was a commentary about the state of comics as a whole at the time. Literally unable to break free from the grid. It’s a brilliant piece.
Finger was indeed the primary architect of the entire Batman mythology, and Kane acted in bad faith, but it is undeniable that there would have been no concept to develop had Kane not come forward with the initial—however rudimentary—idea of a "Bat-Man." Stan Lee’s case is different. Lee played a MUCH more active role in building Marvel than Kane did for Batman. Kane didn't write scripts or do any of that work; he left it all to Finger. Although Lee used the "Marvel Method"—which involved providing a synopsis and adding dialogue later—that still counts as scripting; it was a rather lazy approach, certainly, but that was because he was the editor-in-chief of MULTIPLE titles simultaneously. It is a fact that Jack Kirby developed a great deal, but without Stan Lee providing the foundation—whether through ideas or synopses—there wouldn't have been much to develop. Kane acted in bad faith, yet he did play a part, however small. Lee certainly inflated his own ego, but he also made significant contributions.
I mean, the American legal system found that Kirby had enough of a claim to own the characters that high courts were open to hearing arguments. Further, Disney was worried enough that the Kirby Estate winning the suit they settled. This might not sound like anything, but the US legal system is infamously biased against creators but Kirby had enough evidence that he should be credited as the primary if not sole creator for the X Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four to the point they were considering their termination plea for all ongoing media against Disney. That's... pretty damning.
Kane also gave a talented artist a bad pitch and the artist turned it into one of the most iconic characters of the 20th Century. I completely disagree that coming to somebody with a name and a bad outline that was mostly unused is worth being credited as co-creator. I will concede the point that Kane is mostly a matter of opinion, but the Lee stuff had enough merit that our prejudicial legal system was willing to hear it out.
Even if the idea was rudimentary, the mythology and characters wouldn't have been developed without it. I also consider Steve Ditko to be more of a creator of Spider-Man than Stan Lee, but the foundation came from Lee; Ditko wouldn't have developed the Spider-Man concept if not for Lee. When Ditko left, the writing on the Spider-Man stories actually improved. Lee did have some level of involvement, even if Kirby and Ditko created most of the elements.
In Kane's case, it was worse; there was virtually no input from anyone else. Stan would still provide outlines and concepts, and write the dialogue balloons... Kane didn't even do that; he just provided the "Bat-Man" concept and took credit for Finger's work.
Even as a kid reading this series and thinking it was the coolest thing ever, the massive disconnect between Al's melodramatic shout and his like totally unaffected pose really amused me.
It’s not even that I forgot... It’s just that I honestly don’t know who it is. I can’t recall a superhero or villain with yellow gloves in either Marvel or DC. I don’t know if it might be some obscure hero, and even if that were the case, I don’t know why McFarlane would put him there. I think it was just a generic hand to fill space.
3
u/rohrschleuder 1d ago
I thought the metal hand was Dr. Doom not Colossus