God Does Not Own This World: Difference between revisions

|'''[[Greg Weisman]]''', creator of ''[[Gargoyles]]''}}

 

 

 

 

#[[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|If the company doesn't want the original author, they simply replace/fire him from the project.]]

 

 

Sometimes, a creator may try to [[Torch the Franchise and Run]] in response to this situation.

 

{{examples}}

** To date, due to a reluctance to include characters from the Vertigo line in the 'mainstream' DC universe, the only appearance of a Sandman character in the main DC line since the original [[Sandman]] series concluded was the Daniel version of Dream. They had no need to ask permission but at least gave the courtesy of a heads-up to [[Neil Gaiman]], who looked the dialogue over and thought it was pretty damn good. A reference to the [[Green Lantern Ring]] as a "wishing ring" is one he wishes he thought of himself.

** [[Paul Cornell]] also ran his use of the Endless version of [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] during "The Black Ring" arc by Gaiman and got approved. Generally, the only one of the Endless that is used without Gaiman's permission is Destiny, the only member of the family not created by Gaiman. Destiny predated ''[[The Sandman]]'' by many years (and was host of one of DC's horror anthology comics) and was retconned into the Endless by Gaiman. His personality has stayed pretty consistent, so it's not seen as any problem.

* The creators of ''[[Superman]]'' sold the rights to him early on (for $65, for each of them!), but later fought tooth and nail just to get some recognition.

* This was standard practice in comic strips until the 1980s and Bill Watterson's famous fight to prevent ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' merchandise. Today, creators generally own all rights to their strips, or have a contract that reverts all rights back to them after a certain number of years.

* [[Rob Liefeld]] was annoyed that [[Peter David]] revealed that Shatterstar (a character he created) was gay, and posted that he couldn't wait to revert it (back to "asexual, and struggling to understand human behavior", not straight). [[Joe Quesada]] responded that Liefeld would have to get permission from the next editor-in-chief, and [[Peter David]] has since confirmed Shatterstar's bisexuality.

** And a new Editor in Chief has come, and still no sign of Marvel changing it.

* One of the reasons for founding [[Image Comics]] was that artists and writers working for Marvel and DC wanted to own their own properties, avoiding this very trope.

* Some time when you're bored, Google "''Before [[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' reactions". [[Alan Moore]] does not own the ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'', and man, is he pissed about DC's upcoming prequels. (Which is kind of funny, given [[Lost Girls (comics)|some of the stuff Moore himself has done with characters someone else created]].)

* The [[New Gods|Fourth World]] series by [[Jack Kirby]] were his distinctive [[DC Comics]] creation, but he was never able to tell his stories the way he intended and its concepts and characters like [[Darkseid]] were integrated into the [[The DCU]] completely instead.

 

* At one time there was a ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' [[The Remake|remake]] film under discussion, which was being planned without [[Word of God|Joss Whedon's input]], and in which none of the TV characters (except Buffy) would appear. Joss had actually refused to help with it. [[Alyson Hannigan]], [[Anthony Stewart Head]] and others from the show all said that it's a bad idea and, in the case of Head, that he imagined it would be "quite like watching a car wreck."

* Happened to [[Gene Roddenberry]] with the ''[[Star Trek]]'' film series. After ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture]]'' went way over budget and past schedule, [[Paramount Pictures]] had Roddenberry [[Kicked Upstairs]] to "executive consultant", meaning everyone could ignore his "suggestions" if they liked and they did. But [[Tropes Are Not Bad]]. The films that followed are considered some of the best work in the ''Star Trek'' canon. When ''Star Trek'' returned to the small screen with ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', Roddenberry got to be in charge of that, though he continued to have no control over the ''Trek'' movies. During this time, Roddenberry dispensed some [[Word of God]] regarding what elements of the films he considered to be non-canon.

 

* L J Smith was fired from writing ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' by the company that owns the rights, allegedly because she disagreed with them about who the heroine should be romantically paired with at the end. The company intends to get someone else in to write it the way they want.

* Tying into the below-mentioned Tabletop Games, R.A. Salvatore doesn't own the rights to the stuff he's written based off ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]''. He tried to end ''[[Forgotten Realms|The Legend of Drizzt]]'', but backed down after being told that a different writer would continue the story. It's suspected by some that the series's recent decline in quality is an attempt to [[Torch the Franchise and Run]], but another theory is that he's simply out of ideas (which, of course, would explain why he tried to end it in the first place.)

 

* Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield had created a derivative version of [[David Bowie]]'s ''Space Oddity'' which contained actual footage of the astronaut performing a version of the song on the International Space Station. The video was widely distributed and well-regarded, but was then abruptly pulled as the derivative relied on buying a paid licence for the original work... which Bowie no longer controlled, and which had been purchased for a fixed one-year term from whatever faceless corporation had taken Bowie's rights to his own music.

** At least Chris Hadfield was able to negotiate a longer license for the audio before his album ''Songs from a Tin Can'' was released, so we can at least listen to this cover.

 

 

* Bungie Studios: The creator of the ''[[Halo]]'' franchise. After they were bought by Microsoft all the legal rights of their franchise now were owned by Microsoft. Despite the fact that Bungie Studios is the ultimate authority of the franchise, and created the [[Universe Bible]] and all the important elements of the franchise itself. Now that they are independent all their work after their separation, now belongs to the studio. By all accounts the Bungie-Halo is a rare amicable example of this trope, as Bungie simply decided they had definitively wrapped up the franchise for themselves, and wanted to do something different after 10 years, and so handed the franchise over to 343 Industries.

** It should be noted that 343i has a number of former Bungie employees in its employ, alongside those who worked with the late Pandemic Studios.

* Also happened to Toys For Bob with ''[[Star Control]] 3'', although unusually for this circumstance, Toys For Bob ''do'' retain the rights to the setting itself, just not the right to create "Star Control" branded games.

* This happened to Toby Gard with ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' when he objected to making Lara [[Fan Service Pack|bustier]] and ended up axed from the sequel. He came back as a consultant after ''Angel Of Darkness'' tanked, but Eidos (and its parent company [[Square Enix]]) still holds the rights to Lara Croft.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Canon Universe]]

[[Category:Esoteric Trope Names]]