religiousgames.org
  • Full Index
  • Mobile
  • F.A.Q.
  • My C.V.
  • Contact

Religious Games Blog

List of 186 Public Domain Characters Shared by Marvel and DC Comics

5/26/2017

0 Comments

 
      Twitter is a strange place. The more I invest myself in keeping up @ReligiousGames, the more I discover that research on religion and video games doesn't make much sense unless it can segue coherently into several worlds of popular culture simultaneously. The loyalties and rivalries of fans, cross marketing opportunism, copyright disputes, the perversity of even well-meant adaptations, all of these issues comprise the shifting background upon which the possibility of religious game creation continues to develop.
      Comics have become a particular focus, partially because adaptation controversies are so visible there, but mostly because I love them. I am a late fan, only getting curious, really, when my daughter came home from kindergarten asking "What is the Hulk?" But I accidentally fell into the Marvel Wiki while trying to find an answer, and have read a hundreds of comics and graphic novels since then, trying to get my bearings.
          This morning I found myself curious about a very specific, rather objective question: Where comics draw upon mythology, folklore, and religion, how do rival comic giants Marvel and DC differently depict the same traditions?
         The good people at Public Domain Super Heroes maintain lists of un-copyrightable characters in both Marvel and DC comics, so I decided to collate them. Here, then, are 186 characters that cross between two different comic multiverses as well as the worlds of readerly belief smoothly, without need for dramatic crossover events. It is odd company, with historical, mythological, and literary characters side-by-side with cryptids, euphemisms, rhymes and various unruly hybrids. In many cases the adaptations go in radically different directions; Marvel Jesus presents a pious retelling of the Bible, while DC Jesus is the center of a heretical Church cover-up.
              If you know of any overlapping stories not on this list, or discover interesting patterns between the various adaptations, please send word.
A Abraham Van Helsing
  • Adolf Hitler
  • Aladdin
  • Alan-a-Dale
  • Ali Baba
  • Anansi
  • Annie Oakley
  • Apollo
  • Argonauts
  • Arthur of Camelot
  • Athena (Folklore)
  • Atlas (Mythology)
  • Attila the Hun
  • Aunt Em & Uncle Henry

B 
Baba Yaga
  • Bagheera
  • Baloo
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Beowulf
  • Bigfoot
  • Billy the Kid
  • Black Dragon Society
  • Blackbeard
  • Bloody Mary
  • Blue
  • Bo Peep
  • Brer Rabbit
  • Bride of Frankenstein's Monster

C 
Captain Hook
  • Captain Kidd (Pirate)
  • Captain Tootsie
  • Caterpillar
  • Cinderella
  • Claude Frollo
  • Cleopatra
  • Clock
  • Conan the Barbarian
  • Count of Monte Cristo
  • Cowardly Lion

D David (Biblical)
  • Dejah Thoris
  • Doctor Moreau
  • Dorothy
  • Dracula
 
E Easter Bunny
  • Esméralda
 
F Fairy Godmother
  • Father Time
  • Faust
  • Frankenstein's Monster
  • Friar Tuck
  • Fu Manchu
 
G Genghis Khan
  • Georgie Porgie
  • Geppetto
  • Geronimo
  • God
  • Goliath (Biblical)
  • Good Witch of the North
  • Good Witch of the South
 
H Hatter
  • Hephaestus
  • Hercules (Folklore)
  • Herne the Hunter
  • Hippolyta
  • Hugo Danner
  • Hunchback of Notre-Dame
 
I   Ichabod Crane
  • Invisible Man (H.G. Wells)
  • Irene Adler
  • Ivanhoe

J
       Jack-in-the-Box
  • Jack (Beanstalk)
  • Jack Frost
  • Jack Horner
  • Jack Pumpkinhead
  • Jack Sprat and his Wife
  • Jack and Jill
  • Jack the Ripper
  • Jacob Marley
  • Jane Porter
  • Jesse James
  • Jesus
  • John Carter, Warlord of Mars
  • John Henry
  • John Seward
  • Jonathan Harker
  • Julius Caesar

K
  Kaa
  • Kay
  • King of Hearts
  • King of Truands
  • Kit Carson

L     La of Opar
  • Lady of the Lake
  • Lancelot
  • Leonardo da Vinci
  • Little John
  • Little Mermaid
  • Loch Ness Monster
  • Loki
  • Long John Silver
  • Lord Ruthven
  • Lucifer
  • Lucy Westenra

M Maid Marian
  • Man in the Moon
  • March Hare
  • Mars (Folklore)
  • Mary & her Lamb
  • Mary (Nursery Rhyme)
  • Medusa
  • Mercury (Folklore)
  • Merlin (Legend)
  • Merry Men
  • Mina Murray
  • Miss Muffet
  • Mona Lisa
  • Mordred
  • Morgan le Fay
  • Mother Nature
  • Mowgli
  • Mrs. Claus
  • Mulan
 
N Natty Bumppo
  • Neptune
  • Nero
  • Nome King

O
 Odin
  • Old King Cole
  • Old Mother Hubbard & her Dog
  • Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe
  • Ozma of Oz

P
    Papa Legba
  • Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox (Folk Legend)
  • Pecos Bill
  • Peter the Pumpkin-Eater
  • Phoebus
  • Pinocchio
  • Pluto of Hades
  • Pocahontas
  • Professor Moriarty
  • Professor Wogglebug

Q
 Queen of Hearts
  • Quincey Morris

R   Rasputin
  • Red Riding Hood
  • Red Riding Hood's Grandmother
  • Red Riding Hood's Lumberjack
  • Robin Hood (Legend)
  • Robinson Crusoe
 
S  Saint George
  • Samson (Biblical)
  • Sancho Panza
  • Santa Claus
  • Santa Claus' Reindeer
  • Saw-Horse
  • Scarecrow (Oz)
  • Scheherazade
  • Shango
  • Shere Khan
  • Sheriff of Nottingham
  • Sherlock Holmes
  • Sigurd
  • Sinbad the Sailor
  • Stingy Jack

T
     Talia
  • Talking Cricket
  • Tars Tarkas
  • Tarzan
  • Thor (Norse God)
  • Three Musketeers
  • Tinker Bell
  • Tom Sawyer
  • Toto
  • Twelve Olympians

U
     Uncle Sam (US Government Poster) 

V      Venus

W
 Weird Sisters
  • White Rabbit
  • Wicked Witch of the East
  • Wicked Witch of the North
  • Wicked Witch of the West
  • Winged Monkeys
  • Wizard of Oz
  • Wyatt Earp

Z    Zeus

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Vincent Gonzalez, Ph.D. 

    Archives

    May 2017
    April 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Additions
    Charts
    Japanese
    Religious Video Games
    V.1
    V.2

    RSS Feed

ReligiousGames.org is a creation of Vivian Gonzalez, Ph.D.  Shorter data and longer analysis available in her dissertation,
​ Born Again Digital: Exploring Evangelical Video Game Worlds (UNC - Chapel Hill, 2014).
​Background image courtesy of superiorwallpapers.com.
  • Full Index
  • Mobile
  • F.A.Q.
  • My C.V.
  • Contact