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Is there anyone familiar with 'The Tick' comics and/or TV series (in particular the 90s cartoon or the 2000s live-action)? I recently started watching the amazon 'Original' reboot of The Tick and was a little disheartened to discover that the superhero agency was called AEGIS. For those that are following my ongoing serial on my website you're probably beginning to realize my problem, but for those that aren't well... I also named the superhero agency in my series AEGIS.
I watched the cartoon occasionally when I was a child, but given that I was eight or nine-years old when it debuted and it's been a few decades I don't recall much about it.
My question is this does anyone recall AEGIS existing in previous incarnations of the show or comic or is it merely something created of the newest one? If it is the latter rather than the former I can rest easy as I came by the name independently since the first few chapters of Psyren's Redemption predate the premier of the Amazon show by more than a year.
I've searched the web, and while it does seem that AEGIS was created for the new series, I cannot find anything that conclusively states that it was.
Thank you all and have delightfully demented day,
Daniel A. Wolfe
Comments
OC for the show
I think it was original content for the show, but I could be wrong.
Internet High Fives All Around
Stardraigh
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It's been a long, long time
It's been a long, long time since I saw The Tick 90s cartoon series or its 2000s Fox live action show but from what I am reading about AEGIS it's a clear parody of the Marvel Superhero Registration Act storyline, which was the center of their whole "Civil War" saga 12 years ago as well as the plot of the third Captain America movie.
I highly doubt there was an agency like that before, it wasn't around in comics at the time so neither the original comic books nor the 90s TV show had anything like that. The whole premise of The Tick is parodying the superhero world, so the agency is just a part of the tradition of being a parody.
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Two points
1. AEGIS appears to be original to the new show, no doubt inspired by Marvel's Civil War apparatus.
2. Don't worry about it. They could trademark the name but they can't copyright it, so you can use it in your stories.
I had a similar organization in a comic book story I wrote in 1973 called COSHR, pronounced "kosher", in a story called The Outsiders (ten years before DC's BatO team). The initials stood for Combined Office of Super-Human Resources and was a joint command of Justice, Defense and HEW.
My story got published only in a small circulation fanzine. It featured characters like The Knight, Captain Courage, The Titan Twins, Gray Lady and Lightning and was led by a man called Cricket.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
The origina Aegis
Was written about in the Iliad and thought to be a shield carried by Zeus that had a depiction of Medusa's head on it. So I got a feeling that there isn't anyone alive today that can claim copyright infringements, that is unless Homer is immortal :)
Heck I even used a derivative of the word, (Aegisium) in a story to describe a material that once formed is practically indestructible.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Other uses of AEGIS
AEGIS is the organization Lady Lightning belongs to in Of Masks and Marvels by Bek D. Corbin at Sapphire's Place. It's unfortunate that he never completed it, but it's 28 chapters long at this time.
In the Whateley Academy Universe, Lady Lightning and AEGIS exist as a comic book series.
Also in the Whateley Universe, there is a Student Combat Team officially known as Strike Team 4 which everyone refers to as AEGIS Jr. as it's members have powers resembling those of the team Lady Lightning belongs to, and there is also the AEGIS Loader, a piece of Devisor tech which creates ammunition on the fly, so that a weapon equipped with an AEGIS Loader can keep firing forever without stopping to reload; the first generation AEGIS Loader did tend to jam, however, but the second generation of it doesn't have that problem.
So AEGIS has a fine tradition within this sub-genre, albeit all of it in stories that Bek D. Corbin is associated with as a creator.
And, as has been pointed out previously, the word Aegis is ancient; although that probably wouldn't help in regard to AEGIS if it was trademarked in relation to a superhero team including gender bender members, but to the best of my knowledge Bek hasn't actually filed for a trademark on it, that's not the type of person he is. Since you haven't done anything to sully it's name, I doubt that Bek would have any problems with your using it in this manner; you could always email him to verify this, of course.
Yours,
John Robert Mead
Also in the Whateley Universe
Also in the Whateley Universe is Erica Jane's (which is a Fan-Fic I think) 2014 story "Athena's Wisdom" (Which I have just re-read) there is mention of "Aegis Court", discribed America's premiere super team.
ED: thinks "Silly Cabbit", while "Athena's Wisdom" is a Mutant Supers story I think it is set in its own universe.
And
It also shows up in Bloodsisters part two by Astrodragon a 2nd gen canon story as a super hero group based in England.
Have a good day and enjoy life.
I went to the source...and
I went to the source...and AEGIS has been copyrighted multiple times over the years but in various forms. The issue seems to be in how it's used more than anything, you can have the character or organization called AEGIS but you might not be able to publish a story by that name unless it's in a genre that doesn't infringe on another person's copyright.
To make that clearer. take the most famous copyright battle: Captain Marvel. DC Comics owned the rights to the character for decades, having bought it in the 70s after it had been dormant for 20 years. Marvel, DC's rival, started to buy up the rights to anything containing the name "Marvel" and issued new comics so they could claim the copyright for the title. DC could use their older character, but could never call their comic books "Captain Marvel" due to this. Every few years they had to re-introduce a "Captain Marvel" series, including making several characters Captain Marvel. The end result was DC's Captain Marvel having to be changed to "Shazam" in 2011, the name that people mistook him for due to Marvel sitting on the Captain Marvel copyright.
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Weird sidelight
Within the next year or so, we're going to have both Captain Marvel and Shazam movies. :)
Even weirder sidelight; when Fawcett stopped publishing Captain Marvel in the '50s, the UK publisher continued doing so but changed his name to Marvelman, changing also some details about him, making him a science fantasy character instead of an overt magical one. But they stopped publishing him in the '60s.
Then twenty years later, Alan Moore and Alan Davis resurrected the Marvelman character during the revitalization of British superhero comics. A few years later, these stories were published in the US but as Miracleman because Marvel had in the meantime secured the trademark rights to nearly all things Marvel.
After that it gets complicated. :) But the fallout is that now Marvel owns the US copyrights and trademarks to both Marvelman and Miracleman (and Marvel Man and MIracle Man, too, because yes, those are different guys) as well as Captain Marvel but NOT Mary Marvel.
AND IT'S EVEN MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT! LOL!
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Even weirder yet still on
Even weirder yet still on topic:
Marvelman was created due to Captain Marvel being cancelled due to DC's impending lawsuit against Fawcett Comics over copyright infringement due to Captain Marvel being a rip-off of Superman. When DC bought the character 20 years later, Marvel had already created their own book starring "Captain Marvel" and prevented them from using the name despite DC's Captain Marvel being 28 years older...
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Mondo Weirdo
In between Fawcett and Marvel Captain Marvel, Harvey published a Captain Marvel comic about an android whose magic word was "Xam!" :) This is what inspired Marvel to create their own Captain Marvel and for DC to buy the rights to the old CM from Fawcett.
Oh, we are down in the weeds now; we'll never find that ball, it's a ground rule double. LOL.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Yet still more weird
Either of the two new movies will cost more to make than all of the companies we have been talking about were worth back in the 50s. Fawcett was the only large company and had ignored tiny DC's lawsuit for a decade but agreed to stop publishing CM because they figured comics and superheroes were on their way out due to Congressional investigations into juvenile delinquency.
And we haven't even gotten to the roles of Billy Graham, Elvis Presley and the Mafia in all of this yet!
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Thanks all
Thanks all, I feel a good deal less concerned. I did learn a little regarding comic books and copyright law so I guess it was worth it.
Have a delightfully demented day,
Daniel A. Wolfe
Have delightfully devious day,