An argument against copyright: Ten great comics that are actually fanfiction
I really hope this doesn't come across as one giant rambling bit of nonsense, but here goes:
While I haven't actually finished all the short stories I wanted this month, I've still been thinking about what it means that I'm focusing on original material. I really enjoy getting some of these ideas down and written into mostly-coherent stories, and I'm looking forward to doing more until I can actually get a full novel-length original story written.
But at the same time, I'm trying not to say to myself anything like, "Once you finish an original novel, then you can really say you're a writer." This is difficult, because in our society fanfiction is simply not accepted as "real" writing. This is in large part because it's just a distracting hobby or ego-boost for most people writing it. Fanfiction is inevitably tied into fandom, which -- while similar -- are not actually the same things. Fandom is in large part about community, obsession, and a sometimes scary level of personal investment. Fanfiction can be part of those things too, but it doesn't have to be.
To me, fanfiction is really a poor term. I suppose the argument can be made that fanfiction is just fiction written as a derivative work with no intent for monetary gain, but that's not my definition. I consider any derivative work, licensed or not, approved or not, profitable or not, to be fanfiction.
And what's been bothering me more and more lately is that while fanfiction is, like most things, almost 100% crap, there are a few shining gems here and there. There are fanfictions out there which far exceed published original works. There are fanfictions out there which should be considered Literature with a capital L, and that deserve a level of respect and attention that they will almost certainly never receive.
Which makes me wonder how many more amazing stories we would have if fanfiction was not something that was only available as a hobby. I write fanfiction because I love to write. I would and do write it on my own and without ever posting it anywhere (of course, that's usually for good reason), but part of me always has a problem when I write fanfiction.
This is because I'm poor. I'm poor, not exactly the most healthy guy on the planet, and I'm often struggling to deal with my real life. That's not me looking for sympathy, it's just where I'm coming from. I love to write, but what I would love even more is if I could make my living by writing: and unless I hit some kind of crazy one-in-a-trillion lottery where someone hires me to actually write fanfiction for a living, that's not going to happen while I spend my time and energy writing fanfiction.
But why should that be? Setting aside the subjective question of whether or not I am personally skilled enough to be a professional writer, why is it that some hypothetical fanfiction author out there couldn't make their living writing stories? Why is it that they can create a masterpiece of storytelling, and yet not only will they not be able to get a dime off of that work, they'll be largely ignored by most of the world? How come literary critics never critique fanfiction? Why is it any less reputable and deserving of reward than any other form of fiction?
So I think I've come to the decision that I don't like the concept of copyright, at least not in terms of ideas. Copyrighting the actual text of something makes perfect sense to me, but the characters? The ideas? The universe? Even the plot, all of these things are concepts that I think should be open to anyone to write in, sell, and live off of. If you write fanfiction good enough that people would actually pay for it, you should have the right to sell it.
There are many people who have problems with that. Heck, even I have a kind of visceral reaction to it. Isn't that just stealing? Isn't that just being a hack who can't come up with his or her own ideas? Someone else went through all the trouble of coming up with an original idea, and now you're just going to take it from them?
Essentially, yes. I guess I'm what you'd call a fiction-anarchist. I think that the stories you can get when everyone is free to write about anything they want is more important than protecting copyright, and I think that having the right to sell fanfiction would not actually be taking money out of the hands of the original authors.
Let's take Harry Potter as an example. Does anyone believe that if people had the right to sell Harry Potter fanfiction, they would be impacting the sales of J.K. Rowling? It's not as if every single piece of fanfiction ever would be published; at least not by a reputable publishing company. The same standards that affect original fiction would hold true for fanfiction, as would the same supply and demand.
Everyone would know that the "real" Harry Potter stories are hers, and would almost certainly buy her books over anyone else's. And if they didn't, then that would be because the other books are somehow better. Maybe it's cruel, but it's something of a meritocracy.
I'm not trying to suggest that J.K. Rowling or any one else is wrong to protect their copyright, nor am I trying to drum up support to get them to stop. It's never going to change that way.
What I am suggesting is that right now, as a starving writer who has had some minor success in the fanfiction world, I don't want to think of myself as an amateur. I don't want to think of myself as someone who doesn't know how to write "real" fiction. I want to think of myself as a writer, period.
And I think that if I ever write anything original that becomes popular enough for even one person to write fanfiction of it, I think that I would like to give up my right to protect that copyright. Plagiarism no, but if someone writes a story based on something I did and it's good enough that they could sell it, I think I'd like for them to be able to do that.
Maybe I'll change my tune if that ever happens. It's such a lightning strike kind of thing to become a popular creator in the first place, so maybe when it happens you become so protective of it that you don't want anyone else to touch it. It's just that I think I could only ever help myself by allowing anyone and everyone to have a shot writing for the world or characters I create. If anyone loves it enough to write about it, then I can't see a scenario in which that would ruin my chances at selling my stories.
If I write a bad story and someone writes a fanfiction based off of it that's better and sells a million copies, would I have sold any more if that fanfiction had never existed?
And if I write a great story and someone writes fanfiction based off of it that's crap, would I sell less because some other author wrote a bad story based on something I did?
I don't think that would happen, and I'd like to think that I'm committed enough to the idea of freedom of expression that even if it did, I would suck it up and take it. Who am I to say that a great story can't be published just because I created the basic idea?
That's a hard pill to swallow, even for me. I get the in-your-guts feeling that says you just want to protect something you worked so hard on. I'm certainly not against official and unofficial, or authorized and unauthorized tags on works. The thing that I'm against is the inability to publish.
Now as an example of why I think derivative works should always be allowed, here are several great comic books that are pretty much pure fanfiction, and works that I feel would probably have been even better if they didn't have to dance around some of their references. These are stories that either take advantage of characters and universes being out of copyright, or stories in which the author is clearly using someone else's character, just tweaking them a bit to get around copyright.
Every one of these stories makes me wonder how many other gems like these DON'T exist because the person who wrote them could not sell them, could not publicize them, or could not use the characters he really wanted to use.
Sherlock Holmes, Tom Sawyer, Dracula, Tarzan, all of these are characters that are (mostly) no longer under copyright. They have all had multiple new stories told about them. Some are good, some are bad. None of these derivative stories detracts from the power of the original stories, and some may even be considered to be BETTER than the originals, at least by certain criteria.
But we had to wait decades to get those new stories, because most of the time it was not legal for someone to write and publish a new story based on those characters. How many fantastic tales have never come into existence because the characters they were to be written for couldn't be used?
Maybe there's someone out there right now who has an idea for a revolutionary story featuring Harry Potter. Maybe there's someone out there right now who would write a story so impactful and so incredible that people would talk about it for generations. We would never know. Maybe a hundred years from now someone will write a Harry Potter story that is just as good if not better than the originals, but we'll have to wait about that long to find out, because as long as fanfiction is just a silly hobby that "real" writers don't do, no fanfiction will ever get the respect it deserves, no matter how well written it is.
So here is a list of some stories that I think show how great fanfiction can be, and how none of them take away from the originals. If anything, they only serve to enhance them. I use comics instead of novels because I'm a big nerd and this is what I know best, but I could certainly pull out dozens of novels that are fanfiction as well. Grendel, The Wind Done Gone, The Dark Tower, and The Riverworld Series being a few off the top of my head (the latter two both inspired by the same poem, actually.)
So here's some great stories that are absolutely derivative works. They are to be no less respected, no less successful, and no less inspiring than the original works, just so long as they speak to you. Maybe you'd only really like one of these stories. Maybe you'd love all of them. The point is that they exist, and they can be amazing. Shouldn't we as readers want more of this, and shouldn't those of us who consider ourselves writers want more opportunities for this?
(I'm trying to avoid being too spoilery in any of this, but you might want to avoid the ones you plan on reading if you're worried.)
Fables
Type: Crossorgy.
Why it's fanfiction: This should be obvious. Fables takes virtually every public-domain character in existence and mashes them all together into one surprisingly coherent story. The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Jack (of the beanstalk and other stories), Mother Goose, Pinnochio, and Goldilocks are but a few of the literally (no pun intended) hundreds of characters that are very much not original.
Why it's on the list: Because Fables may be the absolute best comic book example of why you can create a derivative work and still be creative, original, and unique. There is nothing quite like Fables out there, and it's unfortunate that many stories the author wants to tell can't be told because the characters he wants to use aren't yet in the public domain.
The Authority
Type: Re-imagining/Alternate Universe
Why it's fanfiction: While I don't love the Authority, it's essentially a re-telling of the Justice League, and several issues feature an evil version of the Avengers. It's one of many comics to take the familiar and most famous comic characters (Superman, Batman) and change them. Maybe the Authority wouldn't be any better if Midnighter was just Batman, but I think the issues with the evil-Avengers would have been better if obviously-Captain-America was just Captain America.
Why it's on the list: The Authority changed how many comics were told. It paved the way for the Ultimates (itself a re-imagining of the Avengers) and it used the Superman/Batman analog characters as shorthand to help shatter some pre-conceived notions of the characters.
Planetary
Type: Alternate universe.
Why it's fanfiction: There's some Doc Savage, some obvious 40s pulp novel/comic stuff, some Phantom, but there are several issues that are straight up dealing with the Fantastic Four or other prominent characters.
Why it's on the list Planetary deals a lot with alternate realities, as does its in-universe cousin, The Authority. In some of these alternate realities, obvious copies of famous characters exist, only they can't actually be referred to by name. While the story might not have been necessarily better if it had been told with the characters they were based on, rather than transparent analogues, we'll never know. If the possibility had been there, who knows how much more impactful some of those stories might have been?
The End League
Type: Amalgam re-imagining
Why it's fanfiction: The End League is essentially a Justice League/Avengers crossover in which Lex Luthor/Dr Doom takes over the world. Every character is either a direct analog to a famous Marvel or DC hero, or is a combination of two or more.
Why it's on the list: Because I believe that the End League was probably pitched to either Marvel or DC as a straight up alternate-universe tale featuring their characters. Even if it wasn't, I wonder if the author would have rather told the story with Superman instead of Astonishman or the Joker instead of The Smiling Man. Maybe he would still keep the amalgam idea and simply combine the elements of various characters in an even more obvious way so as to play off of their tropes. Maybe he would write it exactly the same way, but I hate thinking that maybe he was forced to change certain ideas because they were too close to the originals.
Supreme Power
Type: Re-imagining
Why it's fanfiction: Supreme Power is actually based on the Squadron Supreme, which in itself was an "homage" to the Justice League. The JMS version is still very much the Justice League, and it's certainly not hiding that fact.
Why it's on the list: Knowing that Hyperion is Superman or Nighthawk is Batman does not detract from the story. It adds to it because there are certain aspects to each character that we anticipate, and the author is aware of that. That anticipation is used to lead us in one of many directions: sometimes with the original character, and sometimes against them. Again, maybe the story would be absolutely the same even if JMS could have used the name Superman or Kal'El. Maybe he would have preferred to create semi-new characters that were simply heavily inspired by the Justice League. Either way, Supreme Power was an excellently told story that could not have existed if the Justice League hadn't existed first, but is no less impressive as a result.
The Unwritten
Type: Alternate Universe/Meta/Crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: Anyone who's read The Unwritten knows that it's drawing heavily from Harry Potter, and doing so purposefully. The Unwritten is a story about stories.
Why it's on the list: Because it's another example of a story that could not exist without the stories that it's based on. Without Harry Potter (among many others), the Unwritten could not be, and that would be tragic because the Unwritten is one of the best comics to exist, pretty much ever. Maybe the author wouldn't need to actually have the main character be a "real life" Harry Potter, but being able to draw from any and all works of fiction could only provide the author with more paint with which to create this masterpiece.
Joe the Barbarian
Type: Alternate Universe/Meta/Crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: There's only been one issue so far, but there are characters from multiple fandoms popping up, and this time DC is actually letting the author use Superman and Batman (it's published by Vertigo comics, a division of DC). Other characters that show up are Optimus Prime, Captain Picard, Snake Eyes, the Lone Ranger, Santa Claus, Deadpool, and the Shadow, albeit sometimes slightly disguised or with a different name.
Why it's on the list: Because its author, Grant Morrison, is a shining of example of using the power of stories to tell new stories. In Final Crisis, a recent DC event, every Superman from a thousand multiverses shows up, with what appears to even be Marvel's recent version (The Sentry) hiding in the background. Joe the Barbarian has just started, but many of Morrison's stories are A) brilliant and B) building off of the works of other authors. His stories could not exist without referencing, being inspired by, or actually using characters from other works, and I suspect this will hold true for Joe the Barbarian too.
Lucifer
Type: Post-series/crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: Lucifer is technically a spin-off of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, but what it really is is Bible fanfiction with some crossover from various non-Judeo-Christian religions. It tells the story of Lucifer in the modern day, picking up where Gaiman left off, but going in a much more mythological direction.
Why it's on the list: Let's set aside the question of whether or not the Bible is actually fiction. At the very least, it's unlikely that every religious concept used in the Lucifer series could be true (for one to be true, others would have to be untrue), so it's certainly fanfiction. Just because it's based on myth and legend doesn't make it any less a derivative work, but it also doesn't make it any less fantastic as a result.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Type: Post-Series/crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: The Invisible Man and Captain Nemo team up with Mr. Hyde to fight off the Martians from War of the Worlds, among many other adventures.
Why it's on the list: Second only to Fables, this series simply does not exist without someone else creating all of those characters. Is Alan Moore any less successful, respected, or impressive as an author because he used these characters? While I'm not a big fan of his personally, I think we can all recognize that he's had a major influence in both comic books and storytelling in general. That he did so while telling stories that are almost all based on previous works (Most of the Watchmen characters are based on Charleston Comics characters) doesn't make his achievements any less impressive.
The Incredible Hercules
Type: Post-series/crossover/meta
Why it's fanfiction: Both Marvel and DC have used ancient mythology in their universes, but Marvel does so more directly and with more major characters. Both Thor and Hercules have their own titles, and Ares is a major player in the Avengers. The Incredible Hercules not only tells the story of the now-immortal Hercules living in the modern Marvel universe, but it's also exploring the concept of what it means to be a literary hero of the past and the future, albeit with lots of winking at the reader along the way.
Why it's on the list: Firstly, because it's awesome, hilarious, and you should be reading it. Secondly, because like many of these stories listed here, it could not exist if stories like The Labors of Hercules, the Odyssey, and the Iliad hadn't come first. Granted, the concept of Hercules himself was probably not created as intended fiction, but Homer's works certainly were. There may be a several-thousand-year gap between Homer and Greg Pak, but the latter is still writing fanfiction based on the former's work (as well as based on the works of Stan Lee, but he has direct permission for that.)
So here's what I hope happens. I hope that a new generation of authors is born from fanfiction. I think that in the future, more and more young authors are going to get their start writing fanfiction, and I hope that if and when those authors someday publish and popularize original fiction, that they remember how important and impactful fanfiction can actually be. I hope that they would be willing to relax control over their own works: not give it up entirely, but relax it. Sometimes the only reason I wish I could write a popular work of fiction is just so I could see what would happen when I allowed anyone and everyone to attempt to publish something based off of it. I think that would be awesome, and I would love to be the first person to try that experiment.
Unfortunately the odds of me becoming a popular author aren't huge, especially when I'm still struggling to write short stories. But a guy can dream, and I guess this is mine. I'd love to make my living writing, and I'd love to help other people make their living at writing too. More than that, I don't ever want to feel that some amazing story wasn't presented to humanity because the author wasn't allowed to actually write the story they wanted to write. Where the line should be drawn is a difficult question, and I suppose I'll have to err on the side of what the author wants, but my hope is that someday authors will not just allow derivative works to be published, but they will be proud and honored of such work.
Thus ends my insomniac ramblings for today.
While I haven't actually finished all the short stories I wanted this month, I've still been thinking about what it means that I'm focusing on original material. I really enjoy getting some of these ideas down and written into mostly-coherent stories, and I'm looking forward to doing more until I can actually get a full novel-length original story written.
But at the same time, I'm trying not to say to myself anything like, "Once you finish an original novel, then you can really say you're a writer." This is difficult, because in our society fanfiction is simply not accepted as "real" writing. This is in large part because it's just a distracting hobby or ego-boost for most people writing it. Fanfiction is inevitably tied into fandom, which -- while similar -- are not actually the same things. Fandom is in large part about community, obsession, and a sometimes scary level of personal investment. Fanfiction can be part of those things too, but it doesn't have to be.
To me, fanfiction is really a poor term. I suppose the argument can be made that fanfiction is just fiction written as a derivative work with no intent for monetary gain, but that's not my definition. I consider any derivative work, licensed or not, approved or not, profitable or not, to be fanfiction.
And what's been bothering me more and more lately is that while fanfiction is, like most things, almost 100% crap, there are a few shining gems here and there. There are fanfictions out there which far exceed published original works. There are fanfictions out there which should be considered Literature with a capital L, and that deserve a level of respect and attention that they will almost certainly never receive.
Which makes me wonder how many more amazing stories we would have if fanfiction was not something that was only available as a hobby. I write fanfiction because I love to write. I would and do write it on my own and without ever posting it anywhere (of course, that's usually for good reason), but part of me always has a problem when I write fanfiction.
This is because I'm poor. I'm poor, not exactly the most healthy guy on the planet, and I'm often struggling to deal with my real life. That's not me looking for sympathy, it's just where I'm coming from. I love to write, but what I would love even more is if I could make my living by writing: and unless I hit some kind of crazy one-in-a-trillion lottery where someone hires me to actually write fanfiction for a living, that's not going to happen while I spend my time and energy writing fanfiction.
But why should that be? Setting aside the subjective question of whether or not I am personally skilled enough to be a professional writer, why is it that some hypothetical fanfiction author out there couldn't make their living writing stories? Why is it that they can create a masterpiece of storytelling, and yet not only will they not be able to get a dime off of that work, they'll be largely ignored by most of the world? How come literary critics never critique fanfiction? Why is it any less reputable and deserving of reward than any other form of fiction?
So I think I've come to the decision that I don't like the concept of copyright, at least not in terms of ideas. Copyrighting the actual text of something makes perfect sense to me, but the characters? The ideas? The universe? Even the plot, all of these things are concepts that I think should be open to anyone to write in, sell, and live off of. If you write fanfiction good enough that people would actually pay for it, you should have the right to sell it.
There are many people who have problems with that. Heck, even I have a kind of visceral reaction to it. Isn't that just stealing? Isn't that just being a hack who can't come up with his or her own ideas? Someone else went through all the trouble of coming up with an original idea, and now you're just going to take it from them?
Essentially, yes. I guess I'm what you'd call a fiction-anarchist. I think that the stories you can get when everyone is free to write about anything they want is more important than protecting copyright, and I think that having the right to sell fanfiction would not actually be taking money out of the hands of the original authors.
Let's take Harry Potter as an example. Does anyone believe that if people had the right to sell Harry Potter fanfiction, they would be impacting the sales of J.K. Rowling? It's not as if every single piece of fanfiction ever would be published; at least not by a reputable publishing company. The same standards that affect original fiction would hold true for fanfiction, as would the same supply and demand.
Everyone would know that the "real" Harry Potter stories are hers, and would almost certainly buy her books over anyone else's. And if they didn't, then that would be because the other books are somehow better. Maybe it's cruel, but it's something of a meritocracy.
I'm not trying to suggest that J.K. Rowling or any one else is wrong to protect their copyright, nor am I trying to drum up support to get them to stop. It's never going to change that way.
What I am suggesting is that right now, as a starving writer who has had some minor success in the fanfiction world, I don't want to think of myself as an amateur. I don't want to think of myself as someone who doesn't know how to write "real" fiction. I want to think of myself as a writer, period.
And I think that if I ever write anything original that becomes popular enough for even one person to write fanfiction of it, I think that I would like to give up my right to protect that copyright. Plagiarism no, but if someone writes a story based on something I did and it's good enough that they could sell it, I think I'd like for them to be able to do that.
Maybe I'll change my tune if that ever happens. It's such a lightning strike kind of thing to become a popular creator in the first place, so maybe when it happens you become so protective of it that you don't want anyone else to touch it. It's just that I think I could only ever help myself by allowing anyone and everyone to have a shot writing for the world or characters I create. If anyone loves it enough to write about it, then I can't see a scenario in which that would ruin my chances at selling my stories.
If I write a bad story and someone writes a fanfiction based off of it that's better and sells a million copies, would I have sold any more if that fanfiction had never existed?
And if I write a great story and someone writes fanfiction based off of it that's crap, would I sell less because some other author wrote a bad story based on something I did?
I don't think that would happen, and I'd like to think that I'm committed enough to the idea of freedom of expression that even if it did, I would suck it up and take it. Who am I to say that a great story can't be published just because I created the basic idea?
That's a hard pill to swallow, even for me. I get the in-your-guts feeling that says you just want to protect something you worked so hard on. I'm certainly not against official and unofficial, or authorized and unauthorized tags on works. The thing that I'm against is the inability to publish.
Now as an example of why I think derivative works should always be allowed, here are several great comic books that are pretty much pure fanfiction, and works that I feel would probably have been even better if they didn't have to dance around some of their references. These are stories that either take advantage of characters and universes being out of copyright, or stories in which the author is clearly using someone else's character, just tweaking them a bit to get around copyright.
Every one of these stories makes me wonder how many other gems like these DON'T exist because the person who wrote them could not sell them, could not publicize them, or could not use the characters he really wanted to use.
Sherlock Holmes, Tom Sawyer, Dracula, Tarzan, all of these are characters that are (mostly) no longer under copyright. They have all had multiple new stories told about them. Some are good, some are bad. None of these derivative stories detracts from the power of the original stories, and some may even be considered to be BETTER than the originals, at least by certain criteria.
But we had to wait decades to get those new stories, because most of the time it was not legal for someone to write and publish a new story based on those characters. How many fantastic tales have never come into existence because the characters they were to be written for couldn't be used?
Maybe there's someone out there right now who has an idea for a revolutionary story featuring Harry Potter. Maybe there's someone out there right now who would write a story so impactful and so incredible that people would talk about it for generations. We would never know. Maybe a hundred years from now someone will write a Harry Potter story that is just as good if not better than the originals, but we'll have to wait about that long to find out, because as long as fanfiction is just a silly hobby that "real" writers don't do, no fanfiction will ever get the respect it deserves, no matter how well written it is.
So here is a list of some stories that I think show how great fanfiction can be, and how none of them take away from the originals. If anything, they only serve to enhance them. I use comics instead of novels because I'm a big nerd and this is what I know best, but I could certainly pull out dozens of novels that are fanfiction as well. Grendel, The Wind Done Gone, The Dark Tower, and The Riverworld Series being a few off the top of my head (the latter two both inspired by the same poem, actually.)
So here's some great stories that are absolutely derivative works. They are to be no less respected, no less successful, and no less inspiring than the original works, just so long as they speak to you. Maybe you'd only really like one of these stories. Maybe you'd love all of them. The point is that they exist, and they can be amazing. Shouldn't we as readers want more of this, and shouldn't those of us who consider ourselves writers want more opportunities for this?
(I'm trying to avoid being too spoilery in any of this, but you might want to avoid the ones you plan on reading if you're worried.)
Fables
Type: Crossorgy.
Why it's fanfiction: This should be obvious. Fables takes virtually every public-domain character in existence and mashes them all together into one surprisingly coherent story. The Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, Jack (of the beanstalk and other stories), Mother Goose, Pinnochio, and Goldilocks are but a few of the literally (no pun intended) hundreds of characters that are very much not original.
Why it's on the list: Because Fables may be the absolute best comic book example of why you can create a derivative work and still be creative, original, and unique. There is nothing quite like Fables out there, and it's unfortunate that many stories the author wants to tell can't be told because the characters he wants to use aren't yet in the public domain.
The Authority
Type: Re-imagining/Alternate Universe
Why it's fanfiction: While I don't love the Authority, it's essentially a re-telling of the Justice League, and several issues feature an evil version of the Avengers. It's one of many comics to take the familiar and most famous comic characters (Superman, Batman) and change them. Maybe the Authority wouldn't be any better if Midnighter was just Batman, but I think the issues with the evil-Avengers would have been better if obviously-Captain-America was just Captain America.
Why it's on the list: The Authority changed how many comics were told. It paved the way for the Ultimates (itself a re-imagining of the Avengers) and it used the Superman/Batman analog characters as shorthand to help shatter some pre-conceived notions of the characters.
Planetary
Type: Alternate universe.
Why it's fanfiction: There's some Doc Savage, some obvious 40s pulp novel/comic stuff, some Phantom, but there are several issues that are straight up dealing with the Fantastic Four or other prominent characters.
Why it's on the list Planetary deals a lot with alternate realities, as does its in-universe cousin, The Authority. In some of these alternate realities, obvious copies of famous characters exist, only they can't actually be referred to by name. While the story might not have been necessarily better if it had been told with the characters they were based on, rather than transparent analogues, we'll never know. If the possibility had been there, who knows how much more impactful some of those stories might have been?
The End League
Type: Amalgam re-imagining
Why it's fanfiction: The End League is essentially a Justice League/Avengers crossover in which Lex Luthor/Dr Doom takes over the world. Every character is either a direct analog to a famous Marvel or DC hero, or is a combination of two or more.
Why it's on the list: Because I believe that the End League was probably pitched to either Marvel or DC as a straight up alternate-universe tale featuring their characters. Even if it wasn't, I wonder if the author would have rather told the story with Superman instead of Astonishman or the Joker instead of The Smiling Man. Maybe he would still keep the amalgam idea and simply combine the elements of various characters in an even more obvious way so as to play off of their tropes. Maybe he would write it exactly the same way, but I hate thinking that maybe he was forced to change certain ideas because they were too close to the originals.
Supreme Power
Type: Re-imagining
Why it's fanfiction: Supreme Power is actually based on the Squadron Supreme, which in itself was an "homage" to the Justice League. The JMS version is still very much the Justice League, and it's certainly not hiding that fact.
Why it's on the list: Knowing that Hyperion is Superman or Nighthawk is Batman does not detract from the story. It adds to it because there are certain aspects to each character that we anticipate, and the author is aware of that. That anticipation is used to lead us in one of many directions: sometimes with the original character, and sometimes against them. Again, maybe the story would be absolutely the same even if JMS could have used the name Superman or Kal'El. Maybe he would have preferred to create semi-new characters that were simply heavily inspired by the Justice League. Either way, Supreme Power was an excellently told story that could not have existed if the Justice League hadn't existed first, but is no less impressive as a result.
The Unwritten
Type: Alternate Universe/Meta/Crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: Anyone who's read The Unwritten knows that it's drawing heavily from Harry Potter, and doing so purposefully. The Unwritten is a story about stories.
Why it's on the list: Because it's another example of a story that could not exist without the stories that it's based on. Without Harry Potter (among many others), the Unwritten could not be, and that would be tragic because the Unwritten is one of the best comics to exist, pretty much ever. Maybe the author wouldn't need to actually have the main character be a "real life" Harry Potter, but being able to draw from any and all works of fiction could only provide the author with more paint with which to create this masterpiece.
Joe the Barbarian
Type: Alternate Universe/Meta/Crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: There's only been one issue so far, but there are characters from multiple fandoms popping up, and this time DC is actually letting the author use Superman and Batman (it's published by Vertigo comics, a division of DC). Other characters that show up are Optimus Prime, Captain Picard, Snake Eyes, the Lone Ranger, Santa Claus, Deadpool, and the Shadow, albeit sometimes slightly disguised or with a different name.
Why it's on the list: Because its author, Grant Morrison, is a shining of example of using the power of stories to tell new stories. In Final Crisis, a recent DC event, every Superman from a thousand multiverses shows up, with what appears to even be Marvel's recent version (The Sentry) hiding in the background. Joe the Barbarian has just started, but many of Morrison's stories are A) brilliant and B) building off of the works of other authors. His stories could not exist without referencing, being inspired by, or actually using characters from other works, and I suspect this will hold true for Joe the Barbarian too.
Lucifer
Type: Post-series/crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: Lucifer is technically a spin-off of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, but what it really is is Bible fanfiction with some crossover from various non-Judeo-Christian religions. It tells the story of Lucifer in the modern day, picking up where Gaiman left off, but going in a much more mythological direction.
Why it's on the list: Let's set aside the question of whether or not the Bible is actually fiction. At the very least, it's unlikely that every religious concept used in the Lucifer series could be true (for one to be true, others would have to be untrue), so it's certainly fanfiction. Just because it's based on myth and legend doesn't make it any less a derivative work, but it also doesn't make it any less fantastic as a result.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Type: Post-Series/crossorgy
Why it's fanfiction: The Invisible Man and Captain Nemo team up with Mr. Hyde to fight off the Martians from War of the Worlds, among many other adventures.
Why it's on the list: Second only to Fables, this series simply does not exist without someone else creating all of those characters. Is Alan Moore any less successful, respected, or impressive as an author because he used these characters? While I'm not a big fan of his personally, I think we can all recognize that he's had a major influence in both comic books and storytelling in general. That he did so while telling stories that are almost all based on previous works (Most of the Watchmen characters are based on Charleston Comics characters) doesn't make his achievements any less impressive.
The Incredible Hercules
Type: Post-series/crossover/meta
Why it's fanfiction: Both Marvel and DC have used ancient mythology in their universes, but Marvel does so more directly and with more major characters. Both Thor and Hercules have their own titles, and Ares is a major player in the Avengers. The Incredible Hercules not only tells the story of the now-immortal Hercules living in the modern Marvel universe, but it's also exploring the concept of what it means to be a literary hero of the past and the future, albeit with lots of winking at the reader along the way.
Why it's on the list: Firstly, because it's awesome, hilarious, and you should be reading it. Secondly, because like many of these stories listed here, it could not exist if stories like The Labors of Hercules, the Odyssey, and the Iliad hadn't come first. Granted, the concept of Hercules himself was probably not created as intended fiction, but Homer's works certainly were. There may be a several-thousand-year gap between Homer and Greg Pak, but the latter is still writing fanfiction based on the former's work (as well as based on the works of Stan Lee, but he has direct permission for that.)
So here's what I hope happens. I hope that a new generation of authors is born from fanfiction. I think that in the future, more and more young authors are going to get their start writing fanfiction, and I hope that if and when those authors someday publish and popularize original fiction, that they remember how important and impactful fanfiction can actually be. I hope that they would be willing to relax control over their own works: not give it up entirely, but relax it. Sometimes the only reason I wish I could write a popular work of fiction is just so I could see what would happen when I allowed anyone and everyone to attempt to publish something based off of it. I think that would be awesome, and I would love to be the first person to try that experiment.
Unfortunately the odds of me becoming a popular author aren't huge, especially when I'm still struggling to write short stories. But a guy can dream, and I guess this is mine. I'd love to make my living writing, and I'd love to help other people make their living at writing too. More than that, I don't ever want to feel that some amazing story wasn't presented to humanity because the author wasn't allowed to actually write the story they wanted to write. Where the line should be drawn is a difficult question, and I suppose I'll have to err on the side of what the author wants, but my hope is that someday authors will not just allow derivative works to be published, but they will be proud and honored of such work.
Thus ends my insomniac ramblings for today.