Okay, for those of you not familiar with
Latin, the title of this post translates to a rather familiar phrase: nothing
new under the sun. I entitled this post
with that, as it seems to be very true.
I bring this up, as I have discovered that
a few names that I have been intending on using in a couple of my stories, have shown up in other properties. Also most, if not all of these stories contain similar tropes, resulting in creative
uniqueness being difficult to attain.
When I first started my table-top superhero
role-playing game back in 2017/18, there was one player character named Echo,
and another named Justice. About a year
after starting the game, I discovered that there was a Marvel Comics character
named Echo that appeared in Marvel’s “Daredevil” series, and has recently made
its live action debut in the Disney+ series, “Hawkeye”. While recently watching a Youtube video about
the history of the original “Guardians of the Galaxy” team in Marvel Comics, I
learned that there was a mutant character named “Justice”. Just to be more sure of “covering my bases”,
I looked to see if DC Comics had any characters by those names, and sure
enough, there were several unconnected characters named “Echo”, but no
characters named “Justice” though.
The Marvel Comics characters bare no
similarities with the characters of the same name from my game, with the
exception that both Echo characters are female.
Thus, I believe, there should be no issues arising there. Of the nine (yes, 9) characters in DC Comics
named Echo, two of them have very slight resemblances to “my” Echo.
One of them, a character named Terri
Eckhart, has the ability to absorb and redirect energy. The other, Myke-4 Astor, has the ability to
manipulate sound.
The Echo from my superhero game has a
number of sound based or sound related abilities. Notably, in this case, the ability to absorb
kinetic energy, and use it to either heal herself, or expel it as sound,
although at a significant “signal loss”, resulting in just an “echo” of the original
intensity. She also has the ability to
generate and manipulate sound in various ways.
The similarities, although not great, are unfortunately there. I think I may consult a legal expert at some
point about this, before proceeding with including Echo in any stories that I produce.
The last issue is too much of a similarity
for me to continue with. Back in 2010/11
when I was originally working on The Phoenix Imperative, I was planning on
using a virus called The Hunger Virus as a major story element that lead up to
the apocalypse. Random Youtube watching
revealed to me that in Marvel Comics, the Marvel Zombies storyline involves a
virus known as “The Hunger”, which was responsible for all of the heroes and
villains becoming zombies. This is
something I was completely unaware of at the time, and is much too similar for
me to continue using. I will have to
think up some other name, perhaps attached to a real bacterial or viral
infection that is similar in effect to what I envisioned my “Hunger Virus” to
be.
Time will tell, I guess.