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.