u/Late-Bowler-4068

#1: Batman

#2: Spider-Man

#3: Daredevil

Your nomination doesn’t have to be a character who has never killed, just one who is known for having a code against killing. Because of the nature of fictional characters, especially comic characters, many have killed once or twice over the course of decades but are still otherwise famous for being against doing so. If your only contribution to this thread is to debate on whether a character qualifies or not then please don’t comment.

Our first day ended in a tie between Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. Because I’m not a fan of being who gets to decide who should win, I decided to put them both on the list as a consolation.

As before, comment below who you think should get third place and the character in thehighest voted comment wins.

Most sources I’ve found say that it wasn’t until the 1940 comic series where he started wearing the red scarf, because of the impracticality of finding a way to have his face covered in so many panels. However there are definitely pulp magazine covers from the late 1930’s where it SEEMS like he’s wearing it, but I’ve similarly seen it claimed he wore a high-collar that he could pull up to cover his face rather than the actual scarf?

People love posting this to prove Superman kills people but ignore that not only is it non-canon, it was written by a sex predator.

In case you’re wondering which ones are public domain

- First Art Piece: Black Hood, Daredevil, the Ray, and Black Cat

- Second: Daredevil again, Blue Beetle, Cat-Man, Blue Bolt, Black Cat, Black Hood, Black Terror, Sheena

- Third: Miss Masque (I think?), Target (the three guys standing under her are all the same superhero), Bulletman and Bulletgirl, Airboy, Dollman, Uncle Sam, Spy-Smasher, Captain Midnight, Daredevil, Green Lama, Pyroman, Skyman, Ray Sheena

Jim Steranko has incredible knowledge of comic history, and drew all of these for his book “History of Comics.” There are probably a few pther public domain heroes here that I don’t recognize, so feel free to name them if you notice any I missed.

Doesn’t have to be a character who has never killed, just a character known for having a code against it

Mike Maron as Stan Lee

Michael Chiklis as Jack Kirby

Elijah Wood as Steve Ditko

Victor Garber as Martin Goodman

These casting choices are inspired by the unmade screenplay which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/nvsxsn/all_the_black_list_screenplays_from_2005_to_2020/ . It’s #44 in the Year 2020 and I highly recommend it, it’s a shame the project was killed.

In case you don’t recognize any:

* Black Terror

* Spider

* Stardust the Super-Wizard

* Blue Bolt

* Fly-Man

* Daredevil

* Captain Midnight

* Blue Beetle

* Fighting Yank

* Samson

* Green Lama

* Miss Fury

* Skyman

* Pyroman

* Blue Flame

* Miss Masque

* Black Bat

* Hydroman

* Fantomah

* Arrow

* Cat-Man

* Green Turtle

* Flame

* Black Hood

* Phantom Lady

* Bulletman

* Spy-Smasher

* Amazing Man

* Magno the Magnetic Man

* Heap

* Funnyman

* Fantoman

* Atoman

* American Crusader

* Black Cat

* Claw (archenemy of Daredevil)

* Puzzler (enemy of Black Terror)

Since these characters are quite obscure here’s the list if you want to know and research all their abilities:

* Black Terror

* Spider

* Stardust the Super-Wizard

* Blue Bolt

* Fly-Man

* Daredevil

* Captain Midnight

* Blue Beetle

* Fighting Yank

* Samson

* Green Lama

* Miss Fury

* Skyman

* Pyroman

* Blue Flame

* Miss Masque

* Black Bat

* Hydroman

* Fantomah

* Arrow

* Cat-Man

* Green Turtle

* Flame

* Black Hood

* Phantom Lady

Because of the near-unlimited number of public domain superheroes, and the fact that new superheroes enter the public domain with each year, the roster can be continuously updated. If the game adds one new hero a month, this would be the Year One additions:

* Bulletman

* Spy-Smasher

* Amazing Man

* Magno the Magnetic Man

* Heap

* Funnyman

* Fantoman

* Atoman

* American Crusader

* Black Cat

* Claw (first villain rep, archenemy of Daredevil)

* Puzzler (2nd villain rep, enemy of Black Terror)

In case you have trouble for identifying them:

Panel 1: Fighting Yank, Skyman, Blue Bolt, Black Terror, Captain Midnight, Samson, Daredevil, Green Lama (not public domain but his owners are lenient), Blue Beetle

Panel 2: Bulletman, the Claw (Daredevil’s archenemy), Miss Masque

Panel 3: Spy-Smasher

The comic also features another story with Fantomah. Unfortunately it was only available for those who funded it, since I would love to read it if it ever gets released digitally. The Kickstarter had over 600+ donators and earned over 35,000 dollars which goes to show there’s still interest in these characters. It also got nominated for an Eisner Award (the comic equivalent of the Oscars), although the nomination was withdrawn because one of the stories was revealed to be AI generated by someone who paid the editor to have his story included. That being said the book is over 100 pages still and that story was only one page, so there was still a lot of talent that went into making it.

So far they’ve started lines for the Tick, have Madman coming out in March, and shown off prototypes for Rocketeer, Grendel, and Tarzan lines. Plus Sky Captain, which is not a comic book but a pulp-inspired superhero movie from 2004.

If you could make a wishlist for the franchises or characters you’d like to see them tackle next, what would you choose? Personally I’d like to see them tackle more pulp characters and maybe some of the public domain heroes that the original Longbox Heroes line covered. That original line also got the licenses for The Goon, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they did him soon.

For the most part, public domain superheroes are largely characters that were created in the Golden Age and then forgotten by their original creators. That being said, there seems to be a lot of potential to these characters as evidenced by all the indie revivals of them. Do you think any of them would ever work well in the DC Universe, or is it better DC focuses on their own copyrighted characters? I feel like there’s some kind of potential for a comic event that involves these characters, perhaps with commentary on the nature of the public domain in general since DC’s own characters will eventually enter it.

They‘ve both recently been added to the PDSH wiki and the Public Domain wiki because apparently their earliest comics were never renewed. I could be wrong and I’ve just never seen this before, but I don’t think it’s ever been publicly known that they were in the public domain? Are we sure that it’s accurate? Regardless I doubt they will get much usage until Superman and Batman also become public domain.