I remember pretty clearly sitting around the lunch table in 7th grade with my fellow geeks-in-training and having the discussion of whether DC was ripping off Marvel or vice-versa. It was pretty evident with a comparison between the huge cross-overs Secret Wars and Super Powers (the big event was not nearly as popular as it is these days) and with the token African-American hero in the major super hero team (Iron Man / Green Lantern), that clearly one of the companies was taking it’s lead from the other. This conversation has been echoes now for next twenty some odd years with the big two trying to out-event the other. The most recent rip-off failure that comes to mind would be when DC tried to copy Marvel’s Ultimate success with their All-Star line, which mostly flopped within a year.
But I think Marvel has gone leaps and bounds beyond the lameness of the All-Star line-up. The tagline of the new X-book event X-Necrosha is “The Dead Rise”, dealing with dead heroes and villains being raised as zombies to fight the living. Where might have I seen something like this recently…. hmmmmm. Anyone? Anyone? Geoff Johns, Dan Didio and anyone else over at DC must have literally laughed for hours at this johnny-come-lately attempt from Marvel to copy the success of Blackest Night.
I will agree to a point with you, Eric, but I read the one-shot, and it was a good read. I will let you know how the story pans out. I’ll put up some reviews.
I’m glad it reads well, it just floored me when I heard about this.