Thursday, May 8, 2014

Because We Won't Tolerate Scientific Innacuracy In Our Super-Hero Universe!!

You may have hard of Amazon's Kindle Worlds. It's a program wherein certain intellectual property owners allow folks to write and e-publish "fan-fics" set in their worlds. And the authors get paid royalties off any sales.

So if you had a yen to write a story set in the Gossip Girl universe you can--legally, and without fear of the lawyers coming after you--and get paid for it, to boot.

I bring this up on my cow-town comic book blog because Valiant has allowed most of their series to be used here. If I want to write and publish an Archer & Armstrong story, it's all good. Eternal Warrior? Fine by them!!

Now, each of the "Worlds" does have a set of content guidelines you have to follow. After all, they don't want you putting out something that might damage the brand, or somehow infringe someone's copyright. So it's mostly not terribly surprising boilerplate--no pornography, no slurs, no crossovers with other Worlds, no product placement, etc.

But each of the Valiant Worlds has has a specific content guideline that none of the others do:

Right.

Because in a universe where Goths are kidnapped by aliens for 1500 years and return to Earth wearing super-powerful sentient space armor, we wouldn't want any wanton disregard for scientific and historical accuracy.

And in a World where a band of rogue mutants psiots contest against another group of powerful mutants psiots for world domination, we can't have wanton disregard for scientific and historical accuracy.

And in a story featuring a soldier transformed into an unstoppable killing machine by nanites that instantly heal any wound, well, I think you know what I'm going to say.

Valiant--disregarding scientific and historical accuracy--but not wantonly, apparently.

Oh, and if you want to write a story set in the G.I. Joe universe, there's a very special rule for you:

I have absolutely no idea what the hell that's about, but then again, I've never even read a G.I. Joe comic or seen the cartoon...

3 comments:

SallyP said...

Wait...Snake Eyes is a METS fan?

Whodathunk?

Anonymous said...

First of all, I've read plenty of GI Joe comics and seen the cartoon and I don't ever recall a Yankees reference - unless it was a throwaway line or something.

Second of all, I highly recommend you read some of the original Marvel Joe comics. Despite being a toy tie-in they're actually pretty darn good, especially from about issue 11 to 40.

Green Luthor said...

Snake Eyes can't be portrayed as a Yankees fan because Hasbro had always been headquartered in Rhode Island, which is Red Sox territory, and they don't want the most popular character in the franchise to be a fan of their most hated baseball team. Weird, but... as someone who prefers the Mets, I find it kinda hilarious...