Poll of the Day > nobody ever talks about this but the guy credited for creating batman is a fraud

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bob Kane gets all the credit in every comic and movie and cartoon and game. But it was really Bill Finger that should be credited. Yes, Bob Kane came up with the initial idea for a hero named Batman. But almost everything about the character was made by Bill Finger. Bob just said "he's a superhero and his name is Batman". then Bill Finger came in and filled in all the blanks. Named him Bruce Wayne. Named Gotham city. came up with the villains and the origin story and the costume, and everything else. Bill Finger did all the work. But most people have never even heard of him.

That's because Bill Finger didn't have a good lawyer.
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Everyone knows that Batman is based more or less on Zorro, where it is referenced that the movie that his parents were killed after seeing, was Zorro.

Pfff, that'd be like giving Ditko credit for Spiderman!
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he literally came up with the idea for batman

it doesn't matter who fleshed the idea out
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did you just watch that documentary on hulu they made about this?
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helIy posted...

he literally came up with the idea for batman

it wasn't much of an idea. it was a blank canvas. it would be like if I said "I am making a hero named Boulder Boy. But all i have so far is the name. I'm gonna hire someone to help me flesh out the character"

and then someone comes and takes Boulder Boy and makes him into a complex hero that ends up becoming famous 75 years later with movies and games. And then I take all the credit even though I only did 1% of the work

Jen0125 posted...

did you just watch that documentary on hulu they made about this?

no I've been aware of this for a while. it's always bugged me.

Zikten posted...

and then someone comes and takes Boulder Boy and makes him into a complex hero that ends up becoming famous 75 years later with movies and games. And then I take all the credit even though I only did 1% of the work

that's how it works for everything, yes
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or you could also take George Lucas. he takes credit for Star Wars but the original trilogy was a group effort thought up by a bunch of people. Lucas just managed to get his name to overwrite everyone else's in the paperwork and then take 100% of the credit. and now peope think he invented Star Wars. he didn't

Zikten posted...

and now peope think he invented Star Wars. he didn't

With all of his edits he's made, he sorta did.

george lucas absolutely came up with star wars

it was everyone else who saw his ideas and said they were stupid and changed them for the better

but he had the initial idea for it, the overall story and characters, ect.
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helIy posted...

george lucas absolutely came up with star wars

it was everyone else who saw his ideas and said they were stupid and changed them for the better

but he had the initial idea for it, the overall story and characters, ect.

he shouldn't get credit for it's success because his ideas sucked. everything that makes star wars actually good was created by someone else. Lucas wanted Han Solo to be a reptilian for example

Plus, more generally, Batman as a concept evolved tremendously over the years and the character greatly changed (other than the basic premise) so the creator is arguably less significant than in other cases. Keep in mind that most of Batman's early exploits have been retconned or erased, including the fact he was closer to the Punisher than the Batman we know today.

Jen0125 posted...

did you just watch that documentary on hulu they made about this?

Name of the documentary?
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Zeus posted...

Name of the documentary?

i don't know. go on hulu or google it.
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Zikten posted...

and then someone comes and takes Boulder Boy and makes him into a complex hero that ends up becoming famous 75 years later with movies and games. And then I take all the credit even though I only did 1% of the work

Except Batman as a concept evolved over the 75 years, becoming something else. Compare that to Superman, Spiderman, and Captain America, who stay closer to their source material in many regards.

Zikten posted...

or you could also take George Lucas. he takes credit for Star Wars but the original trilogy was a group effort thought up by a bunch of people. Lucas just managed to get his name to overwrite everyone else's in the paperwork and then take 100% of the credit. and now peope think he invented Star Wars. he didn't

While many of the best changes came from the word of individuals who worked on ESB and changed his work, he was definitely the originator of the concept and content for Star Wars. As for intellectual ownership, he commissioned those other people to work on the franchise.

Zikten posted...

helIy posted...

george lucas absolutely came up with star wars

it was everyone else who saw his ideas and said they were stupid and changed them for the better

but he had the initial idea for it, the overall story and characters, ect.

he shouldn't get credit for it's success because his ideas sucked. everything that makes star wars actually good was created by someone else. Lucas wanted Han Solo to be a reptilian for example

A reptilian Han Solo might have been neat. Otherwise, *most* of the big ideas were his. The only general shortcoming was that his plot was more simplistic in nature and other talents added more nuance. More importantly, as the effective showrunner, he was responsible for what got used and what didn't get used, so even if some ideas belonged to others it ultimately all tied back into his vision.
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well he clearly didn't learn from the good input in the original trilogy cause he refused any input for the prequels and we all saw how that turned out. he's not actually a good writer

I think this is probably more common an issue than just that. it's almost always the case that the people that own an idea are different from the people that produce it. for example, working as an engineer, it's common for you to have to declare any personal projects you have once you're hired, because *anything* you make from now on, even in your spare time, belongs to the company.
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People talk about it all the time
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Zikten posted...

or you could also take George Lucas. he takes credit for Star Wars but the original trilogy was a group effort thought up by a bunch of people. Lucas just managed to get his name to overwrite everyone else's in the paperwork and then take 100% of the credit. and now peope think he invented Star Wars. he didn't

Oh brother
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jesus who cares
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Nobody really talks about Bob Kane either though
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