10 Fascinating Comic Moments That Almost Happened
7. Marvel Almost Lost Captain America
When comic books first came into print, no-one could have anticipated how successful they would end up being. The huge popularity that superheroes have enjoyed has its dark side though, especially for some writers who feel unfairly compensated for their creations.
A lot of the problem boils down to the fact that early comic book writers were happy to sign away the rights to their creations, having no way of knowing that what they were giving away was practically a gold mine. One such writer was Joe Simon, who created Captain America alongside Jack Kirby.
In the 1960's, feeling that what Marvel had paid him for Captain America wasn't fair, quit the company and sued them for ownership of the character. Kirby was originally on Simon's side, but Marvel eventually convinced him to side with them instead in case they needed him to create a replacement character. Simon ended up settling out of court.
Had Simon won his court case though, it would have completely changed the face of comics. For starters, we potentially could have seen a Marvel Universe without a Sentinel of Liberty, or a world in which the Avengers are led by Captain Glory.
More importantly, it would have set a precedent for more creators to own the heroes they write rather that the publishers, which would have completely changed how comic books are made.