History CelebrityParadox / ComicBooks

** In an issue of ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders'', Salah programs Re-Mac with several basic forms, one of them including Creator/GeorgeClooney, which amuses Grace Choi and irritates her girlfriend Anissa. This brings up the question if the George Clooney of that universe did indeed star in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', and what Batman himself would make of that.

** DC, prior to 1986 and Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths, did this using Earth-2 and claiming that the Earth-1 characters had comics about the Earth-2 characters but not about themselves. This explanation worked for characters like Franchise/TheFlash, but wouldn't make sense for someone like Franchise/{{Superman}}, where both versions had the same secret identity.

*** Marvel actually ''released'' a set of in-universe comics during a FifthWeekEvent in 2000. These were titled "Marvel[[color:red:s]] Comics" and how similar they were to the "real" superheroes varied -- the Fantastic Four licensed their comic officially and appeared in their real identities, but since nobody knows who ComicBook/{{Daredevil}} or Franchise/SpiderMan are, the in-universe comic fabricated origins for them.

*** The same run shows that Marvel Comics is the publisher of ''Captain America'' comics in-universe. After ''Comicbook/TheDeathOfCaptainAmerica'' they sold the rights.

* An early issue of Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Comicbook/AnimalMan'' run has Buddy listening to Music/{{REM}}'s "Superman" on his Walkman about 10 seconds after having a conversation with Franchise/{{Superman}} himself, making you wonder what the song's lyrics look like in a world where Superman is a well-known celebrity rather than a fictional character.

* Comicbook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool is about a girl who has read all Marvel and DC comics (except Deadpool) and therefore possesses extensive knowledge about the Marvel universe where she lives. It is unclear whether this is because she is actually from a dimension where Marvel and DC exist and publish the exact same stories as in the real world, or whether she is simply the kind of psychic who perceives her clairvoyance as comic books.

* Non-actor version: One ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} comic [[Memes/ComicBooks famously]] features a scene where he incites ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} to violence by saying to Kitty Pride "Speaking of games, ever played ''Franchise/StreetFighter''?" and then {{Shoryuken}}-ing her in the face. Then Udon [[https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11116/111160825/4131097-1309150731166.jpg delivered a ShoutOut to that scene]] in their ''ComicBook/StreetFighter'' comic, where Ryu says "Speaking of comics, ever read ''Deadpool''?" and then Shoryukens Sagat.

* In Creator/AlanMoore run on ''ComicBook/{{Supreme}}'' everything related to the character is rebooted and a new version of Supreme, who has a civilian identity of a comic book artist working on a Superman expy Omni-Man comic, is introduced. In Eric Larsen run, when the pre-reboot Supreme escapes and goes on a rampage, one of heroes who show up to stop him is a Superman expy [[ComicBook/{{Invincible}} Omni-Man]].

*** A Franchise/{{Batman}} arc from the '80s involved Batman investigating the murder of a comic-book writer who worked on a Batman comic. At one point Bruce Wayne admits to himself, "I should have seen this coming." He mentioned that he couldn't risk copyrighting the Batman name without blowing the SecretIdentity. The in-universe Batman comic, interestingly enough, portrayed the Caped Crusader as a penitent bat-headed demon who came to Earth to send criminals to Hell Comicbook/GhostRider-style.

*** An issue of ''Franchise/TheFlash'' shows that Irey West has a poster from the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' cartoon in her room. Ya know, the cartoon that had ''her dad'' as a guest star. Though interestingly enough, the cartoon rarely if ever used the heroes' real names. So in theory, ''Teen Titans'' could absolutely be a TV show in the Franchise/DCUniverse without jeopardizing the identities of the actual Titans.
*** In a few issues of the Silver Age ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' series, the kids actually hid their helicopter behind a billboard advertising the Creator/AdamWest ''Series/Batman1966'' show. One wonders how Comicbook/{{Robin}} would feel about Burt Ward's portrayal of him.
*** In ''Comicbook/TheMultiversity'', at least part of [[Creator/DCComics DC]]'s output in the main [[Franchise/TheDCU DCU]] (Earth-0) is actually inspired by other Earths in TheMultiverse; it's no longer limited to just one Earth as it was pre-''Comicbook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' (where DC's output in Earth-One, the main DCU, was inspired by the heroes of Earth-Two). Creator/MarvelComics have a DC analogue in Major Comics, with their output being inspired by the heroes of Earth-7 and Earth-8.
** However, at least in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, there is {{Canon}} evidence from comics such as ''ComicBook/SheHulk'' and ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' that the exploits of the (in-universe) real live heroes are actually recorded in comics and sold to the general public. These comics (in the ''She-Hulk'' comics) are then used as evidence by lawyers defending and prosecuting super heroes and super villains. And, at least once, to save the world when all the characters had forgotten some hugely important fact or MacGuffin which they found out about by reading the comics. One wonders, though, if the comics published in-universe are the same as the RealLife ones, and the references to comics are infinitely recursive. But then one's head starts hurting.
*** Similarly, after his [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] revival, Comicbook/CaptainAmerica ended up drawing his own comic book in-universe. Which is even more mind-bending; the superhero was drawing a comic book about his own adventures? Hard to know what's really true. Note that at the time, Cap's true identity as Steve Rogers was not publicly known, so the publisher had no idea he had Captain America drawing Captain America.
*** Marvel actually ''released'' a set of in-universe comics during a FifthWeekEvent in 2000. These were titled "Marvel[[color:red:s]] Comics" and how similar they were to the "real" superheroes varied -- the Fantastic Four licensed their comic officially and appeared in their real identities, but since nobody knows who Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} or Franchise/SpiderMan are, the in-universe comic fabricated origins for them.

*** Creator/EdBrubaker's ''Comicbook/CaptainAmerica'' run revealed that the ''Captain America'' film serial from the 1940's exists in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. There's a bit of FridgeBrilliance to this: in real life, the serial changed up Cap's origin and name so that his civilian identity was [[AdaptationNameChange Grant Gardner]] rather than Steve Rogers. Ergo, the serial could exist in the Marvel Universe without having jeopardized the real Cap's secret identity in any way.

* In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, one issue of ''Comicbook/UltimateSpiderMan'' involved Spidey's exploits being filmed by Creator/SamRaimi to save money on CGI for a blockbuster movie starring Tobey Maguire. When Ultimate Spidey went to Raimi to ask him to stop, they just filmed him some more. The majority of the movie in the Ultimate universe was made up of real footage from a battle between Spidey and Dock Ock. Naturally, Peter doesn't see a dime from it and resents the movie, which ought to reflect poorly on Raimi and Maguire but it mainly comes off as RuleOfFunny. For some reason Avi Arad was also on set, apparently as a creative consultant. How he got that job is never really explained.

** The ''Worlds Collide'' crossover, where the characters of DC Comics met the characters of Creator/MilestoneComics, had this since Marvel and DC were both fictional universes within the Milestone Universe. ComicBook/{{Icon}} expressed concern that he might not be strong enough to battle Superman, whom he remembered from the original Creator/ChristopherReeve ''Film/{{Superman}}'' film.

** Similar to the ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' example, an issue of ''[[Comicbook/HarleyQuinn Harley and Ivy]]'' had the title characters tying up and gagging two actors who were supposed to play Batman and The Joker in a movie. Before being gagged, the man portraying the Joker quoted some lines from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', implying that he was Creator/MarkHamill. The same Mark Hamill who voiced the Joker in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the show the comic was based on.

* While maybe not textbook, ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' played with this a little bit. Creator/DCComics, the company that published the book, did once exist, but they stopped publishing after ''real'' superheroes emerged. (Of course, since the Minutemen formed in 1940, this would necessarily mean that ''Batman'' was published for only one year, and ''Superman'' for only two years.) To fill the publication vacuum, comics starring pirates became popular--hence, nobody notices the similarities between characters like Nite Owl and the Blue Beetle or Rorschach and ComicBook/TheQuestion.

** ''Comicbook/{{Runaways}}'' mentions Franchise/TheDCU a few times, but it's implied they only exist as TV shows.

* In his WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck comic stories, Creator/DonRosa prefers to think of MickeyMouse and other non-Duck cartoon characters as the fictional characters within the fiction, and the Duck characters as the "real" people. This becomes weird when you take into account that Donald was also Mickey's co-star in animation.

** Franchise/DuckTales comics also exist inside his universe. He's mentioned that he likes to think of them as unlicensed fabricated adventures based on the colourful character of the city's biggest celebrity, Scrooge [=McDuck=], and would like to make a comic about him facing the copyright issues involved to prevent the comic's sale, but Creator/{{Disney}} hasn't agreed to allow its major animated series to be treated like a pirate release, even inside a comic.

* In a case of metafiction meets RealLife, the Disney corporation sued Marvel Comics, stating that the Marvel character Comicbook/HowardTheDuck bore too much of a resemblance to Donald Duck, and violated their trademark. Marvel then redesigned future artwork of Howard, changing his overall appearance. But most importantly, Howard would always be drawn ''wearing pants'', apparently because Donald now owned exclusive rights to all depictions of talking duck nudity! In the Marvel comic, Howard would often complain about being forced to wear pants, because he was personally sued by some undisclosed powerful corporation. Due to the Disney/Marvel merger, Howard can presumably go pantsless once again.

** However, in the 1978 Christopher Reeve film, Ned Beatty has a rolled copy of Comicbook/TheMightyThor in his back pocket.
** Prior to the incorporation of the DCU in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', ComicBook/LexLuthor was an avid collector of comic books, his favorite being a superhero named Warrior Angel, which started out as vaguely Superman, and then evolved into the ''Smallville'' equivalent of [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]. It also plays with the above statement slightly: Clark might not be the first Superhero, but he has gotten the most attention.
* ''Comicbook/FreddyVsJasonVsAsh'' pits Ash Williams of ''Franchise/EvilDead'' against Freddy Krueger. ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'' is seen playing on a TV in the original ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984''.

** Franchise/DuckTales comics also exist inside his universe. He's mentioned that he likes to think of them as unlicensed fabricated adventures based on the colourful character of the city's biggest celebrity, Scrooge [=McDuck=], and would like to make a comic about him facing the copyright issues involved to prevent the comic's sale, but Creator/{{Disney}} hasn't at least yet relented to allowing its major animated series to be treated like a pirate release, even inside a comic.

** Prior to the incorporation of the DCU in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', ComicBook/LexLuthor was an avid collector of comic books, his favorite being a Superhero named Warrior Angel, which started out as vaguely Superman, and then evolved into the ''Smallville'' equivalent of [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]. It also plays with the above statement slightly: Clark might not be the first Superhero, but he has gotten the most attention.

** This carries over to the video game ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' which has both Deadpool and Ryu. Not only does he still use the Shoryuken, he explicitly recognizes the Creator/{{Capcom}} cast as originating from Video Games, stating he loves ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' whenever he fights a character from those games, among other things (though they never seem to react). Either Deadpool is merely BreakingTheFourthWall again, or the Capcom characters actually do have video games in the Marvel Universe, as the plot involves a scheme between villains of both worlds to merge them into one Earth. No word on whether Marvel comics exist in the Capcom world, however.
*** Deadpool has apparently played the ''Videogame/XMen'' arcade game, since he will taunt Magneto with [[AscendedMeme "Welcome to die!"]]

** It's widely established that Franchise/TheDCU and Franchise/MarvelUniverse exist in the same... Multiverse? Megaverse? Adjacent multiverses? Same something. They met on several occasions, and the universes even merged for a while in the early 90s.
*** There's even a gag during a Marvel VS. DC mini (prior to ComicBook/{{Amalgam|Universe}}) where a man walks into a toy/novelty store, as if he'd done so regularly before the universal collide, and asked where all the "X-Men Stuff" had gone. The clerk responded, "What's X-Men?" Maquettes of two [[WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain characters]] should tell you the universe in which this transpired.

* The Spider-Man storyline "ComicBook/MaximumCarnage" mentions Music/WeirdAlYankovic on the very first page, showing that he exists in the Marvel Universe. Not only has Al mentioned Spidey in a few songs, such as "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota," but "Ode to a Superhero" is all about Spidey's [[Film/SpiderMan1 2002 movie]]. If "Ode to a Superhero" exists in the Marvel Universe as well, that would provide Spidey quite a few problems, since among other things it mentions him being Peter Parker...

* In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, one issue of ''Comicbook/UltimateSpiderMan'' involved Spidey's exploits being filmed by Creator/SamRaimi to save money on CGI for a blockbuster movie starring Tobey Maguire.
** When Ultimate Spidey went to Raimi to ask him to stop, they just filmed him some more. The majority of the movie in the Ultimate universe was made up of real footage from a battle between Spidey and Dock Ock. Naturally, Peter doesn't see a dime from it and resents the movie, which ought to reflect poorly on Raimi and Maguire but it mainly comes off as RuleOfFunny.
*** For some reason Avi Arad was also on set, apparently as a creative consultant. How he got that job is never really explained.

* Non-actor version: One ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} comic [[Memes/ComicBooks famously]] features a scene where he incites Franchise/{{Wolverine}} to violence by saying to Kitty Pride "Speaking of games, ever played ''Franchise/StreetFighter''?" and then {{Shoryuken}}-ing her in the face. Then Udon [[https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11116/111160825/4131097-1309150731166.jpg delivered a ShoutOut to that scene]] in their ''ComicBook/StreetFighter'' comic, where Ryu says "Speaking of comics, ever read ''Deadpool''?" and then Shoryukens Sagat.