History CelebrityParadox / ComicBooks

** Similarly, in ''ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'', Warren White notes that "Years from now, people will think Halliburton was the guy who made ''Film/EdwardScissorhands''." So, did Creator/TimBurton make ''Film/{{Batman}}'' and ''Film/BatmanReturns''?

'''Stark:''' Guilty as charged..

->'''Stark:''' Guilty as charged..

*** 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.

* As an in-joke to Creator/RobertDowneyJr playing the live-action Film/IronMan role, ''Comicbook/IronMan vs Whiplash'' has Tony Stark check into a hotel and pay an exorbitant amount to not have any questions asked. One of the hotel staff says he knows who Stark really is - and that Mr. Downey Jr's secret is safe with him.

*** In ''{{Ultimatum}}'', Peter's buddy Kong suggests that he and his friends go see ''Film/TheDarkKnight''.
** Also subverted in the UltimateMarvel universe: when discussing which actors should play the various members of the Ultimates, Nick Fury nominates Creator/SamuelLJackson for himself. This being an obvious meta-reference, as Marvel had based Ultimate Nick Fury's likeness on Jackson, with the agreement that they'd cast him for the movie version when the time came.

*** 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 DCUniverse without jeopardizing the identities of the actual Titans.

*** In ''{{Ultimatum}}'', Peter's buddy Kong suggests that he and his friends go see ''Film/TheDarkKnight''.

** In one issue, Spider-Man says that he's got a little experience with imposters, "be they clones, robots, or Tobey Maguire."

*** 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 DCUniverse without jeopardizing the identities of the actual Titans.

** An issue of ''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.

** In ''{{Ultimatum}}'', Peter's friend Kong suggests that they all go see ''Film/TheDarkKnight''.

*** 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 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.

*** There's even a gag during a Marvel VS. DC mini (prior to {{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.

** DC, prior to 1986, 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 the Flash, but wouldn't make sense for someone like Superman, where both versions had the same secret identity.

*** 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 GhostRider-style.
** However, at least in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, there is {{Canon}} evidence from comics such as ''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 [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] revival, 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 Daredevil or Spider-Man are, the in-universe comic fabricated origins for them.

*** EdBrubaker's ''CaptainAmerica'' run revealed that the ''Captain America'' film serial from the 1940's exists in the 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 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.

** {{Deadpool}}, meanwhile, has mentioned on more than one occasion that he's seen the Spider-Man movies and knows that it's "doe-eyed Tobey Maguire" underneath the mask. But then, he is Deadpool, so maybe [[NoFourthWall he has seen the movie on the other side of the fourth wall]] or something.
** In one issue, Spider-man says that he's got a little experience with imposters, "be they clones, robots, or Tobey Maguire."
*** {{Deadpool}} himself says in one issue that he looks like "RyanReynolds mixed with a Shar-Pei." No sign of the Shar-Pei, but who else would get the role when the live-action movie came out?
** Also subverted in the UltimateMarvel universe: when discussing which actors should play the various members of the Ultimates, Nick Fury nominates SamuelLJackson for himself. This being an obvious meta-reference, as Marvel had based Ultimate Nick Fury's likeness on Jackson, with the agreement that they'd cast him for the movie version when the time came.

** In an issue of ''BatmanAndTheOutsiders'', Salah programs Re-Mac with several basic forms, one of them including 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.
** 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 ''TheEmpireStrikesBack'', implying that he was MarkHamill. The same Mark Hamill who voiced the Joker in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the show the comic was based on.

* In his WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck comic stories, 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.
** WesternAnimation/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 Disney hasn't at least yet relented to allowing 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.
** Though with 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 TheMightyThor in his back pocket.
** Prior to the incorporation of the DCU in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', SelfDemonstrating/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 [[{{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.

* As an in-joke to RobertDowneyJr playing the live-action Film/IronMan role, ''Comicbook/IronMan vs Whiplash'' has Tony Stark check into a hotel and pay an exorbitant amount to not have any questions asked. One of the hotel staff says he knows who Stark really is - and that Mr. Downey Jr's secret is safe with him.
* Non-actor version: One {{Deadpool}} comic [[Memes/{{Comics}} famously]] features a scene where he incites {{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 delivered a ShoutOut to that scene in their ''Comicbook/StreetFighter'' comic, where Ryu says "Speaking of comics, ever read ''{{Deadpool}}''?" and then Shoryukens Sagat.

* ''Comicbook/FreddyVsJasonVsAsh'' pits Ash Williams of ''Franchise/EvilDead'' against Freddy Krueger. ''TheEvilDead'' is seen playing on a TV in the original ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984''.

*** A ''{{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 GhostRider-style.

** 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 TheJoker in a movie. Before being gagged, the man portraying the Joker quoted some lines from ''TheEmpireStrikesBack'', implying that he was MarkHamill. The same Mark Hamill who voiced the Joker in ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', the show the comic was based on.

** Similar to the ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' example below, 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 TheJoker in a live-action film. Before being gagged, the man portraying the Joker quoted some lines from ''TheEmpireStrikesBack'', implying that he's supposed to be MarkHamill. The same Mark Hamill who voiced the Joker in ''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. To fill the publication vacuum, comics starring pirates became popular--hence, nobody notices the similarities between characters like Nite Owl and Franchise/{{Batman}} or Rorschach and TheQuestion.
** Actually Nite Owl is more like the Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle, and would actually have been him if Alan Moore hadn't been forced to change his plans.

* ''AstroCity'' plays with this as well. Comic book publishers can either publish stories of fictional characters like Franchise/{{Batman}}, or secure licensing rights and publish the exploits of real superheroes. Since the heroes are real, authors and publishers are vulnerable to libel laws, and comics are required to adhere to known facts and events.

* 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.

* In the UltimateMarvel universe, one issue of ''{{Ultimate Spider-Man}}'' involved Spidey's exploits being filmed by SamRaimi to save money on CGI for a blockbuster movie starring Tobey Maguire.

** Similarly, in ''ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'', Warren White notes that "Years from now, people will think Halliburton was the guy who made ''EdwardScissorhands''." So, did Creator/TimBurton make ''Film/{{Batman}}'' and ''Film/BatmanReturns''?

* ''AstroCity'' plays with this as well. Comic book publishers can either publish stories of fictional characters like {{Batman}}, or secure licensing rights and publish the exploits of real superheroes. Since the heroes are real, authors and publishers are vulnerable to libel laws, and comics are required to adhere to known facts and events.

** Prior to the incorporation of the DCU in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', 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 [[{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]. It was 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 ''Film/EvilDead'' against Freddy Krueger. ''TheEvilDead'' is seen playing on a TV in the original ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984''.

* Non-actor version: One {{Deadpool}} comic [[MemeticMutation famously]] features a scene where he incites {{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 delivered a ShoutOut to that scene in their ''Comicbook/StreetFighter'' comic, where Ryu says "Speaking of comics, ever read ''{{Deadpool}}''?" and then Shoryukens Sagat.

* An early issue of GrantMorrison's ''AnimalMan'' run has Buddy listening to Music/{{REM}}'s "Superman" on his Walkman about 10 seconds after having a conversation with Comicbook/{{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.

* An issue of Franchise/GIJoe: Special Missions has a child receiving a toy of the {{Franchise/Transformer|s}} Jetfire. Strangely, Transformers and GI Joe shared the same continuity, and Jetfire even appeared in the GI Joe vs The Transformers miniseries.

** The ''Top Ten'' universe plays around with this. With so many superheroes, comics about mundane people, such as accountants, are popular.

* ''Comicbook/FreddyVsJasonVsAsh'' pits Ash Williams of ''Film/EvilDead'' against Freddy Krueger. ''The Film/EvilDead'' is seen playing on a TV in ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet''.

* An issue of Franchise/GIJoe: Special Missions has a child receiving a toy of the {{Franchise/Transformer|s}} Jetfire. Strangely, Transformers and GI Joe shared the same continuity, and Jetfire even appeared in the GI Joe vs The Transformers miniseries.