History CelebrityParadox / ComicBooks

* Howard Wolowitz and his friends from ''TheBigBangTheory'' make a cameo appearance in a 2009 issue of ''ComicBook/PowerGirl''. One wonders if the gang own that particular comic book...

** 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 [[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.

*** Similarly, after his [[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.

*** Superboy-Prime had a similar origin. His psychopathic behaviour in pursuit of [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] values can be at least partly explained by the fact he still thinks of these people as fictional characters.

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

** Also subverted in the UltimateMarvel universe: when discussing which actors should play the various members of the Ultimates, NickFury 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.

** In an issue of ''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.

* 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 the Blue Beetle or Rorschach and TheQuestion.

** This carries over to the video game MarvelVsCapcom3 which has both Deadpool and Ryu. Not only does he still use the Shoryuken, he explicitly recognizes the Capcom cast as originating from Video Games, stating he loves ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' whenever he fights a charater 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.

*** In a "What the...!" short story The Thing (Ben Grimm) storms Marvel's office about the comics adaptation of a short encounter with a joke-villain. The match last all of a single second, where the comics depicts "[...] several pages of blows... all on my head!". When authors lament that not all of Fantastic Four's real adventure are epic enough, The Thing start using his own kind of diplomacy to discourage future humiliations.

* Averted (or arguably lampshaded) in the original ''Worlds Collide'' crossover between the DCU and the [[MilestoneComics Milestone Universe]]. The Milestone Universe has Superman comics, so when the Milestone heroes get cosmically shunted to the DCU, they know Superman's secret identity (and originally assume he's just some yutz dressed up like Superman). The more recent ''When Worlds Collide'' established that the two universes have since merged, presumably wiping out the Milestone heroes' inappropriate memories.

** This carries over to the video game MarvelVsCapcom3 which has both Deadpool and Ryu. Not only does he still use the Shoryuken, he explicitly recognizes the Capcom cast as originating from Video Games, stating he loves ''VideoGame/StreetFighter'' whenever he fights a charater 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.

* ''ComicBook/PatsyWalker'' was a comic from TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks about teenagers similar to the ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' gang. Patsy Walker is ''currently'' the SuperHero Hellcat. It turns out that "Patsy Walker" and "Patsy and Hedy" comics exist in-universe and are ''exactly'' the same as the ones in RealLife: Patsy's mother wrote the comic, using her daughter and her friends as characters, and reality (that is, Hellcat's actual teenage life) was the inspiration -- meaning the comics are ''not'' the ''exact'' way her past went, but she does know people with those names who were ''sorta'' like that.

** A [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] ''Superman'' story had Clark taking Lois to the movies... where a Fleischer Brothers ''{{WesternAnimation/Superman|TheatricalCartoons}}'' cartoon was showing before the main feature. HilarityEnsues as Clark goes to great lengths to ensure that Lois is distracted every time his on-screen counterpart changes identities. The story ends with Clark and his on-screen counterpart winking at each other, even as he wonders who [[MaxAndDaveFleischer the Fleischer Brothers]] ''are'' and how they found out all they did.

** Marvel did another joke on this in ''Comicbook/{{Spider-Girl}}''; Mary Jane comments that Reilly Tyne (son of Spider-Man's clone Ben Reilly) looks sort of like Peter; Pete, on the other hand, thinks he looks more like Tobey Maguire.

* 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 (since he has been accused of a massacre). One of the hotel staff says he knows who Tony really is.. and guesses Robert Downy Junior
-->'''Stark:''' Guilty as charged..

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

* ''PatsyWalker'' was a comic from TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks about teenagers similar to the ArchieComics gang. Patsy Walker is ''currently'' the SuperHero Hellcat. It turns out that "Patsy Walker" and "Patsy and Hedy" comics exist in-universe and are ''exactly'' the same as the ones in RealLife: Patsy's mother wrote the comic, using her daughter and her friends as characters, and reality (that is, Hellcat's actual teenage life) was the inspiration - meaning the comics are ''not'' the ''exact'' way her past went, but she does know people with those names who were ''sorta'' like that.

*** 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. Creator/MarvelComics have a DC analogue in Major Comics, with their output being inspired by the heroes of Earth-7 and Earth-8.

** Marvel ''loves'' doing this; characters will always be compared to whoever's playing them in a recent or upcoming film. Hilariously, Pete Wisdom playfully posed as Professor X and said [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration "make it so!"]] at one point... ''long before'' the X-Men movies with PatrickStewart. When those films (or comics) exist in-universe, it's for reasons similar to the Batman example: writers will make stories about them and they can't exactly claim copyright without revealing their SecretIdentity. We never get enough details of what's in those books to know for sure but they probably ''aren't'' a 100% match for the truth (except in a series like She-Hulk, which was quite comedic and had NoFourthWall.) As for Deadpool, even he isn't ''quite'' in full MediumAwareness in-universe: rather, he's a TalkativeLoon who either thinks he's in a comic book or finds it amusing to act like he does (it's hard to know for sure) and so people just humor him when he starts talking about how he missed his yellow thought bubbles, and how he hasn't seen you since issue five.

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

*** In ''Comicbook/TheMultiversity'', at least part of DC's output in the main DCU (Earth-0) is actually inspired by other Earths in TheMultiverse; it's no longer limited to just one Earth. Marvel Comics have a DC analogue in Major Comics, with their output being inspired by the heroes of Earth-7 and Earth-8.

* Howard Wolowitz and his friends from ''TheBigBangTheory'' make a cameo appearance in a 2009 issue of ''Power Girl''. One wonders if the gang own that particular comic book...

** 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 TheFlash, but wouldn't make sense for someone like Franchise/{{Superman}}, where both versions had the same secret identity.

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

* ''ComicBook/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.
** The story "Where the Action Is" details a comic publisher who publishes embellished exploits of "real life" heroes and villains, with increasingly dangerous results. First, the hero Crackerjack shows up to complain about lack of royalty payments (the publisher puts him off with fast talk and HollywoodAccounting); then, the heroine Nightingale threatens him for insinuating that she and her partner are lesbians. Finally the villain Glowworm corners the publisher at a convention and almost kills him for portraying him as a white supremacist (Glowworm has a radioactive sheen -- underneath it, as he puts it, "[[YouKnowImBlackRight You know what color]] I ''used'' to be?"). After the last threat, he decides to start a line of "cosmic" (alien/otherworldly) heroes and villains, since they are too [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence above mortal concerns]] to register complaints. [[spoiler:The building gets vaporized one morning several months later.]]

* 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.

*** 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 Franchise/SpiderMan are, the in-universe comic fabricated origins for them.