This one's going to be a bit of a different one this week since this character is probably known to you (Hell, the modern incarnation of them is getting a movie made about them), but you probably don't know that, due to how American Copyright law functioned between the 20s and 70s, this character is public domain. So, today let's talk about just how this happened.

[Disclaimer, I'm not a lawyer]

Now, most of you may be familiar with the current way things become public domain in America, mainly waiting a really long time for the property to enter it automatically. For The Great Gatsby, it took 96 years since publication for it to be free to use for anyone and everyone.

Most public domain superheroes became public domain in less time than that. In fact, they became public domain almost immediately because the relevant creators/companies did not file a copyright notice within 5 days of publication. This is the case of the Blue Beetle - specifically the original Dan Garret incarnation (it can also be spelt "Dan Garrett", but most people exploiting the public domain aspect of the character use the former spelling). The character was published and nobody filed that notice.

"But wait," I hear you cry, "didn't Charlton Comics get the rights to the character, and then DC got the rights from Charlton Comics?" - sort of. Again, the character is legally public domain, but they did purchase them anyway - more importantly, they also got the trademark for Blue Beetle, and that's an aspect you can't get around (also technically the Ted Kord incarnation of Blue Beetle is also public domain since their creators also didn't file a copyright notice, but do you really want to mess with that?).

Now, obviously their use by DC would be seen as a major risk for people wanting to utilise the character... but the reason I'm talking about this is that people have used the character anyway and have seemingly made it out unscathed. Project Superpowers (a modern reboot of a bunch of public domain superheroes) doesn't actually use him, but they were still bold enough to include him in a bios section in the back, under the name "Big Blue". Lucky Comics (a group that has also done licensed non-BBC Doctor Who Universe stuff, so they're pretty familiar with legal skullduggery) has a series called "Beetle Girl" about Dan Garret's granddaughter, Danni, who takes up her father's job as crimefighter. Most impressively, we also have a live-action movie called "Agent Beetle" about a modernised version of Dan Garret (but not so modern that they're the Jaime Reyes incarnation, which is undeniably copyrighted).

Basically, the Blue Beetle is a surprisingly safe pick... just be sure to call him something else (technically you don't need to call him something different within the comic/story - Beetle Girl uses "Blue Beetle" just fine within its pages, just not on the cover - you just can't use Blue Beetle in a way that infringes with DC's trademarks). Also make sure to not use anything added by a modern incarnation - Dan Garret was basically just a roided up cop in chainmail and didn't have any powers outside of that.

No, I didn't forget about it, you forgot about it.

Anyway, this week's hero is from a slightly older era than the typical hero covered here - all the way back from 1921 (making him public domain by more traditional means). He's also not from a comic and doesn't have a public-domain illustration, hence the watermarked stock image.

Richard Staegal was just your average wealthy socialite until, one day, he made a pact with his fiance to live a more exciting life. Most couples would accomplish this by [think of lewd joke later], but Richard opted to take on a new life as a Robin Hood-type figure, stealing from the rich and giving to charity.

Of course, he couldn't just go out on the streets without a disguise, hence why the Man in Purple is clad in purple clothing and a purple hood - all of which are apparently specially made to dissolve in acid (that sounds like all clothing, but maybe they dissolve quickly or dissolve under weaker acid than most clothing).

Despite being a creation of Johnston McCulley (perhaps best known for creating Zorro) barely anyone cares about this guy apparently. He showed up in 3 stories total (all of which I could only find by trudging through Archive.org - though there is one publisher selling an anthology with all of them) and, for the first time ever, I've had to create the pdsh wiki page for them. So, one could argue I actually wrote this post 4 days ago and therefore I'm actually early rather than late!

There are roughly 5000000 superheroes (give or take) in the public domain who base their entire personality on loving America... and of those heroes, about 5 of them are actually fun to talk about. Man of War is one of them!

Unlike most heroes, this Man of War isn't strictly speaking a human. During World War II, Mars (Roman God and global conflict fanboy) saw this fighting between the humans and was so impressed that he decided to send down a hero of his own creation to aid one of the sides during the war... unfortunately, the side Mars was rooting for was the Nazis.

Fortunately, however, Mars didn't account for Earth's rotation, so Man of War ended up landing in good ol' America instead, whereupon he learned that the Nazis weren't the best people. From this day on, he would aid the Americans in their fight against the Nazis.

Like most heroes of the time, he had some amount of super strength and damage resistance, but he was also uniquely equipped with a magical flaming sword that could cut through anything (including tanks!).

Man of War didn't live long (only appearing in 5 issues total), but he has found himself being bought back a few times, with a rebooted version of the character in the 90s by Malibu Comics, and a more comedic version of the character showing up in the webcomic "Everything Will be the Same Ever Again".

The Dobre twins. The Olsen twins. Adam Sandler and whatever the name of the person who played “Jill” in “Jack and Jill” was. For decades, twins and triplets have used the conditions of their birth to attract fame to them like magnets, and today’s group is no different.

Richard, Barton, and Bruce Brandon (side-note, somebody genuinely decided to name their child “Barton Brandon”?) were a set of triplets who felt like they really had something to offer the world of crime figthing - mainly the fact that there was three of them - and so they set out upon the streets as Triple Terror!

My main question about this group is would it be easy or difficult to find out their secret identity? On the one hand, they do wear masks, which is more than can be said of most of the heroes covered here… but also, each of the triplets has a symbol on their chest related to their day-job. Furthermore, how many triplets do you know in your life? I just feel like maybe they’d be an easy bunch to figure out is all.

Anyway, Triple Terror was a surprisingly long-lived group, lasting for 65 issues before disappearing into obscurity.