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Miracle Monday was a novel written by Superman comics writer Elliot S. Maggin, starring the DC Comics superhero Superman published in 1981, and recently republished. His second Superman novel, created as a tie-in Superman film series, wasn’t written to be in continuity with the movies.
The novel debuts the character, time traveler Kristin Wells, who would later appear in the comics both as herself and as Superwoman. And it is named after the annual holiday introduced in the book, Miracle Monday, which would also appear in the Superman comics, the people of Earth celebrating Superman’s actions.
Something of note is that while Elliot S. Maggin may not own the characters who appear in the book, such as Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Perry White, and Jimmy Olsen, he does own the book itself, it is copyright to him, as part of an arranged contract after the success of his first Superman novel, and that includes the title.
Last week’s Superman & Lois season 2 finale featured a Smallville public ceremony in which Lana Lang congratulates Superman on saving the world once and marks the date as the holiday, Miracle Monday.
Ken Penders, who drew the cover to the recent republication by Caveat Corner Books, writes;
Longtime Superman fans watching SUPERMAN & LOIS this past Tuesday might’ve been pleasantly surprised to see DC writer Elliot S! Maggin’s Superman novel MIRACLE MONDAY become part of the series mythology. Elliot would’ve been pleased, except… No one had contacted him, no one acknowledged him – not even in the end credits SPECIAL THANKS – and there’s no word of a check forthcoming.
The natural reaction might be that DC owns this. The truth is they don’t. Elliot has the contracts and letters from DC execs acknowledging this. Yes, they own Superman, Lois, Jimmy, Perry & other established characters. But they don’t own the story or the title. At best, they co-own with Elliot, and even that’s iffy considering DC abandoned any publishing rights they once had under the terms of the contract. They also acknowledged Elliot’s ownership of any and all of the characters he created, including the concept of and title to MIRACLE MONDAY.
Elliot was able to negotiate a special contract as a result of the sales performance of his first novel LAST SON OF KRYPTON. Both of his novels were the result of Warners wanting tie-in product to the first 2 Superman films starring Christopher Reeve when writer Mario Puzo didn’t do anything with the novelization rights to the actual films themselves he negotiated for. As Elliot’s novel outsold anything else Superman-related to the first film, that gave him real bargaining power, something very few comic creators have ever received. So anyone from DC and/or Warner’s listening – do the right thing.
So far DC/Warners has yet to include Elliot in the Special Thanks of Batman V Superman or acknowledge using his Green Arrow story “What Can One Man Do?” as the basis for several Arrow episodes. Acknowledgement is long past due. Just as Neal Adams, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster had to go public concerning DC’s & Warner’s treatment of creators, while it may not be anywhere near the level of the treatment of Superman’s original creators, I’m sure Jerry & Joe would be in Elliot’s corner on this, as am I.
Might this have commission been in error? Then it should be up to Warner Bros. or DC Comics to reach out and make this right. If not in error, then there are other conversations that might have to be had.
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