The Steven Spielberg-Produced Cartoon That Comic Book Fans Accused Of Plagiarism

In the early 1990s, Steven Spielberg oversaw a miniature animation renaissance. He assembled a super-team of the industry's strongest talents in the hopes of recreating, in a modern idiom, the slapstick magic of old-world Looney Tunes cartoons. 1990 saw the premiere of "Tiny Toon Adventures," a self-aware show that featured hip-talking 12-year-old counterparts of famed Looney Tunes characters. This, in turn, led to the creation of "Animaniacs," a modern update of the ethos of zany 1930s cartoons, but with its own wicked pace and surreal asides. Spielberg's renaissance then crested in 1995 with the debut of Paul Dini and Bruce Timm's "Freakazoid!" — a relatively short-lived animated superhero spoof that remains one of the better animated series of the 1990s.

Nonsense down to its core, "Freakazoid!" aimed to dismantle the po-faced seriousness of the superhero genre (seriousness that Timm himself contributed to with his acclaimed "Batman: The Animated Series"). Freakazoid was created, in the lore of the show, when a teen nerd named Dexter Douglas was accidentally sucked into the internet (a novelty in 1995), absorbing all the information therein. Because there was no useful information on the internet in 1995, Freakazoid emerged as a blithering clown armed with a cartoon sense of humor and increased distractibility. (He couldn't fly, but he liked to pretend he could.) The series as a whole featured a lot of absurd asides, surreal in-jokes, and oblique pop culture references. Had it come out in a later year, "Freakazoid!" would have been at home on Adult Swim. In 1995, on Kids' WB, however, it was merely ahead of its time.

"Freakazoid!" also, some comic book readers noticed, strongly, strongly resembled Mike Allred's character Madman, who first appeared in Calibre Comics in 1990. Both Freakazoid and Madman had blue skin, wore chest logos with exclamation points on them, and had affected a similar, pop-culture-infused, devil-may-care attitude toward traditional superheroism. Some even felt that "Freakazoid!" resembled Madman to an actionable degree.

Madman was a cult figure to 1990s comic book collectors. The character had a Frankenstein-like origin story; it began with a man named Zane Townsend being killed in a car wreck, only to be stitched back together and resurrected by a pair of twisted scientists. While he was super-strong, he only had scant memories of his former life. Townsend thereafter became Madman, a superhero who wore an exclamation point on his chest. His choice to become a vigilante was inspired by a barely-remembered comic book about a hero called "Mr. Excitement."

Although the "Madman" comics weren't quite as parodic or raucous as "Freakazoid!" was, they did have a wild, absurd quality that they shared with the cartoon. Either the makers of "Freakazoid!" were ripping off Madman or they, at the least, knew about him. Indeed, Madman creator Mike Allred confirmed on a message board in 2003 that he'd even contacted Timm about the similarities, writing that Timm admitted the Madman comics were used as a source of inspiration during the show's development. To quote Allred directly:

"Bruce Timm was kind enough to tell me that Madman was a direct inspiration for the show, with comics open and referred to when developing the show. Stupidly, I was flattered; happy to inspire anything. But when the show came out, with no acknowledgement or credit or any kind of compensation, I slowly became annoyed as everyone and their uncle confronted me with 'There's this cartoon that's ripping off Madman' and 'You oughtta sue.'"

Ultimately, Allred didn't sue the makers of "Freakazoid!" He did, however, want to make sure he was on their radar. What followed was, it seems, a letter to Steven Spielberg himself.

Continuing, Allred explained: 

"I simply wrote a friendly letter to Steven Spielberg, telling him his production was a direct lift of my creation. I had no intention of creating ripples, I just wanted him to know that I knew. No one replied, which is fine. And to be honest, 'Madman' is an amalgam of a half a dozen other influences. So who am I to complain (the exclamation mark on the chest still kinda irks me a little, though. A little too close for comfort)?"

Indeed, a lot of comic books and TV shows in the late '80s and early '90s were pointedly created to spoof and deconstruct tired, decades-old superhero tropes, and Madman was just one of many characters in the deconstructionist army. In addition to Freakazoid, their ranks also included the Tick, Earthworm Jim, Megaton Man, Too Much Coffee Man, Fight Man, the Defenders of Dynatron City, the Flaming Carrot, the Mysterymen, or the Mask. Heck, even Marvel's Deadpool and She-Hulk were part of this trend, as they both regularly broke the fourth wall during their comic book adventures. Similarly, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were invented as a spoof of then-contemporary Daredevil comics. There was something in the water.  It's surprising that superheroes were able to return to earnestness after the 1990s.

So, while Madman and Freakazoid do strongly resemble one another, it seems both Allred and Bruce Timm were drawing from the same well. They were also part of a larger wave of spoofery that neither of them invented. Where Madman was a little more out on the edge, Freakazoid was a whimsical cult curio — one that, nonetheless, led to other projects, like "Superman: The Animated Series."

Still, it would've been nice if Allred had at least received a special thanks or something.