During Batman Day 2021, DC’s online celebration of the Caped Crusader, a webcomic was released for the Webtoons online platform. Cartoon, title Batman: Wayne Family Adventures is a humorous, slice-of-life take on the Bay Mythos, with Bruce Wayne as a stressed-out father to the entire extended Bat-Family, including Damien Wayne, Barbara Gordon, and Nightwing.
The comic has proven to be quite popular, breaking Webtoon readership numbers. So it was no surprise that indie fan filmmakers Ismahawk developed a live-action web series based on the comics. The actors were announced and behind-the-scenes photos were shown. Even a teaser trailer was released. It even apparently had the backing of both DC Comics and Webtoons. But all may not be as it seems…
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Holy potential copyright infringement, Batman!
![Batman Wayne Family](https://images.thedirect.com/media/photos/batman-wayne-family.jpg)
Shortly after its release, the teaser trailer for the web series of the same name, Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, was removed from YouTube and all other platforms without explanation. Then the promised full trailer, which was supposed to be released on Monday, October 11, never made it online.
According to a report by Collider, Ismahawk’s live-action shorts were actually No Officially endorsed by DC or Webtoons:
“Not an official live-action version of the Batman: Wayne Family Adventures webcomic and not announced by DC or WEBTOON. The video was intended as a short form series created by Ismahawk and inspired by the webcomic.
Turning on detective mode
Something is not right with this development. Or rather, many things do not match.
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First of all, the webcomic on which this series is based was first released on September 8, 2021. It’s almost unfathomable that a series of three-episode shorts could be mapped, written, acted, shot, and edited in a single period of time. a little over a month. If you look at Ismahak’s past films, these productions clearly have a lot going for them, from special effects to elaborate stunt work.
How could Ismahawk have produced the series if no one knew it was happening until it was announced and published?
Additionally, the teaser trailer, which has since been removed and scrubbed from the Internet, featured the DC and Webtoons logos in full display. Surely a production house with as much experience in creating fan films as Ismahawk would know not to use logos associated with intellectual property they do not own.
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Fan films generally fall within the scope of the “fair use” principle, which means that they can be made in good faith as long as no monetary gain accrues from their publication. This still doesn’t explain the use of both the DC and Webtoons logos in the teaser trailer. It’s almost as if Ismahawk is trying to pass off his Batman series as a legitimate DC production.
The situation is strange and there is no satisfactory answer. It remains to be seen if the episodes will even be published online. Judging by the production photos previously released by IGN, the episodes had a certain quality, so it would be disappointing to say the least if the episodes were not released.