Superhero Organizations and Business Entities
14th February 2011
One question that has come up a number of times is what kind of business entity would be best for superhero organizations like the Avengers or the Justice League.
Yeah, that’s been on my mind a lot lately….
February 14th, 2011 at 19:21
The Power Company was a comic by Kurt Busiek a few years ago about a for-profit group of heroes organized like a law firm parnership, with partners and associates. Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, was a sole proprietor.
The Fantastic Four has been a non-profit trust fund for decades. The Avengers are funded by Tony Stark, who has donated his mansion and other assets.
The JLA uses non-patented Kryptonian and Thanagarian technology, so I’m not sure if they have a business existence at all.
But most of them aren’t in business. This is a hobby, not a money-making activity. They limit liability, not with a corporation, but by hiding their identities.
You could make the case that any early Code-approved super group was a 501(c)3 not-for-profit educational corporation, since there was *always* a moral.
February 14th, 2011 at 19:27
There was a story in the fifties in which an IRS agent, with an excess of zeal, decided that each time Superman built an orphanage, or a bridge, or squeezed coal into diamonds for a charity, he was creating wealth, and owed income tax on it. (They conveniently ignored charitable deductions.)
Eventually it went before a judge, who ruled that everybody whose life he saves counted as a dependent. Since he had saved the world, Superman had three billion dependents (this was a while ago) which reduced his tax liability to zero.
Yes, I know dependent deductions don’t work like that. Nonetheless, this is proof that he was treated like an individual, not a corporation.