I know that it's not possible to copyright a specific name, but is the same thing true for superhero names? Obviously I'm not going to have characters named Batman or Superman, but I do have one who's called Hellhound, which I just realized is the name of a DC Comics villain. He's a pretty obscure character, though, and nobody but the most hardcore fans will probably know about him. Still, would I be at risk of being sued if I wrote my own superhero named Hellhound?
I don't doubt that they have dozens, if not hundreds. What I'm wondering is if a superhero's name falls under the same copyright laws as other names. If I wanted to, I could write a book about Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, and Bruce Wayne, and their lawyers wouldn't be able to do anything because (again) names are noncopyright-able. Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, and the like might be different, though, because they're the names of entire franchises. If I wanted to start my own animation company, I wouldn't be able to call it Disney because that's the name of an entire company that already exists. I couldn't call my hypothetical comic company Marvel for the same reason. But even if they can copyright the names of popular franchises, Hellhound isn't a franchise. He's just one character in a larger universe. A character who 99% of the people on earth have never heard of. That might give me a little leeway in this.
Exactly. You can have a character named Frodo Baggins that is a 50 year old plumber living in his mother's basement in New Jersey. He just can't be a hobbit living in Middle Earth. I believe the whole copyright thing hinges on whether the character/story can be reasonably mistaken for the original. Who's our resident lawyer? It's @Steerpike, right? ETA: and as always, if you ever write anything that raises eyebrows at DC Comics, you have likely have a good problem on your hands.
It is. DC's Hellhound is just a martial artist who likes dressing up as dogs. My Hellhound, first of all, is a woman. Secondly, she has the power to turn into a giant anthropomorphic wolf with superstrength, heightened senses and reflexes, and a howl that's so loud it can physically hurt whoever hears it.
A hellhound is a creature from folklore. Naming a character after a creature from mythology is not a copyright issue. The folklore is what came first, not the comic book character. If you copied the comic book characters powers, costume, characteristics, ect that would be an issue.