The Irish company that prompted Vertigo to change the title of the new series by Simon Oliver and Robbi Rodriguez from Collider to FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics is now hoping to exploit the situation to its own advantage.

Trumpeting its victory in "a battle against DC Comics/Vertigo," the Dublin-based beActive issued a press release Tuesday promoting its own Collider while gently chiding the American publisher for its lack of diligence. "The Irish company published the COLLIDER comic book series worlde [sic]  in 2012, therefore claiming ownership of the brand," the release states. "In January 2013, COLLIDER even made the TOP 5 on Comics Plus, the largest online comic book store in the U.S."

While it's not unheard of for a publisher to change the name of a comic before publication because of a trademark conflict, in this instance, the announcement came more than a week after the release of Collider #1.

As Oliver recounted last week to Comic Book Resources, "The first issue's printed and being loaded on the trucks and we get a call from legal to tell us that someone else, on the other side of the globe says that they have creative dibs on the name 'Collider' and we have to change our title." The second issue, out Aug. 28, will bear the title FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics.

The Vertigo series centers on Special Agent Adam Hardy and the Federal Bureau of Physics, who are tasked with protecting a world where the laws of physics are no longer as reliable as they once were. BeActive's Collider, meanwhile, centers on six people who are mysteriously transported to a post-apocalyptic future and must find a way to return to the present. According to the company, a film adaptation will premiere in Portugal in November and in the United Kingdom and Ireland in January.



(via The Outhousers)