I really wish that headline was a lie or some clever joke to catch your attention, but it's not. DC Comics will be losing their ownership over the copyright to the character of Superman in the very near future. This could very well be the end times people, for surely this must be a sign of the coming apocalypse.
To be specific, DC will lose control of Superman in the year 2013, when the copyright for the character reverts back to the estates of the original creators of the character, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Those estates are now controlled by the heirs of the two creators. I don't know how I didn't know about this as this is potentially the biggest news in the comics industry in the last . . . well . . . ever! How the hell is this not being reported everywhere?!?!?!
I found this little bit of news thanks to this article from Variety which discussed a recent court ruling between the estates of the original creators and DC & Warner Brothers over whether the estates of the creators were due millions of dollars in royalties for the Superman Returns movie that came out a few years back. Apparently there was some argument that the WB got some sweet kickback deal on licensing the film and the families of the creators didn't get a proper cut of the money or something like that. The court had ruled in favor of DC and the families weren't going to get any money. For the most part, it was a rather boring article until about halfway down when I came across this little tidbit of info just sitting there like it meant nothing.
Toberoff [a Representative of the estates] also asserted in a written statement that the Siegel heirs and the heirs of co-creator Joe Shuster will own the entire Superman copyright in 2013.
"This trial was only an interim step in the multifaceted accounting case which remains, in that it only concerned the secondary issue of whether DC Comics, or DC Comics and Warner Bros., would have to account to the Siegels," he said. "To put this in further perspective, the entire accounting action pales in comparison to the fact that in 2013, the Siegels, along with the estate of Joe Shuster, will own the entire original copyright to Superman, and neither DC Comics nor Warner Bros. will be able to exploit any new Superman works without a license from the Siegels and Shusters."
Holy fucking shitballs!!! DC Comics will no longer own the rights to Superman!!! Good god, my mind has just been broken. DO you realize what this means? This means that Superman, the single biggest Icon in the entire comics industry, will effectively become a free agent in just four short years. If DC wants to keep him in their universe, they're going to have to pay through the nose for him. And what if DC isn't the highest bidder? It's entirely possible given this situation that Marvel Comics, who are sitting pretty right now on top of bankloads of cash from all of their successful movies, could very well outbid DC for the right to publish Superman books.
Superman could very easily become the newest, and biggest icon of Marvel Comics. Can you imagine that? Just think about it for two seconds. Superman, now officially a part of the Marvel Universe. How would they even begin to explain his sudden appearance? How would DC explain his sudden disappearance? And what about the rest of his world? Does the copyright to Superman cover other characters too like Lois Lane or Lex Luthor? What about The Daily Planet or Perry White or Jimmy Olsen or Smallville or Lana Lang? What about Metropolis?
What if these things don't get transferred over with Superman? What is Superman without Metropolis and Lois Lane? Would the world suddenly have to put up with a new Clark Kent who lives in New York, is the new ace reporter for the Daily Bugle and who falls in love with Betty Brant?
Good lord, I think I'm getting nauseous just thinking about this. And Don't think it's not possible that the heirs of Seigel and Shuster won't fuck over DC just to get back at them either. Remember, DC Comics royally dicked over Superman's creators for pertty much the rest of their lives and wouldn't even acknowledge that they had created the character for decades. At every possible step, DC and it's parent company Warner Brothers has fought the families of Siegel and Shuster with every possible legal weapon they have to keep them from gaining any sort of money or control of the character whatsoever. And now, after decades of corporate abuse, the heirs of Siegel and Shuster will have the opportunity to turn DC Comics' greatest character over to their biggest rivals.
If that happens, DC is super screwed (pun fully intended). Just imagine. No more World's Finest comics. No more Batman/Superman. The Justice League would be nothing without Supes. And just imagine how odd it would be to see Supes leading the Avengers from here on out.
These are dark times people. I wouldn't put it beyond belief that we'll soon see dogs and cats living together. It'll be mass hysteria. DC may literally well become a world without Superman. Again, how this isn't getting reported on every single TV and radio news station is beyond me. This is bigger than anything else out there. I can't even make a decent comparison in size to some other large news item because everything else seems to pale compared to this earth shattering news.
What is this world coming to peope? I suddenly fear the future.
P.S. Wait, I just figured out how it would all work. In his very first issue with Marvel comics, it would be explained that Superman made a deal with Mephisto to save Lois Lane and the world by having himself transproted to a parallell dimension, never to return. Also, he'll have his memory erased in the process and will have no idea who he is. They'll call this storyline One More Day On Krypton.
that's insane! hopefully they'll be able to work something out.
ReplyDeleteWarner Brothers owns DC. Warner Brothers has shitloads of cash. They would die before they let the copyright go to someone else. I think it will play out like the whole Pixar thing. Pixar's contract with Disney expired before Cars or something like that. But the fact is Pixar NEEDS Disney to distribute their films. Shuster and Siegel heirs will more than likely NEED Warner/DC to continue to produce stuff for the character. I'm willing to bet something does get worked out.
ReplyDeleteFrom some of the stuff I've been reading, it looks like the copyright is reverting away from DC and there's just no legal way of stopping that from happening. The estates of the creators are getting it. About Pixar, they don't NEED Disney to distribute their films. They could have any company distribute their films. They only stayed with Disney after their contract expired because Disney realized that their own films were shit and they NEEDED Pixar if they wished to keep making money on film properties. So they payed Pixar a shit ton of cash to stay on as their distributor. More than anyone else offered. That's the position DC will find themselves in. The estate of the creators doesn't NEED DC. Every comic company in the world will be clamoring for the ability to publish superman books. But DC Comics NEEDS Superman. The WB will have to pay out a fortune to keep the character, but they'll have to do it. The only question is, will Marvel outbid them?
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