What the hell is going on in the comic book world lately? First there was the big news that DC would be losing the rights to Superman in the next few years, then we find out that Disney bought Marvel, and that was quickly followed up by Warner Brothers restructuring all of DC Comics and shaking up the entire company's management staff. Now comes this . . . . .
The Heirs of comic book legend Jack Kirby are suing Marvel comics and Disney for the copyrights to every character Kirby ever made.
The heirs to Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America - and had a hand in creating Spider-Man, pretty much completing the set - have sent out 45 notices of copyright termination to companies including Marvel Entertainment, Disney, Paramount (distributors for Iron Man, Hulk and the next five Marvel movies), Sony (the studio behind the Spider-Man movies, 20th Century Fox (X-Men and Fantastic Four) and others, expressing intent to own copyright on Kirby's creations. The notices did not only involve comic books and movies; apparently, Hasbro and Universal also received notices, for the toy and theme park rights as well.
The Kirby estate is taking the claim seriously, hiring Marc Toberoff, the attorney who's been representing the Siegel estate in the recent Superman/Superboy lawsuits. While Marvel itself has offered no comment on the notices yet, Disney issued a statement saying, essentially, that it's not a big deal:
"The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition."
Holy crap!!! Is it possible that Disney/Marvel could lose the copyright to half of their universe's characters? Say it ain't so! DC potentially losing Superman was bad enough, but the X-men not being Marvel? Captain America? Iron Man? It's unthinkable. And the fact that the same lawyer from the Supes/DC case is running this just gives it the potential to be really, honestly, pants wetting scary.
Disney may be saying things are fine right now, and I'm sure they're already amassing their entire nation-sized staff of soulless lawyer robots to fight this lawsuit to the bitter end, but what if the Superman case has set a precedent that other creators like Jack Kirby can follow? If this happens, what then would stop people like Stan Lee and Steve Ditko from suing Marvel as well?
The world is going to hell in a handbasket people. I fear that this is just the beginning. Before you know it, dogs and cats will be living together. It'll be mass hysteria!
I'm kinda of scared for the future of the characters in the Marvel Universe. Why do people have to be such douche bags?
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