 We see in the papers today that Marvel Comics,
Disney,
and the estate of Jack Kirby
are all at each other’s throats, suing and counter-suing over the rights to some of Marvel's most valuable characters,
such as The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, The Avengers, and Nick Fury.
That matters should have come to such a pass is not especially surprising. In
recent years, copyright laws have changed, and as the copyrights for characters
created in the 1930s and '40s have begun to run out, a number of comic
creators have sued to regain control over their creations. The heirs of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster have indicated their
intention to cancel -- or at the very
least, alter -- their 1938
agreement with DC Comics (which gave the
corporation all rights to the Man of Steel for $130). The late writer Steve Gerber tried to gain control of his character Howard the Duck (to no avail). Joe Simon, Kirby's long-time partner,
sued Marvel as to who owned Captain America (they settled out of court), and Carmine Infantino, the artist who revolutionized the 1960s look of Batman, filed suit to claim ownership of such characters as the Silver Age Flash, Batgirl, and The Elongated Man.
Kirby, along with writer/editor Stan Lee,
pretty much created the Marvel Universe in the 1960s as they went along. Unlike the traditional method of a writer working from a detailed script, the "Marvel Method"
of comic book writing was to have a writer and artist come up with a plot,
which the artist would then draw, adding or subtracting story elements and
characters, leaving the writer to fill in the dialogue. With such working
methods, it was easy to confuse who created which characters.
The claim of the Kirby estate is that he was never an official employee of
Marvel; that he was creating concepts on his own that the company used.
Marvel's contention is, of course, just the opposite. But don't forget that
Stan Lee has also filed suit, claiming he is owed compensation for the characters he
created with Kirby and artist Steve Ditko
(such as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange).
Not every character has such a muddied past. Bob Kane retained control over Batman, although writer Bill Finger, who contributed most of the ideas, was left out in the cold. And Wonder Woman was watched over by her creator, psychologist William Moulton Marston (and his estate), from the 1940s until DC finally
purchased all the rights in the 1990s.
Regardless of how the Kirby lawsuit is settled, things don't bode well for corporately-owned characters. Eventually, characters as diverse as Superman, Scarlett O'Hara, and even Mickey Mouse will come into the public domain, allowing anyone to do
anything with them. Whether that's a blessing or a curse,
only time -- and the courts -- can tell.
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