Creator of Spider-Man
With an ever increasing toxic environment surrounding the comic book industry, the news that Steve Ditko’s brother, Patrick, is suing Marvel for copyright ownership over Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, could not come at a worse time for Marvel who is struggling, creatively, and might put Marvel Comics in a potential bind. If successful, Marvel would lose ownership over key elements to both characters that are worth billions of dollars to the comic book company. Patrick Ditko is specifically suing Marvel over copyrights of both characters first appearance issues. Spider-Man first appeared in Amazing Fantasy vol 1#15 and included characters such as Aunt May and Uncle Ben and Spider-Man’s web shooters. This as well as any other characters in that first issue would fall back to the Ditko estate and out of control of Marvel comics. That would essentially place Marvel comics in a bind as well as Sony pictures. Dr. Strange, who first appeared in Strange Tales #110 would follow in the same way. Dr. Strange, the Eye of Agamatto, and other characters that appeared in that first issue would also fall into the hands of the Ditko estate and away from Marvel.
DC and Marvel Comics Have Made Billions While Creators Have Made a Pittance
Basically, creators and authors can sue to terminate a copyright after 56 years of the subjects first copyrighted publication. Spider-Man first appeared
Credit – Marvel Comics
in 1962, so that would allow the Ditko estate to sue within a five year window beginning in 2018. The same goes for Dr. Strange who first appeared in 1963. The family and estate of Seigel and Schuster for example, who created Superman in 1938, were allowed to sue for copyright termination starting in 1994, and have been in an ongoing copyright legal battle for decades with DC comics ever since. DC comics has made billions of dollars off of the Superman characters that Seigel and Schuster created and is more worried about the money it will lose rather than just settle and acknowledge the creators contribution. Marvel and DC comics are both very petty companies who could have settled with creators in a very substantial way instead of taking all the profits for themselves.
Marvel Could Potentially Lose Almost All of the Avengers Characters
In an article from The Hollywood Reporter, these aren’t the only characters trying to be wrested away from Marvel comics. In addition to Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, the following co-creators have filed a termination of copyright claim as well: The estate of Larry Lieber, co-founder of Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Thor, the estate of Don Heck who co-created Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Wonder Man, the family of Don Rico who co-created Black Widow, and the family of Gene Nolan who co-created Falcon. All of these characters were created by the talent at Marvel comics and have received a pittance compared to the billions that Marvel has reaped in comic books, merchandise, and movies. Marvel is putting their true face forward as they place their greed above the value that their artists and creators gave to them.
At the very least, these lawsuits might shine a light on how Marvel does business in the future with the talent it hires and how they compensate their creators for the characters that they develop. But, the real clue to how Marvel and DC comics feel about the future of the characters they now own and might lose, might be in the material they are producing to protect the future of those very characters. Marvel was probably aware that some of these creators wanted to file copyright claims and that’s why Marvel has been creating new iterations of these famous characters. Characters like Iron heart, Miles Morales Spider-Man, Jane Foster as Thor, Kate Bishop as Hawkeye, and Falcon as Captain America are all replacements for those iconic characters. DC comics has done the same with Superman over the last few decades with different iterations born from ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’, ‘The New 52’, ‘Man of Tomorrow, or Rebirth storylines. But, more purposefully, Superman has now been replaced by the much more “relevant” Jonathan Kent, Superman’s son in ‘Superman: Son of Kal-El’. Jonathan Kent is rumored to be gay and has taken over the mantle of Superman as Superman has indefinitely been disposed to fight against WarWorld. The same thing has happened to most of DC’s major characters over the past few decades giving DC comics the ability to utilize those versions instead of the first published ones. Ultimately, the combination of cancel culture and identity politics infused into our comic books, movies, and TV shows has turned off many fans. The growth of Japanese manga and back issue sales is direct evidence that fans are leaving the big two because they are sick of the politics in their stories. If Steve Ditko’s estate, as well as the other creators’ estates suing for copyright termination, win their lawsuits, I think it would be a big win for fans and a big win for the characters that Marvel and DC are exploiting to make a profit.
Related: The United States of Captain America
