Marvel is at war to keep control of its superheroes

Marvel may soon have to “share” the rights to some of its most iconic characters like Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man or Hawkeye. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has indeed filed a complaint against the heirs of several comic book creators, such as the legendary Stan Lee or Steve Ditko, who filed last August for the termination of rights for the heroes they created. A provision provided for in a law of 1973 which allows, after a given period, to recover the rights of a creation which had been “assigned” to a third person or entity.

If they got their way, Marvel and its parent company, Disney, would lose billions of dollars in character rights revenue. The studios therefore decided to counter-attack in court, stating in particular that the comic book authors being, at the time of the creation of the characters, under contract with Marvel, Spider-Man and others were created for Marvel, to whom they therefore belong.

Not so fast

This defense had already been used by DC Comics when the families of the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, had tried, in vain, to get their hands on the rights of the superhero. Coincidentally or not, the lawyer representing Steve Ditko’s family, Marc Toberoff, is the same as in the previous case. The O’Melveny law firm, which is handling the case for Marvel, is also the same that helped DC win the lawsuit.

Suffice to say that it does not necessarily smell very good for the efforts of the Ditko family. The Hollywood Reporter specifies, however, that the case is not lost in advance, since Marc Toberoff also represented the heirs of Jack Kirby when they filed a similar request in 2013. At the time, he had reached an agreement at the amicable with Marvel before the case is studied by the judges of the Supreme Court.

If the authors’ camp wins this time around, Marvel and Disney will have to share the rights to their characters as early as 2023.