The estate of the late artist and creator Jack Kirby is suing Marvel (and Disney) along with most of the big movie studios. Kirby's family apparently want to negotiate a new deal for the use of characters that Kirby helped to create for Marvel comics - including the Fantastic Four, the original X-Men, and many classic Avengers such as Captain America, Thor, Black Panther and Iron Man. If this legal action is successful, it probably won't affect the use of these characters in future comics and movies at all. Rather, Marvel/Disney and the companies that own the relevant film rights would probably readily make a deal with Kirby's estate, if it was the only way to continue exploiting the lucrative franchises that characters like Iron Man have proven to be (see last year's box office). Of course, this legal action may well not be successful; it is, however, being handled for Kirby's estate by Marc Toberoff, the same lawyer that recently won some of the lucrative Superman rights for the Siegel estate, meaning that this could well result in a win for Kirby's family. Watch this space.
News from BleedingCool, a great comic site, found via SlashFilm, an even greater film site.
Monday, 21 September 2009
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