When Disney announced its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion last month, there was talk of the studio eventually reigning in all film rights to Marvel characters, including those currently held by Fox (X-Men; Fantastic Four); Sony (Spider-Man), Universal (Hulk) and Paramount (Iron Man; The Avengers).
But now there’s a potential obstacle in the way of that plan, as the children of legendary comic artist Jack Kirby are looking to regain the copyrights on 45 of their father’s Marvel creations over the next decade.
Kirby, of course, co-created many of the most famous Marvel superheroes with Stan Lee, including pretty much all of the characters with films in the works. So, in addition to Disney and Marvel being issued notices of copyright termination, the other film studios have also been sent copies.
Surprisingly, this legal action has nothing to do with the Disney acquisition and was in the works before that deal was announced. A similar copyright issue involving DC’s Superman was in the news this summer, and now the same law firm that represented Jerry Siegel’s son in that case (they won him a share of the hero’s copyright) is representing the Kirby kids.
If they are able to win back these copyrights, the Kirbys will ultimately take away a huge amount of the profits Disney is hoping for. But there is some time for the company to cash in as much merchandising and licensing as possible before the Kirbys take partial control of different properties.
For example, they wouldn’t get any rights to Fantastic Four, Hulk or X-Men characters until 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively, due to a 56-year rule under copyright law.
It will be interesting to see what Stan Lee thinks of all this. He’s often given more unofficial credit for being the creator of these characters, and he’s already gone on record saying the Disney-Marvel deal is a “match made in heaven.” Lee could potentially win a piece of these copyrights at the same time as Kirby’s heirs, but his longtime support for Marvel’s use of his creations may mean he has no interest in doing so.
Do you support the Kirbys in their copyright claims? Do you worry what will happen to Marvel movies and other merchandise involving these characters if the family wins this case?