Marvel Sued by Kirby’s Relatives
Marvel super-heroes have been box office gold these past few years – X-Men, Spider Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor – quite a line-up.
Prior to the release of X-Men back in 2000, we would have to say that comic book hero movies were really bad, that’s not to say that there weren’t one or two gems in the late 80’s/early 90’s, but by far and large the likes of The Phantom, Judge Dredd, The Shadow and Batman & Robin were all pretty tacky. Worse than that, any film Marvel had released prior to 2000 ranked among the worst comic book movies ever known to man!
Then came the X-Men, an exciting, intelligence translation of 40 years of comic book history on-screen and everything changed. Throughout the last decade, Marvel ruled the roost when it came to comic-cinematic outings and according to Kevin Feige that’s long going to continue!
Several films are being made or planned by Marvel Studios. Thor began filming today. However, a legal fight is on the horizon between Marvel and artist Jack Kirby’s relatives.
Marvel filed a federal lawsuit against the Kirby estate last Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Last year Kirby’s relatives began sending out letters threatening a law suit and telling Marvel they owned the rights to these characters through Kirby’s estate.
Marvel issued their own counter-claim stating that Kirby did not own the characters and that he worked “for hire”. Will Kirby’s people win the suit and own the rights? How will this effect Disney’s take-over of Marvel Entertainment?
