Superhero Smackdown: Disney-Marvel vs. Hulk's Dad
In what is shaping up to be a knock-down, drag-out legal battle, the heirs of superhero creator Jack Kirby are seeking a cut of the profits made from his X-Men, Hulk and other Marvel comic book characters that Walt Disney paid $4 billion for last year.
When it acquired Marvel, Disney thought its biggest quandary would be identifying which of the superhero franchises to develop to bolster young male patronage of ts storied animation and live-action film and television production.
Although the Marvel deal was the largest and creatively smartest since Disney's savvy acquisition of Steve Jobs' Pixar Animation Studios (Up, Toy Story) for $7.4 billion in 2006, it could prove more problematic as the Mouse House seeks to exploit Kirby's character treasure trove and, instead, find itself immersed in a battle royal.
Since their deal closed, Disney and Marvel have been beset by some 45 notices from members of the Kirby family, warning of their intent to regain copyright to some of the creations as early as 2014.
Kirby's family members apparently have been whining for years about not seeing a dime from any of the profitable film and TV remakes of Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men and many other Kirby characters.
The "supersized custody battle," as the NYT calls it, is being led by copyright attorney Marc Toberoff, who has successfully recovered a portion of Superman profits for the heirs of a co-creator of the Man of Steel. Toberoff told the NYT that as much as 88 percent of Marvel's film earnings have been what he considers to be "Kirby-related." Because Toberoff's work with the Kirby family predated the Disney-Marvel deal, you have to wonder why Disney's due diligence on Marvel's outstanding legal matters didn't raise red flags.
Marvel filed a lawsuit in January against the Kirby heirs (Lisa, Barbara, Neal and Susan Kirby), seeking to invalidate the copyright recovery notices. The family has since filed a lawsuit against Marvel and Disney, accusing them of depriving the Kirby estate of its fair share of $373 million in global box office sales generated from the most recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine and other movies. (You can see where this is going!)
While the legal tit-for-tat will be intriguing to watch, the Disney-Marvel-Kirby dispute hearkens back to more traditional copyright legal battles that seem light years from the unprecedented and pervasive copyright entanglements of the digital age. Viacom's copyright infringement charges against Google's YouTube has been reignited by scathing court filings made public last week. Like many other digital copyright cases, it is bound to set precedent.
But the Disney-Marvel-Kirby estate case may also will render some valuable insights for digital age content producers and distributors.
It will provide a fascinating glimpse into financial struggle surrounding Jack Kirby's early creations and Marvel's inception - as well as the after-death business success that haunts so many artists.
It also will demonstrate the complexities of creative licensing spanning decades of comic books, books, television programs, movies, and even video games. Even as copyright clashes take on new twists and turns in the emerging digital entertainment business, some things never change. Everybody wants to make a buck off whatever works, but not everyone is entitled to.
Photo: dumdrum