Well, this is disappointing. The family of Jack Kirby, the most powerful single creative force comic books will ever have, has lost their suit to obtain the copyrights of the characters that populate the Marvel Entertainment empire.
It’s a sad state of affairs that a settlement couldn’t be reached, where Kirby’s estate gets a share of the proceeds from the movies that are doing so well. It’s saddens me there’s so much bad blood between the Kirbys and Stan Lee, and also between Lee and Steve Ditko. I love everything these guys did, and I’m not comfortable taking sides, but the anti-Stan sentiment that has developed bothers me. Just as the Beatles did their best work together, so did Jack and Steve when working with Stan. Kirby saw the possibilities of his creations as major media entertainment, but Stan deserves credit for making it happen. I just wish the Kirbys could cash in the success of the franchise. Even better would be an alternate reality fantasy where Jack and Stan sued together as co-creators, as Siegel and Shuster did for Superman.
P.S. I haven’t seen the Captain America movie yet, so I don’t know who gets credit for the character. With Jack Kirby, Joe Simon co-created Cap, and he had his own lawsuit. Simon says (sorry, couldn’t resist), “I’ve been happy with the results of our various legal entanglements, and my relationship with Marvel is very good these days.”
P.P.S. Joe Sinnott submitted a statement to the court in March. It’s at this link.
There’s nothing fair about this, because there was nothing fair about the ancient “work for hire” law. Stan sued Marvel, and won, but for money, not ownership. It would be wonderful if the Kirby family could own Jack’s Marvel Comics characters the way the Schulz family owns the Peanuts characters, but the circumstances under which Kirby and Schulz worked were quite different.
Even I can’t stand this! I grew up with you worshipping these dudes, and I like the Beatles analogy. So, so wrong.