Heirs to comic book royalty Jack Kirby have sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel, Disney, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal, and other studios who hold media-licensing rights to Marvel characters. The notices expressed intent to regain the copyrights of certain characters as early as 2014. Representing the heirs are Toberoff & Associates, the firm that helped Jerry Siegel's heirs reclaim a share of Superman's copyright from DC last year.
What characters are mentioned in the notices have not been disclosed. Kirby is credited with co-creating such Marvel staples as The Fantastic Four, Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom, and Captain America. The termination notices could allow for Kirby's heirs to a) reap in a share of the profits from the films featuring said characters, and/or b) shop the characters to other studios.
While it's too early to speculate what could come of all this, I'm a blogger, and giving my unwarranted opinions on topics I'm not entirely read up on is sort of my thing. The hopeful fangirl in me, that is, the one who sat through two Fantastic Four movies, likes to think that if the heirs win their claims, they'll sell the characters to studios that will better serve Kirby's vision, or that competing franchises will give audiences the ability to choose what movie/cartoon/comic we enjoy rather than simply footing the bill for something we all hate because it's the only opportunity we'll get to enjoy our heroes. Comic book media doesn't have to suck.
Posts
