Agents of SHIELD Star Chloe Bennet Breaks Silence on Rumors She's in Marvel's Secret Invasion So, I started reading this article and was going to make a joke here about how her denying it means she's totally in it, but now I just think it must absolutely suck to not be able to even buy a goddamn tampon without having some deranged fan ask you if you're secretly in a show you can't even talk about anyway. Like, you really think some actor is going to break NDA with the crazy person they ran into at Target?
Nothing surprising, but Disney fucking sucks. https://www.cbr.com/disney-lawsuits-avengers-characters-maintain-control/
Ditko’s brother filed for copyright termination against Marvel for characters such as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. If he was to win then those characters could no longer be used in films or comics. He’s going against Disney so he won’t win but I’m sure he’ll at least get a huge payout and hopefully some more credit for Steve Ditko.
The lawyers involved are literally the same ones from past lawsuits that Marvel (and DC) won against other creators’ estates. Marvel/Disney is never gonna lose. It’d sure be a great first step in the right direction if, for once, Marvel/Disney did lose, though! And, it’d be especially great if poor Larry Lieber, Stan’s mistreated brother, got a victory before dying alone. That, plus the iconic Spider-Man not being completely under Disney’s thumb, would be so delightful… which is why it won’t happen. (It’s worth noting that, according to THR, Marvel would probably still have partial ownership of those characters’ rights if they lost.)
I shouldn’t let myself be invested in this lawsuit, which again, is surely gonna benefit the corporations as always. But, jumping onto Twitter, it’s wild how many stupid fanboy takes are floating on the internet. One of my favorite voices in comics criticism, Ritesh Babu, had to lock his account because of Spidey stan harassment. Just imagine the positive impact on pop culture if the estate of Steve Ditko somehow miraculously won.
Ditko does deserve much more recognition and royalties and hopefully this is settled out of court so that his brother can arrange some of that with Disney/Marvel.
More than recognition and royalties, it’d be dope if creators and their estates could have some… I dunno, ownership of their creations? Imagine how much better a world we’d live in if Disney didn’t own all this popular IP, and if these companies had to pay licensing fees to use these characters. It’d be even better if some of these older properties could get into the public domain, but in lieu of that, at least splitting those rights up more and giving creators some literal ownership of their creations would rule. lol, fuck.
I don’t disagree. I just don’t see the Ditko family being able to get anything more than royalties and more recognition out of this, which is why I mentioned those two. Out of any realistic outcomes, those are the two positive things I think we’ll see. It would be absolutely fantastic to see these characters presented under the titles of the people who actually came up with their creation and I’m sure the families would still let Marvel use the characters at a price that is rightfully negotiated by the families. I just don’t see that happening with them going up against Disney.
Oh sure, Marvel/Disney’s gonna win this, like the Big 2 always win these things. The next public comments by a burnt comics creator will trend for maybe a week, then disappear, as always. When the copyright on Mickey Mouse gets close to expiring, corporations will successfully lobby to change copyright law again. Marvel and DC will keep replacing departing creators with new fans willing to develop more corporate IP. (And, I’ll keep being a big fan of a bunch of those characters.) But, I still want to unequivocally state what should happen any time this comes up. Especially to oppose all those online fans who let ~*fandom*~ make them grotesquely pro-corporation. As for Ditko getting more recognition… neither him nor Kirby can get any more credit than they already do without popular culture reckoning with the truth of who Stan Lee was and what he did, tbh. But, that makes too many fans too uncomfortable.
Fantastic Four Delayed Because Of Brad Pitt And George Clooney? Watts is attached to a film with Pitt and Clooney and either A) Fantastic Four will be delayed or B) Feige will have to find a new director for FF
Man I really hope it's not option B. I'd hate for them to have to find a different (better??) fit for Fantastic Four. That'd be the worst
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/scarlett-johansson-disney-lawsuit-settled-1235078355/ Not a particularly massive surprise
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/wandavision-spinoff-kathryn-hahn-1235082445/ It was Agatha all along...
Wonder if it'll be a series about her living in the town and remembering who she is, or if it'll be a prequel series of some kind.