Welcome back everyone this is my marvel video for the new Spider-Man, Doctor Strange lawsuit
that you may have read about this morning.
Yes, it is a big deal and it's no coincidence that this is happening right before Spider-Man
no way home comes out in theaters will explain what's going on is not quite as dire is it
sounds like even though it is a big deal.
If you're brand-new to the channel, be sure to subscribe to get all the videos there will
be a lot of big Spider-Man stuff happening venom let there be carnage is coming out next week too
So I'll be doing post credit scene videos Easter eggs for everything, but recently you
probably saw the news that Marvel was in the middle of a brand-new lawsuit over Spider-Man
and Doctor Strange with the estate of Steve Ditko so that's right.
Even though there is a big lawsuit over the black widow movie with Scarlet Johansson happening.
That's completely separate the state of Steve Ditko is now getting into it with Marvel over
the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange characters.
Even though he passed away in 2018, his heirs still control his estate and they're the ones
that are fighting with Marvel what happened recently, though, is that they tried to send
the copyright license termination notice to marvel for the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange
characters for the rights to those characters.
So technically is them trying to terminate marvel's in Sony's ability to do anything
with Spider-Man and Doctor Strange that includes all the comics, the movies, the toys the videogames
anything that was created in the amazing Spider-Man comics amazing fantasy journey into mystery
and Strange tales those of the original comics where the Spider-Man, Doctor Strange characters
debuted so it also includes all the other characters all the looks all the costumes
everything about the stories in the characters that they created for those original stories.
So this would be that if the Steve Ditko estate were successful and actually terminating marvel's
copyright ability to use the stuff from those comics marvel and Sony would lose the ability
to use Peter Parker Spider-Man aunt May all of his court characters in villains like the
sinister six villains Spider-Man's costume in the same thing for the Stephen Strange
Doctor Strange character in other court characters in villains and details from the doctor Strange
comics, so they would be able to use those characters in the movies on the TV shows to
this isn't just a comic book thing.
So yes, it does sound like a big deal kind of like they're basically shooting a giant
warning shot over marvel's bow this might sound familiar marvel getting into big lawsuit
over Spider-Man because marvel and Sony got into it over the film rights to the Spider-Man
character a couple years ago after Spider-Man far from home came out it for a brief second
marvel did lose Spider-Man he was no longer part of the MCU.
But that only lasted for a couple months at best before marvel and Sony made nice they
worked out a new deal and now are getting ready to watch Spider-Man and Doctor Strange
try their best to destroy reality during Spider-Man no way home in December and make as many Spider-Man
puns as possible.
It is going to be some amazing Spider-Man also no coincidence.
They also have a big doctor Strange movie this coming right after that Doctor Strange
2 multiverse of madness how weird is it that is a lawsuit over Spider-Man and Doctor Strange
before their giant to movies get ready to happen the last Spider-Man movie far from
home made over $1 billion the box office and even though the virus has affected movie earnings
in a big way this year there still a solid chance the Spider-Man no way home will earn
close to $1 billion, especially of all the rumors about Tobey Maguire in Andrew Garfield
Spider-Man cameo scenes are true if even a fraction of those rumors wind up coming to pass
You can bet your ass is that everybody's gonna want to go see that movie.
So with all this money flying around Spider-Man and Doctor Strange the marvel movies, the
Disney plus series right now, being such big business is no coincidence that Steve Ditko
heirs are trying to get into it with Marvel over there big cash cow was really going on
here is the heirs are trying to get them some of that sweet Spider-Man cheddar cheese and
Doctor Strange as part of the tuba Spider-Man is probably the best example this their whole
argument is that because Steve did cocreated the characters, his estate should hold the
copyrights them not marvel or Sony.
But even though I'm not a lawyer and most of you probably aren't lawyers either their
pride couple of you that are watching this video there is a lawyers or comic book creators
who are familiar with the situation this kind of big lawsuit between OG comic book creators
and marvel sounds familiar.
Obviously, because is the exact same thing that happened with Jack Kirby's estate a while ago
His estate also tried to sue Marvel and DC comics separately with the exact same reason
for all the characters he created and he created a ton of core Marvel characters.
But if you're asking what happened in that Jack Kirby lawsuit obviously we saw all the
marvel movies, the past couple of years.
That means that they were unsuccessful kind of yes Marvel and DC wound up settling with
the estate of Jack Kirby out-of-court because when you as you talk about who owns the rights
these characters ultimately that were created 50,60, 70 even more years ago it gets a little complicated
So if you not familiar with how the rights for all these huge comic book characters actually
work originally what happened when they were all created back in the 1920s, 30s all the
way up to present day people like Stan Lee Steve Ditko Jack Kirby the rest of the OG
creators were what you would all call work for hire employees for Marvel and DC.
The big publishers back in the day, meaning that their contracts of the time originally
said that they were supposed to create some new comics new characters in those comics
in for that work they would get paid a fee a salary in everything that they created was
going to be the property of Marvel and DC that the time they were created.
Like back in the 1960s of her talking about Spider-Man the amount of money that they were
paid to create those characters and write these comics, which is the going rate for
typical publishers of that era.
Even if you adjust for inflation they were paid a ton of money to Stanley and Steve to
co-wind of creating Spider-Man and Doctor Strange in 1962 in 1963 respectively.
Everybody loves them, the comics cell super well they going to have very successful careers
working at marvel making more comics crating even more characters in for the most part
their contracts stay the same for that whole.
While they're creating all these giant comic book characters.
They get paid their fees.
But at the time.
It just not a ton of money.
But here's the thing.
This is where all the lawsuits from Stan Lee Steve Ditko Jack Kirby the other OG comic
book creators start the really big lawsuits back in the day when they created those characters.
Originally they were only paid their fees very small fees at that in their contracts
did not take into account any potential future movies, TV shows, toys, or even video games
that Marvel would wind up making in the future.
Like we pay you $0.50 to create Spider-Man and you create a Spider-Man we pay you $0.50
so the contract is been served.
We don't owe you any more money for Spider-Man.
So now in marvel started making a bunch of extra money on the movies, the TV shows the
toys the videogames because none of the contracts for these comic book creators explicitly said
that they were supposed to earn extra money if the characters got used in different new
formats so Marvel for example never paid them extra money.
So for example, even though the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies back in the day earn billions
of dollars Steve Ditko didn't get an extra penny from any of that it is just one example,
the videogames have earn billions and billions of dollars he didn't get any extra money from
that stuff either you may remember a little while ago infamously Stan Lee sued marvel
when the MCU got started because he was kind of the face of the marvel brand in his original
contract didn't say that he was supposed to earn extra money from movies or games.
For example, but because he was such a big deal and such a big face for the brand he
was able to use his position to negotiate a special new deal with Marvel that paid him.
I think was like a million or a couple million dollars per year for the rest of his life
as a way for Marvel to say okay you even though your original contract didn't say that you
were supposed to get extra money for all this brand-new stuff you are so fundamental to
what Marvel became is a company in these billions and billions of dollars in profits the burning
out the you deserve a very very small piece of that.
And I think the idea was that the time is that was also part of the idea of Stanley's
cameo scenes in all the marvel movies.
But Steve Ditko did not get a new deal like that.
That was just Stan Lee that renegotiated that special deal.
So that's kind of where were at with this new lawsuit essentially it's the Steve Ditko
heirs trying to force a new negotiation with Marvel for Spider-Man and Doctor Strange profits
because they kind of did the acyl thing of not offering Steve Ditko any extra compensation
for being responsible for creating such a huge cash cow for them.
Even the lawsuits all about Spider-Man and Doctor Strange just talking about Spider-Man.
For example, he is one of the most profitable most popular comic book characters in the
history of the world Spider-Man is a license to print money for whoever owns him, so of
course Marvel is probably gonna renegotiate a new deal with the Ditko estate give them
a little extra money and he's already credited on all the Spider-Man movies, but they also
might make his on-screen credit a little more prominent for future movies, so there's no
real threat of Marvel is Sony actually losing the Spider-Man and Doctor Strange characters.
Technically the contracts are in favor of Marvel having the copyrights not Steve Ditko estate
But as you can tell from all the bad press that they were getting because the scarlet
Johansson black widow lawsuit Marvel does not like long drawn out bad press like this
heading into a big movie premiere like Spider-Man no way home do not be surprised if you hear
about this problem getting fixed before December is not quite as big a deal as it sounds like
even though it is kind of a big deal and it's no coincidence that the lawyers who are representing
the Steve Ditko estate are the same lawyers who try to represent the Jack Kirby estate
when they tried to sue marvel for Jack Kirby a long time ago.
They were unsuccessful, but they were able to renegotiate a new deal for Jack Kirby out-of-court
so that's why state the same thing is probably can happen for Steve Duco really the OG comic
book reader lawsuits are all about the original publishing contracts they didn't have anything
to do with the movies.
Kevin Feige in the movie people actually really do care about these original comic book creators
that's why Marvel is been changing a lot of the way they do contracts with people in the
last couple of years.
Just to account for a lot of these issues in this is unique to Marvel.
This also happens at DC comics all the time to avert Warner Bros. and better news we will
be getting a new Spider-Man no way home trailer in the next month or two.
Of course will do more videos about the movies we get closer might venom let there be carnage
post credit scene video full Easter egg videos and breakdowns videos will start posting later
next week after the movie comes out everywhere in my full marvel what if episode eight video
will post next Wednesday.
So this a lot of really cool stuff coming up make sure you have alerts enabled for my
channel so you don't miss any those videos everyone click here to learn what's going
on with the sinister six inside the Spider-Man no way home trailer and click here for my
full marvel what if and credit scene video for the infinity gauntlet Ultron.
Thank you so much for watching everyone stay safe and I'll see you guys in the next one!