- [Voiceover] Welcome to Superhero Suits,
a show that breaks down all the famous
lawsuits in the history of superheroes and comic books,
all brought to you by Scott of NerdSync,
and me, Joel of the ComicBookCast,
and on today's inaugural episode,
we are taking a look at Todd McFarlane.
Now McFarlane is a truly fascinating
figure in the world of comics.
You may know him from his work on 90s Spiderman, as one
of the driving forces behind the creation of Image Comics,
or maybe even his role as a toymaker,
but perhaps McFarlane's most famous contribution
to the world of superheroes is his creator-owned Spawn,
which is where our Superhero Suit in question comes from.
One of McFarlane's most unique quirks as a creator
is he loves naming characters in his work after
people he knows in real life.
Case in point, Al Simmons, Spawn's alter ego, got his name
from a man McFarlane worked with,
and the names of Simmons' wife and daughter, Wanda and Cyan,
come directly from McFarlane's own wife and daughter.
Now naming your characters after your friends and family
is one thing, but Mr. McFarlane got himself into
some hot water back in 2000, when he was
sued by one Tony Twist, a Canadian hockey player from the
St. Louis Blues, who claimed McFarlane was profiting
off his name for his mafia don character,
Antonio Twistelli, who made his first appearance
in Spawn #6, but wouldn't actually be named until later on.
Now for those who don't follow hockey, Mr. Twist is
what is known as an enforcer or goon,
a player who does a lot more fighting than skating.
Yet despite all that, Twist had a very good guy image
that he wanted to protect, and one that he felt was being
damaged by having a violent comic book mobster
share the same name as him.
In the first of what would be many trials over the next
few years, McFarlane would go on to claim that his use
of the name was protected under the First Amendment.
Twist disagreed, saying McFarlane had gone outside
the bounds of free speech.
Twist was awarded more than 24.5 million dollars
by the St. Louis Circuit Court jury in 2000,
but the judge overruled that decision.
Later, the Missouri Court of Appeals would
address the defendant's claim that use of
Twist's name in comic books was expressive speech,
entitled to protection under the First Amendment.
Eventually the court would call McFarlane's
use of Twist's name predominantly a ploy to sell
comic books and related products,
rather than any artistic or literary expression.
Sadly, this was not the end of the case.
It was remanded for a new trial
based on instructional error.
After the second trial, the jury rendered a verdict
in Twist's favor and against McFarlane
and Todd McFarlane Production, awarding Twist
15 million dollars in damages.
McFarlane appealed to the US Supreme Court
in September 2003, arguing that Spawn
characters are purely fictional fantasies,
and no reasonable person would
confuse the plaintiff with the fictional fantasies
and characters portrayed therein.
In the wake of the original 15 million dollar jury verdict
in December of 2004, Todd McFarlane's Productions
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing the 15 million
Twist judgement as its largest single debt.
Other portions of Todd McFarlane's business empire
including Todd McFarlane Toys and
Todd McFarlane Entertainment, producers of the
Spawn animated and live action projects,
which were not named in Tony Twist's lawsuit,
were not effected by the filing.
All throughout the trial, McFarlane tried
to downplay the importance of the fact that
there was a hockey player named Tony Twist,
admitting that he had heard of the player,
and had perhaps even if subconsciously
had him in mind when he made the character,
but that he did not intentionally name
the character after him.
The defense also went as far as to argue that
Tony Twist was so unknown that his name and persona
didn't really need protection.
Perhaps the biggest smoking gun for the trial came
in the form of a 1996 Wizard Magazine issue,
Spawn Tribute, wherein McFarlane was quoted as saying
that he named his characters after friends and family.
The article also contained a picture and biography
of Anthony "Tony Twist" Twistelli, and his real-life persona
Tony Twist.
After many years and multiple appeals, the case was finally
settled out of court.
Twist reached a five million dollar settlement with the
insurance companies for Todd McFarlane.
The five million dollar deal was approved in
Bankruptcy Court of Arizona as of February 2007.
This would be just one of many of Todd McFarlane's
high-profile legal cases, and it also wouldn't be the last
time he was sued for using someone else's name,
but those are Superhero Suits for another day.
Thank you all so much for watching
this episode of Super Suits.
For more educational comic book videos
be sure to subscribe to Scott and NerdSync.
And if you wanna see more of my work,
you can check me out over at Caped Joel,
follow me on Twitter at The DVD Grouch,
and as always, see all the great news and reviews pieces
that I'm doing over at the ComicBookCast,
and hey if there's any particular lawsuit you'd like to see
me cover on a future episode of Super Suits,
please let us know in the comments section down below.