With recent developments in the ongoing legal battle over the rights to Superman, Variety.com looks into the possibility that ownership of Superman could be split into two separate camps... DC Comics and the heirs of Siegel and Shuster.
- The Siegel and Shuster estates could wind up owning some parts of the Superman story while DC Comics owns others. The estates could get Superman's blue leotard, red cape and boots, plus an ability to leap tall buildings while DC retains villains like Lex Luthor plus Superman's ability to fly.
The question is: Could each party proceed with a subsequent project without the other's involvement?
In theory, come 2013 auds could see two parallel versions of the Man of Steel ramp up. In practice, that looks pretty unworkable.
Using a ruling from Neil Gaiman's suit against Todd McFarlane over the rights to Spawn, Anthony Cheng from the Columbia Journal of the Law & the Arts posits that one way to settle the Superman dispute would be to "split the character in two - a 1938 Superman and a Modern Superman - and allow both sides to create new works based on their versions".
However, it's hoped that both sides of this battle can come to some kind of agreement to main one Man of Steel going forward.
Read the complete article at Variety.com.
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