Superman on Trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) — DC Comics will retain its rights to Supermanafter a judge ruled Wednesday that the heirs of one of the superhero’s co-creators signed away their ability to reclaim copyrights to the Man of Steel roughly 20 years ago.

The ruling means that DC Comics and its owner Warner Bros. will retain all rights to continue using the character in books, films, television and other mediums, including a the film reboot planned for next year.

DC Comics sued the heirs of artist Joe Shuster in 2010, seeking a ruling that they lost their ability to try to reclaim the superhero’s copyrights in 1992. U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright II agreed, stating that Shuster’s sister and brother relinquished any chance to reclaim Superman copyrights in exchange for annual pension payments from DC Comics.

Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel created Superman, who made his comic book debut in 1938 in Action Comics (hash)1. Both men battled for increased compensation for the superhero throughout their lives and Siegel’s heirs have also fought DC for a stake in copyrights to Superman.

Shuster’s heirs had argued that the copyright agreements could be terminated under provisions that allowed creators of works made before 1978 a mechanism to reclaim their rights. Wright ruled that the decision by Shuster’s sister to accept higher annual payments created a new agreement and the pre-1978 rights no longer applied.

The New 52s: One Year Later – Action Comics

If you asked me a year ago what is the worst thing comics have ever done I would have told you something along the lines of DC ruining Superman.  One year and 24 issues (12 Superman and 12 Action) later and I am coming off that statement a bit.  In fact I really enjoy the Superman title I think George Perez started a good book and Jurgens has continued and improved the title.  Grant Morrison, not so much.  Morrison is a great writer and maybe that is the problem, he is talented and he is creative and he is trying to make Superman his own.  Superman belongs to the people, not Grant Morrison.

I despised Issue #1 of Action Comics more than I have ever disliked anything in print before.  Mostly because I love Superman so much, to watch it be torn apart I felt like the South Park kids after they seen Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull and brought George Lucas And Steven Spielberg up on criminal charges.  Issue #2 was not any better.  Superman’s early attitude and cockiness is something I can not warm up to or get use to in this title.  Society’s distrust and reluctance to welcome Superman is something I found irritating at first but have accepted as not only part of the story, but an interesting change from perfection and happiness that I have read for the past 30 years.

Beyond a rough start I think issues #5 and #6 just got plain confusing, in the middle of a cross issue story line they just up and dropped into a new story set in a different timeline of the DC Universe with characters we don’t know.  Looking back on this another year from now it will probably make some sense, DC has a way of back telling a tale and having it make sense in a Momento sort of progression,

The New 52s: One Year Later – Superman

One  year ago I tore Superman’s relaunch apart.   Now, I am wrong about as often as Jimmy Olsen says “golly, gee Mr. Kent” so you know there is no way will ever have to comeback on my initial review.  Usually I just stew in secret, but this claim was made in public.  Hey! Even four readers is public.

I read the first two issues of Action Comics, the first title of the Superman line to see the shelves and my ability to read anything Superman without bias was clouded in my utter disdain for the aforementioned experience.  A year away and a dozen issues of  Superman have given me some reason to reconsider.

Now I won’t make this all my fault, I blame Grant Morrison who wrote Action Comics issues 1 & 2.  This isn’t about Action, but I still stand by my initial claim that they were terrible.  He wrote Superman with a Batman-edge, he was gritty and pompous, almost vain.  I was so offended that Superman was written anything but a boy scout I didn’t even try to read Superman # 1 for what it was, I read the first few pages and threw it away.  Now looking back and reading the first 12 issues I have to admit, I was wrong… wrong for not giving Superman Comics a fair shot.

George Perez’s initial kick-off run and Dan Jurgens’s continued efforts of a more mature and developed Man of Steel have been nothing short of amazing.  

A Few of Greatest Comics I Have Ever Read

(in no particular order)

Peter Parker: Spider-Man

Vol 2, Issue #35 (Nov 2001)

“Heroes Don’t Cry”

Peter Parker: Spider-Man – A young kid believe Spider-Man visits him, his imaginary friend if you will.  It’s the comic version of an after school special.  The young boy uses his Spidey-Friend as an escape from his abusive house hold where his father hits his mom.

I am not really one for the softer-side of comic stories but this one really touches your heart.  As the young boy tells Spidey he can’t be friends because it is time to grow up and move with his aunt after a terrible incident at home Spider-Man removes his mask.  I have never fully understood the implication to be that Spider-Man is in us all or that Spider-Man is black (like the boy) because that this is how the boy imagines him.  One of the best “un-Superhero” stories I have read.  It was also released right after September 11th so a story like that in a time when the whole world felt horrible was a real change of pace.