In February, a federal court threw out a suit filed by Stan Lee Media Inc. against Paradox Entertainment — a failed attempt for the plaintiff to regain the intellectual-property rights of the Conan comic character. It might seem odd enough that a company sues for a claim to the proceeds of a film that lost tens of millions of dollars last summer, but odder still is that Stan Lee himself — the comic-book mastermind responsible for The Avengers, X-Men, Spider-Man, and hundreds of other iconic characters — was neither the plaintiff nor the defendant in that suit.
As has been the case for over a decade, the legal wrangling surrounding Lee has been as convoluted and nonsensical as the script to Elektra, and it will only get more confounding on Thursday, when a new federal case comes to trial pitting SLMI against its namesake himself. That's right: Stan Lee Media is suing Stan Lee over characters created by Stan Lee.
Figuring out how an individual becomes a defendant in a case filed by the company bearing his name is an effort nearly as heroic as his own characters' feats. It involves Lee bouncing between companies during repeated bankruptcies and determining where he was when activities took place. It also involves a company refusing to back down despite losing numerous judgments, and despite the exodus of the eponymous leader.
Much of the acrimony dates back to the 1990s, when Lee was still the figurehead at the then-struggling Marvel. Throughout that decade the comic company over-leveraged acquisitions and hemorrhaged enough money to land in bankruptcy. By 1998, the company used that proceeding to end Lee?s contract of $1 million annual salary for life. Stan Lee left Marvel and started a new company, Stan…
Ivana Bozilovic Ivanka Trump Izabella Miko Izabella Scorupco Jaime King Jaime Pressly Jamie Chung Jamie Gunns
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