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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
If I understand my copyright law right, even when the Spider-Man copyright expires, Marvel will still have IP rights to most of the post-Ditko material (Kraven's Last Hunt, for example, wouldn't be in the public domain even when Amazing Fantasy #15 goes there). This is also separate from trademarks, which is about merchandising, so maybe Marvel could still make money even if they lose the rights (although that is a big if). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Kraven's Last Hunt is weird. It's Kraven's best story bar none and the one sets him apart from other Spider-Villains, but in addition to
x2 it's also relies pretty heavily on continuity. Like, it's the last Kraven story (Brand New Day shenanigans notwithstanding), so to adapt it, you'd have to have Kraven already appearing in the MCU beforehand, and you'd need Peter's relationship with MJ to be serious enough to motivate him to dig himself out of the grave.
'd
Edited by Aleistar on Sep 24th 2021 at 1:11:56 PM
You can change Peter’s motivation to dig out of a grave. There’s a lot of good motivation to not be buried alive.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersI mean, they did just hire Aaron Taylor-Johnson for that not too long ago.
x2
'd
Edited by Aleistar on Sep 24th 2021 at 1:23:02 PM
It’s interesting that the main issue with adapting Last Hunt is that it requires Kraven to have previously made appearances as an antagonist as it notes that the MCU doesn’t really do reoccurring antagonists.
Majority if not all the villains that appear here are one-offs barring Thanos and Loki.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Awesome. Regardless of how this pans out I'm always in favor of the creators or heirs (since many of the original Golden and Silver Age Marvel/Atlas/Timely guys are dead) holding The Mouse's feet to the fire. In a perfect world this at least leads to better compensation practices for creators whose work is adapted into the MCU and other venues.
I think it would play out something like this
, honestly.
Found a weird angle to this Ditko Estate Lawsuit.
(I'm no law expert, so feel free to correct me.)
If the lawsuit ends up going nowhere, then Sony will still be able to do Spider-Movies, but if it actually ends up succeeding, then it gives the Steve Ditko estate the chance to sell the rights to Spider-Man. This ends up giving Disney the chance to own Spider-Man completely without having to share with Sony (and puts the kibosh on the SPUMC), but then that has the side effect of us not seeing any more of the actual good stuff like Into the Spider-Verse or the PS4 Spider-Man game.
Now that I think about it, maybe this lawsuit isn't the worst thing ever?
For starters, Disney's legal team might as well be the Godzilla of legal teams. Second, I'm starting to think this is mostly so the Steve Ditko estate gets better compensation besides a wad of cash and some special tickets. If I'm not mistaken, even in life, Steve got the short end of the stick and kinda isolated himself because of it. Literally everyone knows Spider-Man and Stan Lee, but how many know Steve Ditko as much as they know either of those two aside from comic book creators, hardcore nerds and historians?
Wait, really? Because I can't think of any time I had a conversation with a non-comic book guy and Ditko came up...
The point is, I'm not freaking out about the lawsuit as much as I was last night. Ditko co-created Spider-Man, easily one of the biggest works of modern-day fiction, if not the biggest, period. His family should be way more compensated than just $5000 and other teeny stuff.
Regarding Kraven's Last Hunt, this is actually something I brought up before. Even if you disregard specific elements that shoulder the plot (Ned Leeds's then-recent death, MJ and Pete being a happy official couple living together), there's the wrinkle that it is specifically a story that requires Kraven and Spidey to have had met before. The whole core of the story is Kraven at the end of his rope doing his last move against Spidey before his body and mind collapses for good.
It's part of a category of stories in comics that are specifically structured around upending some form of status quo as its crux. You have "Born Again" with Kingpin (it's core is Kingpin finally having DD's secret identity and using to his full advantage. doesn't work if you don't establish their rivalry before) as another example. Batman's Knightfall is another one but in reverse (Bane is being introduced here, but the story is built on changing Batman "forever" by crippling him, it doesn't really work if you haven't really seen him not-crippled before), Killing Joke is also this to a minor extent (but with Babs rather than Bats).
"All you Fascists bound to lose."Theoretically it is possible since the MCU is now running long enough to form long term stories.
Its just we haven't done anything like at least small-scale. As I said nearly every villain either dies or gets redeemed after their first appearance barring Thanos, Zemo, and Loki.
We might get an aversion with say Vulture should he ever comes back as a Thunderbolt or member of the Sinister Six.
Edited by slimcoder on Sep 24th 2021 at 12:21:58 PM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

You sure that sound isn't them screaming a collective "holy shit"?
In all seriousness, this is probably so that Steve Ditko's family gets even more compensation for how much money his creations are generating, right?
I mean, what would happen if we suddenly didn't have Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Avengers?
Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Sep 24th 2021 at 12:32:16 PM