Was Spider Man’s Creator Ripped Off?

The daughter of Stan Lee, the legendary comic book writer who created Spider Man, Hulk and the X Men for Marvel Comics, is suing the production company that creates films using Lee’s characters. J.C. Lee’s suit, filed in a California Federal court, asks for an examination of more than two decades of deals Lee made with POW! Entertainment. It repeats allegations that Lee made and then recanted before his death last year at age 95, that the company and its executives took advantage of his medical condition by inducing him to sign documents under fraudulent pretenses or forging his signature. But it also seeks to revisit the assignment of rights dating back to the 1990s when he was fired from Marvel after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and he set up POW as the company that would possess his intellectual property. The suit alleges six occasions when he was misled into assigning valuable rights by his partners, and seeks declaratory relief as to intellectual property ownership as well as rights to Lee’s name and likeness. The defendants are also accused of cybersquatting domain names including therealstanlee.com and stanleepresents.com. POW called the action frivolous, and said it was truly unfortunate that Stan Lee’s name had to be involved in what it characterized as a “family drama.”