Toberoff said in an interview that the suit isn’t meant to deprive fans of their next “Superman” movie, but rather “seek just compensation for Joe Shuster’s fundamental contributions as the co-creator of the character.”
Not to bootlick the big corporation but I always feel doubt when these estates of long dead people start causing trouble in the name of some sort of justice. The timing of it definitely makes it look more like a ransom demand too.
This makes me think of the Michael Jackson estate causing shit over music in Sonic 3. All they achieved was getting the music in question pulled from any current release of the game and making sure it reaches nobody.
I'm pretty sure the Wonder Woman estate was also full of shit back in the '90s and '00s. And what they achieved was making sure that a large part of Wonder Woman's mythology was excluded from the DCAU, something that basically defined DC for a generation or two.
I'd love to join the side of the Shuster family but considering that this is about copyrights expiring 25 years after an author's death, they've had since 2021 to do this. But they chose now, right as the Superman brand is at its lowest and on the verge of a possible revitalization. Which just makes them look like greedy assholes to me.
Yeah, funnily enough, didn't that first Superman story that was sold to DC mentioned in this article enter public domain recently anyway? I don't follow that kind of news closely but I'm pretty sure I read something about it.
Personally, comic book characters are in a funny area for me as far as the concept of 'ownership' goes. For me personally, I'm willing to bet that Shuster and Siegel wrote about 0% of the Superman stories that I ever read growing up or saw adapted to cartoons or movies. Creating a character that becomes part of a shared universe and gets written by 100 different people over almost 100 years isn't quite the same as being famous for writing a book that stays the same for 100 years. At this point I would hesitate to credit a character like Superman with any one or two people, personally.
Of course, Shuster and Siegel were pioneers that had no idea what was coming though. And from what I can see, DC should've definitely treated them better for being cornerstones. They should've been getting CEO level pay.
But honestly, it's kinda why I don't sympathise with people like Alan Moore that much. I think by the 1980s it was understood that if you write for a company like DC or Marvel, your original work is probably going to become part of the universe and get written by someone else, just like you'll probably write other people's original characters too. Besides that, the Watchmen wouldn't exist without the Charlton comics characters they're based on. That's just how it works.
Not excuse DC or Marvel for shitty practises though. I'm aware that neither companies are angels and could definitely treat and pay their workers much better. Maybe then these old estates would be more willing to cooperate without the shenanigans.