The courts have issued a ruling in the case regarding the Siegel Estate’s rights to “Superman.” What isn’t resolved by the judge’s decision is the ownership of the “Superboy” name because the courts are handling that issue as a separate case. This current ruling however, does award Jerome (Jerry) Siegel’s heirs copyright of all Superman material in Action Comics number 1 (and all Action/DC Comics Superman titles). Siegel was the co-creator of Superman along with his creative partner Joseph Shuster. They developed the cartoon as comic shorts as early as 1933. Superman became a full-fledged comic book character in March 1938. Since that time, Superman has become the world’s most recognized comic, television and movie superhero, garnering several TV shows and big screen movies going back to the 1940’s right up to the 21st Century. It is still one of the highest selling comic book serials in publishing history.
It has taken over seventy years for the Siegel, and now his Estate, to regain rights to a product he co-created, something originally promised to him and Shuster by Action, who had seen untold profits from the franchise since 1938. Both men sued the National Allied Publications, a company that claimed to be the original holders of the Superman patent, as early as 1946. The case was settled for an amount that today would seem paltry when compared to the profits generated by the entire franchise. And, while Siegel never fully saw the kind of monetary increase he should have, at lease now his family will have control over his co-creation.
Superman went through a lot of changes over the years from that earliest incarnation. The original superhero couldn’t fly, but was able to jump long distances. Clark Kent worked for the Daily Star (named after Shuster’s home town paper the Toronto Daily Star) and not The Daily Planet. In 1933 the concept from Siegel that was to become Superman was actually that of a supervillain named Super-Man. This super bad guy was telepathic and would have used his super abilities to conquer the entire world for his evil purposes. However, with the rise of Adolph Hitler’s Nazism in Germany, and both Siegel and Shuster being Jewish, they felt what the world needed wasn’t another villain, but a superhero that could fight for truth, justice and the American way, so out of that brainstorming Superman was born.
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