Super Suits

Todd McFarlane is no stranger to legal battles over his comic book creations. Today, we're learning about the time when a hockey player named Tony Twist sued McFarlane for a Spawn character with a similar name, Antonio Twistelli for MILLIONS of dollars! It's a classic case of jock vs nerd!

The history of Captain Marvel and Shazam is a complicated one filled with complicated law suits and legal battles between DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and of course Fawcett Comics—the original publisher of Captain Marvel. Joel explains it all in this week's Super Suits!

The history of Captain Marvel and Shazam is a complicated one filled with complicated law suits and legal battles between DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and of course Fawcett Comics—the original publisher of Captain Marvel. Joel explains it all in this week's Super Suits!

Jim Shooter broke into the comics industry when he was just 14 years old, and it's been a bumpy road ever since. As head of Marvel Comics, he was seen as a tyrant. At Valiant Comics, he didn't do much better. And when he founded Defiant Comics with a flagship comic book called Plasm, he was immediately hit with a lawsuit by Marvel UK, since they had plans for a character of their own named Plasmer. Oh, the 90s, you are truly ridiculous!

Doctor Strange is all about the mystical, magical, supernatural side of the Marvel Universe, and unfortunately Marvel was sued because of it. In the 1990s, the management team behind American Christian music songstress Amy Grant filed a lawsuit against Marvel for using Grant's likeness on a cover of Dr. Strange, because they feared that the Sorcerer Supreme's affiliation with the dark arts would ruin Grant's reputation. But how does Benedict Cumberbatch fit into all this?! Thankfully, we have Joel here to talk us through the details!

There's no doubt that The Walking Dead is a phenomenon! And with its popularity comes the age old debate in the comics industry: Who exactly owns a comic book creation? Today, Joel is walking you through the history of the lawsuit between The Walking Dead writer Robert Kirkman and the original artist Tony Moore in a legal battle nastier than a walker rotting in the sun!

Batman, being the incredibly popular superhero he is, has been involved in countless law suits and legal battles. There was the time DC Comics was sued by a town in Turkey that is actually named Batman. Or the time Rihanna tried to trademark the name "Robyn" which DC feared would confuse fans of the Dark Knight and Robin the Boy Wonder. Joel explores these dumb Batman lawsuits and more on this week's Super Suits!

Stan Lee has been involved in so many lawsuits that he basically sued himself once. Technically, Stan sued one of his business ventures, Stan Lee Media, which was also involved in legal battles with Marvel Comics and Disney!

Captain America is Marvel's most patriotic superhero, but his spangly outfit and circular shield have been ripped off by other characters like the Fighting American and even Agent America. Learn the legal history that links these three red, white, and blue superheroes via a series of comic book lawsuits!

There was a time when Marvel was making superhero toys, but wanted to save some money on the taxes. So they took the X-Men, a team of mutants who stand for equality in the face of adversity, and completely ignored all that, selling them out as non-people in order to keep some money in their pocket. Joel has the whole story, and how it affected the rest of Marvel's action figure line outside of the X-Men!