How DC's executives treated Joanne Siegel
Comics Beat wrote about the lawsuit the Siegel estate waged - and failed - to win against Time Warner for the majority rights to Superman, and if there's anything in here that's alarming, it's this:
If there's any good news to be found in all this mess though, it's that in another decade, just about all of the DC properties Time Warner owns are going to become public domain, the Man of Steel included, and then they certainly won't be able to spite the creators' heirs anymore. For now, DC's staff could apologize, but it's sadly unlikely to happen.
By all rights, Joanne Siegel should have spent the last years of her life as the grande dame of American popular culture. Instead, she had to endure years of brutal litigation with precious little hope of seeing a final resolution, let alone one that would work in the family’s favor. She and her daughter Laura Siegel Larson had to suffer through hearing DC characterize the 1975 agreement as an undeserved gift, and now the historic 2008 ruling for co-ownership is set to disappear.Really? If that's correct, it's one of the worst cases of contempt for the creators' families I've ever seen. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster did all that hard work conceiving one of the most famous superheroes of all time, and whomever they're talking about returned the favor by claiming the duo didn't deserve original agreement. But who are these company reps they're talking about? If they include Dan DiDio, for example, he should be perfectly ashamed of himself.
If there's any good news to be found in all this mess though, it's that in another decade, just about all of the DC properties Time Warner owns are going to become public domain, the Man of Steel included, and then they certainly won't be able to spite the creators' heirs anymore. For now, DC's staff could apologize, but it's sadly unlikely to happen.
