Marvel Legend Spins Spidey Lawsuit

Spider-Man's used to trouble on the home front. His uncle was murdered. His aunt was on her deathbed--for, like, 30 years. And now his father's suing him.

Comics legend Stan Lee, who with artist Steve Ditko, hatched the web-slinger in 1962, filed a $10 million-plus lawsuit against Marvel Enterprises Tuesday in New York, claiming his longtime employer is cheating him out of his baby's movie profits.

Per the complaint, Lee's also being cut out of the action on Marvel's movie deals regarding two more of his creations: Daredevil and the Hulk, soon to be immortalized in Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck, and Hulk, starring Eric Bana, respectively.

Additionally, the lawsuit seeks profits from 2000's X-Men, plus its upcoming sequel, as well as any future Spidey flicks. (Spider-Man stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are already locked in for at least one sequel.)

"Despite reaping enormous benefits from Mr. Lee's creations, defendants have failed and refused to honor their commitments to him," the suit says.

At issue: A 1998 deal that Lee, currently Marvel's chairman emeritus, claims entitled him to 10 percent of profits from movies and TV shows depicting his super-human and often super-weird characters.

In a statement, Marvel said it was "in full compliance with and current on all payments due under the terms of Mr. Lee's employment agreement."

Lee's lawsuit comes as Marvel is on a Hollywood hot streak. After years of embarrassing failures (including a shelved Roger Corman production of The Fantastic Four) and false starts, the company's characters are raiding the multiplex. Daredevil, Hulk and X-Men 2 are all due in 2003. The Spider-Man sequel's shooting for 2004.

Already this year, the original Spider-Man has sold $403 million worth of tickets in the States, and raked in $190 million in North America during the first three days of the home-video release.

Despite these stats, Lee's attorney, Howard Graff, tells the Hollywood Reporter that Marvel has "made the incredible claim that the movie Spider-Man, as well as his other characters, have not generated any profit that he is entitled to."

Lee, 79, currently draws a $1 million base salary as, according to The Comics Journal's Mike Dean, "Marvel's Colonel Sanders."

Lee's association with Marvel predates the company name. In 1939, at age 17, he snagged a job as errand boy with publisher Martin Goodman, who put out titles under the banners of Timely and Atlas comics, before adopting the Marvel Comics Group name in the 1960s.

It was in the 1960s that Lee, then editor, introduced the characters that would prove super-human at the 21st century box office: Spider-Man (born 1962); Hulk (1962); X-Men (1963); and, Daredevil (1964). Unlike their rivals at the Superman-led DC Comics, Marvel heroes weren't always heroic and certainly weren't invulnerable.

Lee penned the stories; Ditko, Jack Kirby (Hulk and X-Men) and Bill Everett (Daredevil) drew the flawed fantastic types.

As is the sad history of comic books, the artists, who worked long before the age of the ancillary rights deal, typically got paid straight page rates for their creations.

Dean, news editor for the Seattle-based Comics Journal, says he guesses there's "some irony" in Lee's own charges of exploitation. Unlike his artists, Lee, who eventually became Marvel publisher, "has been in a position to get some compensation."

While Lee steered clear of business controversies as publisher, he was dragged into a bitter one when Kirby battled for ownership of his original artwork. "Stan, as the company's figurehead, more or less sided with Marvel," Dean says. "[He] was kind of their apologist."

According to Lee's attorney, the comics guru "wouldn't think" of taking Marvel to court were it not for its "shameful scheme."

No, it's not easy being Spider-Man. Or Spider-Man's father.