It seems like every time Stan Lee’s in these days, it’s either because he’s created a new property (or five) or because he’s embroiled in some lawsuit. Today, it’s something of a combination of both as the recently-announced STAN LEE’S SUPER SEVEN is getting slapped with a lawsuit by the Super 7 toy company. The Hollywood Reporter’s saying that the latter claims it notified POW! and A Squared (the companies behind SUPER SEVEN) about potential copyright infringement in February. The response they got said that the name would be changed from SUPER SEVEN to STAN LEE’S SUPER SEVEN, but Super 7 thought that wasn’t different enough. Dialogue between the companies apparently ceased until just recently, when Super 7 filed a US District Court complaint after STAN LEE’S SUPER SEVEN’s big launch at Comic Con.
You’ll recall that we reported on SUPER SEVEN’s launch back in February. The series will be published by Archie and it’s about Stan Lee, himself, leading a group of alien superheroes who've just crash landed on Earth. Super 7 the company, however, specializes in Japanese-themed collector’s toys and figurines ,with licenses including ULTRAMAN, KAMEN RIDER and even STAR WARS.
As I mentioned, this is the latest of several lawsuits that Lee’s been involved in over the past few years. He sued Marvel at one point on claims of withheld royalties and there were a number of odd cases involving his company, Stan Lee Media. After he left it, its president sued Marvel for $5 billion on character co-ownership claims and then sued Lee (leading to the bizarre circumstance of Lee seeming to get sued by himself.)
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here.