The final chapter has now been written in one of the longest running copyright/ownership sagas in the world of comic books. With a few filings in the Trademark court, MIRACLEMAN has now been set free, in a manner of speaking, and is now owned, fully and solely, by Marvel Comics.
In 2001 Neil Gaiman filed an opposition against Todd McFarlane's trademark registration for Miracleman. It's a little known aspect of the bigger case, and it has been running, concurrently, with the main cases involving the two. Only two days ago the case was resolved with the opposition being withdrawn and the case closed, but there was more. In addition to the opposition being withdrawn, McFarlane has had to abandon his claim on the Miracleman name for all time. As if that wasn't good enough, only last week a new trademark application was lodged for Miracleman, this time by Marvel Comics.
Clearly part of the settlement between Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane included McFarlane giving up his rights to the Miracleman name, and a deal between Gaiman and Marvel would have been sealed as far back as the lodging of the original case in 2002, when Marvel advanced Gaiman money against the 1602 mini-series. The actual machinations of the deal will surely see the light of day eventually, but, for now, with Marvel now owning both the Marvelman and Miracleman names and trademarks, the way is now clearer for both a reprinting of the Miracleman/Marvelman series by Alan Moore, Alan Davis, Garry Leach, Rick Vietch, John Totleben and co, along with the Neil Gaiman/Mark Buckingham Miracleman series. It also means that, finally, Gaiman and Buckingham might well take the opportunity to finally finish their storyline, over two decades after they started.
It might be Marvel Comics, but, for the first time since the early 1980s, the rights to Miracleman/Marvelman are sitting with the one publisher. Expect an announcement from Marvel in the very near future.
what's this kind of talk doing in HL?
