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I wasn’t aware of this buy Jack Kirby’s heirs claim that he helped to create Spider-man. That’s strange because when I look up the creators for Spider-man I don’t see his name anywhere. Oh wait…nope, not a creator.

As you may have already heard, Jack Kirby’s heirs have filed to reclaim the rights to the characters that he co-created at Marvel Comics. This kind of news is starting to become old-hat in the world of comics. And just like other recent reclamation cases, there’s something unique to this case that gives this situation a weird mixture of the common and the unique. The Kirby’s are asking for the rights to characters that have already been attributed to other creators, namely Steve Ditko and Stan Lee. They have been credited with the creation of Spider-man. The heirs claim that Jack Kirby was also a part of that creative process and therefore should be compensated for it. Can you believe that?

The story that Stan Lee likes to share about the creation of Spider-man is that he saw a fly on the wall and thought about creating a character that sticks to walls Whether that’s true or not, what has been known is that Stan did ask Jack Kirby to draw up some panels of a “Spider-man” character. Stan was dissatisfied with Kirby’s take on the character and then asked Steve Ditko to draw it instead. Stan liked Steve’s take on it and so Steve was given penciling duties on Spider-man. This is where the Kirby heirs are hoping to get something.

The Kirby heirs claim that due to Jack Kirby’s first draft of the Spider-man character and Stan Lee’s rejection of the draft, that Kirby was involved in the creation of Spider-man. Because of that they claim that Jack Kirby is owed some of that character’s copyright. On the other hand, there is evidence to support the theory that Kirby’s Spider-man was actually another character he was working on known as the Silver Spider. The Silver Spider surfaced into mainstream comics under another name, The Fly, further separating it from any likeness or similarities to Spider-man.

Based on the evidence stated in the news articles I’ve read, I find it very unlikely that the Kirby heirs will receive any claim on the Spider-man copyright because having an idea rejected does not constitute contributing to the final product. If that were true, than there would be a lot of rejected people getting in line for there share as a contributing creator. As far as anyone knows Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created the Spider-man we know and love; Kirby did not. It’s going to be up to Kirby’s heirs to prove otherwise.