Stan-Lee
A classic story of intrigue, double crosses, runaway financiers, campaign skullduggery, and Stan Lee got yet another chapter underway when it was announced that Stan Lee Media is suing Marvel for a cool $5B. The one-time new media venture claims that it co-owns Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Incredible Hulk.

How is this possible? You thought Stan Lee Media went down in flames in the first dot.bomb crash? And Stan Lee was long gone and moved on to POW! Entertainment? And renegade co-owner Peter Paul was busy planning to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid with stories of improprieties from her senate run?

While the colorful Paul is not involved in this chapter, it seems STAN LEE MEDIA has been resurrected by Jim Nesfield, a self described “Whistleblower” who has appeared on 60 Minutes to talk about mutual fund malfeasance and so on. And Nesfield is claiming that contracts Lee signed while still involved are still in effect.

He said Mr. Lee signed a contract in October 1998 that assigned co-creative interests to Stan Lee Media. Unfortunately for Stan Lee Media, the same rights were assigned to Marvel.

“Stan Lee is no longer with the company, but the contract remains intact,” he said. “He has signed it and the contract is still in force.” He added that Mr. Lee may be called to testify if the case goes to trial.

He said the contract had been hidden from the public and Mr. Nesfield has filed suit on behalf of the shareholders to assert their rights. He said they are entitled to 50 percent of all revenue going back three years and going forward 50 years. They can only go back three years by law, but not as far back as 1998.


Meanwhile, in its own statement on the suit Marvel reveals that Stan is himself suing Stan Lee Media.

Stan Lee Media was recently in bankruptcy and is being sued by Stan Lee. In his suit, Mr. Lee is challenging the legitimacy of the management of Stan Lee Media. Mr. Lee is a long-time employee of Marvel and its predecessor companies and currently serves as Publisher Emeritus of Marvel Comics. Mr. Lee commented that, “I do not support this action and believe the suit to be baseless.”


This entire story is so tangled that it would take weeks just to read the court documents. For some entertaining background, Dirk links to this entertaining Michael Dean news story that hints just how crazy and nutty Stan Lee Media’s business dealings really were.

13 COMMENTS

  1. I propose a new superhero team composed solely of characetrs with rights issues. Miracelman is leader, with Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Incredible Hulk as the core team. Superboy fills the role of the wide-eyed newcomer to the team, with the Batman role filled by Medievel Spawn. Their headquarters would be styled like one of those legal file document boxes. The title of the book would be THE RED TAPERS or THE LITIGATIONS or some such.

  2. The interesting thing here is that they are suing *after* going through bankruptcy. So a judge let a possible $5 billion dollar asset slip through bankruptcy untouched? Hmmm…

  3. Some of you might find this interesting. Here is the contract signed by Stan on Oct. 15, 1998 and the contract then signed with Marvel on Nov. 1, 1998.

    OCT. 15, 1998 CONTRACT between Lee and Stan Lee Media: http://www.secinfo.com/dsVsb.5Dg.1z.htm

    NOV. 1, 1998 CONTRACT between Lee and Marvel: http://contracts.onecle.com/marvel/lee.emp.1998.11.01.shtml

    Here is the warranty Stan made to Marvel:

    5
    (b) You hereby warrant that you have not assigned, licensed, pledged or
    otherwise hypothecated, nor attempted to do so any of the Property and
    Rights to anyone other than Marvel, its affiliates, predecessors or
    their designees and will not do so in the future.

  4. JAMES: the BK was amazing. Stan pulled out certain properties with court approval subject to him forming a new company called SLC LLC and developing the properties for the benefit of shareholders. That company was never formed. What is even more interesting is that some of those properties were transferred to POW! Entertainment. How was that possible with the BK court not being involved? What happened to the secured lien on those properties? During the final motions before dismissal, the counsel for the debtor in possession actually made a motion TO DESTROY CORPORATE RECORDS! Is someone trying to hide something?

    You are going to find something interesting from this case and the civil case of Paul v Clinton coming to Los Angeles Superior Court this year. Paul spent over $1.6 mil on Hillary’s campaign with the promise that Bill would come aboard as a rainmaker for one year after he left the White House. He was going to be paid $15 mil in stock and cash. Behind the scenes, Clinton’s business partner Jim Levin use proprietary information to steal SLM’s Japanese investor Tendo Oto for himself and Clinton. Oto had already given SLM $5 mil in August 2000 for the Japanese joint venture. He promised another $5-7 mil for VentureSoft in the U.S. Six days after Hillary was elected, Levin had recorded with the Sec. of State in Illinois his agreement with Oto (and silent partner Bill). When Oto’s money did not come in November as promised, the cash crunch killed the company. Had Oto done what he had promised, the company would have had plenty of money to survive until Clinton came aboard. Clinton would have raised a huge sum of money and this company would have been a goldmine. See the video explaining what the Clintons did — http://youtube.com/watch?v=LUWlxc7h5AI

  5. The Spider Man suit by Stan Lee Media’s new president, Wall Street Whistleblower Jim Nesfield, who exposed the Trillion Dollar Multual Fund Market Timing Scandal in 2004, will uncover a number of scandals. One relates to how Wall Street uses Intellectual property to create derivative securities based on voodoo accounting projections of future revenues of movies etc. Another relates to how Stan Lee has colluded with Marvel to hide his ownership of co-creator’s rights to all his creations from marvel shareholders and lenders and how Stan was paid off by Marvel in its secret $15 million settlement of the contract Stan made in November 1998 based on rights he had just sold to SLM. Finally, it will expose Hillary Clinton’s $100,000 election law fraud using Stan Lee as a front for money donated by Peter Paul- SLM’s 3rd Q 10Q November, 2000 details how Lee used a loan from SLM to give $100,000 to NY Senate 2000 in Lee’s name and then get reimbursement from Peter Paul-hiding Paul as the real donor. Keep watching

  6. Is Stan Lee named in suit? Why doesn’t SLMedia get whatever Marvel isn’t getting? Stan Lee’s not supporting SLMedia in suit? Stan Lee gets 5B, Hillary gets elected Stan Lee and Ron Paul get blanket pardons for anything up to and including 2016, what the heck lets pardon various and sundry Chinese figures involved through 2016, and any other millionaires who want to come back to the US, questions………..I mean after all if Bush can commute Libby’s sentence and or pardon him…..Libby should spend reasonable time in jail and the Federal Border Patrol Agents that went to jail over shooting at a escaping drug dealer should have been pardoned a long time ago……..

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