I’m not goint to tease you with a lot of introductory backstory, although that is interesting as well. I’m going to give you the poop: a judge has allegedly awarded the rights to Superboy (NOTE: just Superboy, not Superman) to the estate of Siegel and Shuster, creators of Superman.

If this is true, it will be a portentious ruling indeed. What will it mean for Carmine Infantino’s lawsuit seeking the rights to Silver Age characters? What leverage will it give Tony Isabella as he tries to get the rights to Black Lightning back from DC?

This last question is relevant, as it plays into how Tony Isabella unwittingly “broke” the story. Tony hinted that some very big news was coming soon; he’d heard it from three different sources and as soon as he could confirm it he would let everyone know. He did, however, share the story with a private mailing list of comic book pros, including Steven Grant.

Steven took this as an opportunity to break the news by linking to this first vague post and then tell everyone what the news was, even though it is not sourced except by Isabella, and Isabella isn’t sharing his sources. Grant pointed out that Smallville is technically “Superboy”, so this is a meaningful ruling even if it’s been ages since DC published anything resembling “the adventures of Superman when he was a boy”. And if Superboy reverts to the S/S estate, then why not the parts of the mythos relevant to Superboy, such as Krypto and Smallville? (Was Superman’s hometown ever named before they started telling Superboy stories? There’s a good question for John “Answer Man” Wells!)

To continue with this long backstory: Isabella then posted a response regretting Grant’s article making this all public, as that mailing list was supposed to have Fight Club rules. He was rather hoping to see when it would show up in the press, even the comic book press.

This is all veddy interesting. For those of you who haven’t really been following this, copyright and corporate ownership has been a major topic over the last few years. This is due to the corporations like Disney and I’m assuming Warner Brothers which don’t want essential characters like Mickey Mouse and Superman falling into public domain. On top of this elapsed time issue, you have creators like Tony Isabella and Carmine Infantino challenging comic companies for more control of the characters they created.

A ruling on either of this could be devastating to the corporations. Disney had a recent fight with the estate of Winnie the Pooh’s creator for control of those characters, because Winnie the Pooh merchandise (and the also-departing Pixar-related movies/merchandise) account for a large portion of Disney’s profits. I’m sure Warner Brothers watches these court cases and ponders what would happen to them if some of their creators started divvying up the characters they created for DC.

I’d be willing to bet that that is why DC doesn’t just turn over a minor, non-selling character like Black Lightning just to keep Isabella quiet. Black Lightning may not be worth much, but it would set an ugly precedent. (Don’t take this the wrong way: I’m a Black Lightning fan from way back, and Isabella should be writing him regardless of whether it’s for DC or as his own creator-owned property.)