#Marvel Settles Fight Over Spider-Man, Doctor Strange Rights

It looks like Marvel won’t be bringing its battle over the rights to Spider-Man and Doctor Strange into the new year. Attorneys for the company and the estate of Steve Ditko on Wednesday notified the court that they’ve reached an amicable settlement and expect a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice to be filed in the coming weeks.

This all started back in 2021 when Marvel filed a series of lawsuits in response to copyright termination notices from Larry Lieber and the estates of Gene Colan, Steve Ditko, Don Heck and Don Rico. A very long list of characters were at issue including Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk and Thor. In June, all but one of the matters settled.

The last remaining dispute was with the heirs of Ditko, who co-created Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. According to that termination notice, the estate wanted to reclaim rights from comics including Amazing Fantasy (including Spider-Man’s 1962 debut) and Strange Tales (including Doctor Strange’s first appearance in 1963). In addition to the art and stories themselves, the termination notices also targeted “any character, story element, or indicia reasonably associated with the Works.”

Marvel was represented by Dan Petrocelli and Molly Lens of O’Melveny, and Patrick Ditko was represented by Marc Toberoff. Neither party has responded to a request for comment.