EXCLUSIVE: MARVEL AT RISK TO LOSE WOLVERINE RIGHTS

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In breaking news that is shocking the comic book world, WolverineFiles.com has learned that Marvel Comics is at risk to lose rights to one of its most popular characters, Wolverine.

At issue is a contract between Marvel Comics, the current publisher of Wolverine, and Twentieth Century Fox, a subsidiary of News Corporation and producer of the big budget ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ movie.

According to legal experts, News Corporation lawyers added a clause giving Twentieth Century Fox complete rights to Wolverine upon release of the movie, as well as complete rights to all other Marvel Comics’ characters appearing in the movie.

With U.S. release slated for May 1, 2009, it seems that News Corporation will take over ownership of Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool and several other Marvel characters in a little over a month. This is not unprecedented as News Corporation retained rights to the “Watchmen” movie through a similar legal loophole, eventually extracting distribution rights from Paramount Studios.

Marvel Comics is reportedly working on contingency plans in the event that their planned injunction against News Corporation fails. Potential plans include a new publishing schedule to wrap up existing story lines from the main title, ‘Wolverine’, and sister title, ‘Wolverine: Origins’.

As this story began to leak, several Marvel writers weighed in with their thoughts.

Legendary X-Men scribe Chris Claremont said, “It really is unfortunate to lose a character of this complexity. Even more unfortunate is that I will never be able to tell the true origin of the character that I have been planning for the past 35 years.”

Prolific writer Brian Michael David Bendis (New Avengers, Dark Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Origins, Powers, Daredevil) was more philosophical, “Is this is a sad day for Marvel? It is. It really is.”

WolverineFiles.com has learned that Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada will soon be releasing a statement which, in part, will read, “As much as it is an anathema to me personally, we may need to remove Wolverine from Marvel continuity entirely. I hope we can seamlessly achieve this goal with the full support of the fans, much like we did with Spider-Man and ‘Brand New Day.'”

If this eventuality does comes to pass, the final Wolverine story, the final appearance of the character in the Marvel universe, will reportedly be entitled ‘Wolverine: Prima Aprilus’.

More details to come as they become available…

[Contact: dig@typingmonkeys.com]

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Jody
14 years ago

Wow, who at Marvel didn’t read the contract? Or didn’t care?

DXM
14 years ago

heh,
Look at all these April’s Fools.

It’s a joke, people

Like Ross adding the wonder twins to his DC0 trinity books
or CC doing Queen Storm with the infamus T.Catt.

tiv123
14 years ago

Meh. I don’t see the big deal – I outgrew comic books years ago, but I still watch movies, so it doesn’t matter to me who owns the rights as long as they keep making Marvel movies. I’m particularly looking forward to the Ant-Man lead-in to the much anticipated Avengers movie – he was always my favorite back when I used to read comic books as a kid. I’ve been eager to see Ant-Man on the big screen ever since I saw Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Go Fox!

Prima Aprilus
14 years ago

“Prima Aprilus” Translates to 1st of April
APRIL FOOLS DAY!!

14 years ago

Great, first 20th Century Fox brings a lawsuit against Warner Bros to prevent the release of Watchmen, and look how well they made out on that deal… http://screenrant.com/details-watchmen-lawsuit-settlement-kofi-5067/ …but now they turn their greedy little fingers on Marvel Entertainment, Inc. I’m not surprised that they buried something like this in their contracts. They’re already worried that they are going to lose their Fantastic Four and Daredevil rights, which is why they are considering doing “serious” remakes, so they probably had the foresight to plan ahead and jump all over Wolverine. If Marvel can’t get a settlement and they have to… Read more »

Ace
14 years ago

I’m absolutely speechless. I cannot imagine a Marvel universe without Wolverine, or that any court would allow this to happen. It’s a case of Marvel not reading the fine print, and comes across as a scam job on the part of News Corporation. I’m nerve-wracked, to say the least. The idea of losing Wolverine… I cannot let myself believe that this will be allowed.

creaky
14 years ago

This sounds suspiciously much like an April’s Fool’s joke. “Prima Aprilus”…?

14 years ago

I heard they are replacing him with W0lverine. That’s a zero instead of the letter O after the W. So, when you use regular comic lettering, which is almost always in all caps, it will look exactly the same. It’s just a publicity stunt after all.

Check it out: W0LVERINE <—-see?

You can’t even tell that Marvel lost the rights because it looks identical. But this really is incredible news anyway.

Comusiv
14 years ago

I read that Daniel Way will get to write Wolverine: Prima Aprilus. And he’s going to tie up all of his loose ends. Not to ruin it for everyone but Wolverine finally confronts Romulus at which point it’s revealed that Romulus is actually Sabretooth. The Sabretooth Wolverine killed was actually a Mister Sinister clone and the real Sabretooth has meticulously plotted out this entire scheme of making Logan a war criminal and turning his son evil (who is also in on the gag). And it’s all been leading up to this huge reveal. That instead of fighting Wolverine on his… Read more »

Cat
14 years ago

I’m hoping this is an April Fools joke (but it’s after midday over here, so sorry, you’re the fool).
If it isn’t, a day of comic mourning should be declared, along with a ritual burning of the lawyer resonsible for that contract.
But like I said, I suspect this is an April Fool’s Joke, as Marvel guards all thier characters ridiculously safely and I can’t see them making a mistake like this.
I look forward to tomorrow.

LOL
14 years ago

Primus Aprilus = April 1st in Latin.

Tarver
14 years ago

Seriously, you can’t tell this is an April Fool’s joke?

“As much as it is an anathema to me personally, we may need to remove Wolverine from Marvel continuity entirely. I hope we can seamlessly achieve this goal with the full support of the fans, much like we did with Spider-Man and ‘Brand New Day.’” – This line is an entire satire of how pissed-off fans were after Spider-Man.

rich johnston
14 years ago

april fool…

Ahma
14 years ago

‘Wolverine: Prima Aprilus’. sounds too much like Wolverine April Fools to me. Don`t get me wrong, I was about to rant on about how big corporations deserve what`s coming to them, but after seeing that title, I am wee bit skeptical and prudent…

If this news bit would have come out on any other day, yes, I would have trusted it a bit more, but with all the crazy stuff that`s been happening today (including that ‘leaked’ Wolverine:Origins movie version), I`ll just sit back and relax and see what persists and what not ;)

Glenn Selser
14 years ago

Upon Closer review the contract actually has a loophole in the loophole which moves ownership of all characters at the Fox Corporation over to Marvel instead. It was found that Marvel tricked Fox into thinking it had tricked Marvel over the ownership rights. Joe Quesada announced that several new characters will be added to some Marvel titles: Bill O’Reily will show up in Spider man As Uncle Ben’s brother who no really liked. Sean Hannity will be cast as the new Captain america and Greta Van Sustren will show up as magneto’s new girl friend

Anne
14 years ago

Oh wow. I can’t believe it! After years and years of creation and development Marvel just has to hand over their characters? How sad! I can’t even imagine what the future of Wolverine and the other characters are now that they’re in somone other than Marvel’s hands.

14 years ago

I can’t believe this!

I hate Fox so much. God damn it! Why did I waste all my money on all these Wolverine comics if Marvel isn’t going to finish the story!

BlackDew
14 years ago

Awesome trick.

Almost had me going there for a second.

:D

Kame
14 years ago

April Fool’s! It says Wolverine: Prima Aprilus. What do you think that means? April 1st aka April Fool’s.

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