I've never heard a word about lawsuits over these characters, probably because neither was particularly successful.

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Nova, originally Black Nova, was Wolfman's fan character, and he was on the list of characters Marv attempted to claim as part of the Blade suit.

The focus in the fan media was on Blade, since he had a couple of movies, but the list was actually quite long, and even included the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!

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I can take this even a step further. I created Snowbird in my fan days, and she had her "debut" in the satirical strip GAY GUY I did for the SAIT newspaper while I was in College. So I can honestly say that I created her before Alpha Flight AND that she was published before I used her in X-MEN.

Does that mean I will sic the lawyers on Marvel when that multi-million dollar SNOWBIRD movie comes out?

No.

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The "contract" was on the back of the check. It's been argued round and round that that was not strictly legal, but we signed them or we didn't get paid. By signing them, we effectively accepted the terms, fair or not.

You take the King's shilling, you do the King's bidding.

I would argue that he is one of the men who was a corner stone of what built Marvel.

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A lot of how it worked in the "Golden Age" had to do with the Absolute Power wielded by the Publishers. If you wanted to work in comics -- or, perhaps more correctly, if you wanted to make a living wage working in comics, there were very few options.

Will Eisner objected to the situation as it existed, and walked away. He found his own avenues and followed (and even built) them. Jack Kirby played the game -- to the extent that he operated by the same rules when he became a publisher himself

It is also important to remember that comics, despite the presence of some truly spectacular talent, were very much the bottom of the barrel. This was where people ended up who were unable to make it into the strips. It would be a long time before comics became somewhere that could be considered a first choice. (Remember, that even top talent like Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, etc, still worked in the strips when they could.)

So much has changed in such a relatively short time, it's difficult for some to remember what conditions were like BEFORE the changes. Wolfman's lawsuit against Marvel seemed largely predicated on this, in fact. He seemed genuinely surprised when people turned up in court to say "No, that's not how it was." People like Jim Shooter, Tom Palmer, Gene Colan.*

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* Historic accuracy: Palmer and Colan did not testify in court. They gave depositions that became part of the record.

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Source?

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Nuff said.