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It's as inevitable as the tides. Once something becomes a genuine industry to the tune of a $4 billion dollar marriage, the lawsuits quickly follow. On the heels of the Siegel and Shuster lawsuits that dismantled the world of Clark Kent comes a lawsuit from the estate of Jack Kirby that targets all things Marvel. According to The New York Times, the Kirby heirs have sent 45 notices of copyright infringement to Marvel, Disney, Paramount, Fox, Sony, Universal, Hasbro, and just about everyone else in the world. Kirby created (or co-created alongside Stan Lee) just about all the big Marvel characters so anyone using them must now face the the Kirbys and Toberoff & Associates. (The same law firm that handled the Siegel and Shuster lawsuits, which is no coincidence.)

The Kirbys seek to win the copyrights back to Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc., and claim some (or all) of the profits. If they win back the copyright, it wouldn't kick in until 2014 so presumably they wouldn't be able to claim the "back profits" the characters have made, but anything going forward would be a problem. As Bleeding Cool notes, Disney and Marvel will always own the trademarks, and the movie studios would probably also be safe in their acquisitions, but continuing to publish anything Kirby created would be problematic.

The attorney Marc Toberoff declined to comment on the case, but Disney released an official statement that shrugged off the lawsuit, noting "the notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights 7 to 10 years from now, and involve claims that were fully considered in the acquisition." This will undoubtedly be a case fraught with as many tangles as the Siegel and Shuster suit was. Will Marvel end up owning Iron Man's armor, but the Kirbys will own Tony Stark and Pepper Potts? Will it create problems for Marvel Studios down the line? We shall watch and see.

Sometimes movie stories are just too good to be true. A few days ago, Scott Weinberg brought us the delicious rumor that Edgar Wright's Ant-Man could be the first product to come of Pixar and Marvel having sweet access to each other.

Unfortunately, it is not to be. Wright set the record straight on CHUD, squashing the rumors, but giving fans hope that he might team up with Pixar for something, someday: "The news that Pixar is involved is not wholly accurate and a little premature to comment on. I love Pixar's work more than anyone and indeed would love to collaborate with them. I'm not sure though that they would want to do a 'shrinking' film as a Pixar animation -- since Toy Story and A Bug's Life already cover this territory to some extent. Am guessing that someone just speculated on the 'bug' angle and tried to put two and two together. My spin on Ant Man is very different than a straight superhero origin -- and very much live action."

But lest you think this means Ant-Man languishes in scriptwriting or pre-production, not so. "I am still attached to Ant Man and indeed am still working on a second draft with Joe Cornish. That had to take a back seat while I worked on Scott Pilgrim, but am keen to get back into it once I get into post. I just spoke to Kevin Feige for the first time since I wrapped and we are meeting this week to discuss the next phase." Hopefully, the next phase involves our antennaed friend accompanying Thor and Captain America to the big screen very, very soon.