Marvel's New Thunderbolts "City of Heroes?" Issue

Marvel followed their admission that they had themselves created some of the allegedly infringing characters and the halving of their complaint with another questionable move that would cause them future legal problems.  On February 9, 2005, the April 2005 issue of Marvel's comic book New Thunderbolts went on sale with the text "City of Heroes" promoting the next issue.1  As promised, Marvel followed up a month later (on March 9th, the same date as the above decision) with the May issue, titled "City of Heroes?," a title germane to the story, but an apparent jab at NCsoft.2

Sure enough, in June 2005, NCsoft counterclaimed for damages that Marvel had made a false Notice and Knockdown filing because they had created the infringing character.3  NCsoft also claimed the New Thunderbolts had infringed their "City of Heroes" trademark.4  In July 2005, Marvel sought dismissal of these counterclaims.5  The court made a ruling on these issues in August 2005.6

NCsoft's trademark violation claims based on the New Thunderbolts use of "City of Heroes" are meritorious.7

Settlement of all issues was announced on December 14, 2005.8

 

1     See Fabian Nicienza, Kurt Busiek, Tom Grummett, Gary Erskine & Chris Sotomayor, Zeroes to Heroes Part 5: Call to Battle?, New Thunderbolts 5, at 32 (Marvel Comics Apr. 2005); Marvel, Details of New Thunderbolts #5, http://marvel.com/catalog/showcomic.htm?id=1643&format=comic (last visited Jan. 26, 2006) (confirming the release date).  Comic books are traditionally post-dated so they will be left on the rack for a few months after publication, and still seem current.  The periodical cover date indicates to the newsstands when the unsold magazines or comic books can either be returned to the publisher or destroyed. See Wikipedia.com, Periodical Cover Date, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cover_date (last visited Dec. 13, 2005).

2     Fabian Nicienza, Kurt Busiek, Tom Grummett, Gary Erskine & Chris Sotomayor, Zeroes to Heroes Part 6: City of Heroes?, New Thunderbolts 6 (Marvel Comics May 2005).  Subsequent republishings of these issues and Marvel's official online presence have removed any mention of "City of Heroes" in the title, changing the name of the entire story arc from "Zeroes to Heroes" to the name of the original first chapter "One Step Forward," although the closing dialogue proclaiming New York as "A CITY OF HEROES" remains.  See Fabian Nicienza et al., New Thunderbolts Vol. 1: One Step Forward (Tom Brevoort ed., Marvel Comics 2005).

3     See Ruling on Marvel's Motion to Dismiss Counterclaims, Marvel Enters., Inc. v. NCsoft Corp., No. CV 04-9253-RGK (PLAx) 3 (C.D. Ca. Jan 25, 2005).

4     Id. at 5-6.

5     Id.

6     Id. at 1.

7     Id. at 5Ð6.

8     Press Release, NCsoft, Marvel Entertainment, Inc., NCsoft Corporation, NC Interactive, Inc., Cryptic Studios, Inc. Settle All Litigation, (Dec. 14, 2005), available at http://www.plaync.com/about/2005/12/marvel_entertai.html; Matt Brady, Marvel Settles With NCsoft/Cryptic Studios, Newsarama.com, http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=d8c3b41999a4c0193955aa5e93de62c3&threadid=52452 (last visited Dec. 20, 2005).

 

 

The last panel of New Thunderbolts #5, April 2005 (on Sale Feb 9, 2005)

 

The top and bottom of the title page of New Thunderbolts #6, May 2005

 

The last two panels of New Thunderbolts #6, May 2005 (on Sale Mar 9, 2005)

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New Thunderbolts TM and (c) Marvel Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission.
City of Heroes TM and (c) NCsoft


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