The ruling comes as the result of comics historian Denis Kitchen providing evidence (first mentioned as a comment in response to a blog post at comic site Newsarama.com) that more work than just the original Superman story was created prior to DC's purchase of publication rights to the character. While Judge Stephen Larson didn't award the Siegel heirs everything they were hoping for, a significant chunk of the character's initial appearances have now shifted to their favor:

At the conclusion of this final installment regarding the publication history of and the rights to the iconic comic book superhero Superman, the Court finds that plaintiffs have successfully recaptured (and are co-owners of) the rights to the following works: (1) Action Comics No. 1 (subject to the limitations set forth in the Court's previous Order); (2) Action Comics No. 4; (3) Superman No. 1, pages three through six, and (4) the initial two weeks' worth of Superman daily newspaper strips. Ownership in the remainder of the Superman material at issue that was published from 1938 to 1943 remains solely with defendants.

Whether this impacts any other cases surrounding the rights to the Man of Steel and his universe remains to be seen.

Blog@ post gets Siegels more Superman [Blog@Newsarama.com]

The next year of DC's Superman family of comics will call back to some classic science fiction, according to the creators at Friday's Superman New Horizons panel. Talking about what's coming up in the second half of the World of New Krypton mini-series, co-author James Robinson said that "One of the things we're trying to acknowledge that there is a new planet in our solar system." To that end, co-author Greg Rucka explained, we can expect to see the Kryptonian survivors now living on the new planet of New Krypton stealing one of Jupiter's moons because they decide that their planet needs one.

Robinson continued,

At the end of #8, [obscure 1980s character] J'Emm Son of Saturn is going to appear... He's going to turn up saying 'Look, you've got to stop moving planets around the solar system.'

The cover for that issue may be somewhat familiar to classic fantasy fans, Rucka said:

Gary Frank's cover takes a classic Frank Frazetta trope and turns it into a classic science-fiction trope.

World of New Krypton isn't the only series to take inspiration from old favorites; Robinson described Geoff Johns' new Adventure Comics series as appealing to fans of classic sci-fi: "It reminds me of those great Ray Bradbury books set in the midwest." Series artist Francis Manipul added,

t's more of a charming book... It's a book that will cover a lot of age ranges. It's a lot more from the heart, it's a real change of pace from the other event books that're going on right now.

(Fans who miss Johns' Teen Titans should pick the series up; when asked who to expect in the book, he said "Superboy, Wonder Girl, Tim Drake, Bart Allen... The good Teen Titans.")

In the core titles of the franchise, September sees a crossover between Superman, Action Comics, Supergirl and World Of New Krypton called "Codename Patriot." Editor Matt Idleson explained,

As we've built up the Kryptonian side of what's going on with the storyline through the end of next year, so this builds up the Earth side.

The story will center around Lois's dad, General Lane, and his plan to save the planet from what he sees as the threat of thousands of Supermen running around. James Robinson promised that General Lane has "layers and layers of plans that build up to a big event in 2010.... Pieces will come together until we have our exciting event that you will all love, I promise... Every single character is affected in some way, no-one comes out unscathed."
Neither does real estate, according to Greg Rucka, who says that Superman and his Action Comics will cause trouble for Superman's home city in months to come:

James and I are planning the damage that we're going to do to Metropolis again. Wait. You guys don't know about the damage we're doing in the first place. Ixnay that part.

One thing you shouldn't expect, however, is an appearance from zombie children. When asked about the possibility that DC's linewide Blackest Night will turn supporting character Cat Grant's dead son into a murdering zombie, the panel reacted with nervous laughter before Geoff Johns finally said, "No plans right now."

In an announcement, the California Court presiding over the ongoing Siegel/DC/Warners Superman case declared that both parties come to an agreement of an impartial expert who can help explain the complicated issues surrounding the case following concerns over the arguments put forward by both sides in the recent trial:

The Court envisions that the Court-appointed special master/expert will not only submit a report in advance of trial, be subject to being deposed prior to trial, and proffer testimony at trial on the issues in question, but will also, in preparing for such tasks, be afforded the authority to appoint experts and other specials to assist him or her in performing those duties.

One of the reasons said expert is needed? Probably to help control such comments as those offered by Siegel family attorney Marc Toberoff, who yesterday unequivocally said

...in 2013, the Siegels, along with the estate of Joe Shuster, will own the entire original copyright to Superman...

The problem being, according to the very legal decision Toberoff was responding to with those comments, that's not necessarily the case:

Although it is true that, should the Shuster estate be successful in terminating the grant to the copyright in Action Comics No. 1, then at that point in time plaintiffs and the Shuster estate, not DC Comics, would hold the entirity of the copyright published in that comic book and would sit, assuming common representation, in much the same position Warner Bros. was said to have sat at the beginning of the negotiations over the Superman film agreement... The problem with this line of reasoning, however, lies in its speculative nature... It is by no means a foregone conclusion that the Shuster estate will be successful in terminating the grant to the Superman material published in Action Comics No. 1.

Never mind the court. We need our own Superman legal expert just to understand who owns what part of the character. Can't we all just agree that Kal-El would want everyone to sort this out without needing to get lawyers involved, anyway?

Judge calls for special master in Superman case [Blog@Newsarama.com]

Introducing the panel, Action Comics writer Geoff Johns said,

We've all kind of started to work together on Superman... we're all working in tandem to get the Superman universe lined up like we did on Green Lantern, get all the characters on the same page so we can go and tell crazy stories... We had a huge summit that we worked on all three books all the way through December 2010.

The first crazy story to spin out of that summit is October's New Krypton, which Johns teased with this high concept pitch:

Kandor is grown on the planet Earth, and all the Kryptonians decide 'Hey, cool, this must be new New Krypton' and Superman says 'No, it's not,' and chaos ensues.

More important than stories, according to the writers, is the characterization. Johns again:

We don't really want to change anything about Superman like saying, he's gonna have a kid. It's not about changing stuff as much as it's about exploring character... We want to get to them on an emotional level... [For example, the story 'Last Son'] was really about, Superman can never have a kid. He and Lois may love each other, but they can never have a kid. The House of El will end. How do they react to that?

Superman writer James Robinson admitted that part of that effort will include making sure that characters like Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen will return to the versions everyone knows, instead of superpowered giant turtles fighting evil gods: "The [supporting] characters have lost their way a bit," he said, before saying that Jimmy Olsen should be the third most important character in a Superman comic, after Superman and Lois. Johns agreed, and added that there are also plans afoot to use Lois more often: "If Superman married her, she's gotta be the coolest woman in the world."

The most important revelation from the panel may have come from new Supergirl writer Sterling Gates. When asked whether he will bring a more consistent characterisation to the Maid of Steel after an erratic few years where she's been portrayed as confused, evil, stupid, slutty and almost continually unheroic, he said that he saw her as one of the strongest characters DC Comics has, and feels that she's been mishandled recently. "Can we officially say that she's not a slut?" Johns asked, to the applause of the audience. So, now you know: Supergirl isn't a slut.

That's Mary Marvel's job.

Superman appears across multiple series in DC's line, from Justice League of America and Trinity to the kid-centric Superfriends and Justice League Unlimited. But each of his three solo series must've done something to commemorate this rather momentous anniversary, right?

Superman: At least it seems as if he's taken the day off in the first issue of new writer James Robinson's run, hanging out in space with Green Lantern, playing super-frisbee with Krypto the Super-Dog before disaster calls. But where's Lois with his birthday present? Are the rest of the Justice League planning a surprise party while all this is going on?

Action Comics: Everything seems to be fairly quiet for ol' Kal-El over here as well; he's spending most of his time as Clark Kent, in fact, getting reintroduced to all of the Daily Planet crew. Still, I don't see any cake...

All-Star Superman: Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's irregular-yet-entirely-awesome tribute to all that's good about Superman didn't actually have an issue in June, but that's probably a good thing considering that their last issue ended with the Man of Tomorrow's death at the long-term hands of Lex Luthor...

Hmm. Okay, so it's almost as if they've forgotten it's Superman's birthday this month, doesn't it? Wait, wait - I've got it. Last week saw the release of the second issue of DC's big series for the year, Final Crisis. Surely there's something for Clark to cheer about in there...

Man. That's just cold. I know it's meant to be a "never-ending battle," but still. It wouldn't have killed you guys to give him a card or something.

How To Celebrate Superman's Birthday on June 30th [eHow.com]

One of the most feared and revered characters in the Superman universe is Brainiac. So when you bring him back, it's got to be in a big way. And from the sounds of the first issue, it could be an epic starter filled with flashback scenes. John's revealed that we'll learn more about the history of Krypton and Brainiac's involvement with its destruction. The first issue even deals with a flashback where you see General Zod defending Krypton from Brainiac.

John's also explained what Brainiac is going to be like after being gone for a while:

We wanted him to be very unsettling, very alien and feel different then the other adversaries that Superman has. The idea is to make Brainiac one of the villains that Superman dreads when he has to face him, rather than just another slot in a long line of villains. I think our first issue has a real creepy vibe to it and Gary did a really great design on him.

[Comic Mix]

Given the lead time required to prep all of tomorrow's books, Marvel took quite a gamble preparing such a glut of Iron Man comics. Luckily, the movie is a massive success, which will hopefully create more interest for the new ongoing series The Invincible Iron Man (written by Casanova's Matt Fraction, and therefore worth your attention). There's also a new mini-series, Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas (written by Iron Man movie director Jon Favreau). And new collections Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin and Iron Man: War Machine (Those of you who liked Jim Rhodes in the movie may want to check out the latter, by the way; it's what happens when he gets his own armor). And then there are other Tony-Stark-starring books like Avengers/Invaders, Secret Invasion, Invasion tie-in Mighty Avengers and the paperback version of New Avengers: Illuminati (which leads directly into Secret Invasion, for those who didn't know). Just imagine what would've happened if the movie had flopped?

Much safer to take the route that IDW have taken, waiting a year to produce the first issue of Transformers Movie Sequel: The Reign of Starscream, an officially-sanctioned-but-sure-to-be-ignored-by-Michael-Bay follow-up to last year's Shia LeBouf vehicle that was more than met the eye. Wondering what happened to the bad guys that weren't Megatron after the credits rolled? This will be your place to find out, as well as where you'll get to meet some new robots in disguise. If you'd prefer a more nostalgic take on the franchise, IDW also has an old-school reprint, Transformers: Best of The UK: Dinobots, collecting stories from the UK comic of twenty years ago. Excuse me, now I feel old.

In comparison, DC has low movie magic this week, offering just Action Comics Annual #11, the sixth and final part of "Last Son," which is Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner's co-written (with Geoff Johns) resurrection of General Zod and the rest of the Phantom Zone villains from the second movie. Oh, they have other books - I'd point out new monthly House of Mystery and Lost-meets-dinosaurs mini-series The War That Time Forgot in particular as worth your time — but when it comes to movie tie-ins, they can't give you lights or camera... only Action.

As is always the case, you can find all of this week's new releases - movie-related and otherwise- listed over here and find your closest shop filled with four color wonders by clicking through to here. All popcorn is optional, and you have to bring your own.

Time travel in Booster Gold, Space war in Green Lantern, and a sci-fi melange in Action Comics (time travel, alternate dimensions, planets full of Bizarros) - You seem to have taken almost all of your superhero books at DC in a more science fiction direction than usual over the last year or so; even your Justice Society of America currently has the Superman of a parallel Earth as a member. Is this intentional, and if so, what brought it on?

Not really intentional, no, but I have been striving to push my books and writing in general into a different direction.  Delving into the concepts and characters a bit more, exploring the DC Universe as a whole in a different light.  Coming out of 52, I really felt reinvigorated for some reason.  Or maybe inspired is a better word.  And with everything that DC's been gearing up for in this post-DC Universe #0 world, it just adds more fuel to the fire.  Science-fiction is inherent in a super-hero universe in general and I'm just trying to take advantage of that.

Would you ever want to tackle straight scifi, away from the familiar superhero characters?

Sure.  I'd also like to tackle an historical story, a western, a horror adventure.  All genres.  The film I'm working on with the Robot Chicken team is more of a family/comedy in the same vein as a Pixar movie, but with a bit more humor and Christmas espionage action on top of that.  I've been very focused on the DC Universe in the comics world and, quite honestly, that's where my passion lies when it comes to comics.  I'll be venturing outside it a bit with some creator owned projects, but my focus is the DC Universe.  It's what I enjoy doing more than nearly anything else.

A lot of DC's Silver Age books were essentially pretty straight science fiction stories disguised in superhero costume (Sometimes without that much of a costume; Adam Strange and Hawkman, for example) . While Marvel books seemed to be based on atomic age fear of what could go wrong, DC had a more optimistic take on the wonders of technology, even if their idea of what technology could actually do was somewhat mistaken. Do you think that one side or another has been proven right in the longterm?

That's a long conversation and extremely subjective in my opinion.  Everyone has something that speaks to them.  There's something in Wolverine that speaks to people that I don't entirely get.  But a lot of people don't gravitate towards the Legion of Super-Heroes.  They don't see the struggle that team goes through, the dynamics and characters that their fans and I connect with.  My goal when I tackle these characters is to really show, not tell, why I subscribe to the DC Universe.  Why am I fascinated by Captain Cold and the Rogues or the Justice Society?  When a reader comes up to me and says, "I never really got into Green Lantern before Rebirth or Sinestro Corps." that's what it's all about to me.  Someone at the NYCC show pointed out Gary and I's work on Action Comics and said, "When Superman said, 'I'm for everyone.' I finally understood Superman after all these years."  So who was proven right?  There's no right or wrong answer in the take on technology and scifi, there's just the one we prefer.

If you're in the Sunnyvale, CA area tomorrow, you might want to go and tell Geoff that you're a fan yourself: he's celebrating the release of DCU: Zero with a signing at Comics Conspiracy between 2 - 6pm (Click here for details). Otherwise, just pick up the 50 cent book at your local store and get in on the ground floor before Superman and Batman spend the summer getting their asses kicked.

DC Universe: Zero [DC Comics]

In a series of three excellent posts, Trexler explains just what last week's ruling in favor of the Siegel family actually means... and doesn't mean:

Even in regard to the Siegels' interest in Action Comics #1 and works derived from it, the Siegel heirs are at best co-owners with DC (the Shuster situation is explained in brief here). Each holder of copyright interest must account to any others for any profits gained from exploiting the copyright, and no partial copyright holder can transfer exclusive rights without consent of the others holding a copyright interest. In addition, as the court rules (pp. 63-66), under the law the Siegel heirs regain an interest only in domestic—not foreign—profits.

But wait, there's more! A number of elements in the Superman "universe" (see pp. 13-14) did not appear in the first issue of Action Comics. Kryptonite, Lex Luthor, Metropolis, Beppo the Super-Monkey—none of these appear in the issue. Superman could not fly, nor does he have super-breath, heat vision or a Fortress of Solitude with an interplanetary zoo and the Bottle City of Kandor. The extent to which the Siegels' profit distribution will be affected by subsequent additions to the original material is yet unresolved.

The situation gets far more complex when deciding what constitutes a derivative work from Action #1. Given how much of the current character is distinct from the material in that story, the amount that the Siegels should receive from new material (i.e., from April 16, 1999 onward) is open to debate.

Making this more difficult is the relation of the Action Comics #1 material to Superman trademarks. Superman trademarks include elements from the relevant copyrighted material, from aspects of Superman's uniform to certain characters to the logo, which reflects the classic Ira Schnapp design "based on Joe Shuster's concept." This is cutting-edge unresolved intellectual property law, with ramifications far beyond the comic book community. Anyone looking for an easy and immediate answer will, alas, be disappointed... Even if the cases didn't settle and the Shusters prevailed, the termination only applies to domestic U.S. copyright. The retention of trademark and foreign copyright by DC & co., as you can imagine, creates a far more complex situation, as does the fact that so much of the current character does not appear in the Action Comics #1 material. I'm not saying it would be easy, but there are things that Time Warner could do without a license, just as there are opportunities the creators' families couldn't exploit without dealing with Time Warner.

Instead of worrying about DC folding up, expect a settlement with both the Siegel and Shuster families, albeit perhaps one that is more favorable to them in terms of finances and the creators' recognition than might have otherwise been obtained.

The Siegel-Superman decision, A Siegel Superman copyright decision FAQ Copyright, trademark and the death of Superman [Uncivil Society]