Stan Lee Media, which only emerged from bankruptcy on December 6th, has filed a $5 billion lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment on the basis of 'co-ownership' of all the properties created by Stan Lee while he was at Marvel.  Stan Lee, who is no longer associated with Stan Lee Media and settled his own lawsuit with Marvel in 2005 (see 'Marvel Settles With Stan Lee'), commented, 'I do not support this action and believe the suit is baseless.'

Stan Lee Media was the poster child for everything that was wrong with the seamy over-hyped portion of the Internet boom, and its collapse in 2001 led to a number of convictions (see 'SEC Probing Stan Lee Media').  Stan Lee managed to extricate himself from what the New York Post called 'the unsavory bunch that surrounded the 80-year-old cartoonist and drove his name and company, Stan Lee Media, into the ground.' Lee formed Pow! Entertainment in 2002 where he has had some success with his new independent projects like the Who Wants To Be A Superhero? TV series, and Lee also currently serves a Publisher Emeritus with Marvel.

The current management at Stan Lee Media may think that Marvel may settle with them to get rid of the lawsuit, but one wonders if they have studied the history of the House of Idea's legal encounters.