New ROM and Mircronauts comics from IDW

[cjefferys]

Love it!

OK, I get that Marvel certainly doesn't have clear ownership of ROM, but Gunn says the same about Bug? I don't get that since Marvel has used him a bunch of times in recent years. Man, I would have lost my s**t if Bug had shown up in the Guardians of the Galaxy film!

[samurainoir]

[samurainoir]

Hasbro asserted Rom Space Knight in toy form last year with this SDCC exclusive Mugg.



Last time they asserted comic book rights for Micronauts was 2011. Prior to the Hasbro buyout, the Micronauts comic book by Devils Due/Image wasn't able to use Commander Rann, Mari, Huntarr etc.


Marvel asserted "Spaceknights" back in 2001 (and an appearance in Annihilation, 2007... which wasn't a titular "Space Knight", and thus doesn't constitute a trademark)



Bug #1 in 1997. and he joined the Guardians of the Galaxy along with Starlord, Groot, Rocket et al during the second Annihilation series. Also a half dozen appearances with the other "Microns" (Huntarr, Mari, Rann, Acroyear sans costume) in various Marvel U comics in the past twenty years.





Although Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has gone on record saying that he wanted to use both Bug and ROM, but that they didn't have clear ownership. I'd assume rather than risk any kind of legal grey area with so much money on the line... why even chance the risk of a lawsuit that could put the potential franchise at risk?

"There was a really good chance Bug was going to show up in the first movie but we do not own him... but, anyway, that was going to happen, perhaps. Listen, I really love Rom: Spaceknight, as everyone at Marvel knows because they've given me Rom stuff... but we don't own Rom. I would love for Rom: Spaceknight to show up because I love his story, I love the way he looks, I love everything about him…"

[cjefferys]

That means it's like the GI Joe deal. Where whatever Marvel came up with, Hasbro owned.

No, for Marvel's Micronauts comic, they still own everything that Mego didn't copyright as a toy or name. They've used their own created characters like Bug for example in recent comics. I'm pretty sure that Marvel coined "Microverse", not Mego, so they should be able to use the name and concept freely in their films, and if they wanted to throw Bug, Marionette or Commander Rann (without any "Space Glider" references) into a film, they could do so.

[hedrap]

I think Marvel must be ****y about this. Look at the titling for Rom "The Space Knight" and "Venom: Spaceknight". That's SOP for trademark knife-fighting.

[monitor_ep]

Well this sucks. I really wanted a Marvel Space Knight figure.

[hedrap]

Are we sure it's the microverse? Feige used to talk about Strange's Magic having a quantum bent to it, aka Thor's science-magic.

EDIT: yeah, the quote in the article says it was "called" the microverse, but they call it the quantum realm in the movie. That means it's like the GI Joe deal. Where whatever Marvel came up with, Hasbro owned.

[samurainoir]

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/132401-sdcc-is-idw-about-to-announce-micronauts-and-rom-spaceknight-miniseries.html?utm_content=bufferb0b97&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

as folks were predicting, given that Hasbro owns these properties now, and IDW already has the Transformers and GI Joe licenses.



It will be interesting to see how this plays out with Marvel... the Microverse is being introduced as a concept in the Ant Man film, and Venom is becoming a Space Knight.

http://io9.com/ant-man-will-introduce-a-weird-new-reality-from-marvels-1716416267