When a federal judge ruled recently that Stan Lee, a co-creator of many Marvel Comics characters, was entitled to 10 percent of the profits from Marvel Enterprises film and television productions, he renewed a long-simmering debate in comic book history: How much credit does Mr. Lee deserve for creating characters like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four and how much was due to his collaborators?
''It's amazing that he walks away with all the credit and all the money for some of the creation of these characters,'' said Robert Katz, a nephew of Jack Kirby, the illustrator who worked with Mr. Lee on the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men and others. ''The artists who did the lion's share of the creation have walked away with absolutely nothing.'' Mr. Kirby died in 1994.
''I only wish that Jack Kirby had Stan Lee's lawyer,'' Mr. Katz added.
Lisa Kirby, Mr. Kirby's daughter, agreed. ''I don't know how they live with themselves,'' she said. ''The estate gets no compensation from Marvel at all.''
Mr. Lee sued Marvel in 2002, arguing that the company had not honored a provision in his 1998 contract that promised the 10 percent cut. Marvel pays Mr. Lee, a chairman emeritus at the company, $1 million a year. Howard J. Graff, Mr. Lee's attorney in the case and a partner at Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky in New York, declined to comment Friday. A Marvel executive said the recent ruling, which it plans to appeal, had nothing to do with Mr. Lee's contribution to creating the Marvel universe.
''The Stan Lee dispute is really a dispute about an employment agreement that's very specific to Stan Lee,'' said John N. Turitzin, executive vice president and general counsel at Marvel. ''It's not an agreement about his role as a creator of Marvel's characters.''
Marc Flores, who wrote the comic book history ''Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution,'' using the pen name Ronin Ro, argued that the writers and illustrators who dreamed up comic book characters decades ago did not envision the blockbuster movies that would eventually result. A movie based on the Fantastic Four is scheduled to open July 1.
''Jack Kirby played an enormous role in 90 percent of the Marvel universe during the first half of the 1960's, with Stan,'' Mr. Flores said. ''It's unfortunate that Jack isn't here, but Stan is.'' NAT IVES
Photo: The character of Spider-Man, alias Peter Parker, was created decades ago, but it is making even more money today. (Photo by Marvel Enterprises); Stan Lee (Photo by Associated Press)
