Posted in: Comics, Disney, Doctor Strange, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, Movies, Spider-Man, Stan Lee | Tagged: doctor strange, marvel, steve ditko

What Steve Ditko Thought About Doctor Strange & Other Marvel Movies

I've been reading uncovered letters by Steve Ditko regarding Marvel, superhero movies including Doctor Strange and casting issues.

Recently, Bleeding Cool has been looking at the court case brought by Marc Toberoff against Marvel Comics and Disney on behalf of Larry Lieber and the estates of Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Gene Colan, and Don Rico. Marvel Comics has reached settlements with four artists or their estates who attempted to reclaim copyright interests in Iron Man, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Blade and more. On behalf of these parties, attorney Toberoff brought such copyright termination attempts in regard to these properties.  Marvel in turn filed counter lawsuits. However, no settlement has been reached in the case of the estate of Steve Ditko, which seeks to reclaim his share of Doctor Strange and Spider-Man copyrights.

I've been looking through the filed legal documents. It is like panning for gold, there is much to talk about, especially Marvel/Disney bringing on former DC President Paul Levitz to give evidence to rebut the testimony of Mark Evanier in favour of creators' rights. That will be of interest to many I am sure, especially given that after that back and forth, Marvel chose to settle with the litigants. There really is a treasure trove of documents that form part of the litigation from all sides, including a series of letters from Steve Ditko. There was one of special note, and it concerned the release of the first Doctor Strange movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch. While Spider-Man is generally accepted as the shared co-creation of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, most folks see Doctor Strange as 100% created and moved forward by Steve Ditko, even if that's not what the official credits say.

Steve Ditko "didn't see the Dr. Strange movie" but "did read the reviews and they gave it 3 stars." He notes a lot of changes from the comics, particularly in regard to gender and ethnicity casting. Notably, Mordo played by Chiwetel Ejiofor and The Ancient One played by Tilda Swinton, but has a different perspective on those changes. "Marvel movies are for a world audience so they try to be careful with casting a woman ancient One and blacks, etc. are to appeal to a wider potential audience, ticket buyers"… "

Steve Ditko continues by stating that "we can always expect some complaints from China" as "China always demand everything done pleases them first". I looked to Doctor Strange as belonging more to the monster era of Marvel before the superheroes, as a five-page filler. This may be why the letter was introduced into evidence, as it has Steve Ditko claiming his creation of the character, and he later states that he created all of Doctor Strange. He also didn't read any Doctor Strange after he left. But he does see the nature of the character as conflicting and contradicting with the rest of the Marvel Universe.

Steve Ditko returns to the casting theme of having "a black Iron Man-female" to make money and that "the movies of comic book characters have changed them in all ways possible". He also draws a line about "publishers of comic book heroes acting in the most villainous ways". And he also criticised comic book fans who become editors and writers who have "no use for the ongoing artists" and that editors "will not hire anyone over 30, wiping out all of us who had been doing the work." He does state that he hasn't followed comics for a while, or seen any of the superhero movies at all.

Steve Ditko also looks back through other adaptations and offers particular disdain for the sixties Batman TV series, "undercutting everything about the original Batman" but then also notes that was already done "with the introduction of Robin, a kid side-kick." He concluded with probably the wisest observation. "There will also always be the accepters and rejecters with appropriate and overdone response." Never truer then than now.

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