Stan Lee has officially dismissed his $1 billion lawsuit against POW! Entertainment less than two months after the suit was filed in his name.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee dropped the fraud and conversion lawsuit, which had been filed regarding the use of his name and likeness. The Marvel creator had originally felt that he was conned into signing over the rights to his name and likeness. However, POW! called this suit into question when reports came around stating that Lee was the victim of elder abuse, and others were making business decisions for him.
Fortunately, it looks as though the issue with POW! has been settled, and the company is hoping to help protect Lee from issues like this in the future.
“The whole thing has been confusing to everyone, including myself and the fans, but I am no happy to be surrounded by those who want the best for me,” Lee said in a statement. “I am thrilled to put the lawsuit behind me, get back to business with my friends and colleagues at POW! and launch the next wave of amazing characters and stories.
The CEO of POW!, Shane Duffy, added, “We are ecstatic that this ill-founded lawsuit has been dismissed and we look forward to working with Stan again to develop and produce the great projects that were put on hold when the lawsuit was filed. We recently got together with Stan to discuss our path forward and we and Camsing are pleased with his overwhelmingly enthusiastic reaction.”
When Lee initially filed the suit, he claimed that Duffy and POW! co-founder Gill Champion didn’t full disclose the terms of the deal to him, saying that they took advantage of him while his wife was on her deathbed. He also cited his macular degeneration, which rendered him legally blind in 2015. At the time of the suit, a rep for POW! called the allegations “completely without merit.”
It sounds like, at least for now, everything has been cleared up between Lee and the company, and their relationship can move forward in a productive fashion.
