A comic book company in Montreal is claiming Marvel has been repeatedly stealing its designs which are seen in Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Avengers films. Ben and Raymond Lai of Horizon Comics are seeking damages from Marvel and are seeking to end the company’s “deliberate and persistent infringement”.
The designs that the Lai brothers that Marvel allegedly stole come from the Radix series published by Image Comics. It ran from December 2001 to April 2002 and, according to the Lai brothers, had Marvel interested in their work after Radix’s success.
“We started Radix in 1995 with the goal of creating something unique. It was with Radix that we became known and recognized in the American comic book industry. We made a name for ourselves. It allowed us to work all over the place, including Marvel,” said the Lai brothers in a statement found on CTV News.
Specifically, the Lai brothers point out the similarities between the suit design of Caliban, a character in the Radix series, and the suit worn by Tony Stark in Iron Man 3. The lawsuit claims the suit is “strikingly similar to the suit worn by a Caliban, one of the characters portrayed in Horizon’s Works Radix 1.” As for Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Lai brothers are claiming that the designs are also similar to character designs of a military character in Horizon’s Radix 2.
In the lawsuit, the Lai brothers are claiming that they did not ” provided any form of consent, explicit or implied, for the reproduction of their Works.”
It’s not the first time the Lai brother’s have experienced copyright infringement. Previously, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology copied one of the Radix characters to get a $50 million grant. The Lai brothers decided not to sue because MIT admitted to their mistake and issued a public apology.