EDIT: Ellen tells me that City of Heroesapparently discourages and bans names andappearances of existing hero characters. So …this is a little odd, then. They’re suing becausethere’s a capability to mimic?

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Superherohype.comhas a link to anarticle put out by the Associated Press. It’sabout Marvel suing two firms responsible for Cityof Heroes. Apparently they’re ticked that peoplehave characters that look like Marvel properties,and/or that people are roleplaying as Marvelproperties.

At first I thought it was pretty lame, but readingthrough the Associated Press article, Marvel issuing because:

The company singles out a game feature forcreating “a gigantic, green, ’science-basedtanker’-type hero that moves and behaves nearlyidentically” to the “Hulk.” Players can alsocreate a “mutant-based” hero powers and a costumenearly identical to Marvel’s “Wolverine,”according to the suit.

The New York-based company also took issue withthe ability of players to go so far as to nametheir superhero creations after Marvel comic bookcharacters.

Marvel claims the firms’ are responsible becausethe game is played on servers operated by thecompanies, raising the question of whether acompany is responsible for their customers’actions on its computer server.

Marvel also claims the companies have disruptedits “existing and future” business prospects forlicensing its characters in video games similar to”City of Heroes.”

… and I could sort of understand that, though”disrupting” seems like a strong word. It’s notlike they kidnapped the Hulk or Wolverine. Sucks,anyway. All the features described in City ofHeroes seem very much like reverent nods tocomics’ roots. But there’s that saying about theeye of the beholder …

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