This could be very big indeed: The judge in the ongoing DC Comics/Shuster estate lawsuit over ownership of Superman has cancelled a planned hearing in the case, announcing instead that he will issue a ruling on the case without listening to oral argument.
Variety reports that US District Judge Oris Wright cancelled a hearing scheduled for next Monday in the ongoing battle between the comic book publisher and the relatives of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. DC had filed a motion last month that challenged a copyright termination noticed filed by Mark Warren Peary, the nephew of Shuster, saying that a 1992 agreement in which the estate received an annual stipend in exchange for any claim to the rights to the character was still in effect. “A deal is a deal, and like the Shuster family’s claims to the Superman copyrights rejected by the courts in the 1940s and 1970s, the new claim must, too, be rejected.”
Whether or not Wright agrees with such logic remains to be seen; while he has cancelled Monday’s hearing, Judge Wright hasn’t said when his ruling will be issued. Expect updates sooner rather than later, however.
