Paying For Superman

412 dollars?

I would have paid twice that.

@billnye69

depending on who you ask you will get different answer to what 412 is worth now, if you ask WB it's $4.12 million, if you ask the heirs of siegal & shuster it's worth $0

but it's more like $4,000.00 adjusted for inflation (guestimate)

$412.00 in 1931 had the same buying power as $5,608.80 in 2011.

Annual inflation over this period was 3.32%

The thing is Im sure DC bought a lot of intellectual property from various artists and writers that amounted to nothing.
Siegel and Schuster sold thier baby, granted he turned out to be the greatest superhero of all time, but no one, not even DC, knew it at the time. Back them the guys probably took that $412 gratefully. People say they should have held on to it, they should have kept a piece of it, etc, but the fact is there was never any guarentee Superman would have taken off. In fact, if they turned down DC's offer, I'll bet they woudl have refused to back Supes and it never would have gone anywhere.

Siegel & Shuster invented Superman but DC MADE HIM what he is today.

@ kingkrikkit- Agreed and who's to say that if Siegel and Shuster held on to the character that it would have gone anywhere. It was through DC's efforts of building a back story and promoting this characater that he really took off.

We're all comic book fans and understand the concept that one slight change could possibly throw off future events. Siegel and Shuster did what all comic book writers did back then. The only grudge I have is how little monetary recognition they have recieved since then. Are they obligated to it? No. But as big as moneymaker as they created for DC/ Warners, you are morally in a continual debt of gratitude.

Amalgamated Bank! HA!

Superman back then was not as valuable also. To them it seemed like a good deal.

Does Dc comics still own the rights to Superman?? or is the case still open

Money well spent.

Wow, seems like they got ripped off, but maybe neither party anticipated how popular Superman would become, the fact that he'd spawn a multi-million dollar multimedia franchise.

From a fan point of view, I think the Siegel & Shuster families should back off, stop trying to screw up Superman as a part of the DCU and accept what they already have (don't they get a percentage of any Superman related profits?), but from a moral point of view, I think DC should maybe fork out a bit more cash.

But again, I think both parties are in the wrong in a certain sense, because as soon as you create something as big as Superman, it ceases to be your property and becomes something to be shared around the world. Of course they need to make money off it, and rightly so, but no one has the right to mess up something as iconic as Superman for the sake of a few extra dollars. Just being a part of the character's legacy should be reward enough, and any money you make off him is a well deserved bonus.

yet Siegel and Shuster were making around 800 dollars a week apiece for their work with DC, especially Superman. So In hindsight, 430 bucks while useful was only like what, a quarter of their combined weekly income? Food for thought.