Red Sonja vs. Red Sonya

Comics site Newsarama discusses a lawsuit over dueling Robert E. Howard licensees. Well, actually, that’s an oversimplification: You see, when Marvel Comics introduced Red Sonja into their comic book adaptations of Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories, she wasn’t actually one of Howard’s creations—just heavily inspired by one, namely Red Sonya of “The Shadow of the Vulture.” So when the copyrights from the Conan series were being sorted out years later, Red Sonja went her own way and is currently owned by Red Sonja LLC.

But, as I mentioned earlier this year, Paradox Entertainment has bought up all the Howard copyrights, including Red Sonya, and now Red Sonja LLC has filed suit against Paradox, accusing the company of trying to confuse the public into believing that the obscure Red Sonya character it owns, who hasn’t been seen in about 70 years, is actually the much more iconic Red Sonja character it doesn’t own, who’s currently once again starring in her own comic book series. (Got that?) And while you or I might not particularly care whether the remake of the Red Sonja movie ever goes into production, to Red Sonja LLC this is serious business: $5 million worth, to be exact.

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