5. The Hell's Angels Sue Marvel For Copyright Infringement
What it was: In 1991, Marvel's UK division introduced a new character called Hell's Angel, in the book of the same name. Born Shevaun Haldane, she was the daughter of a man who was granted immortality in the Middle Ages after selling his soul to Mephisto. Then the Angel Of Death came for her dad, and for some reason gave her a cool robot suit. That mess of an origin and power set aside, what really rankled a certain group of readers was the character's name. The Hell's Angels motorcycle group have been around for a lot longer than this crummy comic, and when they caught wind of their name being used without their permission they demanded retribution! In a legitimate court of law. What it changed: Everyone realised that the rebellious image of the Hell's Angels was mostly a front, and they're almost as litigious as Disney. Besides changing the character in question's name to Dark Angel, Marvel had to pay the bikers somewhere in the region of $35,000 and pulped the rest of the existing issues, meaning they're pretty rare now.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
