Wham! Pow! Biff!

Marvel Entertainment, LLC won a smackdown at the 2nd Circuit on Thursday in its dispute with the children of comic book artist Jack Kirby, who created many of the brand's famous superheroes, including the Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four.

Kirby's children have been engaging in legal fisticuffs with Marvel for a couple years now, trying to take back the rights to the characters their father created in tandem with the famous Stan Lee. But the 2nd Circuit in its Thursday ruling said that those characters were legally “work-for-hire” and therefore belonged to Marvel.