But a "Superman Returns" sequel being planned with the filmmaker Bryan Singer (who has also directed "The Usual Suspects" and "X-Men") might require payments to the Siegels, should they prevail in a demand that the studio's income, not just that of the comics unit, be subject to a court-ordered accounting.
According to leading comic-book sales analyst John Jackson Miller, who runs ComiChron, a blog on comic sales, unit sales of the top 300 comics were down for 15 years — some years significantly — after a high in 1997.
In the "Scott Pilgrim" comics, the unit of pleasure, the pellet that keeps you reading, is the sly aside, the mumbled afterthought, the bits of knowing, self-conscious meta-commentary sprinkled throughout.
Included in the parade, which will get under way at 6 30 P.M. in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, will be thousands of marchers, plus string bands, fancydress units and comic divisions.
Newest units feature comic book characters and pop diva Kumi Koda.
There is no situation more laced with comic potential than a maternity unit waiting-room and the script was positively bulging with gags – my favourite being Jez's reaction to hearing Sophie might need a cervical sweep: "Chim-chim-cheree!" Somehow, amidst all the funnies, the episode ended on a truly emotional note as Mark was handed his son for the first time.
Set for release on June 18, "Jonah Hex" is Warner's latest effort to find a movie hit in the trove of graphic novels and hard-edged comics locked within its DC Entertainment unit, behind the two major moneymakers, Batman and Superman.
But he was most closely associated with "M*A*S*H," the long-running, award-winning, darkly comic series about an Army medical unit in the Korean War.
Geoff Johns, chief creative officer of the DC Entertainment unit at Warner, says Comic-Con is really about respect, not sales.
