Even though the most recent court rulings took place during the buildup to and recovery from my Kenya trip, I’m still not sure how I missed the ongoing story (related to me by my brother tonight) that, unless a legal ruling is overturned or an arrangement is reached with the heirs of the creators between now and then, DC Comics will lose key rights to Superman in 2013.

For years, it was thought that creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster had lost all their rights to the character. They were living in poverty in the mid-1970s, so much so that DC and its parent company, Warner Communications (now Time Warner), had to be shamed by comic book fans into giving the men a lifetime pension and creator credit on Superman projects.

Apparently, changes in copyright law in recent years allowed the Siegel and Schuster estates to sue for the rights to the character. As of now, Superman is in a kind of legal limbo — from now until 2013, DC has lost the rights to certain elements of the Superman mythos which were present in Action Comics #1, including his origin story and Lois Lane. In 2013, according to most of the stories I read, they will lose the rights altogether and the heirs will be able to sell Superman rights to anyone — including Marvel, which by then will be a part of Disney.

Obviously, DC has a huge interest in trying to turn this situation around, either by winning the case on appeal or reaching some sort of settlement with the heirs. But let’s say that they don’t. How weird would it be to suddenly have Superman disappear from the world of Batman and Wonder Woman, and appear in the world of Spiderman and the X-Men?

There have been DC-Marvel crossover stunt comic books over the years, of course, but this would be something completely different — like Doctor Watson suddenly becoming Hercule Poirot’s sidekick instead of Sherlock Holmes, or Charlie Brown selling Snoopy to Dagwood Bumstead.

Come to think of it, maybe it would be Snoopy who sold Charlie Brown.