![](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hmlgvmvc_shugor_marprem10.jpg\" "\\"first")
<\/p>\nHey you kids wanna see a dead body<\/s> hear a completely unfounded bit of urban legend and speculation?<\/p>\n
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The reason Shuma-Gorath is at all popular or known is because of his appearance in ![](\"\/yo\/art\/mhc_sg6.gif\" "\\"Shuma")
the Marvel vs. Capcom<\/i> games: Capcom picked the character for inclusion in the first Marvel Superheroes<\/i> game because giant monsters are popular in Japan. Allegedly, when MvC3<\/i> came around, Capcom was very accommodating when Marvel asked them not to use certain characters (that's why Venom isn't in the game, for instance), but when Marvel said no to Shuma-Gorath, Capcom pushed back, insisting<\/b> they be allowed to use him. So, basically, Capcom cares more about Shuma-Gorath than Marvel does. Keep that in mind: we'll come back to it.<\/p>\n
And here's where the wild speculation starts:<\/p>\n The first time Marvel said Shuma-Gorath was Gargantos was in Multiverse of Madness<\/i>. Doctor Strange doesn't identify Shuma-Gorath by name in the movie, but the Lego set does, so we have a 2022 start date for when they began lying to you.<\/p>\n Around that same time, Marvel regained the rights to Conan the Barbarian<\/a> for the first time since 1993. They re-introduced him in an Avengers<\/i> crossover, and soon published Savage Avengers<\/i>, a book that saw several Marvel characters teaming up with Conan to fight his old enemy, Kulan Gath. Smart fans who remembered the trouble caused by putting Rom: Spaceknight<\/a> in the main Marvel U instead of his own continuity questioned whether this would be a problem in the future, but Marvel assured them it wouldn't be, suggesting they'd worked something out.<\/p>\n So here's our question: did Marvel trade away their rights to Shuma-Gorath, a character they created and owned but didn't care about (as we know from their dealings with Capcom), in exchange for the right to republish their own Conan appearances whenever they wanted? Because if they did, that's freaking stupid.<\/p>\n![](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hmlgvmvc_shugor_submar13.jpg\" "\\"you")
<\/a>As pointed out in today's review<\/a>, Marvel owns the rights to Shuma-Gorath, free and clear: Robert E. Howard may have created the specific combination of words, but you can't copyright a name and so everything about the character 100% belonged to Marvel. And anyone - any article, any video, any message board comment, any corporate lawyer - that says different is verifiably, entirely, wrong. Shuma-Gorath was not the property of Heroic Signatures, the group that controls all of the old Robert E. Howard rights. The only way they own it now is if Marvel let<\/b> them own it.<\/p>\n![](\"\/yo\/art\/hmlgvmvc_shugor12.gif\" "\\"bouncy-bouncy!\\"")
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