Mother sues Marvel after Spider-Man obsessed son jumps out of window

Spider-Man is a hero for many, many children (and several adults) so it’s no surprise that every now and then someone thinks that they are Spider-Man and tries to re-enact the things that Spider-Man can do. This is after all the focus of the Learning to Crawl miniseries at the moment with Spider-Man obsessed Clayton Cole taking to vigilantism as the be-costumed Clash.

Sadly this was the case for 12 year old Aaron Clinton who passed away after jumping out of the sixth story window of his appartment. Aaraon was reportedly so obssessed with the web-slinger that Aaron’s mother deemed Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man character and franchise as solely responsible for her son’s untimely death.

Splatter reports that this is the mother’s exact statement “After seeing that movie yesterday, he became obsessed with Spider-Man and has been only been talking about him since he saw the movie. It’s all Marvel’s fault for making kids think they can be superheroes.” Which out of context would seem more like a satirical comment more than anything else. But apparently the mother is suing Marvel for $50 million, with the lawsuit being filed just three hours after Aaraon’s death.

Now I’m not sure if Marvel does have any responsibility in Aaron’s death, I’m not a legal expert. But I do know that the message telling kids that they can be superheroes isn’t necessarily a bad one, as long as they’re clear that there are limitations to what they can achieve, no-one can fly for example.

The last thing I have to say, and this might just me and my twisted and morbid sense of humour but I can’t escape the cruel and unfortunate coincidence of a website called ‘Splatter’ reporting on a story like this. Don’t get me wrong I’m in no way trying to take away from the sadness and tragedy that is a young boy losing his life but I did find it slightly amusing.

I’m also a little bit sceptical, no legitimate news sites have reported this story and there doesn’t seem to be any concrete and definite source, also the tone of the article and some of the way things are written has me feeling a bit suspicious. Nevertheless this could be, and probably is, true

But what do you guys think? Are any of you legal experts, does Aaron’s mother have a case? Can Marvel be blamed for the actions of a child?

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