Ollie Jones' Spider-Man Tombstone

Overview

Ollie Jones' Spider-Man Tombstone refers to Marvel's refusal to grant permission to father, Lloyd Jones of Kent, UK, who wanted to put Spiderman on his son's tombstone due his son's love of Spider-Man.

Background

In December 2018, Ollie Jones died at the age of four from a rare genetic disease called leukodystrophy. After designing a tombstone featuring Spider-Man, Maidstone Council advised the father to contact Marvel to receive permission. On June 26th, Jones and his brother took to Facebook^[1] to figure out a way of contacting them (shown below, left). The next day, Jones posted a photo of the story in the local newspaper (shown below, right).

Notable Developments

In July 2019, a Marvel spokesperson responded to the request by saying,

“Generations of fans have responded to our characters with the same wonder and delight that Ollie did. In fact, many believe the characters to be real. We have striven to preserve the same innocence and magic around our characters that brought Ollie such joy. For that reason, we follow a policy that began with Walt Disney himself that does not permit the use of characters on headstones, cemetery or other memorial markers or funeral urns."

During the first week of July, several major media outlets like the Sun^[3] and the Daily Mail^[2], reported on Marvel's refusal. The town council-person released a statement saying

“Maidstone Borough Council is trying to help a family who have asked whether they can place a Spider-Man headstone at the grave of their young son. Sadly, these types of stones have to adhere to copyright and while we understand this is a very emotional time for the family we have made contact with Marvel to ensure the family are complying with their terms and conditions.”

Backlash

In early July 2019, Michael F. Stated a petition on Avaaz^[4] to "help change [Marvel's] mind" which received 9,250 signatures as of July 8th, 2019. Multiple petitions were started on Change.org.^[5] On July 6th, Redditors began posting their responses to the controversy in r/dankmemes. On July 6th, Redditor Pansrus posted an image declaring a war against Disney to r/dankmemes^[6] (shown below, left). The image received over 8,200 points (96 % upvoted in two days. That day, Redditor Arkham777 also posted an image denouncing Disney to r/dankmemes^[7] (shown below, right). The image gained over 6,900 points (97% upvoted in two days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References