>literally uses the generic deviant art-tier art every 15 y/old girl has when they blend anime and traditional western values
>sold less than 1000 issues since 2004
Shocked.
Keep in mind, they're not suing him over the use of the word superhero, they're explicitly suing him over trying to trademark the title "A World Without Superheroes". They do not own the word, they claim rights to publish it as a title.
They'll probably win this case, though. If he was in any other field of work, he could use the word in the title, but he's explicitly publishing paper-based books, which is what the IP covers.
Anyways, joint trademarks/copyrights are a complete meme and devalues the entire point of IP law. Say you have 10 companies that produce superhero comics, and 1 of them was doing better than the others. The other 9 can slap together a trademark that all 10 companies had mutual understanding on and #10 can't do much as it's not a monopoly, since there's 9 other companies still allowed to do business in the field.
I can't even find DC and Marvel's joint IP under the US database, though found it in a few other countries.