Here is something I think we all saw coming but also never really expected to actually happen. it would seem that Marvel has filed suit against an online role playing company due to the characters of the game being too similar to Marvel characters. You can read about the details of the suit at MSN Games. (yeah, I know the article was originally published in 2004 but I didn't read about it until today)

I really don't know the details of what went on behind the scenes, but in a lot of instances many infringements are not really planned. Often, creative teams will subconsciously borrow traits of other characters simply because years of exposure to the characters somewhat hard wires the brain to see things a certain way. This is why people who play roleplaying games will try to design characters "similar" to the Hulk and end up re-creating with the only difference being the name.

Speaking of The Hulk....look at the Hulk's gamma bomb origin and then watch the opening of the 1950's  sci-fi film  The Amazing Colossal Man....