Having an idea does not make you a creator

Roy Thomas wants to claim credit for the creation of Wolverine and it has upset quite a lot of people:

But 2024 is not 1974 or 1994, and in the wake of more high-profile attention on the neglected past generations of comics creators, it has become increasingly de rigueur for writers and artists associated with comics-based movies and tv shows to see at least a nominal reward for their contributions. There is money at stake, to say nothing of glory, such as it is.
Which is why it managed to generate a fair amount of attention – and a fair number of raised eyebrows – when it came to light at the beginning of April that former Marvel editor Roy Thomas would be receiving credit as a co-creator of Wolverine in the credits for the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine film, coinciding with the character’s 50th anniversary.

Apparently he’s doing so, according to the Zach Rabiroff article I’m quoting here based on the fact that he proposed the character originally, after which Len Wein and John Romita designed him together, with Wein and Herb Trimpe then using him in Incredible Hulk #180-181. Wolverine of course would only become popular a while later, when Wein included him in the roster of the new X-Men a year later and especially after Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Frank Miller got their hands on him. There was a hell of a lot of work done after that first appearance by at least a good half dozen creators, those mentioned above just the most prominent, before he became such a household character that Hollywood blockbusters could be made about him. But none of that, according to Thomas, matters as much as him having the idea for a having a little scrappy Canadian superhero guest star in those two issues:

Note that there are three points here to Thomas’s recollection about his role in Wolverine’s genesis. In his account, he proposed that there be: a) a Canadian character; b) named Wolverine; who was c) “a little like Wildcat or the Atom.”

Personally I think it’s bollocks. Even if this is the exact truth, having the idea for a character does not make you its creator. It’s Wein and Romita as the people who designed the character from that idea, together with Trimpe who first put him in action who deserve that credit far more. In a just world Roy Thomas’ name would be nowhere near it. Rabiroff’s article as a whole makes for fascinating reading, showing how complex establsihing creator credits can be for any character with a fifty year history even when obvious grifters are not trying to insert themselves in it.