Skullgirls Fan Suggested Character Killed-in-Action

The original roster for the Skullgirls DLC character vote was supposed to be one larger than it actually was. A fan suggested concept, fleshed out by Alex Ahad of Lab Zero Games, was missing due to legal issues that were being worked out during the vote.

The Facebook post that started it all.

The fan suggested character was named Juju. She was a Chinese sniper that used a comically large gun to help Parasoul take out her opponents.

Although Alex Ahad was the one who fleshed out the character and turned her into an actual piece of artwork, due to Cee McNeil being the original suggester, the character was (apparently) legally his.

Many fans, along with Lab Zero Games, wanted to see Juju get put up as a potential Skullgirls character in the DLC vote. This was planned to happen, but Cee McNeil posted on the official Facebook of the game saying that he wanted to be compensated.

After legal talks that lasted long enough for Juju to not make either of the votes, it seemed like the sniper was finally going to be a part of the cast. Unfortunately for fans and Lab Zero Games, however, Cee McNeil posted this on the official Skullheart forum, breaking a non-disclosure agreement and ruining any legal agreements that were made.

Throughout the thread on the Skullgirls forum, many fans expressed relief that the character was finally dealt with, although many questioned how valid Cee McNeil’s ownership claim was due to his only contribution being a Skullgirls Facebook suggestion.

In response to criticisms, Cee McNeil responded in an arguably hostile manner, going so far as to call another poster an idiot for bringing up the validity of his ownership of the character.

The thread was eventually locked due to some heated debate. A short while afterwards, Peter “Ravidrath” Barthalow of Lab Zero Games posted the following:

Hey, everyone.

There was a confidentiality agreement in the contract Mr. McNeil signed, so I’m extremely disappointed that after working for a few months to get this resolved, the creation of this thread has ended any possibility of using Juju in the future.

We tried to get this resolved favorably despite continued disruptive and unprofessional conduct on Mr. McNeil’s part, often against our own better judgment. His behavior in the Skullgirls community has made Juju an extremely divisive topic within Lab Zero and I soldiered ahead because I felt it was the right thing to do. But with this breach of confidence, none of that matters now.

To say that I am disappointed in this outcome would be an understatement.

This decision is final – sorry to all of Juju’s fans, but I can’t afford to waste any more of Lab Zero’s time and money pursuing this.

Prior to reading the thread on the issue, I had forgotten about Juju’s originaly inclusion in the Skullgirls character vote. It is a rather unfortunate circumstance that the character was dropped, but after reading some of Cee McNeil’s posts on the forum, it is easy to see why Barthalow would paint his conduct as “disruptive” and “unprofessional.”

Hopefully Lab Zero Games can get around the issue by simply redesigning the character a tiny bit. Her suggested playstyle seemed like she would have made a good fit in the Skullgirls cast.