Unless you’ve been completely cut off from the internet today (in which case, I’m glad Theater Hopper was your first stop after being plugged back in to The Grid), then you might have missed the news that Disney has acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.
There aren’t a lot of details at the moment, but the news pretty much set the internet on fire this afternoon. Since I’m a bit of a movie nut AND a bit of a comic book nut, I feel a responsibility to comment.
A lot of people are responding to the news Chicken Little-style. They swear up and down that the sky is falling and that the House of Mouse is going to ruin their favorite super heroes by flattening their appeal, making them more mainstream and toothless.
As much as I have enjoyed portraying Disney as the Evil Empire in the past (and it is likely I will continue to do so in the future), I’m optimistic about this deal with Marvel.
People forget that roughly 15 years ago, Marvel declared bankruptcy. Getting in bed with Disney means the likelihood of that happening again are slim to none. Anything that protects Marvel’s solvency at this point is a-okay in my book.
Some people claim that Disney can be careless with the properties they acquire – citing Mirimax and The Muppets as examples. I don’t know if I see a lot of evidence supporting that. If anything, Marvel being associated with Disney gives them far more opportunities to cross-pollinate their characters into other media outlets than they would have been able to do otherwise.
Never mind the distribution advantage they now have with their movies. What other studio besides Disney can put a movie on 3,000 screens opening weekend every single time? Not many.
I guess I’m trying to be more pragmatic in my response to the acquisition rather than gloom and doom. If Spider-Man could survive The Clone Saga, he’ll survive this.
What are your thoughts about the Disney / Marvel merger? Are you a fan of the comics, movies or both. How do you think this will affect Marvel’s output in the coming years? What was your first reaction to the news?
Leave your comments below!
As I mentioned to you on Twitter, I’m of two minds about it. Though, if you look at ABC, ESPN, Pixar, etc. you will see a common trend of expansion in each company. So, it may be a really good thing.
If Marvel is allowed to do what it does for its comic and movies, and just have Disney support them, then they should still do just fine like how Pixar has gotten a certain degree of freedom since being purchased a while back. Certainly Disney can leverage harder on studios like Fox and Sony who currently hold movie licenses and make sure they don’t make bad movies. There’s still a lot of questions up in the air though.
Will Disney Interactive Studios take over all Marvel-based video games once license agreements with Activision, Capcom, and others are over? It’s conceivably only a matter of time before we see Marvel superheroes in the Kingdom Hearts game series. What will eventually become of Marvel Island on Universal’s Islands of Adventure?
At first I looked at it, and thought it was a mistake, or one of those “get your attention” headlines like the one about the death of a korean dictator that keeps heading up my Gmail.
I look at this as little different than when Time Warner bought out DC… It really means very little to Marvel at the moment, except that much like DC, they can now afford to continue with the status quo for another 20 years. Not that I don’t love the movies and cartoons they have done recently as an independent, but let’s face it, just like DC they’re essentially retreading old characters and stories over and over instead of innovating or bringing new franchises to market. I’ll stick with my independent and innovative webcomics 😉
What I am worried about is Marvel suddenly becoming “Network Protectionist” and favoring the Disney family of channels just as DC has done with Cartoon Network, balking at selling to anyone else airing their properties and screaming bloody murder should a DC, Darkhorse, or Anime Properties suddenly get a foothold on Disney the way DC did when CarToon Network ran Fantastic Four toons.
I don’t see Disney horribly mutilating Marvel like how many people think. At this moment, Disney already has a comic license with Boom! comics, so it’ll be awhile before Marvel comics stat publishing Disney related works. I see this as glass half full; we’ll see more superhero name drops in Disney shows, maybe mini-comics in which Spidey saves Miley Cyrus but that’s about it. I don’t see major character chances and drops like most people do nor do I think this will affect the comic book terribly
Maybe I’m a prude, but I don’t care: I’m so sick of the stories in Marvel comics only being about who’s sleeping with who and how shocking can they make it. Just tell good stories, please!!! If Disney adds even a shred of family friendly back to Marvel, I won’t care about the merger at all. When I was a kid the stories were about going on adventures and saving the world from bad guys. X-Men didn’t kill, Cyclops didn’t cheat on his wife, and if you tore off Wolverine’s head, he’d die. How about Wolvie and Shadowcat go on an adventure and kick some losers butts who deserve it? I’d like more of that and less of Aunt May in her knickers, thanks.