Does Disney's Mouse Have a Monopoly on Marvel? Quickie, Spider-man, Spiderman, Mickey
Um wow, I did not see this coming. Today the Hollywood Reporter mentioned that Disney bought Marvel for $4 Billion Dollars. My first thought was "oh great, Mickey Mouse is going to becomes Captain America's sidekick," (but right after, I realized that the Namor vs. Little Mermaid fanfic I wrote some time back now has a real possibility of being published!)
In all seriousness though, I've read a lot of comments from fans worrying that their favourite titles will become more sanitized and safe. To those fans, I ask you not to worry, Disney is a smart company, they won't mess with what works. Disney has also bought branching studios such as Miramax Films, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment, so it does target adults and teens as well as families. This means that Marvel isn't all of a sudden going to make a G-Rated Spider-man film. Plus Disney will have to honour Marvels contracts with other distributers. Paramount will still release the Avengers movie; Sam Raimi's Spider-man will stay with its current distributer.
What I am concerned about is that in the past, Disney has shown itself to be a ruthless company. If the deal follows through, Disney will have gained the rights to about 5000 characters. Anyone who has read my concerns of copyright laws and Disney's involvement knows that these characters could stay under the mouse's thumb for a long time. So if any similar characters appear elsewhere in fiction, prepare to have lawyers rip them off the market. (And so, my plans for releasing the Incredible Spider-Guy have just been crushed.)
Another thing that I liked about Marvel was that out of all the big comic publishers, it was the one that most frequently put its older books on sale. I've seen stores sell them for over 80% off the (Canadian) cover price. When was the last time that you saw anything from Disney on sale for even 50% off? Granted, there is no Disney store in my town, but they tend to leave the prices high and let demand outweigh supply. (I fear the days of buying the Dark Phoenix Saga for $5 may have just ended.)
This is not the first time a movie studio has bought out a large comics studio. Warner Brothers currently owns DC Comics and all their major characters. Over the past few years, they've really got their act together and have started to make high quality (if a bit tame) Superhero films.
This isn't the first big purchase Disney has made this decade. In 2004, they bought the rights to the Muppets from the Jim Henson Co. and besides making the frog and pigs relationship tamer, we haven't seen any major changes since then...of course we haven't really seen the Muppets since then either. Come to think of it, when was the last time the Muppets were in theaters?
Oh Crap,
it looks like I might have to start looking for a new hobby.
Well, I'm curious to know what some of the readers on this site think about this. Will Disney's involvement help or hinder Marvel? If you don't read comic books, would the fact Disney is now involved help you too? Or do those large rodent ears hint that it's too tame to try out? Let me know!
Hey Rico,
if I knew the answers, I'd tell you. But right now, I'm just as surprised as everyone else. I'm waiting for a statement from Marvel saying that it was a Labour Day joke, or a misunderstanding or something.
You seem to hate Disney, but judging by your links, your concern seems valid. I was once into comics, I left when they got too expensive. Unless I decide to put stock in Disney, this news doesn't excite or disappoint me.
Hey Julias C.
I don't hate Disney, but I do disagree with a lot of their actions, and from everything I've learned about them, they do seem to be mainly after money.
I must confess, I'm a bit surprised that you don't read comics any longer. Were you a DC fan? I figure that even ex-Marvel fans would have some reaction to this.
DC Fan, read Batman, Flash and Green Lantern. Watched the Spiderman cartoon, but never got into the books. Clone Saga was happening at that time. Always thought the idea of an alter ego was a bit dumb; who does crazy things in the name of a greater good without taking credit or a reward of some kind?
Found out this morning when a friend sent me a link for a penny arcade strip which parodies this... merger/take over/acquisition and so on.
I've read some Marvel funnies and they have interesting titles and some very good characters. If Mike is right, Disney won't spoil a good thing, especially when its making money.
And maybe Spider-Man will appear in the Mickey Mouse club, Disney Zombies will be published and why not an Infinity War/Crusade crossover with both Disney and Marvel characters. I can only imagine what they're gonna do with Marvels Transformer titles. Oh well.
Alex, did you know DC merged all their worlds in the mid-80's once they acquired some new characters? Even though it's unlikely Mickey will be appearing in the 616 (Main) Marvel universe, you know there will be at least one non-continuity crossover, where Spider-man teams up with Mickey Mouse for some reason. (Besides selling comic books.)
That being said, I'd be interested in reading a Disney version of Marvel Zombies. (Alex L. Arvand, or Pascal, any of you artists interested in pitching Marvel the idea?)
Heard/read about the Crisis on infinite worlds and the many other that followed, and it is an interesting take on continuity issues that appeared trough out the decades. It might of been easier if they rebooted everything, but no.
In any case, I've not read that many Marvel comics, and no I wouldn't want to see Mickey Mouse in 616, even if his adventures would be written by Alan Moore (Mickey would be an eternal of some sorts trapped in hell and be a closet homosexual).
One other thing: this is possible not to happen, but it is fun to assume that the Exiles could at one point reach that dimension where Disney and Final Fantasy characters reside. I wouldn't mind seeing Spider-Man 2099 beating the crap out of Cloud Strife (this in turn will be written by Warren Ellis).
Mike's right about disney not going to mess around with marvel, after all disney just coughed up 4 billion dollars. Lets remember how much money that is. The fact that such a large sum of money was used shows that disney doing something right and knows how things work in the entrainment industry; unfortunately, the fact that marvel got bought out reflects poorly on marvel because if they would been doing something right then this would of not happened. In all fairness to marvel though, the entertainment landscape has changed and comic books as an entrainment median is no longer popular or very desirable form in comparison to other forms like DVDs, Console games, etc.
Overall I'm in the same boat as Julius C, I'm out.
unfortunately, the fact that marvel got bought out reflects poorly on marvel because if they would been doing something right then this would of not happened.
Hey Bart,
Marvel has one of the strangest business models ever. They actually filed for bankruptcy in 1996, and it was only the release of the X-Men movie that saved them. Since then, Marvel got their act together to the point where they were able to buy back the movie rights and release their own films. They've made collecting old stories easier and started a new universe from scratch (as talked of in my reboot article).
So you are absolutely right in thinking that they made some mistakes, but they've been gradually recovering. I think Disney saw this and bought them on their way up.
the entertainment landscape has changed and comic books as an entrainment median is no longer popular or very desirable form in comparison to other forms like DVDs, Console games, etc.
This was one of Marvel's main mistakes, they're reliance on individual comic issues. Look at any comic store right now and you'll see that half the shelves have issues, and half have collected volumes. Marvel is relying on their core base too much to keep buying the issues. They need to focus more on a larger audience and get them to buy whole stories. To Marvel's credit, they'll usually release a whole story in one book if they can, whereas is a story is 12 or more, DC would have made it two volumes.
Marvel is failing to capitalize on the shrinking attention span of people. How many kids would read a whole novel, when they are given an option of reading a illustrated version which uses pictures instead of prose to create the atmosphere? Very few. Marvel is starting to get on this, but they may be a bit late. DVD's and movies are now a bigger threat to the comics medium, since computer graphics are taking away comics advantages over the film industry of depicting impossible events and characters.
the fact that such a large sum of money was used shows that disney doing something right and knows how things work in the entrainment industry
Disney has been suffering for a while now, it's movie haven't been making as much as they used to, it's theme park got hit hard during the recession. Their products are so expensive that they HAD to take a hit since October. (Check out any Disney licensed product in a store, chances are it'll be 25% higher than its next competitor.
So now, Disney just bought the rights to over 5000 characters, some of which are among the most famous in the world. Let's see what happens.
Alex link lead to this video, made by Itsjustsomerandomguy:
I think this video sums everything up nicely.
I'm still concerned with Disney's law altering schemes to keep characters under their control longer. In theory, they can keep altering it and making it longer. Now they own all these additional characters, what are the chances they'll ever come into public domain?
Well... probably never. Although I don't think I'd mind seeing a few Marvel characters in public domain, mainly those that have been out of the spotlight for some time and be used by writers and artists who appreciate those characters. Something good could come out of that.
