I thought I would let the dust settle and allow myself time to gain a sense of perspective before I blogged on this. Anyone who has seen my twitter feed has seen my initial reaction. I’d like to say it my opinion has changed but it hasn’t. It may have mellowed and I have however become slightly more rational about it but it hasn’t changed. I should now be able to put my thoughts into readable sentences. In the long run I still think this is a bad thing. In all possibility it might well turn out to be the worst thing that could have happen to Marvel other than bankruptcy. I’ll break it down into the three main areas this will cover and address them in turn.

Films

The buy out will probably initially be a boon for Marvel’s already successful film franchises. They will have access to Disney’s massive clout when it comes time to market the films and get them out there. For films currently being filmed, produced and those currently in pre-production will probably benefit and remain largely free from Disney interference. In the longer term I fear Disney will simply not be able to resist sticking their oar in. Marvel decided to start producing its own films because they wanted to get their properties out there take most of the money and make the films they wanted without the Hollywood executive interference that has managed to all but ruin the X-Men and Spider-man franchises. I’m sure at first Disney will,  as promised, keep their nose out but eventually a Disney executive will see something he doesn’t like or come up with a way to make Marvel films ‘even better’ and Marvel’s films will end up being dictated by people who are not Marvel. Don’t expect any of the post Avengers films to be any better than ‘The Last Stand’ or ‘Ghost Rider’.

The fanboys are positively drooling at the prospect of a Pixar/Marvel animated film. They have already had the possibility of an Antman Pixar film shot from under them but this hasn’t stopped them frothing at the mouth like Cujo. It isn’t going to happen at least not for a very long time. There is no market for a full 3D superhero film. Pretty much every suggested 3D superhero film that was posited after the success of ‘The Incredibles’ has been met with either crickets or hostility, including JLA and Avengers films. There is no real market there and nobody at Pixar is jumping up and down at the prospect of getting access to the Marvel catalogue. So sit down and use a tissue to wipe the spittle from around your mouth.

TV

Marvel hasn’t had a decent animated series since the success of Spider-man, Hulk and the X-Men in the 90s. These only being slightly better than the 80s cartoons that were very successful. All of the cartoons since have been plagued with piss-poor modernisation and pathetic attempts to be cool and hip. Even the animated DVD/TV films based on the Ultimate universe have been ropey. The 90s cartoons managed to be more true to their source material even while hampered with by higher ups who forbade death, injury, drugs and sex even being mentioned let alone featured.  Marvel has never had a successful live action TV show in the nature of say ‘Smallville’. Which is amusing as ‘Smallville’ is a Spidermanisation (I like that made up word) of the Superman mythos. This is where I could see Disney making most use of Marvel’s properties and where Marvel could benefit the most. They have a TV network and everything in place to make Marvel TV shows, animated or otherwise. And now that special effects are so much cheaper make a live action serial out of a comic should be a no brainer. I always the serialised nature of comics was a better fit for TV than Film anyway. Still I’m not sure if any of this will happen.

Comics

The comics are screwed. The comics don’t make massive profits as it is and frankly the market is being propped up by the success of the films. The target audience is aging and declining while new younger readers are just not at the levels they once were. Kids today have many more things to occupy their time and to be honest comics are way to expensive for what they are. I usually pay between £2 and £3 for a comic these days and that is a whole lot for 30 minutes entertainment. Thus any post merger rationalisation will take place here. And it will happen. I doubt their has been a single case of one company buying another were the purchased company hasn’t seen considerable cuts. Disney have purchased Marvel for their character portfolio. There hasn’t been a decent new Marvel character in years (possibly decades) so Disney have nothing to fear by slowly winding down the comics division. In addition Disney will fall from a great height upon any story line that potentially jeopardises any of the other media interests. Things like Civil War and the death of Captain America would probably not have occurred under Disney. Some might argue that is a good thing but they are the kinds of comic fans that like comics to remain the same year on year anyway. Those kinds of fans will probably be happy with Marvel under DC. Though if DC can promise that we will never have another ‘One More Day’ I’ll welcome them with open arms no matter how much they interfere.

Final Thoughts

Disney has been quick to say they will leave Marvel alone as they don’t want to interfere with something doing well and initially this will be the case but in the long run Disney will milk Marvel dry like the entertainment industry vampire they are. Many people have remarked that Marvel will be OK because Disney didn’t ruin in Pixar. Sadly Marvel simply do not have the same clout or unique selling point that has protected Pixar from overt interference. In Pixar’s case they were out Disneying them and Disney had not choice but to buy them in and then leave them alone. Disney is happy to spend most of its time milking its own properties in the direct to DVD market. This is not true of Marvel. Marvel have not been purchased because they do something better than everyone else but simply as a cache of ready to exploit entertainment properties.

Naturally all the higher-ups at Marvel are stating this is a wonderful thing. Sorry but they are bound to say this as their jobs almost certainly depend on it so I think we can pretty much dismiss their comments as spinning the company web line. Stan Lee in particular is all for it but he has been taking Disney’s shilling for a long time so this too is to be expected. There seems to be a split between the fans of the comics and the fans of the films over whether this is a good thing. The comic fans are mostly against the idea as they believe the comics will likely get marginalised while the other media fans are more positive about the buyout. Basically the comic fans are on Cap’s side and the other are with Iron Man. However all this is only the opinion of a washed up old Web Developer so feel free to treat it with disdain if you will. But I will say ‘I told you so’ if I turn out to be right, over and over again. Honestly I’ll be hell to live with.

Interestingly Warner have announced ’DC Entertainment’ this week which is supposedly in answer to Marvel’s similar and successful entertainment division. Naturally this has been in development for two years and has in no way been rushed into existence to try and get some reflected news coverage after the Disney Marvel deal. Nope not at all. In addition to this the DC comics fans have not been entirely happy since Warner bought up DC and have accused it of meddling in the comics. But Disney won’t do that to Marvel, oh no.