Babs and I may overlap a little, but we both have different takes on all of this. So, please enjoy. Write your angry comments after reading, not before. I highlighted some special things just for you!
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Today is a milestone in comic book history. Mark your calendars. 08/31/09. Remember it. This is the day Disney merged with Marvel comics which will hopefully be one of Marvel’s smartest decisions in years.
So here’s something I posted on my facebook earlier today about the merger. Sorry, there’s no real humor in this post. I’m incredibly serious when it comes to posting somewhere that isn’t the pure awesomeness of the vine. I’ll elaborate afterwards, followed by some concerns from the users.
You know what will change?
No more Marvel heroes and villains at Universal Studios. That’s a sure-fire bet. “Sorry, you can’t ride the Spider-Man ride. However, we do have our new Arachnid-Hombre ride!” Maybe that’ll happen, that would be so awesome.
Marvel’s been sitting on easy street the past couple of years. Their books make more money, their movies do extremely well, and their television shows are great. However, when it comes to their stories, they don’t try. Old Man Logan & X-Men: Magneto Testament were the only two books I’ve read in the past two years I’ve loved from start to finish. (I’m sure the super-sized Wolvie issue will be great) I got excited when they came out. That only happens now with Marvel’s kid-geared titles, including the awesomeness of Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers. As I said before, their animated films could be a lot better, especially with people doing animation for more than half a century.
They’ve been producing stories which aren’t that great and don’t take any chances. Why? Well, if the story fails, or even starts to fail sales drop and they (and retailers) are stuck with a whole bunch of copies of that book. They’ll have to cut costs, fire people, and then the world implodes on itself because Secret Wars III #5 only sold 13 copies. (or maybe not) With Disney comes financial backing like you could never believe.
Why is that a good thing?
They don’t have to worry as much about over-production and under-selling. Sure, it’s still a worry, but not as major since they’re owned Mickey Mouse.
What does this mean for their books?
Well, hopefully they’ll decide to take risks in their storytelling, and not just with big name writers who can sell books by name alone. Give the fans something exciting again. Maybe go back to World War Hulk and have the Hulk win for Pete’s sake! Czar Hulk!
And why all the hate on Disney?
They do some great stuff! I’ve seen lots of complaints on them being too kid friendly. Well, that’s what they do best. Will it affect Marvel? No. Does Disney affect Miramax or Touchstone? How about ABC or ESPN? Even on Pixar the influence is minimal. Even Disney has done some great darker films: Black Cauldron and Watcher of the Woods to name a couple. It doesn’t matter anyway, Marvel flat-out said they weren’t doing rated R films anymore. As I said before why pay a buttload (that’s a scientific term) of cash to sink a ship? Your books won't be censored, Wolverine will still go "SNIKT!" and then stab a dude in the face, and I'm pretty sure the X-Men will be filled with teen angst.
Warner Brothers owns DC and there’s only been less than a handful of times where there’s been a crossover, and one of them was the Looney Tunes episode “Green Loontern” and that was awesome. Look for the positive in this because this is a great thing. I wouldn’t mind seeing M.O.D.O.K. and Goofy solve crazy mysteries, would you? Someone in one in the main thread mentioned Norman Osborne in Snow White, that’s pretty awesome too. What if Marvel redoes some Disney stories with Marvel characters? You know how awesome that would be on a scale from 1-10? It would be a 12. A 12! That's 2 more than 10!
Listen, I know lots of you are really upset about this. The thing is, you shouldn’t be. There are so many new opportunities opened up here for Marvel. As I said before, I am truly excited for what will be coming down the drain-pipes in the next 5-10 years. I haven’t been this excited for Marvel since Age of Apocalypse, and this is coming from the guy who not only owns the ENTIRE run of X-Men 2099, but also J2.
So, I’m going to say this one time and one time only. For right now, “make mine Marvel!”
(Please don’t tell Mr. Didio I said that)