To think I was worried that I wouldn't have anything to write about today.
Then the news fairy gave me (and everyone else) an unexpected boon.
Now, I'm no guru of high finance, so I really don't have much to say about the bizness aspects of Disney's purchase of Marvel...although, geez, Marvel, you could have told me you were for sale...I could have scraped up $4 billion if you asked.
But I've got a few uninformed, unresearched, and completely ignorant questions.
#1--So, can we infer that Boom's deal for printing comics of Disney/Pixar characters might not be long for this world?
#2--Disney has been willing to let their characters be in odd cross-company crossovers before, most famously the Kingdom Hearts series of games from Square Enix. So it's not 100% crazy to speculate about some Marvel Adventures/Disney fun (OK, 98% crazy). Who wouldn't want to see Disney's Beauty & the Beast meet up with Marvel's Beauty & the Beat, Dazzler and Hank McCoy? Who wouldn't want to see a Sleeping Beauty/Sleepwalker epic? Pocahontas can turn out to have been an ancestor of Red Wolf! A Quasimodo/Quasimodo meeting? A given!! Pinocchio and the Vision could compare notes on being human!! And who wouldn't love to see the Punisher wandering around Wonderland?!?
#3--That being said, Disney does have a reputation for being pretty conservative, and very sensitive to public pressure. One would hope that wouldn't result in any directives from the Mouse House to tone down any of Marvel's more mature offerings. Disney has kept their vow about being hands-off with Pixar, but that easy with children's cartoons. It might be a different story with stories of, say, civil war in heaven and rebellious angels ousting God and demons being the good guys.
#4--Four words: Marvel characters at Disneyworld!!
#5--Marvel's obviously on a run with their recent movies (but please remember, it's only been 2 in a row...so let's not exaggerate how perfect things have been yet). Will Disney let Marvel Studios continue to do their thing?
#6--Disney exacs can blather on about "bringing assets across multiple platforms"--but how about utilizing some of that synergy and efficiency to make the comics cost less than $3.99?!?
#7 (and most important)--Five words: Stan Lee meets Walt Disney!!!
3 comments:
Actually, I had a perfectly good "In case you missed it" article ready to go, so they kind of threw me through a loop. Were there even rumors Disney and Marvel were talking about anything besides the XD toons? (Nicktoons is doing the other two new shows.)
The fun part is watching the forum reactions. It's either the worst thing ever, the best thing ever, or our best chance to get rid of Quesada, depending on the poster. It's crazy.
Re-the movies. Most of the Marvel movie properties are contractually tied to other studios, so for 5 years or so, Disney won't be able to produce a Spidey, Iron Man or X-Men film without a lot of legal wrangling. (But then again Disney excels at legal wrangling...) I can't wait to see if a Pixar marvel movie shows up eventually.
The tone of the comics shouldn't change much. Disney aleady has outlets for putting out edgier stuff without labeling it Disney. I think most of the media watchdog groups recognize this and don't take the corporation to task for putting out a PG-13 movie under their Touchstone brand. So given sufficient labelling and parental warnings, we should still get some of the grittier comics.
I would think the Boom deal won't be renewed. I think the quickest impact will be at rival Universal Studios in Orlando. I can't see Disney letting some of their properties be used by their fiercest competitor in a major
venture.
Perhaps they can use the acquisition quickly by changing their upcoming Christmas animated feature "The Frog Prince" into an epic Lee/Ditko slugfest as "The Frog Prince vs. the Larcenous Leapfrog".
And I'm really looking for a Marvel "Pirates of the Caribbean" comic.
#7 (and most important)--Five words: Stan Lee meets Walt Disney!!!
I now want a remake of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia starring Stan Lee in the lead role and Walt as the severed (and frozen) head of Alfredo Garcia.
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