andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

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• 1

  chuck States

  September 1, 2009 at 12:00 pm

  Pop culturally speaking, specifically just about movies and comic books (as if they’re pop culturally relevant anymore), this deal is not as poignant as you might believe. Yes a large conglomerate like Disney has added Marvel to their never-ending list of media brands, and yes Marvel’s potential for certain products is going to improve, it’s just obvious. Disney has the pockets that Marvel has always craved for, the type of money they could’ve never fathomed beforehand. Disney also has ties with their own television networks, their own animation studios, their own film studios, directors, writers, producers, and insiders in order to ensure every single thing Marvel does, is a success. But it’s irrelevant, and it’s unfortunate, because Disney’s plethora of resources could’ve actually done good for Marvel, but where Marvel is most important, they’re aren’t exactly Marvel.

  Before I touch on why Disney even bought Marvel to begin with, and why this is in reality is huge and very good news, I need to tell you why, pop culturally, it’s nearly irrelevant. Whenever Wolverine, X-Men, Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, whenever any of these film franchises are talked about, Marvel’s name is substanceless. Marvel sold the film rights completely to Sony and Fox, Marvel financially and creatively take little to no stock in these films, and it just so happens to be that these films are Marvel’s four out of the five biggest successes so far. Disney sees little to no profit whenever Spiderman 4 is made, or when two new X-men sequels come out (including another Wolverine movie), or when the Fantastic Four reboot is finished production, and the profit they will see in comic book sales is not enough to warrant a 4 billion dollar purchase. So where Marvel seems like the best buy, it’s not even a real buy to begin with.

  But that’s pretty much it when it comes to Marvel’s shortfalls. They learned from their mistakes and they started to develop all their movies in house and then sell them to the big studios afterwards raking in more money. Iron Man seems to be the only success so far, as Hulk failed to gain any critical success, and its box office was unflattering compared to Iron Man. Marvel tried their hand at Ghost Rider and The Punisher also, and both came out unflattering also to critics and viewers alike. But a lot of what’s wrong with these franchises is the lack of proper talent working on them, and that’s where Disney can help Marvel by finally having the right people developing and adapting these stories into television programs and feature films, but it’s not why they bought Marvel.

  Marvel as a company, has 70,000 stories of intellectual property, and intellectual property is the war of the 21st century. Disney now holds more stories and recognizable characters than any other studio in the world, not to mention themselves. If you think Disney bought Marvel just so they can make coin off of Iron Man 2, you’re wrong. They bought Marvel so they can make coin off of Iron Man 200 when they choose to make it, and they can and will (because the basterdization of IPs has never been an ethical problem for Disney, and for Marvel fans, it’s just another day).

  But here’s the rub, none of this sounds like tremendously good news for the fans except that Ant Man might get a legitimate adaptation (God help us if Edgar Wright isn’t doing it anymore), but where the good news lies, is in the paper, not in between the lines. Disney just shelled out 4 billion dollars amidst what many are still calling a recession, 4 billion dollars for a company that 10 years ago was on the bubble of bankruptcy. 4 billion dollars for a comic book company, who may have already peaked in the film business. If this isn’t good news for investors, and people at home, and the editors at CNN, I’d be surprised. Disney, right before what market analysts are calling an abysmal September, spent 4 billion dollars on a company that’s going to show them dividends 50 years from now. If they’ve got that much money lying around, how quickly before we all have some money lying around (Disney isn’t recession proof, a lot of what they sell is expensive, but through advertisers and certain media outlets they’re making heads out of this whole thing)?

  On a side note:
  The people at Marvel are filled with excitement over this, because, while the two companies are definitely not rivals, they seem to be stout admirers of each other. However Disney’s creative supports Marvel’s creative, the result is probably going to be success. Disney isn’t in the business of cutting any one’s balls off, at least not since Michael Eisner left the company. This seems to be good news all around.

• 2

  Dylan States

  September 1, 2009 at 3:17 pm

  You the bomb!
  Shit’s gonna be wild in the next forever… (if you know what I mean)