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Walt Disney and Marvel Get Hitched

Posted by Emma Renda on September 1st, 2009

Captain AmericaMarvel Entertainment Inc., home of famed comic book characters such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four, was purchased by Walt Disney Co. today.

The deal did not come cheap – Walt Disney Studios shelled out $4 billion in cash and stock to own the comic book catalogue consisting of more than 5,000 characters, some of which were created by legendary Stan Lee.

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters . . . with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Walt Disney Company in a press release.

The full press release – and all the boggling stock statistics – is available online.

But it’s what this deal means to the comic franchise’s loyal fans that is concerning bloggers everywhere today.

The New York Daily News’ David Hinckley makes a valid point that this isn’t one rival company buying out another (think Coke buying out Pepsi). Marvel and Disney have never exactly been adversaries – rather, Disney has been at odds with Warner Bros. since the early 1900s, whereas Marvel has warred it out with DC Comics. However, DC Comics, home of Batman and Superman, is owned by Time-Warner and has admittedly been gloriously profitable since the Batman film franchise obliterated the dividing line between counter- and pop-culture.

The worry remains, as noted by The Wall Street Journal’s Steven Kurutz, of the unsettling offspring that could result from the close proximity of Marvel and Disney’s main characters.

“How about an American Idol-esque mall tour featuring pop songs by Ernst, a teenage girl suffering from the aging disease progeria, who first appeared in issue #135 of New X-Men?” Kurutz writes.

It’s a chilling thought, but Disney isn’t all bad. Sure, their reputation recently consists of little more than the photographic fare littering a teen girls bedroom walls (including Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.) But that’s because they use subdivisions of the company to release their edgier films, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, rather than taming the content for family audiences.

But as everyone knows, there’s nothing better for business than a little competition.

With Marvel/Disney now fiscally and commercially poised to take on DC/Time-Warner, audiences worldwide can expect even more enhancements in the comic adaptation frenzy that erupted this decade.

Of course it’s hard to imagine improving 2008′s Iron Man, and even more difficult to imagine what kind of competition would have encouraged a stronger product than The Dark Knight. But I can’t say I’m not curious.


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  • chuck

    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.

  • http://www.lifeofdb.ca Dylan

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