Disney is buying Marvel
A friend told me “Disney is buying Marvel.” I told him Monday morning is the wrong time to give me the information like that. But it’s true, folks. Disney is buying Marvel. Spider-Man can, theoretically, swing his way into Hannah Montana, and future Marvel franchises will be likely appearing on ABC and the Disney Channel.
But what can it all mean? I see this as akin to Time-Warner’s ownership of DC. With the WB / CW, they are able to bring us series such as Smallville and Birds of Prey. With a “home network,” Marvel may be able to franchise characters in ways we haven’t seen before – beyond cartoons and back into the game of the TV series, without the low budget pitfalls of the older shows – The Incredible Hulk and The Godawful Spider-Man. It’s a hope. Who knows – maybe we’ll see a live action Runaways or New Mutants on ABC to compete with Heroes.
But the real hope is that the House of Mouse keeps their fingers out of Marvel, and lets Marvel just be Marvel. No changing of Marvel business as is, or making it conform to some Disney standard. As seen with Miramax, they’re capable of respecting the wishes of directors and Weinsteins.
Anyway, here’s the news link: CLICK
If Facebook status updates are to be trusted, I think I’m the only person I know who doesn’t think this is any sort of big deal. If anything, it just shows that Marvel won’t be filing for bankruptcy again anytime soon.
I never saw Birds of Prey, but Smallville was awful. I would be embarassed that that’s the under-20 public’s view of Superman except that it was inexplicably popular.
But then Superman has a lot of other problems for me in the first place. Even so, I couldn’t handle a TV-drama “Fantastic Four”.
I don’t think this will affect the comics we buy in any way. Maybe Marvel will start publishing some comics with Disney franchises aimed at kids in addition to what they do now, but I can’t see this affecting much more than merchandising and maybe the movies.