Yes, you heard right... DISNEY ACQUIRES MARVEL... and the source of this announcement can be read from the good folks at Comic Book Resources and Newsarama.
The news is as shocking to me as it was to a friend of mine who shared this BREAKING NEWS. Now that Walt Disney's company has acquired the rights to "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends", will we see them holding hands and singing kumbaya together in a boy scout bonfire? Most likely, the answer may be yes. Disney has a reputation to keep of being a family friendly entertainment conglomerate, and now that Mavel's under them, expect waves of censorship to ensue. Personally, I think this move was done in order to compete with Warner Bros., who own the rights to Looney Tunes and DC Comics. The same company that owns Bugs Bunny and friends are also responsible for the creation of the widely successful DC Animated Universe, which has created top and entertaining superhero shows such as Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League.
For $4 Billion Dollars, this is a sweet deal for Disney. They'll be the ones leading the charge for the next wave of Marvel goodness coming in the next few years, including much anticipated Marvel flicks such as Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America, and The Avengers! Since they also have a stack full of policies to enforce on their media, including "No Smoking" on any of their films, looks like Marvel's going to be doing a lot of censoring for their material... including the comics. Gosh, I hope that isn't the case... DC's got no problem with censorship (see The Dark Knight), but Disney does... I'm not too excited about the news at all.>_<
It's understandable to have a negative gut reaction, but let's think about this reasonably:
ReplyDeleteDisney and Marvel have separate brand identities. Disney-owned studios have no doubt generated plenty of income for the conglomerate by making quality fare for adult audiences, possibly with R-ratings. (I'd have to research this, but i'm certain Buena Vista Pictures, at least, is a Disney subsidiary.)
All this buyout means, for now, is that Disney will be reaping the profits off Marvel's ideas. Nothing more.
I'm more worried about peripheral imprints like ICON that specifically cater to Mature Readers audiences. Although some titles, like Powers, can simply head back to their old publisher, Image. Heck, even Brubaker's excellent Criminal would probably get better promotion at Image or even Dynamite.
Likewise, I can't imagine The Mouse being pleased about the upcoming film based on Millar's Kick-Ass.
But anything that's proven to be a cash cow for the mainstream characters (like Punisher MAX, for example) ought to be relatively safe from censure, as long as it remains profitable.
I like your points, Pao, and I do hope they stand true in the long run. I'm just bewildered by all of this. I WANT to give things a chance... but something tells me things won't go as smoothly as I hope they would be.
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