Marvel D-Day

So the end of the world happened on Monday, August 31, 2009. It wasn’t August 27, 1997, as some people had predicted or October 1, 1997, as Crystalis stated. No, it was this past Monday. Disney, a company whose sheer evil is rivaled only by Wal Mart or Microsoft, bought Marvel Comics for four billion dollars. I’ve been wearing a black armband in remembrance of what was.

My love of Marvel is quite extensive. Outside of Batman, there really isn’t anything on the DC side that I care about. Marvel has all of the good characters and the best writers in the industry. Best of all, they were their OWN company, able to do whatever they wanted to do with their characters. They didn’t have to answer to a board of directors of some parent company that doesn’t understand their business. I wonder how many meetings Grant Morrison had to go through to kill off Batman. When Ed Brubaker killed Captain America, it only had to be approved by two people. They just made sure it wasn’t just for the shock value but was also a good story that made sense.

That may have all changed on Monday. The E-I-C at Marvel, Joe Quesada, has tweeted that the Marvel deal is very similar to the Pixar deal: Disney will let Marvel continue doing the business they know best – telling awesome – just that they will now have the backing of the biggest marketing machine on the planet. From the Disney point of view, this is one of the bests deal they’ve ever made. Apparently John Lassister of Pixar is already excited at the possibilities. Who wouldn’t be? On paper Pixar and Marvel teaming up is a wet dream.

Eventually, though, the bottom will drop out. How much autonomy will Marvel have to do the things it wants to do? Tony Stark is an alcoholic, but how long will Disney be ok with that? The first time a Southern Baptist picks up that there are gay and lesbian characters in the Marvel universe, that is owned by Disney will Disney balk?

Frankly, I don’t actually foresee this to be a problem in the short term. I think Marvel, who very nearly went out of business in the 90s, has secured their future for a very long time. The fact that they have proven that they know how to translate their creations to the big screen only gives them more power and autonomy inside Disney. And eventually the Marvel Movieverse will be as interconnected as their comics. Disney has stated they want to get the movie properties back. Imagine a not-shitty Spider Man! Or Fantastic Four! Or even X-Men that act like X-Men.

I foresee a problem in five to ten years, when the current head honchos at Marvel are bound to mosey on. Who will replace them? Will the Disney board decide to replace them from within Disney for a new exciting possibility of synergy, or will the replacements come from within Marvel? The same issue could be said for Pixar. The first big bomb for Pixar could lead to big changes over there.

I just hope it doesn’t happen because Marvel is the bees knees.

-Lance