Nerd Mentality

Disney Eats Marvel

Posted September 2nd 2009 by Adrian DeHerrera.

Hoo boy.

Seriously, who could have expected this? A comic book company swallowed whole by a giant mouse?

It sort of made sense back in 2004 when Disney pounced on and consumed the Muppets like a tasty felt-flavored morsel. The Muppets themselves are intrinsically family friendly, very marketable and hadn't been even vaguely interesting since The Jim Henson Hour, and were in dire need of assistance. Luckily for the Muppets, Disney invigorated the increasingly lame company and it soon churned out modern classics like The Muppets' Wizard of Oz starring Ashanti and... well... that one time Kermit helped co-host New Year's Rockin' Eve.

But now suddenly the House of Mouse has unhinged its jaw and gulped down the ENTIRE MARVEL UNIVERSE. WTF, Goofy ate Galactus! Not surprisingly, Marvel fanboys around the world cried out in horror, terrified that their favorite mutants and/or Scarlet Witches and/or spider-related heroes/villains would become as cool and successful as the Disney-Muppets. Or worse yet, become muppets themselves?!

Well just hold on now, everybody. At this point nobody really knows much of anything except that the whole thing cost around 4 billion dollars and Disney has just acquired the ownership of over 5,000 mostly mediocre Marvel characters with a few who collectively have made billions of dollars in box office gold. Speculation abounds that Disney will eventually soften the hard edges of characters in the Marvel roster, perhaps forcing Wolverine to become a whistling tugboat captain or have the Punisher turn over a new leaf after finding non-sexual love at a large, unnamed theme park. Of course, Disneyfying Marvel would be monumentally dumb, but hey, anything is possible.

Still, Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, doesn't seem intent on neutering Marvel. This is the guy who worked out the deal between Pixar and Disney, to a very satisfying end; he installed John Lassiter as Head Guru of Awesomeness of Pixar, not only making Iser automatically great but making Michael Eisner look like a dildo by comparison. For the most part, Disney has left Pixar completely alone to smoulder in its grace and beauty, much to the joy of people who enjoy what a company with creative freedom has to offer.

So, in the short run, who knows whether or not this is a good thing. Due to licensing issues, other companies such as Paramount and Sony will continue to use Marvel characters like Spider-Man and Iron Man as they wish; when Disney plans to end these distribution deals remains to be seen. What also remains a mystery is the hand Disney will have in promoting and utilizing Marvel and its creators in a way that will please stockholders as well as fans.

But seriously, wouldn't a Pixar/Marvel film just be awesome? Oh, the possibilities!

Oh and today's Penny Arcade:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/

Ha!

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