In a play from left field, Disney has purchased Marvel Entertainment for 4 beeelion dollars. That’s a good chunk of change and I’m wondering how it’s going to affect the beloved Marvel empire (both the comics and film areas).
All in all, on the comics side, I think it will be better. I don’t think that Disney is going to force toned down comic books to its wide audience of above thirty year olds. I think Marvel Comics know what their fans want and that’s to experience larger, more in-depth storyline. What I can see happening is a resurgence of kids themed books, much like the Marvel Adventures line of comics which are geared for the tots.
I also think that being part of a large empire like Disney will allow Marvel to not be as worried when the comic book business ebbs and flows. This isn’t the early 90s anymore (although one may wonder with the resurgence of 90s characters all of a sudden on the Marvel landscape!), and they have just increased their price on a lot of books to $3.99 for a single book. I would hope that they would lower the price in the future but I know there’s a fat chance of that.
As for the film side, Marvel does films best when they are left to their own devices. All the Punisher films? Meh. But they were created by outside studios. Iron Man, Hulk, etc.? They are great (except for the pile of bantha dung which is the first Hulk film) and it’s nice to see little cameos of characters within each film. This can only be accomplished by having all the films reside under the Marvel imprint.
I don’t think there will be much harm in the merger…you won’t see Spider-Man sporting some Mickey Mouse ears anytime soon like all the newspapers are showing this morning. I think it will allow the Marvel empire to grow in terms of merchandising and that can’t be a bad thing to a fan like me.