The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Well, we didn’t see that one coming.

Disney bought Marvel Comics on Monday 1st September for some 2.5 billion quid. And to be honest no-one’s really sure what it means. Official word from Marvel and Disney says all is as it was:

C.B. Cebulski (Marvel talent liaison/editor/writer) Allow me to reassure you right now, guys, that Marvel’s going to continue to produce great comic books the way we always have.

Joe Quesada (Marvel Editor in Chief) If you’re familiar with the Disney/Pixar relationship, then you’ll understand why this is a new dawn for Marvel and the comics industry.

Obviously there are articles all over the place right now analysing the thing to bits: Rich Johnston’s Bleeding Cool has lots. Heidi rounds up various pieces. And Tom starts with the questions.

Personally I don’t think it’s really going to have that much effect. I flippantly twittered to someone earlier that maybe it means Marvel merchandise in Disney stores and finally a new line of Marvel character comics done for young children rather than the rather older age group they’re hitting right now.

It’s a little like Time Warner owning DC. The comics really don’t matter. The brand is the key. It doesn’t matter how many copies of Spider-Man comics Marvel sell, what counts is how much merchandising money Disney/Marvel can make from the character – whether that’s movies, video games, action figures, lunch boxes or pillow cases, you can bet it’s 10x? 100x? 1000x? greater than the profit the comics make. And the relatively small sales of comics means that Disney may well just leave the comic company alone. It doesn’t really matter to them what Marvel is producing, just so long as the brands are still there.

Marvel have been owned by quite a few, rather diverse companies over the years (nicely summed up at Comics Alliance) and on the face of it, there’s no real reason that Disney will be any different. The main difference that everyone’s getting worked up about is that Disney is perhaps the first parent company for Marvel with a similar product mix, and frankly folks are wondering if Marvel Comics might become Disney-fied.

Okay; individual issues as they come to me:

Movies:
Marvel having properties at other studios may well be a problem but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Disney could cancel those deals and make all in house from now.

Fox controls “Fantastic Four” in perpetuity — as long as it continues making the films. Fox has the same arrangement on Marvel Comics properties “X-Men,” “Daredevil” and “Silver Surfer.” Marvel is a producer and financial participant through a licensing agreement. (From Variety)

And Disney has much to offer Marvel in terms of movies – just imagine what Pixar could do with something like the Fantastic Four. Oh, wait – you don’t need to – they made The Incredibles already. Expect more of that sot of thing. On the subject of movies – it’s been mentioned that it bodes well for Marvel’s older titles that Disney doesn’t shy away from adult stuff – Reservoir Dogs at Miramax was a Disney movie after all. But then again Reservoir Dogs didn’t have the brand and merchandise potential that Marvel has.

TV:
Disney XD is just launching here in the UK, but it’s been on for a while in the US without really making a big splash in the tween/early teen boy demographic that Disney find so hard to reach. Disney have great success with girl viewers into their teens but for every Hannah Montana, Suite Life etc etc there is no equivalent tween boy program – Marvel more than takes care of this one for them. And Marvel programming already takes up some Disney space. I’d expect much more to come.

“The brooding Marvel characters tend to be more popular with boys — an area where Disney could use help. While the likes of “Hannah Montana” and the blockbuster Princesses merchandising line have solidified Disney’s hold on little girls, franchises for boys have been harder to come by.” (NY Times)

Disney Store:
This was some people’s immediate worry. Marvel comics being sold in every Disney store = Comic shops empty.
Not going to happen. Disney Stores exist to sell merchandise. If they were interested in the actual originating material then they might bother to stock a good range of Disney dvds. If they don’t do it with their own stuff they wont be doing it with Marvel Comics. It will be Spider-Man pyjamas and Iron Man playsets one month and X-Men figures and Hulk lunch boxes the next.

Theme Parks:
Not that this concerns me, seeing as I’m unlikely to be going to Universal Studios theme park, but Marvel/Disney aren’t going to like Universal having a hugely popular Spider-Man and Hulk ride are they? Closure almost certain, only the timescale to wonder about.

Comics: Existing stuff from Disney:
Well, the Boom Studios Disney license will be gone soon. Shame.
Disney’s Kingdom Comics may well stay, but equally it may well suddenly become Marvel’s Kingdom Comics.

Comics: Marvel Comics:
Obviously Disney have more power than Marvel to expand the comics into bookstores. Bigger budgets for everything.
But whether the editorial control over things at Marvel stays at Marvel (similarly to DC being owned by Time Warner has had negligibly effect on their content over the years) or whether Disney seek to create a brand more in keeping with the merchandising side of things. It’s long been a strange situation at Marvel that whilst Wolverine (to pick one character at random) may be featured on lunchboxes and duvet covers he’s also allowed to be a nasty, cigar smoking killing machine in the comics. What does the Disney deal mean for Marvel’s more grown up superhero comics such as Daredevil, Punisher et al? Time will tell. But to be honest, I doubt much will change, particularly over the short term. As long as the merchandising and movie deals keep bringing in the money, Marvel Comics may well be left alone.
The one thing I can see Disney doing is bringing out a Marvel Comics line more in keeping with the Disney brand – all ages stuff in the vein of Marvel Adventures – that it can promote alongside the merchandise in it’s Disney stores, theme parks and newstands. But this will be, if I’m right, in addition to the marvel Comics we see now.

Diamond Comics:
Much speculation over this one, since Diamond Book Distributors handles Marvels distribution to the bookstore market. Will Disney use them? Or will it switch to using the distributors it already uses for it’s own books? And if that happens will Diamond be able to absorb the loss of such a big chunk of it’s book business?

& finally……

Marvelman:
As if this one couldn’t get any more complicated, now Marvelman is actually owned by the people who bring you Mickey bloody Mouse.

So does this new Disney/Marvel company mean an end to comics from Marvel as we know them? Probably not. Definitely not for the near future. And frankly, Disney may be smart enough to leave well enough alone and let Marvel Comics keep making the comics whilst Disney really works on merchandising the brand to a level we could only dream of (or have nightmares about)

Only a couple of things are absolutely certain with this one: It’s going to be a while before anything actually happens, it’s also going to be reported everywhere, and like he said himself, Warren Ellis is out of the running:
“No, I am not going to be writing Disney comics. Fairly fucking obviously.”

And that’s as good a place as any to leave it. Obviously more when it happens.