Will disney ruin the marvel universe?

Discussion in 'Water Cooler' started by kev, Sep 8, 2009.

  1. kev

    kev Regular Member

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    Instead of highjacking another thread, I just quoted Waynes post, and using it to start this thread.

    Yea, I aint too happy about it either. The people at disney have a reputation of toeing the line to make special interest groups happy.

    I bet tony stark stops drinking and gets married so he does not set a bad example for kids. Captain america will probably be gay and have an affair with thor. That is "if" disney does not scrap thor to keep the christians and muslims happy.

    Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Logan (Wolverine) will have to an anger management class.

    No more super hero battles, because that teaches children to resolve issues with violence.

    I can just see the whole marvel universe going down the drain.
     
  2. David

    David Regular Member

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    Agreed, its bad enough the comic book line-ups and series aren't what the used to be, but now I fully expect them to go down the drain.
     
  3. cheat-master30

    cheat-master30 Grand Master

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    I'm relatively optimistic, so I'd wait to see what the quality of the new comics are after this purchase, for about the next few months or so, before really assuming it'll lead to a quality drop. Reminds of another company that was bought recently in some ways...
     
  4. Wayne Luke

    Wayne Luke Regular Member

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    The original post is very inaccurate. Not sure why Disney would want to keep the "Christians" happy. The "Christians" have been boycotting them since the 1980s. They see Disney as corrupting influences on today's youth.

    Disney has actually let their subsidiaries have a lot of free reign on their products. If they didn't then Miramax wouldn't have published and distributed the movies Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Yeah. Miramax is owned by Disney.

    If they were towing some special interest line, they wouldn't have a television series on their ABC Family channel about a teen age girl that gets pregnant in high school and all the trials and tribulations that come with it. They also wouldn't have a big disclaimer in front of the 700 club that says the owners of the channel do not agree with the content of the show. They only carry it to finish out the current contract.

    If they were worried about image, they would have cancelled the "Mark and Brian" radio show years ago. Yeah, Disney owns it and most of the radio stations it airs on as well.

    And all this was before Michael Eisner got fired and Disney started returning to a company providing a broad spectrum of entertainment for all age groups.

    I actually think merging with Disney will be good for Marvel. Marvel retains creative control over its properties and the merger has the blessing of Stan Lee, who actually left Marvel years ago. Not only that but Marvel will be able to keep $30-$60 million dollars a year in its coffers by not having to contract with Paramount for distribution of its films. That is another movie per year so their volume can only go up and they can keep the same quality. That doesn't even take into the Disney sales power. Disney can take ice cubes to Alaska and sell them by convincing the locals their tap water is too warm in the middle of Winter.

    ABC, ESPN, Buena Vista Television (Desparate Housewives, Kyle XY, Ugly Betty, CSI: New York), Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Pictures, Hollywood Records (Queen, Atreyu, Breaking Benjamin) are all Disney Properties. I see it as a win-win for both companies but for Marvel even moreso. They'll be able to play a major role as part of a first-tier entertainment provider instead of remaining in the third-tier reliant on others to publish and distribute their work.
     
  5. David

    David Regular Member

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    Speaking of that, I was flipping through channels today when that old guy was on, and he went on this spiel about how all of Islam is a violent religon and all Islamists are terrorist and hate the Western World.

    What a nut job.
     
  6. ArnyVee

    ArnyVee Regular Member

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    If Disney can keep their distance and let Marvel work 'on their own' with just keeping an eye on things from time to time, then it should be a VERY successful acquisition for Disney.

    For $4Billion it's a deal as well! The SpiderMan franchise is worth more than that alone if you factor the revenue from the movies and merchandising. So, to have the X-Men, Iron Man and the rest of the money-making movies in the Disney library will be a big deal.

    Also, with Disney's "XD" channel (tailored to boys), they should be able to incorporate some of the older Spiderman cartoons and launch new cartoon series as well. So, this is great for Disney. That is, if they can keep their noses out of the day to day operations for the most part.
     
  7. twhiting9275

    twhiting9275 Regular Member

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    Will they ruin the universe? The potential is definitely there.
    I don't think we'll see changes to finished products like Iron Man 2, or Spiderman 4, maybe something to products like Wolverine 2 that just got underway, but we'll see.

    Honestly, I hope they realize that they can't just screw around with that stuff, but, only time will tell. I think Marvel sold out way too cheap to Disney.
     
  8. Wayne Luke

    Wayne Luke Regular Member

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    XD has been showing older Marvel comics for years now. Even back when it started as Toon Disney. Probably how the relationship began in the first place.
     
  9. 50calray

    50calray Grand Master

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    Frank Miller once mentioned they had stopped writing comics for kids 30 years ago. Modern comics are simply designed for mature people in their 30's or older but movies on the other hand are designed for kids. It's going to be tough for comic companies like Marvel to remain steady in growth without attracting younger readers. Especially with story lines that revolve around super villains raping women and super heroes murdering people. Ya, they all have their kiddy section but it's not the same cool mainstream comics everyone is collecting. So I'm thinking there maybe some changes in the works. Only time will tell. As for me, I stopped collecting comics with Amazing Spiderman 583.
     
  10. twhiting9275

    twhiting9275 Regular Member

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    Are you kidding? they got cartoons , the internet, and movies now. What kid wants to sit down and read a book, much less an entertaining comic?
     
  11. 50calray

    50calray Grand Master

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    Sorry to get back late,

    Yes, as pointed out in my previous post, the movies and cartoons are marketed towards kids while comics target adults. So what happens when a 12yr old gets hooked on the movies and is left with comics that are Rated R or Adults like my self stop buying modern comics? They make a lot off movies but they still need readers. Hollywood pulled Stan Lee and Marvel out of bankruptcy but this is only a band-aide. You see Hollywood switched to comic movies and kids book movies after 9/11 because they felt the American people couldn't handle violence after that tragic event. There is a well written article on this subject if you do a search. That is the reason most of the movies has been PG-13 up until now days. So the days of comic book movies could be numbered once Hollywood makes the switch back to R rated movies.

    So they could find them selves back in bankruptcy court without a solid reader base. But even with a solid reader base, comic books companies has reverted back to the BS tricks that caused the 1990's comic crash like relaunches and variant covers. I've seen the print numbers by Diamond on comics that everyone claimed was a sold out and required a second, third, forth printings. It was BS, you could see clearly the order dates and how they was already ordering a new variant cover long before the original was sold out....in most cases they never did sell out. This was done simply to push variant covers. Then Marvel would promote buying the variant covers with that 1-100 crud. This forced dealers to buy a 100 normal covers in order to get one variant cover. The dealer couldn't sell that limited cover to off set the 100plain covers and no one would buy the plain covers either. Then even if that dealer was able to sell that comic to off set his cost of the other 100 worthless books, it will devalue next to nothing in less than 2yrs. This is a bubble that has been building for at least 8yrs and it's waiting to pop.


    That is why I'll stick with my Golden Age and Silver Age books. The chances of my Amazing Fantasy #15 going down in value due to another comic crash is zero. In fact that book shot through the roof the last comic crash. Heck, Wall St investors was buying that book because it was averaging better gains than the market. Marvel and everyone will never achieve that manufacturing collectibles.
     

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