Gooflactus seems happy with the acquisition...
I hope we all know by now that Disney swallowed the world of Marvel whole. Okay, okay, so here’s some of the facts:
- On Monday (August 31st), The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc in a cash and stock transaction.
- Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share, along with 0.745 Disney shares for each share they own.
- Disney will own the rights to over 5,000 Marvel characters.
Now for the important part:
What does this mean to Marvel fans?
Apparently, not much will change. Joe Quesada (Editor-in-Chief at Marvel) posted a link to an article about the deal on Comic Book Resources. I’ll point out the more important and interesting parts.
“Disney executives went to great lengths during the call to make the point that they don’t pretend to be more expert than Marvel is in handling their characters, citing the hands-off relationship Disney has had with Pixar since the acquisition of that studio. Disney said Marvel manages the properties from a business perspective very intelligently and trusts them to make the right decisions for these products for a long time to come.”
I think this is the most important thing to consider. If the business relationship Disney has with Pixar serves as an example for what they have in store for Marvel, then I’m pretty excited. Pixar has gained so much from Disney’s powerhouse of producers, as well as their fantastic marketing. Since Disney bought out Pixar in 2006, some of their best films have come out: Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up. Disney is saying that one of the more attractive aspects of the deal was that they’d be able to work with people who know the characters and how to use and develop them in various media formats.
“Cable channel Disney XD is currently running about 20 hours a week of Marvel content and Disney has been looking to license more Marvel content and this deal gives them that opportunity as well as the opportunity to expose these characters internationally.”
So… Disney has been making money from showing Marvel craptoons (don’t look at me like that – have you seen X-Men Evolution??!) and wants to do it some more. Doesn’t sound like that’s going to change much for us comic fans. Cool.
“When asked if there was potential for cross-polination between Marvel and Pixar, Disney said that Pixar’s John Lasseter has met with key Marvel creative executives recently and the group got ‘pretty excited, very fast.’ Disney will look at all opportunities and thinks there are some exciting product that could come from this sort of partnership.”
This part scares me. Are we going to see Wolverine in Kingdom Hearts?! OH GOD NO. PLEASE, NO. I think this particular quote is a little misleading. I don’t think Disney is stupid enough to put their characters in Marvel comics. It DOES make sense for them to make a subsidiary solely for kids’ comics, though. Mom goes to comic shop with her kids. Mom is upset with violent crap older kid is buying. Younger kid likes Mickey and sees some fruity little comics. Mom is glad to buy them for younger kid. Disney makes money TWICE HOLY SHIT THIS IS GENIUS. There ya go. Get it?
Let’s realistically look at this. Anyone who really thinks Disney will fuck this up is lying to themselves. They have plenty experience managing other companies, and they’ve been frontiering various media platforms for decades. Marvel will get lots of money, Disney will get lots of money, and maybe they’ll put a sweet ride in at Disneyland. I can see it now… a rollercoaster called “The Astral Plane.” That would get you FUCKED UP, dude. Anyway…
If you want more information, check out Marvel to get the info straight from the horse’s mouth.
