Disney Buys Marvel, Wolverine gets Mouse Ears
Marvel Entertainment has been bought by the Walt Disney Company for $4 billion - the acquisition of the comic, film, and games-generating powerhouse adds about 5,000 characters to Disney's megaharem of escapist fun.
Now that Marvel's many, many, many licenses are property of Das Maus, Marvel-licensed game publishers such as Sega and Activision may be worrying about the security of their partnerships with the formerly-independent Marvel.
Disney CEO Robert Iger definitely read the character fact before issuing his statement:
"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories."
Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter was equally cheery at the prospects of combining resources to rake in even more resources:
"This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."
Thoughts? Dreams? Lamentations? I can say this much: if Kingdom Hearts III sends Daffy Duck, Sora, Archangel, and Cloud on a S.H.I.E.L.D mission to rescue Jean Grey and Minnie from the clutches of Magneto and Maleficent, I'm going to lay a freaking egg.
It's IP crossbreeding everywhere, y'all!
Disney Buys Marvel In $4 Billion Deal [Gamasutra]
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Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 31 August 2009
· Comments (14)
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I don't think this will be so bad. Disney owns porn companies, after all. I figure they'll mostly leave Marvel alone and let it do what it does to make money.
I hope Branovices is right and this isn't bad news for Marvel. I like my Marvel Mickey free.
LOL.
It's the skrulls. "Who can you trust?"
Best article I've read on this btw.
I'm not too concerned about Disney castrating Marvel's voice. DC is owned by Warner Brothers and their Vertigo line is adult oriented.
Maybe my dream of seeing Donald Duck getting anally raped by Dr. Doom will finally come true. Donald Does Latveria!
LOL.
It's the skrulls. "Who can you trust?"
Best article I've read on this btw.
I'm not too concerned about Disney castrating Marvel's voice. DC is owned by Warner Brothers and their Vertigo line is adult oriented.
Maybe my dream of seeing Donald Duck getting anally raped by Dr. Doom will finally come true. Donald Does Latveria!
Disney owns Porn companies!? Walt must be spinning in his cryogenic tube. Now all we need is for the gargantuan crossover : Mushroom Kingdom Hearts Ultimate Alliance! Mario, Sora, Mickey, and Spider-Man fighting Bowser, Golbez, Chernabog, and Thanos.
Spiderman, oddly enough is the only Marvel character I can see not completely being weird next to Sora and co [should Marvel be forced into the next KH game].
The X-Men and the racism issue they face [its a homophobia parallel after all], not so much so [Disney would avoid it like heck in KH methinks]!
The news is still... settling in tbh.
I don't think we have too much to worry about Disney/Marvel crossovers everywhere. It'll be years before they will even have full control over Marvel properties due to contractual obligations. Spider-Man probably won't be in the parks until sometime after Marvel Superhero Island at Universal's Islands of Adventure has closed, there are probably contractual obligations with a few game developers still, and if Disney makes a Marvel movie anytime soon, it would probably have to be something a bit too obscure.
Disney bought Mighty Morphing Power Rangers years ago -- that alone should be proof that we won't be seeing too much in crossovers.
What it will mean in the more immediate future: expect Disney comics to be published by Marvel now. After all, Gemstone announced back in March that they were no longer publishing the Disney comics. (http://www.wolfstad.com/dcw/blog/2009/03/gemstone-ends-disney-license/)
BTW: As far as I can tell, the whole thing about Disney owning porn companies is an urban legend. In fact, the only sources that I've ever seen that has "proof" about this is the same sources that are trying to prove how evil Disney is for sponsoring Gay Days (which they don't...).
I think the best idea I've seen on the net for this acquisition would be Marvel vs. Capcom vs. Squeenix vs. Disney. Seriously, that game would have like 200 characters and would be the most bloated fighter of all time.
I just don't want Disney to squash all the awesome gay storylines Marvel has going on. They'd do something like that, too, in the interests of the children, no doubt.
@ Jeremy,
You do realize that Disney is one of the most 'gay friendly' companies in existence. If you took out all the gay people who work for Disney... there would be no company.
And as mentioned, Disney makes a lot of things people don't realize, thing's that would be considered a lot worse than gay characters in a comic book.
I see this buy up as as a good thing, for both sides. But then, I'm a Disney Co. fan.
Theres a lot of homo's working in Hollywood - but how many out mainstream actors are there? [as actually fact - not rumour/wishful thinking] gays backstage doesnt equate to gays on stage
. . . if Disney can sanetise the tales of the Brothers Grimm [research ur fairy tales Northstar - theres blood in some of them and all sorts of crap] then i wouldnt be surprised if they watered down a whole bunch of 'mature' storylines . . .
Disney just keeps getting bigger!!!
if Daffy Duck, a Warner Brothers character, somehow stumbles into Kingdom Hearts 3, I think there are other issues afoot.
I hope Disney doesn't mess around too much with Marvel, like in this funny parody of the situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrAwJzda69I