Disney buys Marvel!

[AE35Unit]

I briefly saw this on the interactive news yesterday.
Oh dear!

 

[Rodders]

Yes, 2.5 Billion Dollars i'm led to believe. It'll be interesting to see what they do with this. Whilst i've never been a big fan of Comics, Marvel is an institution. I really hope that they leave well alone and don't try to weaken the entire brand by making everything twee and "Disneyfying" it. Let Marvel be Marvel.

I believe that Disney made this move in order to win over more male fans. Again, it just shows the lack of imagination. Instead of inventing new TV shows, movies characters and stories to win new fans, they make a big purchase to get existing ones.

 

[Interference]

Marvel will probably stay Marvel, Rodders, it's the brand they've bought, so the films might be a bit odd for a while. Marvel gained its reputation and held it for an incredibly long time, but others have taken on the role of proper adult-orientated entertainment (and, no, I don't mean porn) in print, like Dark Horse and Image (I assume they're still around in one form or another).

I don't necessarily fear Disney as an entity, though I hate the idea of any single ethic gaining a monopoly on entertainment output. Things are, surely, bad enough.

 

[AE35Unit]

Disney do have a habit of kiddying things up, and mucking up potentially good ideas (The Black Hole movie!).
I wonder if fans or rival comic DC are laughing now!

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

At the end of the day, Interference is right. I doubt Disney bought Marvel Entertainment (as I understand it, that's the movie/tv/cartoon side of the house, not the comics) as it makes money. Same reason they bought Pixar I'm guessing. It's more to try and get a slice of the money they're making already than dictating or interferring with their business models I think. Again I could be way off but I don't see the business sense in buying the intellectual rights to characters like the Punisher and then make him take down drug dealers with harsh language and telling them "drugs are bad, m'kay?".

I'm sure Universal aren't laughing though, most of their Islands of Adventure theme park is based on Marvel characters. I wonder what's going to happen there? It might even be as simple as Disney slashing at a competitor's revenue base.

 

[Rodders]

We'll have to wait and see. I hope that you're right, but i am sceptical.

I didn't realise that there were share available in Marvel. I'd have loved to invested in an genuine SF company. That would've been pretty cool.