A big announcement was made today; Marvel Entertainment is set to be purchased by the Walt Disney Company for a reported 4 billion dollars, stock and the rights to about 5 000 characters (insert low impressed whistle here). The full details have yet to be revealed but the entertainment world is abuzz. Many of Marvel's characters are currently owned by other movie companies, like Spider-Man at Sony, Iron Man at Paramount or the X-Men at Fox. How will that be addressed? Hopefully all will be revealed when and if the deal goes through.
As someone who grew up with both Disney and Marvel comics I find myself scratching my head at this turn of events. Disney and Marvel...business partners? The company that gave us so many princess movies and the family friendly faces of Hannah Montana and Suite Life is going to own a comic book legacy that for the past seventy odd years has given us scantily clad superheroes, sometimes in very adult situations? This doesn't add up for me.
Some reporters watching this, like Marc Bernardin at EW.com, are hopeful that this deal will help Marvel branch out a bit from superheroes and try other forms of comics and graphic novels. Perhaps I'm being pessimistic but I worry that the opposite could happen; that Disney may end up being more restrictive of what Marvel can do. The Mouse House, in all it's power and glory, sometimes has a tendency to make everything family friendly. But occasionally I like my comics gritty; DC's Vertigo line is one of my favorites (and it's definitely not for kids).
It's still really early, so we'll have to see how this progresses. Just yesterday though I was at the Marvel booth at Fan Expo. Now Marvel might go through a pretty drastic change. For good or ill? Time will tell.
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