In Case You Haven’t Heard…

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Marvel Comics has been acquired by the Disney Corporation.

Seriously.  I’m not kidding.   This is the AP article:

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters.

Disney said Monday that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own.

It said the boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the transaction, but it requires an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

PAD

128 comments on “In Case You Haven’t Heard…”

  2. Looks like you’re helping break the news, as I can’t find anything on the interwebs yet!

      1. Sorry; it’s just one of those things where if I saw Bob Iger hand Ike Perlmutter the $4B in cash personally, I’d rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

        I can’t begin to imagine how this will affect things, but I have a feeling everything just changed.

  5. I was looking on Yahoo, CNN, etc, and there was nothing there. I see Reuters has picked it up and I’m sure it will start snowballing like crazy now.

    First impression: I hope Disney has a similar policy to the DC/Time Warner relationship, which seems to be somewhat autonomous

    1. Who needs CNN when you’ve got CBR? They’ve just put up the entire press release. I had the press release, but wasn’t sure if it had been officially distributed and so didn’t want to put it on line. But you can read it over at Comic Book Resources now.
      .
      PAD

  7. Wolverine will all have to go to Nicotine Anonymous with all the Disney movie characters. No smoking allowed.

    1. No offense, but have you not been reading Marvel comics in the past nine or so years? Wolverine hasn’t lit a stogie in the better part of a decade.

      1. Yeah – Your right I haven’t. I suppose I was going on the the older incarnations of the character and not the current. Nice call out. 🙂

  8. My 7-year old daughter is nuts about superheroes and Disney characters – if she can wrap her brain around what happened, her head will explode.

    I anxiously await the Punisher:Bloodbath attraction at Disneyworld!

    1. Actually, to make him more family friendly, the Punisher will have his name changed to the Funisher.
      .
      And Wolverine will henceforth be called “Woolverine” and be an anthropomorphic sheep.
      .
      PAD

      2. Future printings of “God Loves Man Kills” will be retitled “X-Kids Love, Man shouts” and “Reverand Stryker” will be changed to “Grumpy old man Stryker”. He really just wishes those X kids would stay off his lawn.

      4. And Wolverine will henceforth be called “Woolverine” and be an anthropomorphic sheep.
        .
        Suddenly I’m thinking of Wallace and Gromit here. “We’ll call him Shaun.”

  10. Hm. I just realized: Your old “House of M” gag about Edna Mode re-designing every Marvel character’s costume could actually happen now, couldn’t it?

      1. That’s really the cartoon to illustrate the cartoon, isn’t it. Edna Mode pointing at an abashed Thor and shouting, “No capes!”
        .
        PAD

  12. Congrats on your new uber-boss. “I, for one, welcome our new mouse overlords.”

    This could be great for Marvel, or bad for all comics, or somewhere in the middle. I don’t dare predict much. But I feel bad for Boom Studios, which will probably lose the license it has for the Muppets and Pixar just when it was taking off.

  15. I wonder how (or if) this would affect things at Universal Studios Island of Adventure in Orlando, since part of that park is Marvel-themed?

    David

    1. I suspect not much. I’d imagine that Universal paid for long-term rights that continue under new membership, and I’m sure Disney would have no problem accepting large amounts of franchise fees from a competitor.

    1. Disney has run out of ideas to rape and mangle and copyright-protect, so they’re buying a new batch.

  17. First impression: I hope Disney has a similar policy to the DC/Time Warner relationship, which seems to be somewhat autonomous.

    Key difference: TW is “just” a media conglomerate. Disney is a media conglomerate that’s also a control-freak media brand on its own. Now, that’s not to say everything they own is, strictly speaking, “Disneyfied”; see Miramax and even the ABC Family Channel’s teen shows. But there’s plenty to wonder about.

  18. If there are mods with de-italicizing powers: from “Key difference” on was supposed to be non-ital.

  19. Okay, so right now one of the x-men cartoons (Evolution, I think) airs on Toon Disney. Another airs on the Nicktoons channel — and they’ve been doing all sorts of promotions. Now what happens? Because Disney and Nickelodeon are arch rivals, of course.

    1. Toon Disney has been airing a bunch of the older Marvel stuff, like X-Men, Spider-Man, etc. Those shows were all produced by different companies, like Fox, but Disney just picked up the rights to air them.
      .
      But yes, it does make you wonder about current (Wolverine & the X-Men) and pending Marvel animated projects.

  20. IF the deal goes through…

    All the comic book licenses would go to Marvel Comics at the end of the current contracts.
    Future Marvel Comics based movies, tv shows, etc.; would become Disney productions. Doubt they can get out of the current contracts with Universal, Sony, etc.
    So the theme park attractions are safe for the moment too, but I doubt there will be any future advertising for them.
    Disney might start overseeing the comic book production. “You can’t go around having the Punisher kill all these people! Why don’t he just give them all a serious time out and that way still live up to the character’s name.”

    Then again, maybe the comic books will improve and I might start reading them again.
    Except for the Fantastic Four (because I totally haven’t given up hope on the company) I haven’t touched a mutant title since the original firing of Chris Claremont, nor a Spider-man title since the Scarlett Spider/Return of the Clone storyline.

    It might give Peter David a chance to write that Little Mermaid story he never got to do (the one about Ariel losing her mother and her father’s beard turning white because of it).

    BUT PETER: Would you still be working for Marvel?

  21. That’s true. Disney is careful about the properties that carry the Disney brand name, but they own ABC, ABC Family, Miramax, and Touchstone also. And on those properties the level of family friendly does vary and folks are ok with it because they aren’t branded as Disney and don’t use that to judge programming content.
    Many years ago, Disney formed companies like that for just that reason, because people expect “Disneyfied” if its marketed under the Walt Disney name. As long as they don’t market Marvel as Marvel/Disney or Disney/Marvel they shouldn’t have to do anything, but count their money.
    Content can remain untouched.

  22. Peter, I have been waiting years for Goofy to join the X-Factor team. Now my dreams can be a reality. Make it happen.

  24. I have this picture in my mind of some Universal exec getting up, reading his paper and start grumbling every time he passes the Marvel section of Islands of Adventure LOL

  25. Whoa!
    .
    Thinking it over, I think this is potentially great news for Marvel fans…Disney is not about to vanish any time soon and having them own marvel pretty much ensures that even if the comics biz crashes and burns the characters will live on in some form. If Disney incorporates lots of marvel properties into their movie and theme part attractions they could even justify publishing comics at a total loss or at least publishing them online.
    .
    Disney has stood up to the boycott bullies so this may protect writers like PAD from that threat. Disney has allowed Pixar to do great work so hopefully Marvel studios will be allowed to do the same. Oh! Could Pixar possibly make marvel character films? The Incredibles was by far the best of the 3 Fantastic 4 movies, it would be nice if they could do it officially.
    .
    I should think this is good news for creators like PAD. Disney has good benefits. On the other hand, they have a rep for being pretty draconian on creator rights–creator owned properties may be a tough concept.
    .
    Will Howard the Duck be able to take his pants off?

  26. I think Peter is in a great position to tell us What It All Means. But I suspect the only answer he has right now is Too Soon To Tell.

    1. It IS too soon to tell. I know no more about it than you guys do. Just because I was sent the press release first thing this morning doesn’t mean I have any more insight.
      .
      PAD

      1. I guess what I meant was you have more direct experience “behind the curtain” (professional gigs in both the business and creation of comics, not to mention working with licensed properties, etc.) so you could provide educated guesses (more educated than most of us). Then again, that would entail reading the tea leaves of giant international conglomerates…so I guess all bets are off. 🙂 Still, it’s fun speculating. The line for a Monsters, Inc. sequel featuring Man-Thing starts HERE.

      2. Does this mean this was a complete surprise to you? I was going to ask if you’d been in the loop about this for a while and only now can spill the beans.

  27. I wonder what’ll happen (probably nothing) with the “Marvel Super Hero Island” portion of Islands of Adventure in FL. Does Disney really want one of their properties to be a key piece of their theme-park rival’s crown? I guess they’d have to honor any existing agreement though, right?

  28. Okay then – two things:

    i) Spiderman can easily be defeated by the million-strong Mickey Mouse club. They will crush him!

    ii) I hope this opens the way for Kingdom Hearts with Marvel peoples in it. Perhaps this ‘Epic Mickey’ rumour has a Marvel connection?

    Oh, and the chap that mentioned Hellfire Club at Disney – oh, I am *there*! 🙂

  29. Just saw this on slashdot…so conflicted. I really don’t know what to make of this. I guess I’ll just hope for the best and hope they keep their hands off and let Marvel do its thing.

  30. Heheheh.
    But, now all the folks who constantly complain about Marvel can now truly say it is a Mickey Mouse outfit…

    Sorry, I just couldn’t let that one pass.
    On the plus side I doubt we have much to worry about. The only properties Disney gets anal retentive about branding are things released under the Walt Disney/Buena Vista names, and those characters explicitly associated with Disney (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, etc.)
    I’m sure Disney would allow Marvel to continue producing their own properties without the Disney execs coming down in a massive paper chase of “You can’t do that!”s (Yes, I can also see them allowing Howard to remain a viable comic.)

  33. On the one hand, this might go a long way toward diminishing the unprofessionalism that infests the industry. The first time a Marvel exec has to tell his bosses at Disney that the revenue they projected to get over 6 months from a major “event book” was actually spread out over 10 months, because said “event book” ran late, will be the last time that conversation ever happens.

    On the other hand, there’s always a drive to cut costs and restructure after this sort of deal and I’m sure Disney will look long and hard at Marvel’s publishing schedule. Disney knows they don’t need a new Mickey Mouse cartoon every 6 months to maintain the brand, so I doubt they’ll look kindly on a lot of the books being put out now.

    Mike

  36. Just remembered that Disney also owns ESPN. This could mean…

    Chris Berman nicknames for Marvel characters!
    ESPN: The Comic Book!
    SportsCenter live at Comic-Con!
    Mike and Mike in the Morning…in the Blue Area of the Moon!
    Ultimate ESPN Classic!

    Remember, the only difference between sports and comics is that in sports, play merely can’t stay retired, instead of not staying dead.

  37. Fiscally I’m wondering why. I see what Disney gets but what does Marvel glean from this whole thing? And what sort of editorial role will they take?

  38. Hmm…I see two main possibilities. One, they do a Touchstone: let it stay for the older audiences, don’t have the characters intermingle, etc. Two, they make a more aggressive move to make Marvel comics (or at least the characters) more kid-friendly…no more torture-pørņ, throttle back on the zombies, make more self-contained stories in the event they actually care about the comics themselves (which, given their general apathy about the Duck comics, seems unlikely).

    Not seeing huge downsides here.

  39. Also…Disney isn’t quite Disney these days. When Pixar came on board, more than a few wags said that Pixar took over Disney, rather than the other way around. John Lasseter of Pixar has considerably more influence at Disney ANimated than the traditional gang.

    Also…Steve Jobs is one of (if not THE) largest shareholders of Disney stock. Heh.

    1. From what i recall at the time, you’re right – Jobs *is* the largest single stockholder.

  40. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-

    *deep breath*

    -ooooooooooOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooOOOOooooooooooooooooo

  43. I’m waiting for them to re-vamp the “It’s A Small World” ride so that instead of dozens of children, they’re all Jamie Madrox in different world costumes.

  45. Conceding that I don’t know all the details yet and that no one knows what the actual ramifications will be, I see this as nothing but GREAT NEWS.
    Oh, and I personally would shed no tears for BOOM! losing the licenses. More on that later.
    But….wow!

  46. An thought occurred to me just now: Marvel will one day soon have a month with nothing but Disney character variants.
    .
    Crap, now I need to go cleanse my brain with a few shots of alcohol.

  47. Okay, the first thing I thought of when I heard of this was that the last time something like this happened was 19 years ago, when Disney bought the Muppets. Then, within a year, Jim Henson was dead.

    I’m hoping we don’t see the same thing happen with Stan Lee.

    Now, for the joke (unrelated to what I just said): Will Robert Iger now be the editor-in-chief? Joe Quesada? Goofy?

    MBunge wrote:
    The first time a Marvel exec has to tell his bosses at Disney that the revenue they projected to get over 6 months from a major “event book” was actually spread out over 10 months, because said “event book” ran late, will be the last time that conversation ever happens.

    Personally, I’d like to see the conversation when Disney is told that Spider-Man and Mary Jane aren’t married any more.

    Finally, as for possible crossovers, the one I’d love to see is The Fantastic Four and The Incredibles.

    SUE: Reed!

    MR. INCREDIBLE: Helen!

    BEN: We ain’t gonna get a PG rating on THIS one!

    Mike

  48. Peter,

    How would the current group of creators at Marvel react if Disney tried to make the books more kid friendly? I feel that many enjoy the more adult themes and topics they are allowed to explore today. Would restrictions on content lead some to move to other publishers (i.e. Image, etc) in order to tell the type of stories they want?

    Cheers,

    Bill

  49. Here’s the big head scratcher – now with Disney running the show, will Marvel’s Direct-to-DVD movies get better or worse?

  50. This notion fills me with dread. I’ve watched with horror for the last few years as Disney’s slowly destroyed Power Rangers, a franchise I’ve enjoyed for 17 years (Okay, admittedly MMPR2, Turbo, Lost Galaxy and Mystic Force sucked). They accquired it and immediately slashed the budget, put it in awful timeslots, and it’s DVD record is, to say the least, pitiful. And now it’s cancelled after the current season because they’ve demolished it so badly.

    Disney can’t even get it’s OWN shows into boxsets (glares at Gargoyles). How in blazes are they supposed to make things better for Marvel? Pfft.

    1. I am hoping for the release of following Marvel cartoons on DVD with Disney’s backing”
      1966 Marvel Superheroes
      1978 FF
      1981 Spider-Man
      Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends
      1982 & 1996 Incredible Hulk
      1990’s Spider-Man
      Not sure about what this does to the current releases of the `90’s X-Men.

      1. Likely makes the release of them easier, as Disney who owns the cartoons will own the rights to the characters too (assuming there’s been legal issues holding it up, as opposed to company apathy)

    2. I’m sorry, I’m having trouble parsing “slowly destroyed Power Rangers” as a coherent thought. 🙂 (And I do understand what you mean in terms of worry — I just can’t get into Power Rangers and never have.)

      1. Tim, a LOT of people can’t get past the original cheesiness of PR to see what it matured into. Heck, newspapers still refer to it as “mighty morphin'” after 17 years, a moniker it dropped after the third season.

        I suggest you look up Power Rangers in Space (aside fron the Ninja Turtles episode), Time Force, SPD, and the current RPM series. They’re far and away as strong as anything you could think of. The very best PR’s ever been.

        Of course, it also helps to grow up on a steady diet of Voltron and Godzilla. I won’t deny that.

        Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must return to mourning for a show that’s defined a large chunk of my life.

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