DISNEY & MARVEL…THE HORROR THE HORROR…
September 13th 2011 22:08
Category: Spotlight
Apparently two years ago whilst I was undergoing eye surgery something rather ‘amazing’ happened in the world, something that it’s taken me two years to find out about. And what pray tell is this ‘amazing’ thing or event that I’ve only recently discovered – it’s the merger between Disney and Marvel. Now as far as corporate mergers go this would have been the last thing I would have ever expected to happen – but then again in the world of business and perhaps life itself there is nothing really new under the sun. So what does this merger mean exactly? No doubt there have been various articles written by learned individuals who are steeped in all manner of business and corporate matters on this subject – as an accounting student I don’t claim to have their expertise, but then again my viewpoint isn’t coming from that angle anyway. Rather I’m looking at this whole thing through the eyes of a comic book fan…
The reality of it all though would be something more along these lines; Disney needs fresh blood in terms of inspiration and vehicles to fuel its ongoing enterprise. It needs something to continue to generate the spenduli with which it can then move on and gain further acquisitions. If we were to compare Disney to something from pop culture it would be fairly appropriate to see Disney as akin to the Borg from Star Trek Next Gen, like the Borg Disney assimilates those it deems useful to its ongoing existence. And this time around it’s Marvel that has been assimilated into the vast corporate conglomerate that is Disney. Let’s face it they already assimilated Pixar when they gained worldwide success and thus enhanced their own earnings potential…it was only a matter of time before they turned their attentions to Marvel.
So what does Marvel gain from the arrangement? Well they get the outlet for making movies based on their key franchise characters as well as a distribution network for said movies. It seems that the upcoming Avengers movie featuring Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man and Hawkeye is to be produced by Disney. If it’s a major success no doubt Marvel will be hoping for increased sales and interest in the comics based upon these particular characters. In fact these particular characters along with Spider Man and the X Men are in essence the flagship characters of Marvel and its generally been these characters that have become the focus of the publishing efforts of Marvel.
One would expect then that in this arrangement Marvel is going along quite nicely and its comics are blazing a trail for new fans and old alike. Sadly I don’t think that is the case…in fact I would argue that all Marvel has now become is a mine from which Disney can extract the ore of new storylines and new characters on which to base movies. Comic’s wise Marvel seems to have fallen into a rut of characters dealing with the big threat that will destroy the universe of the week, then when they defeat said threat it’s on to the next threat or perhaps facing the sibling/significant other of the previous threat. And then we have the angst along with the driving issues of which particular vested interest group is the main headline winner for the week be it Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay or Transgender, Native Americans, Muslims, small fluffy bunnies with ADD you get the picture…
Characters pop up who are a part of said vested interest groups yet it seems that they’re only there for that specific reason – they represent a potential niche audience that Marvel hopes to capture rather than actually being a significant driving force in the narrative. Heaven forfend that a comic should be about story and narrative…but it seems that this is the precise thing that has been lost. In fact I’d say that since the merger with Disney things on the comic front have just slid into the morass of continual ridiculous end of the world scenarios with ongoing crossovers that never seem to end and literally involve every character that Marvel has going at the time. And let’s not forget Howard the Duck who apparently appears in the recent major storyline produced by Marvel recently – Fear Itself…
Yet it’s strange that whilst their comics have become something like a broken record that keeps on repeating the same clichéd point over and over the movies based on Marvel characters have been quite reasonable. And it seems this has been the effect of the merger, not so much a Mickeyfying of the Marvel universe but just a trend towards converting key characters in marketable movie franchises at the expense of the comic’s side. Sure Fear Itself was worked on by some of the greats in the comic business and no doubt exciting new up and coming talent but what differentiates it from Civil War or Age of Apocalypse or Onslaught or Secret Invasion? In fact it seems like in the last decade or so there has been a major crossover event every year since 2000 and why? I suspect it’s all to do with maintaining market share and so forth and frankly it’s completely turned me away from Marvel and its rival DC. Big crossovers should only be done every so often i.e. every few years, though it seems there isn’t a day goes by when Marvel is talking some major event in its comic’s empire.
Marvel Comics may not have been changed in any significant way by Disney but that was never the intention in the first place – the real fear that people should have focused on was the fact that Marvel was just going to turn into an ideas factory for Disney, and that the comics side of affairs would suffer as most of Marvel’s effort would go into coming up with the next blockbuster superhero flick for Disney. Let’s face it the upcoming Avengers movie which could potentially be a major success is being made by Disney and let’s not forget all the potential merchandising to be had from such a feature…and movie comic tie ins. So is there any hope for fans of Marvel comics? Well if they’re happy with the way things are then all seems good, if they’re not then they’re better off to move onto alternative sources of entertainment….
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