They Did… WHAT?

So Disney went and bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion dollars.  Marvel, if for some reason you are unaware, was one of the last remaining independent entertainment houses left, responsible for making comic books cool, and bringing us franchises such as X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and over 5000 characters.  Marvel has always been “idolized” per se, but has had their share of ups and downs.  If this was 1998, when Marvel was on the brink of going under, I could have understood their desire to have a big brother corporation save them.  However, this isn’t 1998, this is 2009, and Marvel has been doing as well as they ever have, and there was simply no need for them to sell out to Disney.

The Detractors…

It seems like the very first reaction to this sale was peoples’ fear that Disney will tone down the edginess of Marvel’s characters and storylines.  I’ve read speculation such as “Iron Man and the Seven Dwarfs”.  I’ve read people concerned that Disney will put The Jonas Brothers in the next Fantastic Four movie.  I’ve even read things where people say that they foresee Mickey Mouse and X-Men crossovers.  In a word, this is insanity.  Disney didn’t buy Marvel to ruin it.  They bought it to cash in on it!

…and The Defenders

On the other side of the coin, you have people, who for some reason, are quick to defend Disney.  (With as many employees that Disney has, and their extended families, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of these defenders are tied to the company)  So many people want to point to companies such as Miramax which are owned by Disney and obviously are not exactly “family friendly” companies.  I say that that these people are missing the point.  On the contrary, I seriously doubt that Disney will radically change up the Marvel universe, and that is exactly what the problem is.  They’re not qoing to change anything!

I don’t believe that Disney will give Marvel the elbow room that it needs to be creative.  I believe that Disney will force Marvel to craft their storylines and their characters in a “safe” manner, that they believe will be more profitable than to allow artistic freedom.  Think about it, we’re talking about the same company whose main strategy with movies has been, for the last decade and a half, to release sequels to established movies ad nauseum as opposed to taking any chances or creating new stories and new characters.  Do you really think that Disney is going to give Marvel any artistic freedom, especially after their stock took a hit due to this purchase?  Hell no, they’re going to make sure they get their investment back!

They Don’t Care About Superheroes!

Disney is a very by-the-numbers business.  They don’t make emotional investments.  They are interested in one thing and one thing only, money.  Not that there’s anything wrong with businesses wanting to profit, but when your line of work is based on entertainment, then every once in a while, you must make an emotional investment, because entertainment is tied to emotion, and is not a commodity.  You can treat commodities as a by the numbers business, because there’s fewer variables, but you can’t predict anything in entertainment!  When you treat entertainment as numbers and figures, you will eventually lose track of your audience, much like how Disney has been doing for the last few decades.

The optimists among this argument like to point out that Disney has the power to expand the Marvel brand to more markets, and to promote the content in a way that Marvel never had before.  Yes that is true, but Disney isn’t going to do this out of the kindness of their hearts.  They will do this only after carefully molding Marvel into their own image, and creating the “safe” marketable Marvel that they need.  And they do this because they’re not satisfied until they have the attention and the money of every single group of people out there!  They won’t rest until they have officially tapped out every demographic there is!

What we have here is Disney’s classic approach of throwing money at their problems.  Lately, Disney’s main focus has been on the teenage female demographic.  They’ve been pushing their Hannah Montanas and their Jonas Brotherses and have been enjoying plenty of steak dinners due to the success of these brands and all of the little girls with rich parents who eat this stuff up.  Ge this, Miley Cyrus is worth over $1 Billion dollars alone, and this is all from the little girl demographic that Disney has monopolized in the last few years.  That’s not good enough for Disney though, they see all the dollar signs on the other end of the spectrum, and want to cash in on the young male demographic.

It was for this reason that Disney decided to simply buy some credibility from the male demographic by purchasing one of the most popular companies among this bracket, Marvel!  What they didn’t count on though, is that the average Marvel fan is a lot smarter than the average Jonas Brother fan.  I predict that the majority of Marvel fans are going to be much more prudent about what comes out from now on, and are probably going to have even higher expectations from this Disney owned Marvel than before they sold out.  From now on, ANYTHING that Marvel drops the ball on will officially be “Disney’s fault” among the legions of educated Marvel fans.  They’re not going to be force-fed endless streams of churned out products like the female demographic has been known to do.  Disney has their work cut out for them if they want the male demographic.  It’s not as easy as just “buying it”.

Reasons NOT To Sell Out

The number one thing that annoys me about this is that Marvel didn’t need to sell out at all.  They have come a long way since 1998, and WERE on the way to becoming another superpower like Disney.  In another 10 years, they probably would have been unstoppable.  (Yet Disney wants to claim that they didn’t buy Marvel out of fear)  Marvel had plenty of projects lined up for the future, and a DEEP pool of storylines and characters to draw from for the future.  They were not hard up for business.  Before this deal went through, there were (and still are):

• Three more Spider-Man movies scheduled for release by Columbia Pictures
• Future Movie Releases of X-Men, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, and Daredevil from 20th Century Fox
• A five-picture deal for Marvel movies with Paramount Pictures
• An attraction at Unversal Studios Florida called Marvel Super Hero Island.

In 2008, Marvel made a profit of $206 Million, which to Disney is probably chump change, but in a time where lots of other companies are going under, making a profit like this is a great thing, especially when Marvel had all of the above movie projects to look forward to!  Look, I don’t blame Disney for buying Marvel.  They got a good deal.  Honestly, I don’t even blame them for ruining it in the future.  You can’t blame a snake for being a snake.  I do, however, blame Marvel for selling out their independence and selling out the franchises that so many of us grew up on.

They WILL ruin Marvel

Also, do me a favor, and don’t point to Pixar as exhibit A of why Disney won’t trample Marvel’s artistic freedom.  If Disney had their way, Pixar would be MUCH different than it is today.  Pixar’s freedom to do what they wish didn’t come easy for them, and it was because of their refusal to take the first deal that Disney offered them that they are in the position that they are in today.  They didn’t sell out to Disney, they NEGOTIATED with them, and refused to sell out their standards for the backing of a giant corporation.  Marvel, on the other hand, just handed over everything in exchange for $4 billion.

I just don’t see any good reason for Marvel to sell out like they did.  And that’s exactly what they did, they SOLD OUT.  They decided to sacrifice property that make so many people happy, and leave the lives and future of over 5000 characters in the hands of some of the greediest, evil bastards in the business world.  Well guess what, I’m most likely done with Marvel.  Disney’s going to have to do a lot to convince me that the Marvel that they now own is going to be the same Marvel that I grew up with.  Until they do that, Marvel is not getting one penny of my money.  I hope that $4 Billion was worth it, you selfish pigs.