The Rest of the Welcome

Hey all, thanks for checking in on Part 2, and if you missed Part 1, don't worry. You can always go back and read it later or not, they're not particularly connect so no big deal.

Just have to share some thoughts on today's big news, Disney bought Marvel Comics. This isn't totally crazy, a lot of people aren't aware that DC is owned by Warner Brothers, but for the people who knew the latter, the former is just that much more tragic.

I think it's very interesting that for a company that's 70 years old, it just recently became important to the rest of the world. Let's face it, Spider-Man on the silver screen did more for Marvel than almost anything they've ever done before. It was huge, nerds were happy to see a pretty faithful adaptation (except for the Green Goblin's hideous costume) and people who'd never picked up a comic before were enjoying something unique and entertaining. There's enough action, romance and humor in that single movie to please pretty much everyone.

That got the ball rolling for X-Men and the Fantastic Four and whoever else sold a decent amount of comics. Some were pretty darn good (X-Men, Director's cut of Daredevil) and some...not so much (X3, Theatrical release of Daredevil), but the company was finally breaking through to the common man and producing that which fans had been waiting decades for (FF).

Where was DC? During Marvel's cinematic reign, DC had to fight its own company to release any sort of competition. Major DC releases during the Marvel onslaught were Superman Returns, Watchmen and the Baleman movies. Batman is rocking again (somehow surviving without Alicia Silverstone), but Watchmen didn't really get the reaction anybody wanted because nobody particularly cared. Few LOVE it, few HATE it. Most just shrug if you ask them. Superman Returns, I liked, but I'm in the minority. What happened? Simple, DC wants to make comic movies. WB wants to make money from movies and if they happen to have a comic character in it, that's fine so long as that's a few more bucks earned. How else can anyone explain why Kate Bosworth was Lois Lane? Nobody who'd read a Superman comic made that decision.

So why buy Marvel now? Simple. DC can't get their crap together for anything. No Superman movie in process. Batman made a bajillion dollars and was loved by pretty much everyone who saw it and MAYBE they'll think about a sequel. Oh, and there's a Green Lantern movie coming, but that's been in talks for the last decade. On the other side, Marvel just hit huge with Iron Man, plus the Hulk reboot has helped heal some wounds and there are solid plans for Captain America and Thor movies and all of those lay the groundwork for the Avengers movie. They've have to mess up BIG for any one of these to make less than $200 million.

Iron Man is the key flick here because it was produced independently. Sure there were distributors and things, but the company knew they could do it better than any committee-run studio could do and, guess what? They were totally right. And even better for them, the same applies for the surefire hits coming in the next three years. Now Disney gets a piece of that action, well pretty much all the action and I can't blame them. $4 billion for the company is a ton of money, but they'll make 25% of that back in the next four movies alone!

And let's be honest, Disney knows how to market. Lots of high prices and limited releases and quality material means comic collectibles might be worth something in months instead of decades. Selling your material to a company whose fingers extend around the globe doesn't hurt for your visibility either.

I just hope that both companies have taken notice to what goes on with WB and DC. The company that owns Superman AND Bugs Bunny has trouble thinking of what to do with them. Does that scare the crap out of anyone else? And if the chiefs at Disney have any brains, they'll let the House of Ideas do what it does best, and offer support if they need it. Hopefully they've learned that lesson already with the Muppets.