Disney Buys Marvel Comics


Dan

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The Walt Disney Co. (DIS-N26.84----%) says it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. (MVL-N38.65----%) for $4-billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the Disney family.

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.

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Wow.

I mean, Christ, just think of the lucrative properties Disney gets out of this. They just hit the jackpot, in terms of making cartoons out of this, T-shirts, you name it.

I'll be interested to see how it unfolds and whether or not it affects the comics being released.

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WHAT

THE

FUCK

...

...

...

Seriously?!?

How is Disney going to allow Marvel to keep publishing their uber-dark mature stories?

Are we going to get a Darkwing Duck/Moon Night crossover? Darkwing/Donald/Howard? What about the Mighty Ducks? (okay, that would be kinda awesome)

Christ, does this mean that we'll have freakin' Spider-Man walking around Disneyland? UGH.

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This was the last thing I thought I'd read upon waking up this morning. Wow!

What does this mean for their movies, especially the planned Avengers crossover? Will Disney help Marvel buy back the movie rights to the X-Men and Spider-Man?

And what about Disney's deal with BOOM! studios; will that end so Marvel can publish Disney-related comics?

KnightWing has a good point there: what does this mean for the Marvel portion of Universal Studios Islands of Adventure?

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Also, is Marvel really doing that badly profit-wise that Disney would need to essentially buy them out?

KW, I highly doubt that they're going to interfere with the comics publishing to that degree. They own Miramax, which puts out quite a few mature indie things. Plus, they have to keep Marvel's buyers.

Interesting point with the movies, though. They'd definitely have the capital now to get them back and to be able to do what they want with them (TAKE THE X-MOVIES AWAY FROM FOX NOW PLZ). But, with the Spidey movies, how much $ does Marvel get off the royalties from that, and would it be worth buying back to have the control from the studios?

...I'd like a Marvel area at Disneyland. More thrill rides = good.

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KW, I highly doubt that they're going to interfere with the comics publishing to that degree. They own Miramax, which puts out quite a few mature indie things.

Yeah, but the difference is that I doubt Disney's not going promote the fact that they own Marvel's characters.

One of Disney's basic business goals is to retain their family-friendly image. If they start putting the Disney logo on Marvel properties, they'll open up the exact can of worms that they've been trying to keep shut for the past 50 years.

Now hey, I love Disney. The animated films from 1989-1999 (the "Disney Renaissance") practically defined my childhood. To this day, I still have a strange desire to wrestle a pack of wolves (Beauty and the Beast), a curiosity about trying to surf down a tree trunk (Tarzan), and a thing for girls with brightly dyed red hair (if you have to guess, you suck).

But mixing Marvel and Disney, even if only on a corporate level? I don't like it. The two companies have completely different philosophies.

The only way this could work is if Disney ONLY acts as an investor in Marvel's projects, and never exerts any control. But will they do that? Can they resist using Marvel's properties for their own purposes?

Also, I would buy every fucking issue of Darkwing Duck/Moon Knight.

Well, yeah. :D

EDIT:

Just saw this:

Disney sees a deep opportunity to immediately patch the Marvel characters into its other businesses, however. Marvel characters will be added to Disney’s theme parks...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html?_r=1&hp

Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!

Edited by KnightWing
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Huh. It looks like Sony and Fox are keeping the Spidey and X-Men franchises (*shrug* to the first, DAMNIT to the second).

I'm ambivalent to the Marvel characters being added to the Disney parks; if they get their own park, that could be interesting/more geared towards thrill rides.

And yeah, Marvel has sucked at doing stuff besides comics that involves their characters somewhat awful.

But, from what I'm reading, it doesn't look like they'll be sticking the Disney logo on the comics. They'll have say over what's happening to the comics/characters, but I don't think they'll be phasing out more mature storylines; Disney's tried for a while to appeal to that age and hasn't done well.

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I'm ambivalent to the Marvel characters being added to the Disney parks; if they get their own park, that could be interesting/more geared towards thrill rides.

I'm betting Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios) will be the new home of the Marvel attractions. They already have Star Wars, Muppets, and Indian Jones attractions there, so it only makes sense to devote some space to Marvel.

A ducktales, howard the duck crossover would be awesome.

Scrooge McDuck teaming up with Howard would be awesome!

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Actually, what with the era of Marvel's issues with creator rights with their iconic characters coming up, it is time to get in line with someone who has a basic idea of how to deal with these things legally. Who better than Disney?

I honestly don't care as long as it doesn't affect Captain America and Agents of ATLAS. Marvel pretty much doesn't exist for me other than those books.

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Actually, what with the era of Marvel's issues with creator rights with their iconic characters coming up, it is time to get in line with someone who has a basic idea of how to deal with these things legally. Who better than Disney?

Disney will rape all the creators, spit on them and say "Merry f**king christmas."

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Actually, what with the era of Marvel's issues with creator rights with their iconic characters coming up, it is time to get in line with someone who has a basic idea of how to deal with these things legally. Who better than Disney?

Disney will rape all the creators, spit on them and say "Merry f**king christmas."

Exactly.

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Also, what about adding Marvel characters to future Kingdom Hearts games?

Nah; Kingdom Hearts has a very specific focus; "Disney magic" and all that. Putting Marvel in there would alter it to the point where it wouldn't even be the same franchise. Heck, DC would work a lot better than Marvel.

Robert Iger talks about the deal in a video interview.

That interview both increases some of my concerns and alleviates others.

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