Disney acquires Marvel? Somebody got X-Men in my Wonderland!
 

Yeah, that's right. I heard about this over the weekend at FanExpo, didn't see it posted here.

Source and full article here. Or if you prefer BBC, go here.

How do you feel about this? There's more news to come, obviously, but for now, it sounds... interesting, at the very least.

Make Mine... Mickey?
 

The House of Mouse has reached an agreement to acquire the House of Ideas for $4 billion in a mix of cash and Disney stock. This gives Disney access to some 5,000 Marvel Comics characters, including Spider-man, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Wolverine, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk.

Wow. Just wow.

Although the acquisition will have to clear shareholder approval and antitrust hurdles, I doubt there will be much objection. After all, the Distinguished CompetitionTM is owned by Warner Brothers, another media conglomerate, and the home of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.

I guess this opens up the possibilities for the Disney Theme Parks, to the detriment of Universal Studios. I also wonder if Kingdom Hearts will finally get to play around with Marvel's stable of memorable characters.

Given how Disney has treated its Pixar acquisition (ie total independence), I am cautiously optimistic that this will not significantly affect my enjoyment of Marvel Comics. However, I suppose this will be the last we see of Marvel's MAX imprint, and gratuitous killing just for the heck of it. (I'm looking at you, Wolvie and Frankie!)

So, thoughts? Violent reactions?

Disney owns so many other companies anyway that it probably wont have too much direct impact on it. I mean...Disney owns the people who make Lost, and Goofy hasn't showed up yet!

Haha, Zerg. I JUST posted this a minute before you did.

Can somebody merge the threads or something?

Blast you... Sousuke. Blast you and the extra minute you got by my adding some choice commentary :(

Yeah, someone go merge into Sousuke's thread or smth

Done and done.

Yeah, not sure how this one will turn out. I'm pretty sure Disney has its own comics and stuff but it would be interesting if some new IP came out of this. Not necessarily cross-over or anything but perhaps a Marvel artist working on a Disney comic or something.

Anyone who reacts badly to this knows nothing of Marvel. This is by all accounts a good thing, and absolutely no different than DC seeking fiscal shelter under Warner Bros some time back.

Marvel is not known for good management. Their public stock shit the bed in a huge way when they ended up ballooning - basically, they spent more than they had, borrowed against their underling companies and then ended up with few profits. Lather, rinse, repeat, - and then they filed for bankruptcy in the mid1990s.

Then you had people like Jim Shooter attempting illegal market control.

Then you had Marvel's notorious "positive-only PR" campaign (where they'd only print "good" mail or positive letters in their mailbags) and a lot of legal entanglements over owner's rights. The situation with Howard The Duck alone would turn your brain into liquid shit.

And did no one notice that Disney bought the airing rights to all those Marvel/Sunbow cartoons YEARS ago? This is obviously something thats been in the works for some time.

Them being bought out by Disney is a sign that they understand they cannot exist by themselves anymore. Better this than them vanishing from the world. Will this change anything? Probably nothing you or I will ever see.

Joe Quesada says :
The whole Marvel forum calmed down. No need for all that noise @_@

Shit.. here I was thinking Chip n dale would team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Probably Not. Toon in fellas, will be expecting Pixar movies now >.>.

This was going to happen anyway. Besides If anyone here watches Disney DX, they have been airing marvel shows for quite some time. They also acquired Spectacular Spider-man. Nicktoons still have wolverine and the x-men.

Speakin of wonderland... Deadpool Suicide Kingz #3 had a funny parody of Wizard of Oz. Which is another sign. Trust deadpool in speakin through the 4th wall =3

There is some good news to all of this, however. NO MORE FOX RUINING MARVEL MOVIES.

Otherwise, I very much doubt Disney will meddle too much into the comics side of things. You don't buy a profitable company just to screw with what makes them work. Unless you're Activision.

Activision/Blizzard made nearly one billion dollars in just the first quarter of 2009. They can do whatever the fuck they want to whoever the fuck they want.

And yeah, what does this Disney purchase mean? Nothing, really. Not to us, at least. Maybe Wolverine will be in the next Kingdom Hearts. Big whoop.

Or maybe we might get lucky and the Hulk will smash the Jonas brothers. :D

But no, I don't see anything bad coming out of this, really. From what I understand, Disney just OWNS Marvel, and won't really
meddle with them.

I wonder if we'll ever have a cross-over between the Incredibles and the Fantastic Four, now that they're owned by the same parent.

Mr. Incredible will have a very tough time punching out Reed, since it's like he's hitting wifey.

This is typical dumbassery from the internet. Stow it with the Browncoat bullshit and the 9/11 conspiracy ideas, please.

That has to be the most senseless post I have ever read, and being on Gamingforce, that's saying alot. Please tell me how you get "browncoat 9/11 conspiracy theories" out of me saying 20th Century Fox makes shitty Marvel movies? Did you really love X-3 and Daredevil that much? I suppose watching Elektra enough times would make anyone a crazy douchebag, really.

Fox still has the rights to all the film franchises they've started, so long as they continue the franchises. So, if anything, expect the next few Fantastic Four movies to keep getting shittier as the studio churns them out for the sole purpose of maintaining feature film rights.

It's silly to blame Fox for superhero movies nearly always being total shit, though. It's not like the output of other studios have been gems.

You're the one that requires an explanation but *I'm* the idiot. Sigh, alright, I'll bite.

1.) If you're going to use quote blocks, do it right and actually quote me. You took what I said and turned it into something I *didn't* say by removing words. If you're going to do that, either use elipsis or if you're really fancy, you can use the proper latin system of (sic) though thats best saved for larger portions and not simply words.

2.) You took the word browncoat and went from my capitalizing its first letter - marking it as a proper noun - to making it lower case - which now makes it an nonsensical adjective because of your improper editing. Don't do that again, you make yourself out to be a horse-fucking, knuckle-dragger from Prauge named Boris.

3.) Browncoat is the term used for fans of Firefly/Serenity, the show created by Joss Whedon. Browncoats are a notoriously loud and ill-understanding type of person in that they complain fervently that FOX canceled Firefly for reasons that don't actually exist. They claim that...

a.) FOX didn't back the show properly
b.) FOX didn't like the show
c.) FOX didn't know what to do with the show

Now there may be an argument for C, though thats not the point of this entry. However, people who claim A and B (which across the strata that Browncoats exist in) are complete fucking idiots to the Nth degree. FOX produced the show in the first place, which means that they obviously *did* like it, and they did back the show properly in that they went as far as to move it to different time slots in an effort to save it from cancellation.

And - this is a big one, so pull up your pampers - the important thing that fans don't get is that FOX went out of its way to keep the show alive. How? They ordered an extra show (which costs FOX money, genius) when the pilot episode didn't suit their tastes. They wanted something in media res, which is really the way to go with that kind of show (this episode was "The Train Job") and delayed airing the original pilot ("Serenity" I think it was called) till further down the line. Fans got an extra episode that would not have otherwise existed and yet they bitch that FOX doesn't care.

This is the exact same shovel-mouthed internet fucktard stick-a-snapple-bottle-up-your-dilated-asshole back-asswards logic that you performed just now. FOX created something and promoted it - a TV show, a movie, whatever - and here you get all HOW DARE THEY NOT MAKE IT FOR MY PERSONAL TASTES GLOB GLOB GLOB I ENJOY SUCKING OTHER MEN'S PENISES BECAUSE JIZZ IS MY FAVORITE MEAL. So don't get angry that I properly colored your statement as ignorant if it actually is.

Short Version: I called your statement "a Browncoat's" because all Browncoats don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Ever.

4.) There are two kinds of 9/11 conspiracy theorists:

a.) Charlie Sheen
b.) Everyone else, and they're all assholes

The problem with these hand jobbing blowhard know-nothing types is that they're so convinced that SO-CALLED PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH is the evil mastermind of everything horrible done in the last eight years that they forget the only part of it that matters: People fucking died. So pardon me if I don't fucking care to hear about how an airplane couldn't have brought the towers down or how much gold-pressed latinum there was in the basement instead of in Fort Knox. People who have a brain and are functioning, thoughtful human beings don't consider that type of crazy fucking shit and in the exact same way - no one gives a fucking shit-stained bed what unconvincing stupidity you have in your head that FOX somehow produces movies to fail. What are you, one of those kids who use to drool in class and then go to the bathroom and punch the stall walls out of internal anger because you couldn't stop touching your semi-erect penis for Sarah Sinclair sitting next to you? The fact the movies exist in the first place show that they want to make a product that sells and that they're interested in the property. You don't like it? Good for you. People fifty years from now will be watching those movies and you'll have maggots writhing around in your skull because you'll be dead from when your daddy strangled you with a dishtowel while fucking you up the ass with his work buddies.

FOX makes movies to make a profit, not to ruin your self-absorbed dickhead notion that you deserve some modern cinematic masterpiece about your pulp character. Could you get anymore white, middle class and suburban? Do you drive a SAAB? Did you "experiment" in college? Everything you said in that little paragraph smacks of dumb Internet entitlement, so pardon me if I don't fucking cotton to people who suck themselves off in front of everyone else.

You follow? You picking up what I'm puttin down?

Don't ask me to explain anything to you ever again.

lol tangent

Pfft. Such a huge block of text when you're essentially saying that FOX doesn't ruin movies, it's just that fans are just haterers...

I am linking to TVTropes. You have been warned.

Wow, Lehah, I really appreciate you spelling all of that out for me. It was very insightful. Good to know what a Browncoat is now. So thanks for that.

Now then, that doesn't really change the fact that all of that shit has nothing to do with what I said, dickhead. First of all, I'm not really upset with Fox for canceling Firefly; it kinda sucks, but I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near the level as a "Browncoat". Now I understand that you were just using that as an alternative to calling me an idiot, but really...why not just call me an idiot? It would've been a little more relevant. And as far as 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist goes, well, you only used it to reinforce the notion of being said "Browncoat", so again, completely out of context.

Second of all, Fox Studios does make shit movies. Unlike many other "Big Studios", Fox is notorious for meddling and chopping block antics. Eight (Fox) Marvel movies so far and the only one that can really be said to be "good", is X-2. And I think X-2 is only good because of how much better it is than X-1. They also have 2 more definitely on the way, and another 2 possibly after that, but we all know Wolverine 2, Deadpool, First Class, and Magneto are most likely going to be shit as well. Doesn't seem like a great track record. So when I say I'm happy Fox won't be acquiring any more Marvel licenses to ruin, there's really nothing wrong with that statement.
That's right, Fox does make movies to make profit. Let's look at the top 10 grossing comic book adaptations. Oh, only 2 from Fox, and only 1 of those being any good. On the other hand, 8 of the Top 10 movies were actually pretty good (the other 2 being Spiderman 3 and X-3). Obviously, there's no correlation here that "A studio intends to make profit, not to make great movies". A Studio can absolutely choose to make a movie that is both of good quality (and no, I do not demand cinematic masterpieces, but I do demand a movie good enough to be worth the money I pay to see it) and that is designed to make a profit. Fox simply doesn't seem to give a shit. Every property they've produced had the potential to be so much better. Sure, the other studios haven't all made perfect Marvel movies, but then they don't have a 1-in-8 track record of quality either.



I made sure the B in all Browncoats were capatilized so as not to offend you.

Yush, your taste in movies horrifies me.

When you cite emperical data and then dismiss it from the statement because of your own personal bias, you just fell on your own sword to spite me. So thank you, you just prevented me from replying to you ever again.

I don't know man. That pie scene in Spiderman 3 was definitely worth it. Aww yeah...

Please find me someone on this board that thinks X-Men 3 was an excellent film. Even if you can, it doesn't change the fact that Fox only has 2 movies in the top 10 grossing comic adaptations, despite them producing the largest share of Marvel works and, as you said, focusing on making a profit over making quality films. Obviously hasn't panned out for them quite as much as it has for, say, Warner.

I really don't mind if you choose never to reply to my posts again. It's hard to argue with crazy people anyway.


And Deni, how are Spiderman 1 & 2, The Dark Knight, Batman 89', Iron Man, X-2, and Men In Black (the first one anyway) atrocious movies? As comic adaptations, they're all better than most others. Hell, The Dark Knight stands as a better crime drama (clearly a more respected genre among film snobs, like you guys) than it does as a comic book movie. I will, however, concede 300 as a toss-up.

In his usual polite and sincere way, Raimi addresses the plot problems in the audio commentary.

Originally, the script involved Sandman and The Vulture escaping from prison together. They had even gone so far as to cast Ben Kingsley as The Vulture.

And Peter Parker's fall from grace wasn't the result of the symbiote, it was the "sin of pride" as Raimi puts it.

Then Marvel suddenly dictated that Venom HAD to be in the movie.

That meant paying off Ben Kingsley and quickly trying to incorporate Venom into the story. Raimi felt they never had enough time to make the changes work.

Ehhhh.

The problem is that Marvel rarely knows what to do with its properties *ever*. Its certainly not limited to movies.

What about action figures? Please tell me about their action figures!!!

...Do you really want to go there? I can go into why the original Toybiz Ice Man figure was $150 for a long time...

Yes! It can then be story time! =D

http://www.backtothepast.us.com/cata...10-S524_lg.jpg

This picture above is the second generation Ice Man figure. You can tell because of the blue plastic used. Same mold, different colored plastic.

The original was a frosted white, like those $5 glassware sets you can get at Ikea. When you put him in the fridge, he'd get blue icicles on various points on his body. It was a pretty neat effect - except the cold made the plastic EXTREMELY brittle and most of them broke very easily. It also didn't help that for reasons unknown to me they were already hard to find, there was something like one of him for every one or two store cases, so your odds of finding it was about one in eighty per store on the day they put up their figures.

Right out of the gate, in the midst of the 1990s comic book boom, they were going for good money. About $200 to $250 if you read Wizard comics at the time.

I'll say it: Dark Knight is an overrated film.

Also, say what you will about Spider-Man 3, but if you're a fan of Rami's films, it at least finally looked as if he directed it. Not a great film, mind, but I was happy to see his fingerprints on it.

As for what I thought of Iron Man, Yush, I loathed everything that wasn't Tony Stark or Tony Stark's robot. And if the product placement got any more blatant I'd have been sitting in an Audi bucket seat in the theatre while eating my free Whopper.

The best that can be said about the people who made The Dark Knight is that they no longer understand whatever the fuck the subject matter is. There is no emotional content in the film, you don't attach yourself to any of the main characters because you're not *suppose* to be able to unless you're one type of sociopath or another (and if you are, I want nothing to do with you) and yet people across the globe felt like the story had something to say that they agreed with. What there was plenty of was self-involved masturbation over the Bush administration to the point where the anarchist bent quickly reformed into a sly agreement with totalitarianism. I have little doubt that in twenty years, the film will be looked back on and my generation will be looked down on for thinking so highly of what is basically a three digit million dollar Triumph des Willens to announce the arrival of the 21st century.

The entire movie is - and by osmosis, the people who enjoy it and celebrate it - an obnoxious level of willful, flag-waving ignorance that I suspected Todd Strasser to come walking out to inform everyone that they were now card carrying members of a new fascist regime. You people are the future of America and you lather your imaginations with a lame-duck quality of nihilism because you think it's cool.

You people should be nuked until you glow.

http://www.darkstarcinema.net/Missing/Phantom.JPG

The single problem with the Phantom is the problem with Indiana Jones 4 - the audience that would enjoy it no longer exists and the people that watch it now are inherently ignorant of its qualities.

Well, theres a lot wrong with all the movies. The problem with people who dislike IJ4 is that almost no one dislikes it for the reasons that actually exist. These are the jerkoffs that would hate Last Crusade if it came out today because it wasnt as serious and dark as Temple Of Doom. Crystal Skull gets a LOT right, more than it gets wrong (though, admittedly, theres some shit that makes me shake my head a little), its just that people don't want to fucking think for themselves.

...And now we're on a huge tangent about movies.

He just produced it and gave some ideas for the story. He didn't direct or write it... so how can he be responsible in the ways everyone tries to make him? Easy: He's not. We certainly don't go around saying "Hey! George Lucas certainly made Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha great!" (He produced the fucking thing, people). So why do people continue to say this crap? Because they're idiots.

Nah, I just liked the movie because (in comparison with the previous Batman movies) it was grounded in realism and limited the supernatural aspects of the Batman franchise, which I think worked well for a character who's not super powered by any means (but interacts with aliens and so forth on a regular basis in the comic books), and basically, it had batman doing his thing. I liked the movie since it provided, you know, Entertainment. Judging by the ticket sales, and reader and critic reviews, I'd hazard a guess that many other people did as well.... but to each his own *shrug*

There are things I would have like to have seen done differently with Indy 4 (The Darabont script, letting Stoppard have a shot at it) but overall it felt like an Indiana Jones movie, which is all it really needed to be. It wasn't Raiders, but it's been a long time since any American film has approached the level of that movie. Ebert said it best: The people who think this isn't an Indiana Jones movie clearly weren't around for the original trilogy.

P.S.

DN, next time you want to think sales equals quality, take a deep breath, remember how well Harry Potter and Twilight sells in bookstores, and then fist yourself.

I didn't say Ticket sales = quality, I was saying it was one factor among others which indicated that people liked the movie. Anyway I shall bow out of this thread now, you may take your parting shots if you wish.

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Ha ha, are you implying there LeHah that studios ought to be making films about comic book characters for the art rather than to make a ton of cash?

Because if you are then you really need to stop reading so many comics and try a bookshop or something. To ciriticise someone for making a soulless cashcow out of source material that is essentially one long stream of throwaway cashcows is just plain silly. Comicbook movies will pretty much always be rubbish because the source material is, for the most part utter garbage too. Truem there are the occasional decent graphic novels which also get murdered (By being trerated as a comic book movie) but if someone took the Xmen franchise and made it anything other than a cliche-ridden, badly shot pile of plop designed for little more than to sell action figures then they'd be completely missing the point of the comics.

Additional Spam:
http://www.b3tards.com/u/cc26661c247...stan_mouse.jpg

I think the moment someone attempts to make a comic book movie for the sake of "art", they need to be removed from the director's chair.

Oh, wait, Watchmen. Nevermind.

And look how THAT turned out.

I need to read the comic because I saw Watchmen and I don't get all the fuss. I just watched it for what was presented and it was fine by me.

Yes. Like the gangrape scene from I Spit On Your Grave.