Marvel doing all kinds of stuff it doesn't usually do with Halo?

[StoneGold]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6914

OK, first, Marvel publishing an OGN. I can't think of the last time Marvel published a graphic novel that wasn't issued as single issues first. Actually, come to think of it, I think that war comic came out as an OGN, but that was more because I think they were contractually obligated to publish it, and they didn't want to bother with the singles.

But beyond that, when was the last time Marvel published a licensed product that they didn't own at least in part the license?

What does this mean for the future of Marvel?

[Loestal]

They are also doin the Dark Tower series in comic book form.

[StoneGold]

They are also doin the Dark Tower series in comic book form.
Oh yeah, blanked on that. That's what I get for posting when not having slept for 30 hours.

[AllisterH]

I must admit, I'm surprised.

I always heard that Marvel under Queseda and Arad were against licensed properties based on two things.

a) The license itself is too expensive
With HALO, I would have thought the license would at least as expensive as Conan. Sure Conan is a venerated license, but this is HALO. Arguably the biggest N.American made videogame in the last 4-5 years.

b) Marvel see none of the spinoff success.
I heard a rumour that Avi Arad doesn't like licensed properties mainly because of how Marvel doesn't see anything from the work. Take Red Sonja for example. Red Sonja is, for all intens and purposes, a marvel creation. Sure, there was a Red Sonja in Howard's original work but frankly, other than the name and the red hair, the entire history, character of Red Sonja was created by Marvel. Yet, even though Red Sonja is something of a valuable property, marvel see nothing from this. Another example might be transformers. While Mainframe's Beast Wars resurrected the transformers franchise, it did borrow heavily from Furman's transformer series of the 80s.

In short, Marvel hates ironically being a "writer" as their own marvel writers are.

[StoneGold]

I'm not sure if this is a licensing agreement, actually. Given that Bungie appears to be doing all the writing and artwork themselves, it looks like Marvel is just playing the middleman, acting purely as a publisher for a mostly packaged product. So Halo makes it into the special Marvel supplementary in Previews, and on whatever ordering system the bookstores use, it's still higher profile than, oh, let's say IDW, and Marvel just pockets the money.


At least, that's what it looks like.