CBR: Industry Reaction to Disney/Marvel News

[CBR News]

Rob Liefeld, Dan Vado, Mike Carey, Jason Aaron and Jeff Parker are just some of
the comics professionals who shared with CBR their reactions to the news that
the Walt Disney Company is to acquire Marvel Comics.


Full article here.

[Talisman]

Lol loves it! The man is a PROPHET!

Kurt Busiek, writer of “Astro City,” “JLA/Avengers,” “Marvels,” in a forwarded statement released earlier today

“I see the fan community already salivating over Pixar X-Men (has Pixar done any adaptations, guys?) or dreading Hannah Montana joining the Avengers. Or hoping that Disney will immediately fire Joe Quesada and reinstate the kind of comics they use to love back when Disney had no interest in Marvel. Or dreading that Disney will wimpify Marvel. Or exulting that now Marvel can be like Vertigo and publish comics that don't make money, because they can spend Disney's money without expecting to make a profit.

“And a lot of other things that don't seem likely, either.

“My reaction: This will change things. Whether it'll change things in a good way, in a bad way or (most likely) in a mixture of both, it'll change things. How? No way to tell yet, so there's not much point in drawing conclusions of any kind.

“I hope we have Roger Langridge ‘Muppet Show’ comics for a long time to come, though.

“I do recall, back in the Eighties, people at Marvel used to say they wanted to be Disney for older audiences. Well, I guess now they are. What that means, though, remains to be seen.”

[Thad]

I see the fan community already salivating over Pixar X-Men (has Pixar done any adaptations, guys?)

Well, they certainly made a better Fantastic Four movie than either of the actual Fantastic Four movies.

[Talisman]

Well, they certainly made a better Fantastic Four movie than either of the actual Fantastic Four movies.

Totally agreed! I am sad, and am now hoping that Jim Belushi comes back as the Thing in the next FF flick.

[Thad]

Another animation thought: I think this bodes well for seeing Spectacular Spider-Man get renewed. Let's hope Disney has the good sense to keep the current team on the show, as I'm sure we all remember what happened the last time they renewed a critically-acclaimed Greg Weisman animated series for a third season without keeping him onboard.

[RolandJP]

I love the acquisition for two reasons. One, Marvel has the financial backing to stay alive, and not have to rely sole on publishing monies to stay afloat.


And two, the Disney track record for pulling in new audiences will only help the aging comic market. More Diverse material will be published. The old 1960's comic industry is dead. Great. Let's move toward the future.

[stingerman]

I found this interesting:

As I said above, though, publishing is not a big part of the core Disney business so it is possible that even more licensing opportunities might open up.

Would Disney license Marvel characters to third parties?

[jackolover]

I am wondering what the current Dark reign storyline says about this deal. The last time there was an aquisition at Marvle, (or one of the times), there was sense of the industry mirrowing the stories, when the Ultimate Nulifier was paraded out and the the then EIC was taken out 2 years later. Does the Dark Reign story mirror the behind the scenes dirty tricks going in this new deal? I wonder?

[mikekerr3]

I love the acquisition for two reasons. One, Marvel has the financial backing to stay alive, and not have to rely sole on publishing monies to stay afloat.

Publishing was less than 10% of marvels profit last year, Marvel's bottom line would been fantastic if publishing made no money at all.

[Alexrules]

“I see the fan community already salivating over Pixar X-Men (has Pixar done any adaptations, guys?) or dreading Hannah Montana joining the Avengers. Or hoping that Disney will immediately fire Joe Quesada and reinstate the kind of comics they use to love back when Disney had no interest in Marvel. .

Well, somebody had to bring that up.

[CyberCoyote]

I am wondering what the current Dark reign storyline says about this deal. The last time there was an aquisition at Marvle, (or one of the times), there was sense of the industry mirrowing the stories, when the Ultimate Nulifier was paraded out and the the then EIC was taken out 2 years later. Does the Dark Reign story mirror the behind the scenes dirty tricks going in this new deal? I wonder?

I think you give far too much credit to those writing those stories and how much they really know about what is going on.

I think it's like Busiek said, there's no point in trying to conjure up anything out of it because we just really don't know. But it is so much fun to try and guess :)

Vado seemed a little to unassociated with what Marvel does to have too too much insight other than what the company's normal methods are. I wouldn't mind at all if they did strangle down on the number of books being published.. concentrate the talent etc, but I don't know it that's realistic. There's seems to be some aspect of Marvel Publishing that thrives on mass producing titles destined for quick cancellation. Maybe whatever cog that turns won't be necessary with Mickey's wallet behind them, though.

[jade_nova]

...if they were to put spinner racks in Disney stores

Do Disney stores still exist?

[Ari Gold]

Vado of SLG Publishing mentions that DIsney has scaled back their publishing depts to focus on other mediums (and that point is repeated in Wolfman's quote).

Maybe the strict cancelling of low-selling comic titles by Q & crew were in preparation for this sale.

[RolandJP]

Publishing was less than 10% of marvels profit last year, Marvel's bottom line would been fantastic if publishing made no money at all.

oh. I stand corrected.

Marvel still needs publishing to maintain copyrights. And who knows, maybe develop new properties.

[Iron Maiden]

Do Disney stores still exist?

They do in the Chicagoland area, in at least 3 malls near me. I like it when they bring out the stuff around Halloween for Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. Too bad the Warner Brothers one closed up in OakBrook. They had some cool stuff too.