Gephyrophillia #206

Originally Posted on 09/01/2009 by Jeff Harris

I've never experienced it myself, but I've seen movies about a guy or a girl going out one night, getting a little tipsy, one thing led to another, and they hook up for the evening. The next morning, that person wakes up with a splitting headache, a hangover from hell, and a realization that the person they slept with is still in their room.

This is the morning after for the Disney/Marvel deal.

All the dust is settled. All the media hype from the mainstream media has faded. All the jokes about Gooferine and The Incredible Duck have subsided. Now comes the real work and a little breakdown as to the art of the deal.

Okay, what exactly happened?

The Walt Disney Company has announced that they are acquiring ownership of Marvel Entertainment in a stock-and-cash deal for $4 billion, not including debt (that, along with the transition fees and such, will actually make the deal about $6.4 billion in total). Disney will have 100% ownership in Marvel Studios (film and television production), Marvel Characters (intellectual content company), Marvel Animation, Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz), and, of course, Marvel Comics. Marvel will now be owned by the same company behind Mickey Mouse, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lost, SportsCenter, The Golden Girls, Hannah Montana, The Incredibles, Power Rangers, Gargoyles, and The Muppets.

Wait, what about the current film and programming deals Marvel has with companies like Sony, Paramount, Universal, Fox, Lionsgate, Cartoon Network, BET, and Nickelodeon?

The current deals with the Spider-Man and Men in Black franchises at Sony, the Marvel Studios deal with Paramount Pictures, Universal's Hulk franchise, and Fox's deal with the Fantastic Four and X-Men/Wolverine franchises are still valid and will be honored by Disney. However, beyond the duration of the deals, Disney intends on becoming sole distributor of those projects. The Lionsgate DTV projects are still a go, though Disney could eventually take over distribution of anything after the deal (whether that includes the upcoming Japanese adaptations of Iron Man and Wolverine is to be certain the closer they're distributed). As for Nickelodeon's current programming deal involving Iron Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and the 2000s Fantastic Four animated series as well as Cartoon Network's deal to air Marvel Super Hero Squad and BET's upcoming Black Panther could be in jeopardy in 2010 and could end up elsewhere, particularly Disney XD.

Disney XD? What's that?

Disney XD is Disney's male-oriented network formed from the ashes of Toon Disney after that channel was burned by Jetix. It's not on many cable systems, and those where it's on, it's a digital cable-only network. The Marvel purchase means that Disney has as library of characters they could adapt into live-action and animated projects exclusively for the network. Disney already owned the pre-1997 Marvel Animation library as well as broadcast rights to the Film Roman-produced X-Men Evolution and the Sony-produced Spectacular Spider-Man, so it wouldn't be a stretch to add more Marvel programs to that channel. Plus, unlike the Power Rangers franchise, Disney would own the Marvel franchises lock, stock, and barrel. In fact, it is believed that Disney XD will be the first Disney outlet to directly benefit from the Marvel purchase.

What about the Marvel-themed section of Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios in Orlando?

That's a tough question and one that could get pretty ugly before it all ends. For now, the section of the park isn't going anywhere. They're safe. Spider-Man, The Hulk, Doctor Doom, Iron Man, Wolverine, Storm, all of those characters will be a part of Universal Studios as long as Universal wants them there. They're just not going to add any new characters or expand on the characters they've got at the park.

Speaking of characters, does Marvel REALLY have over 5000 characters?

Yeah, they do. The core Marvel Universe, Earth-616, are the most familiar ones to the general public. There's also the Ultimate Universe characters, the 2099 characters, the New Universe, the Squadron Supreme universe, the Ultraverse, the Microverse (home of the Micronauts), the Earth X universe, the Spider-Girl universe, the recently-acquired Marvelman stable of characters, the Genesis universe (mostly populated by public-domain characters), the Aircel Comics titles (including Men in Black), and many, many, many variations of familiar characters and universes. I don't know if anybody actually counted them, but it's probably roughly between 2500 and 6000 characters and counting.

Good to know they're still creating characters. Now, will Disney stifle creativity at The House of Ideas?

On the offset, Disney has announced that they're going to treat Marvel the same way they treat Pixar. They're going to still be an autonomous unit free from editorial control from Disney folks who don't know how to handle the characters. In fact, Disney has been on the record as saying they're "not only buying great characters, stories and brands, but also excited about working with people who know those characters best and how best to work with them in other media." However, I think there could be trouble if Marvel wants to, say, kill a marketable property in the future. I doubt Disney would have let Marvel kill the original Captain America after a major storyline, but if DC could do it with Superman and Batman, Marvel should be fine.

Sorry. Kind of zoned out when you said Pixar and Marvel in the same sentence.

Yeah, Pixar and Marvel are going to be really close when the deal is completed. John Lasseter, head muckity-muck at Disney Imagineering and Pixar, broke bread with Marvel types and pratically got giddy over potential projects the two companies could collaborate on together. If anything,good could come out of all of this, it's Pixar working on Marvel-created properties.

Okay, I went back and noticed you made a DC Comics reference. Have they publicly responded to the deal, and what do they plan on doing?

At the time of this writing (09/01/09), neither DC Comics nor its own entertainment juggernaut of an owner Time Warner has made a public announcement about Disney's purchase of Marvel. Aside from the now-dormant Blade franchise, Warner has no connection to Marvel. They're just going to continue doing what they're doing. Take that as you will, though I'll take it as a bad thing because, if anything, DC Comics and Time Warner are tenuous yet successful partners in what they do, especially with their animated productions. Perhaps in the end, Disney will look at Time Warner's example and treatment of DC Comics and learn from its successes and mistakes when the ink on the Marvel acquisition is finally dry.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert or anything. I just pay attention.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
Creator/Webmaster, The X Bridge.