The Hoard Potato wonders if "Reality Check" is the right term here.

[athelind]

The news in my last post has a lot of people worried about Marvel getting "Disneyfied". Funny, that hadn't really occurred to me.

I'd hate to see the intelligent, thoughtful storytelling of recent years compromised by a company who didn't respect the years of development and history of these characters. I'm not sure the store where I work could survive without merchandise aimed at the mature, sophisticated sensibilities of the modern comics audience.

I know, I know, when people hear "Disney", they still automatically think of the "wholesome" Mouse Factory of fifty years ago, as if the company had no idea how to tell exciting, entertaining action-adventure tales. But, seriously, folks: the modern Disney megalopoly has its tentacles in a lot more than happy, sappy, saccharine kiddie stuff. When I hear "Disney", I don't hear "Cartoon Company" anymore. I hear "Entertainment Powerhouse".

When I mentioned the effect this might have on the Marvel Studios movie series, it was almost entirely wondering if that side of the business would see a cash infusion that would re-accelerate the filming schedule (which has been pushed back a couple of times from the original plan of two big-name superhero pictures a year for three or four years).

Edit: cpxbrex pointed out that Marvel owes its recent barrage of movies to "complex financing", and that this may have something to do with the acquisition deal.

A lot of folks, on the other claw, are worried about them somehow compromising the integrity of the properties.

Personally? I think that the megacorp that gave us movies like No Country for Old Men and Miracle at St. Anna won't bat an eye at Tony Stark's antics.

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Edit: Since none of the other comics blogs I read have mentioned this at all, I've combined the last two posts into a single post on my comics blog, Kirby Dots & Ditko Ribbons. Scooped! You are all so totally scooped! Like Raisin Bran, you're scooped!

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Comments

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Doesn't Marvel already have a little tin plated tyrant going around shoving heavy-handed editorial decisions down artists and audience's throats? From where I sit - having grown up on comic books but recently having become so disgusted with Marvel's comics that I can't get excited about an upcoming movie where Scarlet Johannsen spends much of the movie in skin tight leather while talking with a Bond girl Eastern European accent - Marvel is already run like a Disney holding. Does it matter if the crazy editorial decisions come from Marvel's BOD and editor-in-chief or some Disney functionary? It feels, to me, simply like the burden of heavy-handed decisions smothering artistry being shifted from one shoulder to the other. For my part, I can't see how Disney's editorial control could be any worse than what they have now down there.

[toob.livejournal.com]

I confess I know absolutely nothing about how Marvel is run. I'm not much of a comic book person, myself.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

The shame of it is, while I'm a huge Marvel fan and while the state of their mainstream universe comics right this instant is excellent, it's all just going to change in six months because that's the big thing that Joe Quesada has made important. Dark Reign is fascinating, as is War of Kings, but both are equally distant from one another and about to be overtaken by the next 'big event' that it doesn't matter. We don't get to enjoy them as more than tidbits. And yes, I don't think that Disney taking over will change this, because I don't see them hovering over Quesada and maintaining the status quo, since he's already putting it in upheaval every year. For instance, even with the venerable Joss Whedon having touched it, Runaways went from the best new comic in decades to something I can barely even read. I suspect this will affect the cinema experience much more than the comics experience, but so long as I can keep reading stories from my fave writers (who themselves are on contract only so long as they can stand the management), I'm pretty content.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

I used to say that there were no functional differences between the two big comics firms. I mean, really, enough of the same writers and artists work at both places . . . basically the same guys write DC and Marvel comics. And while admitting slight differences between editorial decisions, I used to find the same themes and such repeated by each of the big companies. An idea at Marvel would make an appearance in a modestly different form over at DC, and vice-versa. I was largely well pleased with this state of affairs.

I can't say that, anymore. Marvel just lost me when Cyclops became master of assassins and Matt Murdock slept around while his wife was in an insane asylum because of his own self-destructive lifestyle. Or was it Tony Stark doing his Josef Mengele number? I forget. But I concluded that they must have 24 on continuous loop over at Marvel and I stopped watching that, too, when the creepy factor got too high. ;)