Blogger: Etta Wilson
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Not only have I not been an ardent comic page reader, I’ve rarely read comic books, which were originally a spinoff or reprinting of the colored Sunday newspaper comic strips. The first of these appeared in the early 1930s, printed on pulp paper with color only on the cover. In the days of the Great Depression, they offered cheap reading and perhaps a badly needed laugh or diversion.
A recent headline about the comic book industry caught my attention: Disney is acquiring Marvel Entertainment! Those of us who write for children know Disney well. There’s Mickey Mouse, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and many more beloved characters in books, comic books, videos, film, plush toys, etc., which have children as their main audience.
Marvel seems to be a different critter, appealing to an older audience and to have more gruesome, scary stories and characters. They say they have over 5000 characters, and even in the book world we’ve heard of The Hulk, Iron Man, Nick Fury, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman, and the Black Knight. Marvel also sells games, videos, and right now, they offer great deals on Halloween costumes.
The merger has met with some criticism. Given the difference, if Disney has acquired this mass of characters and storylines with appeal to older readers, what kind of comics and movies will they release down the road? Are they simply enlarging their stable or perhaps trying to compete with some of the werewolves and out-of-body plots in YA fiction these days? What’s your guess?
My first thought was, “Kids need a hero.” Marvel comics provide that, but their heroes have often overcome rather serious backstory hardships. Can’t help wondering if, in these troubled times, Disney is trying to relate to an older audience by offering a somewhat dark hope?
Enlarging the stable. That’s why they bought ABC some years back. Greater reach. And after they work out all the existing licensing agreement issues, they can include Marvel characters in the Disney theme parks. Don’t think it will make things worse, because Marvel is just as bad as Disney when it comes to over promoting its stuff. Just hope they don’t do what Disney does with putting stuff “in the vault”.
Patricia, I hadn’t thought of Marvel characters in Disney theme parks, but that’s an obvious use. The thing that bothers me about that is taking characters that have appeal for older readers and making them “accessible” to the Snow White/Mickey Mouse crowd. We don’t need more impetus to age our kids any quicker. Etta
I’m a large fan of Marvel, and I’ve heard much of the thoughts on both sides of this. One of the best points I’ve heard is that Disney already owns companies that don’t fit what we think of the ‘Disney’ Image. They own Touchstone (which has movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Coyote Ugly and others), a portion of A&E Television Network (Which has Lifetime television) and more.
Because Marvel is so popular and has been independent for so long, it is a big deal, but merging and expanding happens with many businesses, it just doesn’t get as much attention. Whether Disney owns it or not, Marvel is such a large company that I don’t worry too much about it. Wolverine isn’t going to whistle and ride a steamboat and Pooh Bear isn’t going to start cussing. We may see spiderman in the Disney store at more (like Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas) but Disney is pretty good about keeping it’s good image.
Disney already releases some pretty intense movies, like pirates of the Caribbean and the new Alice and Wonderland. I think it will grow towards the rode with or without Marvel.
It’s just a business move. I don’t think it will really change much in the end.
“Disney” hasn’t been “Disney” for a long time.
I believe it began when Michael Eisner seemed to lose his way. Roy Disney and others saw it too and started the “Save Disney” campaign, successfully ousting him in 2004-05.
Perhaps since he’s gone, they are working to regain their core values. Hope so.
I’m sorry to see them buy Marvel. That would seem to be more Universal Studios type of purchase.
But you know… they didn’t ask me! 🙂
Disney has its fingers in a lot of pies but so far seems to have kept the different types of entertainment fairly well contained. My concern with the Marvel merger is that they might try to bring the darker themes of the “adult” comics to the younger audiences. There’s already so much of that and it concerns me.
Of course, I grew up on Katy Keene and Archie comics and never really got the hero comics even then.
My friend, John Olson, who has won numerous awards for his Christian fiction books recently learned that Marvel will be turning one of them into a graphic novel. I wonder what that says about the direction Disney will be taking Marvel.
Janet, I hope John still has some control over content in the graphic novel, but hurray for Marvel. They must be scouting widely.
Etta