By lunchtime on Monday, The Blot’s inbox was flooded with questions from non-comic book reading friends about this pending deal. To be honest, I was as shocked as anyone when the story first hit the newswire. Forget about its impact on the world of pop culture, what I wanted to know was how could a deal this big not get leaked beforehand!?! Now that is something truly amazing.
Once the initial shock wore off and I started thinking about the merger of these two creative giants, I kind of became ambivalent to it. First of all, we already know what it’s like to have a giant company own one of the two big comic book publishers. Warner Bros. has owned DC Comics since 1969, and that affiliation hasn’t been horrible has it? There’s been both good and bad come from the Warner Bros./DC Comics relationship, and I’m sure the new Disney owned Marvel will have both ups and downs in the coming years.
While Fanboys everywhere are nervous about the Disney-fication of Marvel Comics, I can’t really see Disney getting involved with the actual comic book industry. Where we are sure to notice more Disney involvement is with Marvel’s real money making endeavors like movies, toys, animated series and direct to DVD animated movies. Marvel is about to be indoctrinated into how to do things the Disney way, and why is that such a bad thing? What Disney does right it does incredibly well, and a company of this size can make things happen Marvel could only dream of. Yes things are about to change, but I hope for the better!
I for one am dying for the first Pixar/Marvel collaboration! I’m also excited to see a newly mutant populated It’s a Small World ride at Disneyland. Just picture it...Nightcrawler leading you on a tour of the world, BAMF’ing through each new country until you finally reach the last country, the island nation of Genosha. The possibilities are endless! I guess the House of Mouse better make room for the House of Ideas!