Aug 31 2009She-Hulk/Donald Duck Team-Up Finally Possible (Inevitable?): Disney Buying Marvel
In news that could prove disastrous to Islands of Adventure's Incredible Hulk Coaster and Dr. Doom's FearFall, Disney is acquiring Marvel Entertainment for the sum of $4 BILLION. The deal gives Disney ownership over all of Marvel's cast of over 5000 characters--even Awesome Android!--and the company already has plans to utilize such impressive buzzwords as "value creation," "expanding content creation," and "further integrating Marvel’s properties."
ComingSoon notes that Marvel's current standing movie property deals--including Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers (and Ant-Man, I'd hope)--will remain in place, though distribution could later change hands. Since hearing the news, Mother Jonas has gotten to work at having over 5000 more children so we'll have a steady stream of Jonas Brothers to play all the other Marvel characters not already caught up in movie deals.
(Thanks all the people sending this.)
Reader Comments
1. lunchboxxboxx - August 31, 2009 1:39 PM
wow.....just wow......
2. lunchboxx - August 31, 2009 1:40 PM
oops, my names lunchboxx
not lunchboxxboxx >_<
3. Montgommery - August 31, 2009 2:00 PM
I think i just died inside a little. Oh wait i can't do that cuz no one's allowed to die by Disney's hands. This is probably going to prove to be disastrous. Either that or the best thing to happen to Marvel in a long while.
4. HairyTickeledAnous - August 31, 2009 2:05 PM
This is win-win for both companies! Marvel's been on the uptick for a few years now and this is great for share-holders AND fans. Disney was a bit too heavy on the estrogen, so this will put some dick in those pussies!
5. mike - August 31, 2009 2:12 PM
oh great, why don't you just rip my heart out. can't wait to see how this one develops. judging from the last time i was on the matterhorn, i didn't realize that disney had $4 billoin to spend.
oh well, maybe now they will purchase a sports team, and we will finally get to see the anaheim spider-mans or something genius like that.
6. Charles - August 31, 2009 2:16 PM
Rides my friend and I came up with:
- The Hall of X-Men
- It's a Small Hulk After All
- Spider-Man Jamboree
- Magneto Mountain
- Iron Man of the Caribbean
- Marvel Storybook Village
7. Dan Cosgrove - August 31, 2009 2:51 PM
Nooooooooooo!
Great, just when comic-based movies were getting good... excluding Spider-Man 3 and Wolverine... we're going to see the HSM cast showing up in everything.
Barf!
8. I'm a marvel - August 31, 2009 2:54 PM
Here are some I thought up:
Mr. Sinister's Wild Ride
Victor VonDoom's Latverian Castle
Honey I Shrunk the Ant Man
Honey I Shrunk the Wasp
Honey I Shrunk the Yellowjacket
Daredevil and Stich
Snow White and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants
And the Hulk Rollercoaster and Spiderman rides at Universal's Islands of Adventure are far superior to any rides at Disney's parks. I wonder if DC will jump into bed with Universal to re-brand all of their rides.
9. Aerialgreen - August 31, 2009 2:59 PM
So the current Dark Reign "event" is an allude to Disney's buy out, so obvious!
Final panel will reveal Hannah Montana side by side with Norman Osborn.
10. gestalingo - August 31, 2009 3:47 PM
I say a Spiderman web-slinger ride.
The future of superhero films in bleak. :(
11. catch22 - August 31, 2009 3:53 PM
points for andy the awesome android
12. MacMaster - August 31, 2009 4:13 PM
Could this spell a Marvel character movie by Pixar? That could be worth $4,000,000,000 in and of itself!
13. Haylan - August 31, 2009 6:44 PM
this is the worst news to hit comics. ever.
anyone who says this is a great thing-i don't think they understand exactly this means. it doesn't mean that Marvel will put some manlyness into a fluffy bunny disney, it means that marvel is now fluffy bunny disney. They OWN it. There is no Marvel as a seperate entity, if they want to make a CG Adventures of Wolverine and Hannah Montana, they can. There is no creative control from Marvel anymore. There is no input. "Marvel" movies were often the only good comic book movies ever made. beyond the ones already in production, i can not imagine that disney would take the same direction with any of them. I really am not looking forward to stories like Iron Man or The Hulk made into family friendly, moral filled wads of cooshy goo. If you really think that it's a great idea for the companies-yes. marvel obviously made a decision to sell, they are rollin' in the cash without the name Marvel anymore. for the fans? i feel very sad for you if you really believe that.
14. GrimlockisKing - August 31, 2009 6:59 PM
Haylan,
Man are you an alarmist idiot. Marvel still works separate much like ESPN, ABC, and Miramax are working under.
Baww some more you status quo fanboy.
15. Fiona - August 31, 2009 7:03 PM
It may not be a huge disaster. When it comes to producing comics, I bet Marvel will remain as autonomous as DC has under Warner.
As for Marvel's movies... Disney owns Touchstone and Miramax too, and if they'll release Pulp Fiction and Sin City I don't think fans need to worry about them watering down a Marvel film. It's not as if Marvel has a record of making hard-edged and provocative movies anyway.
16. jeff - August 31, 2009 10:44 PM
you know. walt may have been a racist douce, but at least he wasn't intent on ruining everything.
17. arihensley - September 1, 2009 3:45 AM
fuck you stan lee.
im going to d.c.
18. Matt - September 1, 2009 9:16 AM
Your heard it here first: Zak Efron will be cast as Bucky in the Captain America movie. Vomit.
19. Cory - September 1, 2009 10:49 AM
Waitasecond, Marvel comics were good?! When did that happen?! I know they accidentally put out three good movies amdist all the Hulks, Ghost Riders, Wolverines, Daredevils and Elektras, but... wow... people are worried about MARVEL losing creative integrity?!
20. Abomination - September 1, 2009 1:30 PM
I can't wait for Disney to take the third crack at a Hulk movie -- "The Wonderful World of Hulk".
21. ThatDarnDog - September 1, 2009 2:59 PM
I just have a few things to say, first of all, the Deadpool comics and Cable and Deadpool comics are great, so all of you who say marvel never produced any good comics are not entirely correct. As for Disney ruining marvel, I don't think so. My reasoning comes from the fact that Disney, as mentioned above, do own a lot of companies and don't really interfere with already made characters and/or well established companies. Take pixar for example, pixar still makes some great movies based on adult concepts (UP being just one example) regardless of being owned by Disney. I think all that's going to come out of this are a line of teen comics like maybe a Miley Cyrus comic (kind of like the Hannah Montana "manga" Tokyopop produces, but I don't think they will go out of the way to alter comics such as punisher or hulk or anything like that because they already have a well established fanbase that would be very upset if they made it "G" rated or family friendly. The most we'll be seeing of Disney and Marvel working together will be cameo appearances or celebrity references in spiderman kind of like how they do already but they will not contribute to any plot lines in any way. I see this as helping both companies and possibly allowing for some Marvel themed rides to join the DIsney theme parks and, possibly, some better merchandise. If anything at all this will just help Marvel with the funds to make better comics in the future and give them more popularity and demand to do better.
22. bribios - September 1, 2009 4:14 PM
Poster above me is right. At worst it just means some crappy Disney based comic books. No big deal.
People forget that Disney is run by businessmen. Marvel has been on the up and up, so they are going to let them keep doing things the way they are doing them. It's just that now a cut of the profits go to Disney. Once things finally start to go down hill again for Marvel, they'll have a huge company to back them, and make sure they don't crash as hard financially as they possibly could have.
Sure, Disney has messed up in the past, mostly by raping their own beloved franchises, but they are pretty good about letting their subsidiaries run things the way they ought to be done.
23. comic and movie fan - September 1, 2009 9:13 PM
I'm a Marvel@8 - "Snow White and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" = Best...Concept...Ever!
Cory@20 - good point. If only Marvel could put out great movies like Superman Returns that completely miss the whole essence of the title characters, instead of fun, kick-ass movies like X-men, Spiderman (1 & 2 - I admit 3 sucked) and Iron Man. Of course DC has Marvel's butt kicked in the superhero movie world what with Wonder Woman and Justice League and Superman...oh, I guess that should be: they WOULD have Marvel's butt kicked IF they ever got around to making a movie of any of those (or in the case of Superman, another decent one). Must suck to be a DC movie fan (except for the last 2 Batman movies).
24. Captain - September 2, 2009 7:29 AM
Must See!!!
http://alturl.com/obg7
________________
25. J - September 2, 2009 6:32 PM
Yeah, with Watchmen just out, and V for Vendetta under our belts, we DC comics fans are having a rough time. How did that Wolverine: Origins work out for you? How about Ghost Rider? Man-Thing? Fantastic Four? Daredevil? Elektra?
Throw enough darts, you're bound to hit something, I guess.