If you hadn’t heard, Disney has entered into a $4 billion deal to acquire Marvel Comics, which owns properties like Spider-Man, Iron Man, and X-Men. In an article for Salon.com, Andrew O’Hehir addresses the anxiety comic book fans have been buzzing about since the deal was announced:
New York Times reporters Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply nicely sum up the industry consensus by noting that the Marvel acquisition helps Disney with teen and tween boys, a market segment where the Mouse’s princessy, Hannah Montana-flavored products have had little appeal of late. As a corollary to that, all the wild fanboy maundering about Disney draining the alleged edge and darkness out of Marvel’s universe is laughably misplaced on various levels. First of all, what the hell are such people talking about? Anybody who feels satisfied with the rapidly diminishing returns of the “Spider-Man” and “X-Men” franchises hasn’t been reading any decent comic books, still less watching decent movies, and badly needs to attend Andrew O’Hehir’s Clockwork Orange-style cinematic reeducation camp.
Furthermore, at least since the Michael Eisner era, Disney has been a diversified global infotainment empire, with much less of a governing identity or ideology than many people think. Disney management didn’t meddle much with Miramax during the Weinstein years and hasn’t meddled much with Pixar, and after the $500 million-plus worldwide returns of “Iron Man,” company honchos aren’t likely to bland down the franchise in an effort to pitch it at 8-year-olds.
I would have to disagree with O’Hehir on his argument that Disney did not interfere with Miramax during the Weinstein era; the Brothers left Miramax because of Disney’s interference with Fahrenheit 9/11 (refusing to distribute the film and forcing Michael Moore and the Weinsteins to take it to Lion’s Gate) and had successfully pressured Miramax to drop Kevin Smith’s Dogma over religious protests. But, as O’Hehir points out, the major properties are already licenced out to other studios and Disney’s acquisition will not change that, so there is no reason to believe the deal will effect any ongoing franchises or upcoming films.