Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Disney Buys Marvel For $4B

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wolverine-with-mouse-ears dept.

whisper_jeff writes "Disney has announced they will be purchasing Marvel. 'Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.'"

28 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Bye bye marvel... by CRiMSON · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It was a nice run while you had it, Enjoy doing princess disney stories forever more now.

    --
    oogly boogly!
    1. Re:Bye bye marvel... by nomadic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Marvel used to have a good universe, but it has just been mined and re-mined and used up. It is nothing that Marvel did wrong, just eventually fictional universes run out of steam. When you have to "reboot" or "reimagine" your titles every few years you know you're pretty much done.

    2. Re:Bye bye marvel... by Forge · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If Disney has 1% of the business sense I think they do they will keep the Marvel brand separate and use it as the vehicle for any mature or violent content that come into their possession.

      Of course they could all be drooling idiots over there, in which case, expect to see an Iron-man who never drinks, Wolverine who never kills and Mephistopheles who is just a male version of Cruela Devile.

      However, everything I have seen so far suggest that Disney is run by the same kind of stone cold business men who Make cigarettes. I.e. No concern for the product or the customer except in so far as adjusting either help them to make money.

      --
      --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
    3. Re:Bye bye marvel... by AmigaMMC · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think anything is going to change on that aspect. I worked for Disney for 5 years and they're not likely to change a winning formula.

    4. Re:Bye bye marvel... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It was even better than that. They promoted Pixar's John Lasseter to Chief Creative Officer of Animation for Disney. So in a sense, it was Pixar that got to mess with Disney after the acquisition. And given Pixar's track record, that's definitely a good thing.

    5. Re:Bye bye marvel... by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I worked for Disney for 5 years and they're not likely to change a winning formula.

      The beauty of Disney's model is that they sell to six years olds; six year olds with literally no memory and no experience of having seen their product before despite its being over 50 years old. It's as if Disney, as a company, is selling into a market with mass collective amnesia. They never need to innovate.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    6. Re:Bye bye marvel... by jean-guy69 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Touchstone Pictures is nothing more than a brand of Disney.
      Under this brand, Disney produced :

      Starship Troopers, Revelations, Ladykillers, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Apocalypto, The Prestige,The Royal Tenenbaums,Dead Poets Society,The Nightmare Before Christmas ..

      See the complete list.

    7. Re:Bye bye marvel... by maxume · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I wouldn't worry about it too much, Disney owns Miramax, producer/distributor of such family friendly fare as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, From Dusk Till Dawn, No Country for Old Men, and so on.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    8. Re:Bye bye marvel... by mqduck · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Trust me, Grimms Fairy Tales are much better in their original form

      I don't generally care for Disneyfication of classic stories, but in the case of the Grimm's fairy tales, it's difficult to say that the stories are better or worse left in their original hardcore form.

      The original stories weren't so much supposed to be entertainment as moral and cautionary tales. Back in the day, the message to kids of Little Red Riding Hood was very relevant: don't wander around in the woods by yourself or you'll get eaten by a fucking wolf.

      --
      Property is theft.
    9. Re:Bye bye marvel... by ajs · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let's be clear about what Disney has put out through their other labels through the years (I'm not holding up any of the following films as anything but examples of diversity in genre):

      • Pretty Woman
      • Dead Poets Society
      • Who Framed Roger Rabbit
      • Good Morning Vietnam
      • Con Air
      • Armageddon
      • The Nightmare Before Christmas
      • Clerks
      • Pulp Fiction
      • Trainspotting
      • Amélie (nothing I can do about Slashdot's failure to deal with Unicode that it displays just fine in the text window)
      • Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
      • Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2
      • No Country for Old Men (with Paramount Vantage)
      • Doubt

      If you expect Disney to water down Marvel comics, you should probably ask yourself how much watering down they'd have to do in order to bring it in-line with Clerks or Pulp Fiction.

      I don't doubt that Marvel's heyday is over, but that's not a result of the buyout. That's a result of their "properties" becoming far too valuable to "damage".

    10. Re:Bye bye marvel... by mollog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not sure but you seem to be agreeing with me. Disney was and is mainstream Amerika; conformist, sanitized, shallow.

      Comics (Graphic Novels) were very non-conformist; sensational, graphic, violent, and celebrating the anti-hero. I have no doubt Disney was aware of Graphic Novels, but their approach to medias was orthogonal to the approach by Marvel, et al, and Disney did not seem to try to compete with the themes of comics.

      For Disney to now take ownership of those very sources of alternative media is to see that alternative media co-opted, and to lose access to those themes.

      --
      Best regards.
    11. Re:Bye bye marvel... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The original stories weren't so much supposed to be entertainment as moral and cautionary tales. Back in the day, the message to kids of Little Red Riding Hood was very relevant: don't wander around in the woods by yourself or you'll get eaten by a fucking wolf.

      Sadly you seem to have missed the actual moral at work. Little Red is red because she has reached the age of menstruation, and the tale is a warning to virgins to be ware of wolves in men's clothing.

      Sexuality, it's for nerds too!

    12. Re:Bye bye marvel... by Toonol · · Score: 2, Insightful

      non-conformist; sensational, graphic, violent, and celebrating the anti-hero.

      In other words, immature. Aimed at teen boys, like 'mature' modern videogames.

    13. Re:Bye bye marvel... by Scrameustache · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Trust me, Grimms Fairy Tales are much better in their original form

      I don't generally care for Disneyfication of classic stories, but in the case of the Grimm's fairy tales, it's difficult to say that the stories are better or worse left in their original hardcore form.

      The original stories weren't so much supposed to be entertainment as moral and cautionary tales. Back in the day, the message to kids of Little Red Riding Hood was very relevant: don't wander around in the woods by yourself or you'll get eaten by a fucking wolf.

      It's very easy to say that the originals should be told if you understand the real moral of the story: Red riding hood = Don't talk to strangers, some of them end up murdering you and your family.

      Kids need to learn the lesson that there are wolves that do not look like wolves, but are just as scary.

      The hardcore original versions are warnings about the real perils of the real world, with animal metaphors. "Protecting" children from them is only good for the wolves.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    14. Re:Bye bye marvel... by ultranova · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It is nothing that Marvel did wrong, just eventually fictional universes run out of steam.

      No they don't, at least those as big as Marvel, it's simply that writers come and go. Fictional universes become popular if they have good writers making interesting stories for them, so any that's remembered has had a "golden age" at some point. And then the good writers leave or become lazy, and the golden age is over and people say that the universe has "lost steam". It hasn't, the coal guy has simply fallen asleep on the job.

      As evidence, I refer to fan fiction. All fandoms I've ever bothered checking have produced some good stories. Marvel itself has produced a truly obscene amount of stuff, but besides that there's been anything from high-drama Powerpuff Girls stories to epic sci-fi Sailor Moon ones. And of course Lovecraft goes well with anything.

      That's one of the reasons current copyright is so damaging, BTW: it makes it illegal to combine ideas from (an)other author(s) with your own, preventing or at least hindering the expansion of fictional universes into full-blown mythology. Good thing copyright abuse has pretty much destroyed its credibility, but still...

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  2. A good fit by KingSkippus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Marvel... The company that sued NCsoft for making a game in which superheroes could be constructed because some of them could be made to look like Marvel characters? And then it turned out that the most egregious violators were actually Marvel employees?

    Sounds like a good fit to me, I'm sure the companies will be really happy with each other.

  3. can you say "price increase"? by prgrmr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thought comic books were expensive now? Wait until Disney ups the price to help recover some of that 4 billion.

  4. Universal Orlando by Ken+Hall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wonder how this will affect the licensing for the Comic Book area at Universal Orlando long term. It's ALL Marvel, including the "Hulk" roller coaster.

    I suppose it'll just continue for a while though, the whole thing is pretty incestous.

  5. Batman and Porky Pig by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thank god Batman is DC comics.

    DC Comics is part of Time Warner. So is Porky Pig.

    1. Re:Batman and Porky Pig by Requiem18th · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nice you mention that because Gargoyles (and to a lesser extent, Pirates of ...) is the only good thing to ever come out of Disney.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
  6. Re:great! by CodeBuster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, except now Disney-fied and sanitized (look no blood!) to assure parents that little johnny won't be lead astray by those no-good comic books. If you thought that the Comics Code Authority was bad, just wait until Disney sinks their claws into the Marvel brands. I do not see how this can be considered to be good for comics in general and Marvel in particular. In fact, it will probably hasten the decline of American comics in favor of edgier manga and graphic novels coming out of Japan (a trend which was already clearly evident even before this latest deal).

  7. Re:GREAT! by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The great suckage.

    I buy no Disney. They are cultural programming of the lowest order. You want a rotten child? Let them watch Disney channel 2 hours a day.

    If you could contrive propaganda aimed at undermining basic human values, specifically that of respect, you could do no better than to come up with this garbage. It is particularly detrimental to the child / parent relationship - always portrayed as a way to manipulate or deceive the old buffoons.

    Disney is death.

    --
    "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
  8. Re:great! by gad_zuki! · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Considering Marvel has had many owners, I doubt this will make any difference. Heck, Disney is probably buying this because its suddenly extremely profitable to make movies based on comic book characters, not because they feel there's a need for a Disneyfied Thor or Dr Strange.

    I know this is slashdot and we're supposed to see every change as being a corporate conspiracy against us, but frankly, Marvel could use some direction from Disney. A lot of the artwork in Marvel comics is terrible. Its a company that always seems mismanaged to me. The Disney people really understand audiences and producing quality produts.

    Considering Disney owns Touchstone, Miramax, Pixar, ESPN, Lifetime, A&E, and a few dozen radio stations, I doubt they are going to suddenly go against the Marvel audience and make any serious changes. Frankly, Marvel is very much kiddified to begin with, so Im not sure what grittiness you're hoping to preserve.

  9. And they all lived FOREVER... by Uteck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now we can rest assured that the Marvel characters will never fall into the public domain and live as part of the Disney brand for the rest of time.

    --
    no .sig found Please restart your browser.
  10. Re:Fox and New Corp by Mix+Master+Nixon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Did you SEE the movies Fox made based on Marvel properties? Other than the first two X-MEN films, it's been wall to wall dogshit. If Fox had bought Marvel instead of Disney, the pathetic whining and moaning from people who don't know what the hell they're talking about would be far worse and far more justifiable. Fox never met the property that they couldn't micro-mismanage into oblivion. They're the ones who hired Brett Ratner to make X-MEN 3. Disney will let Marvel do what Marvel wants to do because Disney likes money. Interference with Marvel would poison the brand and with it Disney's massive investment in it. Disney releases of Marvel films will be through a subsidiary company, most likely Touchstone.

    Last time Marvel was owned by a movie studio it was the short lived post-Roger Corman incarnation of New World Pictures. This couldn't possibly turn out any worse than that did.

    Also, Marvel/Pixar = WIN.

    --
    Oppressing an entire population is never cheap.
    --Jeckler (/. Beta IS GARBAGE!)
  11. Forget that, I wanna see Marvel/Kingdom Hearts by gmezero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Kitty Pride vs The Heartless

  12. Re:Fox and New Corp by bobcat7677 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, with Fox's history of scuttling anything Sci-fi, I would not want them touching any comic book stuff. That being said, it frightens me alot that Disney is doing this. I can't imagine future movie adaptations of Marvel comic stories/characters will be all that good now. If ever I was to support anti-trust action, now would be the time.

  13. Re:GREAT! by KronosReaver · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You want a rotten child? Let them watch Disney channel 2 hours a day.

    It is particularly detrimental to the child / parent relationship

    If your relying on television programing of any kind to teach your kids a positive child / parent relationship, Disney is probably the least of your problems. Imagine the difference if you didn't just plug the kids into the TV for 2 hours a day in the first place.