Disney to take over Marvel

From Newstados Unidos

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/08/31/2009-08-31_hey_mickey_be_gentle_with_spiderman_worried_over_disneys_4b_purchase_of_marvel_e.html

"Cradle to the grave."

So I wonder what is going to happen to Universal's "Islands of Adventure" theme park? The licensing for that will probably be a nightmare.

I wonder if Stan Lee ever saw this coming. $4 billion.

Cool. Maybe "The Suite Life" can get a cameo of Spiderman or Ironman.

I agree with the article's author. Having squeeky-clean Disney pulling Marvel's strings just feels wrong.

I've never collected comics or really followed the story lines but the Marvel universe always felt more "real". The characters mostly inhabit real cities. Asgard is real, right? There were plenty of grey areas and that is where the best stories live.

DC was more right vs wrong, black vs white. It fits the traditional Disney mold much better.

Hopefully Marvel will maintain some independence or maybe the Mouskateer overlords will treat them as an adult product.

I'd love to see a fight between Minnie Mouse and the Hulk.

eventually every thing in the world will be owned by disney, wal-mart or china

Yup...it's official...Hell just froze over!!!

It's funny how everyone is worried about Disney turning Marvel soft - I still have some Marvel books from my ex, including "Muppet Babies" and "Fraggle Rock" from the 1980's!

I don't know... as a former comic store manager, I was never much of a fan of Marvel... Being around comics all day long, I eventually gravatated more towards the DC lines. IMO, Warner Bros' purchase of DC many years ago was the best thing that happened to the comics line. WB really just wanted the characters much in the same way Disney wants Marvel. Then, WB basically left DC alone, as long as they didn't lose too much money... DC branched out with the more mature "Vertigo" line that includes the much acclaimed Sandman series. The darkest Batman series have been under WB ownership.

In many ways, Marvel never quite recovered from the loss of writers and artists that left to form the various "Image" brands. The whole "mutant, bazaar superhero" market practically doubled overnight... D.C., for better or worse, didn't really have stories/characters like that.

So... with this in mind, Marvel being a wholey owned subsiderary could be good. When they became a publicly owned company, the quality went downhill fast - since now they kept tryign to go after the widest audience possible in order to increase profits for shareholders. They stopped taking as many risks. Never a good plan for a comic book company, which is all about risks and barely making enough money to survive. In theory, Marvel can now not worry so much about making money and just concentrate on making good comics and characters.