Spider-Man Dons Mouse Ears in Disney-Marvel Takeover
We’ve spent so much time gushing over DC’s recent Dark Knight outing, this Marvel news slipped in completely under the radar. The Walt Disney Co. said early Monday morning that, pending the required antitrust review and final shareholder approval, they will be purchasing Marvel Entertainment Inc. for a spandex melting 4 billion dollars.
Disney will effectively own 5,000 plus Marvel characters that should fill a gap in their current demographic appeal. Young girls have their princesses and now young boys can have their mutants, monsters and mayhem. The reason this comes as such a shock stems from the strides Marvel has made in recent years to pull their film-making efforts in-house, building their own studios instead of contracting out to companies like Sony or Universal.
Had this been 2005, I would have predicted catastrophe for Spider-Man and friends, but with John Lasseter running the show creatively, things certainly take on new possibilities beyond Spider-Mouse or The Incredible Goof stuffed toys. Hopefully the house of mouse won’t dilute the more adult themes found in the recent books and films to come from the comic giant. Fan backlash can be devastating, so let’s not clip Wolverine’s claws.
I’m wondering now, what of current studio ties? It’s something of a side note, but Universal Studios currently features several theme park attractions, not to mention costumed park-performers, based on various Marvel properties including the X-Men, Captain America and The Hulk. Will they get pulled? Will Iron-Man be making appearances in Tomorrowland? Jonah Hex in Frontierland? Time’ll tell.
