Overly Positive

Everyone in the geek world is abuzz with the news that Marvel, home to some of the most iconic superheroes of all time (Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Wolverine to name a few), was acquired by Disney for $4 billion dollars yesterday. Cue Dr. Evil sound byte here.

Putting aside the numerous joke posts that have come up around the Internet regarding the acquisition (Wolverine breaking into song after he destroys and slices up Disney villains? C’mon now, that’d be awesome), this is a unification of potentially great things. Even though Disney re-acquired a studio like Pixar, you can tell that the autonomy given to Pixar has produced many a great film with a bit of the Disney cashola to back it up. This promises to be no different, as the Disney empire does outstrip Marvel’s by leaps and bounds. If Marvel is left alone, it’ll have the ability to put out more of the work it’s famous for while not having to worry about pursestrings.

On the media front, Marvel can really only hope to benefit from Disney. With the exception of the films, Marvel hasn’t really tested the waters in terms of other presentations. What if Marvel could open a theme park with Disney’s new influence and cash? How about Marvel moving more into TV, with Disney-owned ABC helping light the way? These are just two places where Marvel can stand to really expand their fanbase as well as bring to life entities that only exist in ink and coloring.

I mean, yes, there are horrified fanboys out there who fear that this is more of a hostile, Borg-like takeover of the edgier Marvel universe, that G-rated comics and terribly bland entertainment is on the horizon. Disney, however, is I think much smarter than that, and they have to know that Marvel’s ability to be successful has rested, for years, on characters that are flawed, hurt, or otherwise broken. The appeal is in the humanity of Marvel’s characters, not necessarily in their superpowers.

Put aside your fear, folks – Marney, or Disvel, or whatever you want to cal it is here to stay – and I think that you’ll be seeing much more good from both companies because of it.

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