A Whole New World

Everyone is talking about the big surprise news of the Disney Co. buying Marvel for $4 billion. And this certainly is a historic day in the industry. Now everyone is wondering what will be the new reality in the comci book world.

My opinion is that everything will be the same for quite some time. The details of the merger show an expected timeline of the end of the year for the buyout to take place. After that there will be an evaluation period where Disney will decide how it wants to play with their new toys. But I just don't seriously see them messing with content at all. The expected relationship is supposed to be similar to the Disney/Pixar one- very hands off. Disney also is involved in film companies and networks like ABC and ESPN and there they also don't dictate content. And sadly another reason is because I don't think the deal was ever about the comics; its about the 'intellectual properties'.

Nowhere in the official press release or in the investor conference call or in any follow up comment has there been any mention of publishing- only the characters, movies and increasing exposure. You could take it to mean they want to mine Marvel for viable properties but that would be taking a very draconian stance.

I'm sure it is somewhere in the middle. Exactly how this plays out will indeed take some time. I'm hoping this does lead to more 'comic book' exposure and not just 'character' exposure and that we will see comics and trades popping up in Disney stores and the parks and brings the industry a little bit of new life.