Wonderful World of Marvel

So Disney bought Marvel. Now what?

I have to say, I'm not all that sure. And it's a darn good thing I'm no expert in these matters, because giant conglomerations merging for billions of dollars is definitely not my bag. And it's a darn good thing you're not here to get an expert's opinion on this stuff. Instead, you're here because you just want to hear the speculations of a somewhat mad individual, trying to jam this post in before going home for the long weekend. Right?

Sure.

Attempts at humorous disclaimers aside, there are a few things that I've been thinking about when it comes to the merger.

--First and foremost, it does not appear that any of the current Marvel editorial staff will be displaced. And, in initial interviews and statements, Very Important People at Disney have said, repeatedly, that they understand how good the Marvel (comics) guys and gals are at what they do.

So everyone can step back from the (online) ledges and stop yelling (on the Internet, of course) about how Marvel is "done."

The Important Disney People have pointed to their relationship with the fine folks at Pixar, and how they have essentially creative carte blanche when it comes to their film output. Granted, Pixar-verse movies will never feature scenes of disemboweling the bad guys as retribution for crimes committed. (As was seen in one of Garth Ennis' Punisher stories a couple years back).

Now, does this mean that Punisher is all of a sudden going to become a completely different, non-bad-guy-killing character? Will he dispense messages of peace and love instead of dispensing horrible, violent justice?

Um, I'd have to say no.

Disney, while certainly aware of the violent nature of some of Marvel's titles, is also aware of the revenue those titles bring in. And, while the revenue brought in by one comic book series is nary a drop in the (green goofy) hat for the giant conglomerate that is Disney, early indications suggest that Marvel Comics will be left to the Marvel Comics people.

Of course, this whistle while you work attitude that current Marvel employees are demonstrating towards the merger will one day hit a big, brick wall. But that happens in every company, and it just can't be avoided. Especially when there is some oversight. Which there will be. And which there should be.

Disney has an image, Marvel has an image, and it would be stupid to think that either party would do anything to upset those images.

And, in the event that there will one day be a series that Disney will not publish, then what happens? Well, in the case of The Boys--the ultra-violent and ultra-foul mouthed (and ultra-awesome)--Garth Ennis title that started at DC...it will move to another publisher. But in that case, it was DC that had a problem with the book, not Time Warner.

Currently, Marvel doesn't have anything as "heavy" as The Boys, and their Icon Comics line is tame in comparison to the books DC produces under their Vertigo imprint. So, I really can't see there being that much interference.

From everything I've read, Marvel will continue on as it has, and while some things won't be exactly the same as before, it appears that most things will be.

The same, that is.

--Second, and potentially the most interesting, is that Sony still owns the rights to the Spider-Man live action movies. HOWEVER, Marvel reclaimed the rights to cartoons and television series featuring Spidey characters from Sony during this year's Comic Con. Does this mean that there will be a new animated Spidey show, perhaps?

Most likely. Look at it this way--Marvel now ostensibly has a TV network in the Disney Channel (and all of its many arms and legs). Disney has conquered the pre-teen female demographic, and now, with Marvel, they are well on their way to taking over the pre-teen male demographic.

The potential for grabbing a new, young audience is staggering. And, frankly, untapped. Now Disney/Marvel can get kids interested in comics at a young age, and when those kids outgrow Disney, they can continue on with Marvel.

Think about it--Lifetime Marvel Zombies. DC has to be shaking its head. Or pounding it against the Batmobile.

A comics company that can actually get kids interested in comics, and not just comics characters? That's something completely different for the comics landscape. And don't be surprised if Disney/Marvel makes a full fledged effort to attract more female readers towards comics.

--And third, the deal was made for four billion dollars. Think about that for a second. The Spider-Man movies alone grossed more than half that amount. This is a GREAT deal for both companies.

Heck, it's a GREAT deal for fans of both companies.

Marvel Comics now has the luxury of Disney's deep pockets, and Disney has an entire world of new, market-tested characters to do with as they please. Imagine a Pixar Spider-Man. Or a live action Power Pack TV show. Think about being a kid, and going to Disney World/Land. Think about all the stuff you begged your parents to buy for you.

Now think about a Disney World with Captain America t-shirts next to the Goofy watches. Or a rack of kid-friendly Marvel comics in the lobby of the Grand Floridian Hotel.

Disney will slap its name and its characters on any salable product, so expect a deluge of Marvel merchandise in the near future. And, while there is a ton of Disney apparel and WAY too many Disney lamps and night lights and car antennae bouncy things...they are all of (relatively) high quality.

So there's that.

Regardless of how many Marvel Man footsie pajamas I will buy in the coming years (hear that--Alan Moore just shuddered and he has no idea why), we are through the looking glass, people. Down the rabbit hole, beyond Space Mountain, and into the next chapter of American comic book history.

What's going to happen next? What will be the first product released by the newly formed companies? I have no idea.

But I can't wait to find out.

--

Happy Friday, and enjoy the long weekend, everyone!

Waiting for... Whenever

Welcome to a belated edition of Waiting for Wednesday, where Alex talks about which new comics he's looking forward to reading each week. Under different circumstances this weekly feature might also include a discussion of which new comics I'm looking forward to, but there's one major reason I've never written a Waiting for Wednesday: I don't actually... uh... wait for Wednesday. All the comics I buy are old news.

When I first got into collecting and reading comics, I vowed never to get involved with individual issues, or "floppies," as all the hip youngsters say. For one thing, it's expensive to keep up with a series that releases a new issue every week, and that's to say nothing about following multiple series.

For another thing, it seems like too much of a hassle to rush into the store every Wednesday, hope they have a copy of the issue you're looking for, and then try to track down another copy if your store has run out; one of the reasons I don't watch TV is that it's too much of a nuisance to catch every single episode and to find a way to catch up when I miss one. Just as I watch all the TV shows I care about on DVD, I read all my comics in collected trade paperback form.

Honestly, I don't feel at a disadvantage because I don't know exactly what happened during Final Crisis; heck, most of the people who did read it probably don't know what happened, either. It's not important for me to stay current with comics because there's, what, eight decades of comics for me to catch up on first, right?

Not that I need to read every comic ever created in chronological order, but I'd prefer to have a better grasp of who Captain America is and where he's been before reading about his death and subsequent... uh... whatever happens to comic book characters after they die. See? I don't know 'cuz I haven't been following along. But I'll bet he got reincarnated as Tony Stark's crime-fighting butler or something.

That's why the comics I've been buying have all been origin stories and story arcs requiring little or no previous knowledge to enjoy. My ongoing plan has been to get a broad sampling of as many different characters as possible and to only follow a particular series if the character or characters are particularly engaging.

My Big Goals are to become informed enough about the respective DC and Marvel universes to appreciate and understand Crisis on Multiple Earths and Civil War; even if I've already reached that point, it probably wouldn't hurt to dabble a little more before diving in.

For now, when I feel like reading comics, I go to my shelf and grab whichever character I'm most in the mood for. I'm still getting a feel for which writers and artists I like best, so I'm not yet at the point where I'd ever be in the mood to specifically grab Geoff Johns. Actually, it's probably for the best that I don't ever feel like grabbing writers and artists; fewer restraining orders that way.

Given that my entire comics shelf is essentially one big "to read" pile and that there's no pressure to keep up with any one series, this week I'm looking forward to reading whatever, whenever. There's no telling what I'll read next!

Maybe I'll read more Ultimate Spider-Man; almost all the Marvel stuff I've read has been in the Ultimate universe, in large part because it's very easy to identify comics that are in the same continuity when the word "Ultimate" is plastered across the cover.

Maybe I'll read Superman: Last Son; I still have very little interest in Superman because up until this week I've never seen him in any situation except fighting Lex Luthor and rescuing Lois Lane. The comic I just read had Superman fighting the unstoppable Doomsday, but I'm still not convinced that it wasn't just Lex Luthor with a really bad rash.

Maybe I'll read Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic; I'm a big fan of the computer games by the same name, and I'm excited to finally see a story set in the Star Wars universe that has absolutely no trace of Lex Luthor. I mean, uh, Darth Vader and his contemporaries.

There's plenty more where that came from. I might even go back to 2001 Nights, a series of loosely related short stories about the distant future of humanity, which looks like manga on the inside but looks like any other comic book on the outside.

My comics shelf is my oyster. My constantly growing, stupidly expensive oyster. That's what I've got to look forward to; as for you, what old comics are you Waiting for?

Waiting For...Waiting For Wednesday

What I could do with this post is make myself look hip, and cool, and indie, and on the pulse of things. What I should do with this post is make up an awesome story about how the name, Waiting for Wednesday, came to be, and tell you all how singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb wrote a song just for this blog.

What I will do with this post is neither of those two things. Heck, I can't even be hip and cool and indie and say that Lisa Loeb's song was where I took the (cool, hip, indie) name from.

Because, as I'm sure you've all discerned, none of those things are true. But I will come clean about the name, and admit that I had no idea that there were other people using it in various forms. I'm just not that cool, or hip, or with it.

So, the Secret Origin of the title is this.

I wanted to do a weekly piece about what books ship on what week, and which titles I'm most looking forward to buying. Like every other comics blogger on the planet, yes? Yes. So, when we decided that Waiting for would be a weekly feature here on Exfanding, I knew I'd need a name.

And, since I was planning on starting the feature the following day...I'd need a name very quickly. So I thought about puns, and decided not to use one. Mostly because none of the ones I came up with were any good at all.

Then I tried being cute with the title, and all that got me was an urge to punch myself. So I decided to keep it simple, and WfW popped into my head. Quick, easy, not very creative.

But it gets the job done.

And, until late last night, I really and honestly didn't know Lisa Loeb had a song called "Waiting for Wednesday."

And that made me kinda mad, because I do pride myself on an eclectic and wide ranging taste in music. Plus, I like Lisa Loeb. Plus, plus, I own the album on which the song appears. It's called Tails, and it was released in 1995 and features Loeb's biggest hit, Stay (I Missed You).

If you were a nineties child like me, then you know Stay. And now it's stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

Lisa Loeb also gets major points in my book for her (and Dweezil Zappa's) cover of my second favorite Ozzy song, "Goodbye to Romance," which was released on an otherwise forgettable tribute album done by several different musicians a few years back. Hers was definitely the highlight of the album, and it's a really great version of a classic Ozzy song.

But that's neither here nor there.

What's both here and there is the fact that there is a song (a very good, catchy song) titled "Waiting for Wednesday," and when I hear it, I tend to smile. A lot. So, without further ado, here's Lisa Loeb playing "Waiting for" live a couple of years ago. Enjoy!



Also, just because I don't know when to shut up, here are a couple of new releases that I'm most looking forward to this week. First, issue/episode two of Marvel's premiere Motion Comic, Spider-Woman Agent of S.W.O.R.D., debuts on iTunes today. As I wrote about in a previous post, Spider-Woman is an interesting "comic," delivered in a format that has yet-to-be-seen implications for the comics industry.

Still, it's good watching.

Next, we have Justice League: Cry for Justice, issue three. This series, written by the great James Robinson and with STUNNING pencils/digital art by Mauro Cascioli, is in-continuity, and will be important for the foreseeable future of the League.

Robinson, who is known for taking minor players and making them relevant and cool, tackles the Big Leagues here, and he does so in a fun, engaging way, and he provides snappy (if sometimes a bit over the top) dialogue to make sure the book reads well.

Robinson will be handling the main JLA title early next year, and his (much-hyped) run on that book will deal with the ramifications of what happens in Cry for Justice. Check it out!

That's it for me. What are you Waiting for?

Month in Review: August 2009

August marked one whole year of Exfanding Your Horizons, and we went into overdrive trying to fit as many dynamite posts as possible into the last two weeks leading up to the blog's birthday. Overall, August was host to some of the deepest, geekiest, and most personal posts we've ever written, and we were both very satisfied with all we wrote.

August was pretty light on introductory posts, but you can see for yourself how deeply rooted in our fandoms the posts were:

- An introduction to and massive recap of my memorable visit to Star Trek: The Exhibition, parts one, two, and three

- An announcement about why there was no announcement of a new GameCola this month, which you should have read because it was Nathaniel Hoover Day

- Our weekly comics news feature, Waiting for Wednesday, issues twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, and twenty-six

- A post where Alex bemoans writer's block and his difficult week

- A celebration of our blog reaching 8000 hits, in which we explain the super-secret origin story of the blog

- A post called Knowledge Makes You Dumb, written after being seriously humbled by another gamer

- An update on one of Alex's comics projects

- An ever-growing list of our geek claims to fame

- A humorous review of the NES game Mighty Bomb Jack, which is one of the worst video games I've ever played

- A story about rediscovering the joy of reading comics

- The tale of our wild journey to four different comics shops in one day

- An introduction to The Time Traveler's Wife, a powerful story of love between a man who travels through time and a woman who is perpetually left waiting for him to return

- A celebration of the blog's first birthday!

- A review of Filthy Rich and Dark Entries from the Vertigo Crime imprint of DC Comics, which is more of a review of the packaging than the stories

- A rare post where Alex actually writes about a video game--specifically, Batman: Arkham Asylum

- A discussion of how great it felt for me to switch from geek output to geek input

- A review of the Spider-Woman motion comic and a discussion of how technology is shaping the future of comics

- An official introduction to our various geek projects listed in the blog's sidebar

- A news flash concerning the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by The Walt Disney Company