"Will Di$ney Stop ALL Marvel Comics?"

So, I meet someone in the shops and the whole "Marvel-DC Comics are dead" topic comes up. I then get home and I have an email on the same topic.

Fellas: comment section, please.

I mooted, a good while back, that the only way Marvel Comics could survive would be if the comics side of things was sold off to someone who also had fond memories of the pre-2001 comics and a good business head. This is what was suggested in the email I received.

First of all I was going to just reply but leave it at that but then I thought "I'm supposed to be a comic fan!" I want to draw but here I am writing a post again.

Nerdist News dealt with the whole X-Men issue though they seem to think it all a bit funny they do make some good points.  One is that Marvel is a movie studio that also makes comics.  I'll come back to that a bit further on but here is their video.

So, all the headlines scream that Kevin Feige announced Sub-Mariner movie rights were with Marvel. Absolutely no doubts about that so that was---what? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, Feige had to pull a fast retreat from that statement simply because it was not true.  

Why all the fuss?  Movie rights, dummy.  They had the comic rights, as they do to the Fantastic Four and X-Men and Silver Surfer but, you know, they pawned off the movie rights to characters left, right and centre when previous owners wanted more money. But how are they dealing with the Sub-Mariner issue?

"Eight months after the events of the 2015 Secret Wars company-wide crossover, the members of the new Squadron Supreme evacuated and destroyed Atlantis after deeming it to be a threat to world peace. Hyperion decapitated Namor in retaliation for the worlds destroyed by the Cabal, killing him, then also killed Attuma and other Atlantean soldiers present."

So no Sub-Mariner at Marvel Comics?  But how about the movie rights?

Wikipedia on The Sub-Mariner and movies:

"Filmmaker Philip Kaufman had been in discussions with Marvel Studios to develop Namor: Sub-Mariner in 1997, and courted Sam Hamm to write the script in 1999, but the outing never materialized. Saban Entertainment became involved as a producing partner with Marvel, with a script written by Randall Frakes. By 2001 Namor was set up at Universal Pictures, who hired David Self to write a new script the following year. They hoped for filming to begin in 2003 for a summer 2004 release, but development stalled for two years until Chris Columbus entered talks to direct in July 2004 and the release date was subsequently moved to 2007.  Columbus departed in 2005, and Universal replaced him with Jonathan Mostow in September 2006. In 2012, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada thought Namor's film rights had reverted to Marvel, but in August 2013 it was revealed by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige that this was not the case, and the rights remained at Universal Pictures. Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter stated in May 2014 that Marvel now has the rights for Namor. On June 3, 2014, Kit confirmed that Marvel, not Universal now has the Namor film rights. On July 18, 2014, Feige told IGN in an interview that the Namor film rights are not with Universal or Legendary Pictures, but he explained there are a number of contracts and deals that need to be sorted out. In June 2016 on the podcast Fat Man on Batman, Quesada again stated that, to his knowledge, Marvel owned the film rights to Namor."

Joe Boy says "He's Marvel's!" and You Tube videos and blogs -all start declaring "Sub-Mariner Back At Marvel!"/  "Sub-Mariner in Marvel Movie Universe"/"How Marvel Movies can use Namor!".

So, Marvel owns the Sub-Mariner ("the first mutant") and the film rights but killed the character and supporting cast?  Joe Quesada (read Marvel Behind Closed Doors) has always been a blow-hard "Yes" man.  If  Di$ney told him to say "I base my appearance on a decaying tuna sandwich" he'd be shouting it at everyone.  And Kevin Smith. Well, Smith is basically a loud Marvel and DC mouthpiece.  Watch his Fatman on Batman....ooh, why is he allowed to use a copyrighted DC character name in his podcasts when fans get legal threats if they use the name on a fanzine?

You work it out.

Basically, Namor is a mutant.  Marvel is killing off mutants.  Namor was decapitated.  Okay, they can bring him back in several ways but they have killed off a character they have the movie rights to? No. My guess is that Marvel (Di$ney) is still fighting it out on buying back the rights.

On 6th August, 2016, Movies CheatSheet published a list of the six super heroes (actually characters AND groups) that Marvel does not own the film rights to:
http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/how-6-marvel-superheroes-came-to-be-owned-by-other-studios.html/?a=viewall

But no one listens to me about these things.  Anyone read the Forbes article about how Marvel was saboutaging the X-Men/FF movies?  http://www.forbes.com/sites/davegonzales/2015/05/31/marvel-is-killing-x-men-and-fantastic-four-merchandising/#6d20fa5d5857

Or go here to CinemaBlend: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Marvel-Still-Sabotaging-X-Men-Fantastic-Four-71801.html

Let me explain something. In entertainment or business where ownership of a character is in question both sides will claim ownership.  There is position jostling, a few fake posts or leaked items go out to bloggers who think they have exclusives and that makes them look like the blog or You Tube channel to go to. Others pick up on that and it is "throw-away back-up" in any legal arguments or inter-management negotiations.

I know "Grey Propaganda" and how it works and what it looks like.  Fan boys see "Marvel" or "DC" and that is it.  You need to look at every angle -what blogs and vloggers are saying, what or who is their source -has this source appeared before and so on.  Also look at wording.

An example. Face Book news feed -it took me five minutes to find all the sources for the fake Pokemon stories,,,,yes, fake. Like all these sudden crazes that will be dead in a week or so -its all "promo for suckers"!  In fact....a week and no Pokemon-Go stories.  'Surprise'.

 The FB news feed also had an item on the child killed by an alligator at Disneyland Florida. Tragic.  And no one would try to exploit that.  Would they?  I read some of the social media comments after the story.  "How tragic!  Horrifying for the parents!" then "So, the parents let the kid wander off in the dark and can't see him?" and "So father tried to beat off one or was it two alligators? He has no idea. The story stinks!"  I then found TEN comments from ten different people that were word-for-word what the "Tragedy" writer had posted.  Then nine of the "Are we believing these parents story?" post.  Same thing.  So I clicked each poster.  Each led to a Face Book news page.  You see, to keep the story fresh and try to stir up controversy and get you to see their adverts, there was the "Pro-tragedy" story planted under at least ten different names.  And the "Parents are hiding something" story likewise. Exploiting a tragedy.  If you are on FB check it out because it is done with a lot of stories.

You see, people on FB then think "Well, that guy was right. The parents could not see their child and the story is all kind of fuzzy" -and they post it on. And the news people get to see what ploy works.

It's what Di$ney are doing.  Well, not technically Marvel.  "Marvel" is the brand name but the company in charge of every single level is Di$ney.  Di$ney likes movies.  Movies make money.  Di$ney do not really get comics.  Print 25,000-50, 000 copies of a comic and they are not selling.  Stop paying artists/writers/colorists to work on a book, cut out printers, shipping costs and, hey -you save a lot of money.  Cut all the X-Men titles: saving.  Cut Fantastic Four: saving.



Remember what the Nerdist folk said as though they had no idea Marvel used to be a comic company for decades?  They give off a few facts as though no one knew.  I think that's more ignorance of comic history than anything else. "Marvel is pretty much a movie studio that makes comics" is the point. Di$ney loves money.  It'll produce a festered heap of dog crap if they think it will make money. Fox, Universal and Sony are rivals in the movie business which is one step back from being gangster town. Di$ney sees the money the Marvel characters it owns is making in movies and those other studios have their (legally purchased and with signed contracts from before Di$ney bought Marvel) characters. Dirty deeds.

Would Di$ney buy back its characters?  Well, not for the price any of those studios would ask.  But here is the petty part: even if Di$ney said "yes" those studios would suddenly come up with clauses or items that Di$ney would not agree to. I mean, Di$ney buy back the rights so can those studios still sell, distribute and make money from the movies they made -the merchandising or the DVD/Blu-ray sales? I think Di$ney would say "No" -because buying back the rights mean those characters belong to them and only they have the right to any money made.

There is a very strong rumour of another Fantastic Four reboot -give back or sell back the rights....?

Now, Di$ney is not that keen on comics and it has pretty much craps on anyone creating comics and Don Rosa explained this and one of his posts even discuss how Di$ney saboutaged a collection that was to be published because they did not want him to write something: http://career-end.donrosa.de/

So, it will have a hissy-fit and stamp its feet and cancel two of Marvel's major flagship titles and exclude the characters from any anniversary art because it doesn't want anyone else to make movies out of them. That is how little Di$ney thinks of comics or what were once loyal fans -that they have lost by the shipload.

Here is the Big equation.  See if you can work out the answer.

Movies -BIG MONEY
Comics -lose money

Keep Making Movies -based on characters you own and keep making money.
Keep Making Comics -and losing money.

So, the big question: Di$ney loves money beyond anything else and they are movie makers. Di$ney loves money so much they even make Di$ney Dollars!  Di$ney does not particularly like comics because they lose money.  Now, which do you think Di$ney will drop like the wrong end of a thermic lance and which do you think they will keep like a wallet full of cash they found?

Okay, I'll give you the answer. Comics will go.  I have absolutely no doubt about that.  Maybe a movie tie-in comic but at the moment Di$ney/Marvel fans are movie fans and not comic fans.  Look at what has been going on at Marvel and you start asking whether the mess it has become is deliberate?

Do not believe everything comic blogs or comic industry stooges tell you. If you are really interested then do your own research.

But selling the Marvel Comics line off while retaining the movie and TV rights to all of the characters? Good idea, especially if you agreed to only use the Marvel Universe as it was before Di$ney purchased the company and made all the changes:

"On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced a deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4.24 billion, with Marvel shareholders to receive $30 and approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they own. The voting occurred on December 31, 2009 and the merger was approved."

Above: more than a bit cruel since Lee was not the owner or seller of Marvel but it does show how fans felt -and they knew what was going to happen!
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I could live with the Marvel Universe from before 2004 quite happily, but 2008 let's say. Okay.

NEVER going to happen.  Commercially it makes sense but Di$ney owns "Marvel" so it is never ever going to let someone use the name Marvel -the arguments over that! So maybe re-name it as Timely Comics?  Someone takes the comics off their hands and pays the going rate but has no TV or movie rights and uses the Timely Comics name while Di$ney can exploit to Marvel characters the way they know how? 

Again, it will never ever happen because Di$ney has a hoarder mindset. They can't make money out of the comics but what if someone else could? That is money they could have. It is the "It's Ours" mentality and Di$ney would never allow what it owns to go to someone else even if they crapped on then scrapped the comics.

DC wants to become a big movie making studio like Marvel.  Would it scrap its comic line?  Well, the comic line, even according to long time DC fans who I thought would never say this, ain't that good. The idea of cutting back titles is being talked about but the big bluff is being put on, as I pointed out in my last post on this.

Marvel Comics is dead and bobbing up and down in the water.  Eventually, Di$ney will have the decency to tie some weights to it so it can sink. Pre-Di$ney Marvel is dead.

DC..........

Now, please, let's leave it at that and live with our fond memories.

A lot of the images come from that thing called the internet which rarely offers (c)owners names or who did what credits.  If you know please get in touch so I CAN credit the people involved Thanks.