From the New York times today:
Walt Disney Company said Monday it has agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment, the storied comic book company that owns the rights to such popular characters as Spider-Man and and the Fantastic Four, in a cash and stock deal it valued at $4 billion. The deal comes more than 10 years after Marvel was at the center of a bruising and highly public takeover battle between two feisty financiers.
Shareholders at Marvel will need to approve the transaction, which boards of directors at both companies have already approved.
"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Robert Iger, Disney's chief executive, said in a statement announcing the deal.
"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's chief executive officer. "This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."
This just stuns me. On the one hand I am very happy that the company is now out of the hands of Avi Arad, who raped and pillaged the company for over ten years, and the characters will no longer be subject to his evicerating touch as he molested their memories for every dime they were worth.
On the other hand, will Disney respect the work of the old creators and their vision of the characters? At one time the work done by this company was brilliant and a touchstone for an entire generation, if not multiple generations of youth. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby and John Romita, these men were a part of what was once known as the house of ideas, creating stories that were larger than life, but with characters flawed enough and human enough that the average american teenage boy could relate to them.
I would be excited to see a company like Disney handle a product like the Fantastic Four. I think they could do great things with those characters, but can Disney tackle the X-Men? Does a character like Wolverine belong in a comapny that also handles Mickey Mouse? Many many questions, that can only be answered over time.
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