Just Sayin'--My Obligatory Marvel/Disney Post

Well, as everyone knows by now, Marvel has been bought by Disney, and the comics cognoscenti have basically fallen all over themselves trying to read the tea leaves and work out what the hell it all means in between sky-is-falling polemics about how Disney will tear the heart from Marvel like Mola Ram on a three Kali-ma binge.

I will not be doing that, as I have very little to say about it one way or the other. Its definitely a seismic shift in things, as now we absolutely have a Big Two (in that both companies are one limb on a larger tree, with all the good and bad that entails) and it very likely means the chance of a Jemas/Quesada early 00's creative renaissance wherein a whole lot was thrown at the wall in the hopes that some of it would stick is pretty much impossible now (not that that era needed any more fodder for romanticisation) as that kind of experimentation happened in desperation and outside of a larger corporate culture. As part of a larger company, Marvel is likely to be given all the freedom they like . . .until they start posting big losses, when they will be brought to heel by the corporate culture.

Or maybe not. The comics could be tolerated and treated with benign neglect by Disney, looked at as mere loss leaders for the real money--characters that can then be marketed and merchandised with an avarice mercenary imperative that would shame Scrooge McDuck--and they'll be left to their own devices to get on with the business of creating the arable soil for dreams of lunchboxes and tote bags to grow in.

The point is, there's no way of knowing. All we do know is that now both major comics companies are subsumed in a larger hyperglobalmegaentertainmentcorp, and while I couldn't say what exactly it is, I'm left with the feeling that something's been lost that we perhaps never fully appreciated the value you of at the time.

Time will tell. Always does.