On Disney buying Marvel
I dunno. The problem is that Disney is DISNEY. As in aggressive in managing the image of their intellectual properties, and responsive to even minor PR campaigns targeted at objections to edgy material. They're family focused, meaning that they eschew adult themes and topics
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Except WB never positioned itself to make it's core business family oriented. Yes, the WB has done a good deal of kids cartoons. It also operated the WB television network, still is a major partner in the CW. Comparing those to to the Disney Channel and ABC reveals that WB doesn't see damage to their brand by handling risque material.
Yeah yeah, 'but Mirimax,' but Mirimax is a tiny operation compared to Disney's operating budget. Check out their release list; Disney's not exactly spending big there. They probably make more money off the Disney channel and it's teen oriented material.
It's true that Disney has changed since Eisner was ousted, but their corporate culture is still pretty insular and aggressive. Think about it this way: Time Warner AOL is a massive, sprawling financial empire where most of the stake holders operate independently; they tend to take a hands off approach. Disney on the other hand has a history of assimilation. So the comparison between the two isn't exactly accurate. It's like comparing Turner Broadcasting to Newscorp. Just as NewsCorp is known for tight management of it's aquisitions, so is Disney.
And, as I tried to point out, Disney's method of doing so isn't bad for Marvel. It's OK, even better than ok, perhaps very good for Marvel to be less adult oriented. Once upon a time, the comics industry's main audience was youth and adolescents. The market for adult-oriented comics will survive if Marvel goes that way under Disney supervision, and Marvel can do quite well financially going that direction with Disney's marketing tools.
I mean, imagine how cool it would be to be able to share your X-men or Avenger comics with your daughter without having to check whether Scarlett Witch was getting freaky with her own brother first. There's serious money in that, I think, and I think that's seriously good for the industry. I think we are about to reach a new era in comics, ultimately. We're the generation of comics fans that didn't give them up after we grew up. Now that we're older, though, we're starting to have kids of our own, and some of us have kids that are old enough to read comics themselves. Our generation of comic fans is going to want to share comic fandom with our kids, and that means that there needs to be a major publishing house with quality artists producing material suitable for them while also entertaining to us. Disney's pretty good at nailing that balance. I think it will mean some changes at Marvel, and I think some Marvel properties will suffer for it, but most will do better for it.
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