Who Wins with the Disney and Marvel Combo

Marvel and Disney

After reading the news of Disney’s purchase, I have to say I’m not surprised.  Being a Gen Yer I have a strong connection with both families of characters.  I remember sitting on the movie theatre stage for a sold out showing of Aladdin when it first came out in theaters.  I remember reading a Marvel book of comics from my local library over and over again as a child.  I currently have a stack of 20+ Disney Animated Classics on my coffee table in my living room and one of my most interesting recent moments was watching the Iron Man II panel at Comic-Con.  I know these two families well.

From both sides, this deal makes perfect sense.  Disney, who has been struggling in recent years acquires thousands of characters to do what they want with.  Stan Lee, the Marvel master is getting older, and had a opportunity to see his baby have a very safe future (and to CASH in).

Disney purchased Marvel much like Amazon purchased Zapos; for the additional revenue.  Disney will be able to use their superior methods of brand extension to cash in with their new characters.  Also, I would expect a revamping of Disney’s California Adventure.  The park never has gotten the raving reviews that it’s older sibling Disneyland (The Happiest Place on Earth) still gets.  I see California Adventure to slowly become more like Six Flags with new roller costers soon to be named: Iron Man, Spiderman and Wolverine’s Revenge.  They could make the target market families with slightly older children, so when kids are “too old” for Disneyland, they could go right across the walkway to California (maybe Marvel) Adventure.  But I mean lets be honest, no one is too old for Disneyland.

This is a good merger for the two companies, but will it be good for the fans?

Lets hope Disney uses their new stable of characters correctly.  Disney has been putting out their share of less than stellar movies recently (aka G-Force, Race for Witch Mountain to name a couple) and we all know about some of the “classic” Marvel movies over the years (Ghostrider, Fantastic 4, Daredevil, Elektra).  Lets be honest, this merger has the potential for countless horrible movies to be produced.  Lets hope that this isn’t the case.

I wish Disney good luck with their new assets and hope that they handle them the correctly and protect the value of both of the brands.  I also want to make myself very clear to Disney.

Any mash-up of Wolverine and Donald Duck would be death to everything good both sides ever did.  So don’t even think about it Bub…