And it begins. Seems that the tentacles that are Disney Studios have begun to infiltrate the Marvel Universe. Subtle as it may be, Disney is making their presence know at The House of Ideas”. The way it’s looking now, all things look to be pointing to Disney dictating the course of comic books toward movie marketing and movie creation. Not that Marvel was already doing this before Disney came along…but it now seems that it’s being ramped up tenfold with the big mouse in the house! Case in point, the recent cancellations of several titles (Black Panther, Ghost Rider, Iron Man 2.0 and Victor Von Doom) to say the least. Now, it’s not to say that Marvel hasn’t cancelled books in the past, it’s just that a whole slew of them have been cancelled in a short period of time, with some being chopped before they were even printed. Is this “The Mouse House” taking hold of the books and bean counting? Who knows, but I sure smell a rat…um mouse? Another sign that The Mouse has begun its infiltration is the news about Marvel Kids books coming in April. 
The books will coincide with the debut of The Avengers movie and The Ultimate Spiderman cartoon. Again, nothing wrong with kid’s books versions of The Marvel Universe and movie/animated tie ins. But what if this starts to become the way Disney begins to see Marvel? Rather than Marvel Comics coming up with original stories and concepts (i.e.: Fear Itself, House Of M, Civil War) for their characters…what if the characters become more like launch pads for other media driven fare for Disney to exploit (i.e.: movies, animation, apps). Disney can green light, lets say the new Hulk TV show, which is currently in development, and gear The Incredible Hulk comic to reflect what the TV show is about. (Not a TV adaptation per say, which Marvel does anyway) more so that the comic book stories begin to reflect what’s going on in the movies and TV shows rather than the other way around. All of these media outlets are supposed to garner their storylines from existing source material which is The Marvel Universe. Seems that model of thinking is changing a bit. Case in point #2…the rumor that Marcus Johnson, the main character in the current Battle Scars storyline is the son of Nick Fury. If this is true, and it comes out that Mr. Johnson will in fact be revealed to be Nick Fury’s kin, then we already know why that would be? Hmm? This would explain why Nick Fury is African American in the up coming Avengers movie rather than try to explain that 85% of this movie is based on The Ultimate Universe and not the Marvel Universe 616 proper.
We wouldn’t want to confuse the movie going public with alternate universes and two different Nick Fury characters. That doesn’t jive with the market research that is obviously going into these films. As Marvel Studios continues to churn out hit after hit, will the influence of Disney impede Marvels current hit streak? A scenario can be seen where it might want Marvel to tone down on the violence in the movies and also in the comic books as it sees both entities as more of a kid friendly endeavor. Disney does have a pattern of taking over its properties, not always with the best results. When Disney acquired the network ABC, their was a fear from independent program producers that their pilots would be shunned for in house fare developed by Disney (Touchstone, Hollywood) and it did happen several times. The TV show Once and Again, though a well written program, was deemed to be given “Cart Blanch” and extra time to develop even though the ratings never matched the push the show was being given with time slots and extra advertising. An example of Disney giving an in house production special favor as apposed to a show that it outright purchased from an independent. Time will tell if The Mouse House will in fact rule the Marvel Universe with an iron fist…(no pun intended!) 2012 will be an interesting year for both entities. If Disney has its way, this might spell the end of the way Marvel does business, and Disney will be telling all us comic book readers…”That’s All Folks”!
