Results tagged “Marvel” from Modern Mythology

FILE - In this March 21, 2006 file photo, comic book creator Stan Lee stands beside some of his drawings in the Marvel Super Heroes Science Exhibition at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The Walt Disney Co. on Monday, Aug. 31, 2009 said it is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, file)

JAKE COYLE
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Iron Man, Captain America and Thor may be nearly invincible, but they can also be bought.

In acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for about $4 billion, Walt Disney Co. inherits a bevy of comic book characters whose history is almost dramatic enough to deserve a prequel of its own. And what could be a better ending than Hulk moving in with Donald Duck?

Marvel Comics, now a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment Inc., was founded in 1939, a year after Disney released one of its biggest hits: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Even Stan Lee, who would become an integral figure in Marvel's history and arguably its most public face, was a fan.

"The first expensive book I bought by saving my pennies was called 'The Art of Walt Disney,'" Lee said in an interview Monday. "I loved their cartoons: 'Pinocchio' and 'Bambi' and 'Snow White' -- all of them."

The first issue of Marvel Comics, released by Timely Publications, was published in October 1939 and included a now-classic character, the Human Torch. The issue sold for 10 cents.

The company's founder was Martin Goodman, a former salesman. A few years later, he hired a young office assistant named Stanley Lieber, who would eventually write under the name Stan Lee.

World War II changed the comic business as Lee and others were sent to battle. Afterward, superheroes weren't as in demand. Humor and romance replaced tales of good vs. evil. Captain America was out; Archie was in.

But the '60s were a creative heyday for Marvel. It published hundreds of comic books with superhero stories, including the introduction of the Fantastic Four. Lee created many of the characters, along with designers such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

Among them: Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Hulk and Thor. And, of course, there were the villains, too: the Green Goblin, Doctor Doom, Magneto and others.

With more serious, detailed storytelling, Marvel seized the comic book energy from DC Comics, which over the years has birthed Batman, Superman and many others. (DC has its own corporate owner: Warner Bros., since 1969.)

Marvel was sold in 1986 to New World Entertainment, and soon thereafter, was sold again to investor Ronald Perelman. He took it public in 1991, but bankruptcy followed. Marvel's current chief executive, Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, snatched Marvel assets out of bankruptcy in 1998, outmaneuvering Perelman and investor Carl Icahn.

Marvel's commercial boom arrived in the '90s and the '00s, when the rights to its famous characters became highly profitable in video games, merchandising and blockbuster movie adaptations. Marvel Studios was formed to co-produce films with other studios.

There were also lawsuits that fought over the complicated web of ownership, including one filed by Lee, who successfully sued Marvel in 2002 for a piece of revenue from movies and merchandising.

The 86-year-old Lee, though, remains affiliated with Marvel and holds the title of "chairman emeritus." His company, Pow! Entertainment, has its own deal with Disney that gives the studio the first look at new projects. Pow! has three films in the works with Disney.

Perhaps because Lee has always worked as a collaborator, he harbors no ill feelings about seeing his characters shipped from one corporation to another.

"Luckily for me, once I stopped writing the stories, the people who took over were so good and so talented themselves," Lee said. "The people who are making the movies and the people who are putting them on video games are doing such a good job that I don't really feel I've lost control. I feel like I've handed control over to people who are perfectly qualified at what they do. They're making me look better than ever."

RYAN NAKASHIMA
AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.

Under the deal, which was announced Monday and is expected to close by the end of the year, Disney will acquire the rights to 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.

Disney CEO Robert Iger said Marvel's comic books, TV shows, movies and video games amounted to "a treasure trove of content." Iger said the deal would bring benefits like the ones Disney got from buying "Toy Story" creator Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006.

"The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy," Iger said, and "to build a business that is stronger than the sum of its parts."

For Marvel, Iger said being in the Disney camp would mean better global distribution and better relationships with retailers to sell its products.

Marvel Chairman Mort Handel called Disney "a perfect home for our great collection of characters."

One point of the deal is to help Disney appeal to young men who have flocked to theaters to see Marvel superheroes such as Iron Man in recent years. That contrasts with Disney's recent successes among young women with such fare as "Hannah Montana" and the Jonas Brothers.

Marvel television shows also already account for 20 hours per week of programming on Disney's recently rebranded, boy-focused cable network, Disney XD, and that looks likely to increase, Iger said. The shows are "right in the wheelhouse for boys," he said.

However, analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. noted that that the $4 billion offer was at "full price."

Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50 based on Friday's closing stock prices.

Marvel shares shot up $9.91, or 26 percent, to $48.56 in midday trading Monday. Disney shares fell 82 cents, or 3 percent, to $26.02.

Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

Although it began producing its own movies, starting with "Iron Man" last year, Marvel has several deals with other movie studios that Disney said it will honor and re-examine upon expiration.

For example, "Spider-Man 4," set for release in 2011, is being made with Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures; "Iron Man 2" will be distributed by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures next year; and the upcoming "X-Men Origins: Magneto" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2," both due in 2011, are to be distributed by News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox.

Iger said Pixar also had third-party licensing agreements that eventually expired, allowing the companies to move forward together.

Marvel earned a net profit of $206 million in its last fiscal year, up 47 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $676 million.

Disney said the acquisition will hurt its earnings per share by a mid-single digit percentage in fiscal 2010 but be positive in 2012. That is partly because the company will issue 59 million new shares and partly because of the timing of Marvel releases such as "Thor" and "The First Avenger: Captain America" in 2011.


File Photo By Denis Poroy/Associated Press

Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse are going to be under the same roof.

Disney agreed to purchase Marvel Entertainment Inc. today in a deal worth an estimated $4 billion.  Marvel joins recent Disney acquisition Pixar Animation Studios Inc. which was purchased in 2006.

All of this is still unfolding but early speculation by some financial watchers say this will heavily benefit Marvel and the more than 5000 characters it represents.

It would appear that Editor in Chief Joe Quesada agrees.  From his Twitter page:

G' morning, Marvel U! Welcome to this moment in history. Everyone relax, this is incredible news and all is well in the Marvel U.

There may be no need to worry.  As an example, Pixar basically operates as it always has.

What do I think?  Get ready for the Disney marketing engine to bring some of the same presence to "Iron Man" they have to "Toy Story."

But will fans still consider Marvel one of the cool kids?


Pictured above, actor Robert Downey Jr. from the movie "Iron Man."

I posted the Anime "Iron Man" teaser and now here's the "Wolverine" one from producers Marvel Animation and Madhouse (Paprika).

 

 

Remember I posted about Warren Ellis (Astonishing X-Men, Fell) writing Marvel Comics characters to be re-imagined in anime by producers Madhouse (Paprika).

Here's that trailer I promised.

 

Not only did we overwhelmingly choose Samuel L. Jackson as our pick to be the face of Nick Fury in all Marvel films, apparently Marvel saw fit to do the same.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jackson has been signed-on to play Nick Fury in The Avengers, Iron man 2, Thor, Captain America and maybe even a S.H.I.E.L.D flick.  And this is after reported disagreements Jackson's representatives had with the previous deals offered to the actor more than a month ago.

The article in the Reporter is here and estimates that Jackson's role could encompass nine films. NINE FILMS?!?

Yeah, that's a lot of Fury.

I'm still a little hurt about the series "Civil War." A number of Marvel Comics characters I thought I understood from the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards to Iron Man were so offbeat I thought I was reading a "What If?" series.

Then I had to check myself. I'm one of those fans who want fresh takes on old stuff. And "Civil War" changed the game in the Marvel Universe, like it or not.

The 'Civil' writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven re-team on the "Wolverine" comic arc "Old Man Logan" which takes us 50 years into the future and the picture aint pretty. The heroes have fallen and from what we know the country, maybe even the world is under the divided mercies of different villain factions.

Logan A.K.A. Wolverine is still alive and only two issues in we are given glimpses of the past events that kept the tough guy X-Man on the sidelines operating a farm in Sacramento. The character has gone from berserker avenger to docile farmer.