Disney's Merger with Marvel Comics: Will Marvel Suffer from this Merge?

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“Disney Bought Marvel!” a headline on the financial page of the Nashua Telegraph screams. Disney, although renowned for bringing wondrous stories to light, won’t do as good a job as some people seem to think. Most people believe that Disney is a blessing for Marvel Comics, but they are sadly mistaken. Since the Fifties, Marvel Comics has built an amazing comic and graphic novel company from the ground up. Unfortunately, Disney has taken what many people have come to know and love and changed it into something different. Because of Disney’s clean image of love, peace, and joy and because of many promises made by Marvel to fans, stockholders, and certain film companies, this deal will not work and should be reversed.

In 1954, Stan Lee and his partner released their first comic which became The Avengers. More than half a century later, over five thousand heroes have been injected into the marvel universe and several million more supporting characters and villains (Clark). Disney has already made a place for itself among family movie and story making legends, so in the 90s when the first Blade came out that Disney began watching, but it wasn’t until the release of Spider-man that the profits started rolling in for Marvel (Cordabo).

Marvel Comics sold out to Disney for nearly four billion dollars, giving rights of more than five thousand characters over to them (Goldman). This may have been a great deal for Disney receiving endless amounts of story potential, but Marvel and the stock holders got the shaft end of the deal. In a press conference Thomas O. Staggs, the Chief Financial Advisor for Disney, said, “They [shareholders] would receive thirty dollars per share in cash for every share of Marvel stock” (Clark). Now, that...

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...vel company in the world and now it is just a branch in Disney’s ever growing tree. Please Disney, let Marvel go!

Works Cited

Clark, Andrew. "Disney buys Marvel Entertainment." The Guardian 31 Aug. 2009: 29. Web. 16 Apr. 2010. .

Cordabo, Armondo. "Why Marvel, why did you sell out to Disney?" Entertainer Aug. 2009. Web. 21 Apr. 2010.

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Goldman, David. "Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion." CNN Money 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 21 Apr. 2010.

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The Numbers. Ed. Bruce Nash. N.p., 17 Oct. 1997. Web. 12 May 2010.

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