the state of Marvel Inc.

[Karma]

an aquaintence of mine (who's on this board but rarely posts) actually owns STOCK in Marvel Inc. I havent spoken to him lately so i dont know how valuable it is or what not..but when he first told me about it, I was quite surprised at the idea.

But as i thought about it, I began to think about the state of Marvel Inc.'s various titles and the fact that they foolishly sold so many of their rights to Sony Entertainment.

Marvel just aint what it used to be, characters that were once great are now merely the "bread and butter" of a comic house that is obsessed with profit. Ideas that COULD HAVE WORKED IF GIVEN TIME (M2 anyone?) are scrapped because they arent "mainstream" enough. Once upon a time the Uncanny X-men were not "well known" AT ALL...back when i started reading them, no one that i knew outside of avid comic readers knew who "storm" or even "wolverine" were. Now they are all over the big screen, they are at Disney Land and have fallen victim to the "merchandising juggernaut" that is marvel inc. today.

the general talent of writers, artists in today's marvel titles leaves much to be desired...while the greatest of the great have moved on to other projects and other comic houses.

anyone else have thoughts or opinions on the state of Marvel Inc.?

 

[Clara Oswald]

I don't think they sold all the rights to Sony - didn't they keep merchandising and only lease the rights to them for the movies?

 

[Mat]

To a certain extent it's nice to see many of the comics I enjoyed reading up on the big screen for others to see. Spiderman is now a household name and young boys everywhere are leaping around pretending to spray webbing from their wrists as they play. These are people who might have never discovered the wonder and greatness that exist in the stories of Marvel comics. So for that, at least, I'm thankful.

What I'm not happy about in the case of Marvel is their inability to secure veto rights when it comes to storyline and/or casting. I mean my god, Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock? I'm not too thrilled about guy they have playing Collossus, either. Last I checked he was Russian, not the equivalent of a community college halfback.

I'm not sure whether or not Marvel's doing its name right by selling the rights to so many of it's IPs. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, though. Can you imagine if they start making movies based on comics that failed, simply because they've run out of other characters to use? Moon Knight - coming to a theater near you. *

*I love Moon Knight so I'd actually go see it...

 

[Hawksmoor]

As to the films, Marvel's actually stopped leasing out the rights for a bit, and stated that the next 10-odd films will actually be produced by them, in collaboration with given film studios, rather than having no input.

As to their quality, it's a mixed deal. Some things, I will agree, are nowhere near what they once were. But Wolverine's solo series is better than it's been in over 2 years, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man are on the up-and-up thanks to J. Michael Straczynski, not to mention his work on Supreme Power, Young and New Avengers are popular, and deservedly so; besides all of that, the Ultimate Universe is truly amazing across the board.

Maybe it's different for me, having only been reading for 5/6 years, but I'm actually seeing more potential in a lot of Marvel projects now the like of which I haven't seen since I started reading.

 

[Karma]

not every marvel character/title should be turned into a movie, and thats JUST what happened so far. X-men , Hulk, Punisher, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra, and soon Wolverine, Magento and I'm sure there's an Avengers project bubbling in production somewhere.

but out of the ones i just mentioned, Xmen has had the most box office success cumulatively, Fantastic Four did well enough. But Hulk and Daredevil were dissapointments while Punisher and Elektra were BOMBS...and it took Fantastic Four TWO TRIES to hit gold in theatres...as the first attempt was so horrific it didnt even make the screen. Now they want to make spin offs of Wolverine and Magneto?

give me a break. Marvel has sold out in more than one way and they need to realize that their bread and butter was once and should still be its COMICS and the fans who read them. They have totally ignored their older readers and now (like the music industry) are all about flashes in the pan.

Stephen King was once a revered writer of dark horror books and myterious settings, but after several box office smashes at the big screen he too let his success go to his head when he began making TV movies of every title he made...now his appeal has waned and today's generation is not nearly as captivated by him as mine or the one before. The same thing has happened with Marvel. for every member like Hawk...i can guarantee you there are five like ME who feel that this comic house is not what it used to be and that its not handling its characters properly at all.

every time i go to a comic store to hunt for back issues, im amazed at how many OTHERS there are who are doing the same thing...and if they are shopping for current titles, they have TOTALLY forsaken Marvel and do independant comic houses.

 

[DonDaddyD]

not every marvel character/title should be turned into a movie, and thats JUST what happened so far. X-men , Hulk, Punisher, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra, and soon Wolverine, Magento and I'm sure there's an Avengers project bubbling in production somewhere.

but out of the ones i just mentioned, Xmen has had the most box office success cumulatively, Fantastic Four did well enough. But Hulk and Daredevil were dissapointments while Punisher and Elektra were BOMBS...and it took Fantastic Four TWO TRIES to hit gold in theatres...as the first attempt was so horrific it didnt even make the screen. Now they want to make spin offs of Wolverine and Magneto?

give me a break. Marvel has sold out in more than one way and they need to realize that their bread and butter was once and should still be its COMICS and the fans who read them. They have totally ignored their older readers and now (like the music industry) are all about flashes in the pan.

Stephen King was once a revered writer of dark horror books and myterious settings, but after several box office smashes at the big screen he too let his success go to his head when he began making TV movies of every title he made...now his appeal has waned and today's generation is not nearly as captivated by him as mine or the one before. The same thing has happened with Marvel. for every member like Hawk...i can guarantee you there are five like ME who feel that this comic house is not what it used to be and that its not handling its characters properly at all.

every time i go to a comic store to hunt for back issues, im amazed at how many OTHERS there are who are doing the same thing...and if they are shopping for current titles, they have TOTALLY forsaken Marvel and do independant comic houses.

Frame that post I 100% AGREE Marvel long forgot those who made them Marvel. Some things are sacred and certain characters shouldn't be made into films. If they made films about their lesser known characters I wouldn't have minded but it's when they start shaping popular characters around the film to increase revenue that makes my stomach turn... Is nothing in Marvel Sacred no more?

 

[Mat]

and it took Fantastic Four TWO TRIES to hit gold in theatres...as the first attempt was so horrific it didnt even make the screen.

Actually, that's not entirely true. The contract between Marvel and the studio that made both incarnations of the Fantastic Four stipulated that the intellectual property had to be used. The company was running out of time to finally make the movie and decided to film a 'no-show' version of the film so they didn't have to relinquish the intellectual rights.

So the first movie was made just to be made, not to be seen.

Other than that, I'd say what you said pretty much hit the nail on the head.