Surprising I wasn’t on the ball in hearing about this one. I saw people making weird name mash-ups on twitter of Marvel and Disney characters, and just thought it was something stupid like usual. Once I heard about it a second time from my friend Terry I thought to maybe go check out the news. What a surprise I was in for when I found out at Comic Book Resources, that Disney had acquired Marvel Comics.

So what exactly does this mean for Marvel and Disney? Disney has stated they’re taking a hands off policy, but hope to help promote and market Marvel properties, and Marvel now has financial security, and backing of one of the most powerful companies in the world.

This isn’t the first case of acquisition in the comic book industry, considering DC Comics has been owned by Warner Bros. since 1969, and it’s this case that is really the best comparison for Marvel Comics. From a consumer point of view there really doesn’t seem to have been a lot of influence in DC Comics other than from film and television franchising options. Occasionally there is a call from Warners to not kill comic book characters they’d like to use, but honestly when is the last time a comic character stayed dead?
I see Marvel/Disney forming a large film and television franchise that will reach an ever increasing global market. The comic aspect of the company I believe will stay relatively unchanged. Comics are having trouble across the field, and being bought by Disney is not going to help it. Though one major headache will be the large number of existing business relations Marvel has in Film, Video Games, and other aspects of its marketing or distribution. Secretly I’m sure Disney would love to bring all aspects in house to control all flow of money, but that kind of change could take years. Also there is a severe chance of conflicting rights to characters being used in other mediums now that they are all owned by Disney. With any luck they may be able to avoid large scale fiascoes like the fight going on over the Adam West Batman series, which involves no less than Warner Brothers, Fox, all music rights owners from the show, and all celebrities and their likenesses that appeared in the show. As a result the red tape and pride has prevented this show from doing anything other than languish in reruns, and fuel black market DVD sales.

For the sake of Marvel fans I hope this change is for the best. Though I think its going to be much more difficult than everyone really anticipates.

If someone walked up to you on the street and asked you what the secret identities of Superman and Batman were you’d likely be pretty quick to answer, and almost guaranteed to be right. If you were asked that same question today, you’d probably be surprised to hear you got one of your answers wrong.
For 60 years Batman has been in constant publication and has been seen in many movies and TV shows. The one thing in common with all of them was the fact that Batman’s secret identity was always Bruce Wayne. Yesterday that changed with the release of the first issue of “Batman and Robin” written by Grant Morrison with art by Frank Quitely.*
This issue marks the end (finally) of the Batman RIP story-line that left Bruce Wayne apparently dead or missing, and the beginning of a new era for the franchise. Dick Grayson, the first Robin is now Batman, and Bruce’s illegitimate son Damian has taken over as the fourth Robin.
The issue was an awesome change of pace from the RIP story, and fits the dark and campy tone Morrison said he was going for. I was thoroughly impressed, and I really hope they can keep Quitely on as artist as often as possible.
Now I just have to wait for the first issue of Detective Comics to arrive without Bruce Wayne in the lead. Though on this title the lead is instead going to be Batwoman, Kathy Kane. Sadly we’ve seen very little of her since her headline grabbing introduction as a lesbian comic book character. I can only hope that her run on Detective Comics will help her be known for something other than her sexual orientation.

* I am well aware that Azreal and Dick Grayson were both briefly Batman in the 90s, but Bruce was only injured, not dead at that point.

Today, while wondering about on the internet I found a review at one of my local haunts of Batman (1989) on blu-ray. Reading it I realized, I have it written down that that movie doesn’t come out until March 10th in North America. wtf?

So I continue reading, to find out, it’s the UK release, and its Region Free! Now I would have balked back in the DVD days, because just because you can play it here, doesn’t mean it won’t be crap. No longer must I fear, as the stupidity that is NTSC vs PAL is not over. Turns out that there is only 1, yes 1 kind of HD signal in the world, about freaking time. 1080p/24 is the same 1080p/24 EVERYWHERE.

So much to the dismay of my poor little credit card, $54 CAN just went to the monolithic company that is Amazon.co.uk. But the bright side is, these Blu-ray discs come as individual films, so I can own only Batman and Batman Returns, without having to waste money (again) on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.

Technological progress can be a good thing once in a while, and I’m glad to be up on it, most of the time.

Below are the pretty new covers.