Will Spiderman Become a Teabagger? Will Loss Of Super-Hero Diversity Hurt Our Culture?

Will Spiderman Become a Teabagger? Will Loss Of Super-Hero Diversity Hurt Our Culture?


flickr image FAKE SPIDERMAN by David Hepworth;

Will Wolverine become the Darth Vader, Cheney-Style, of comicbook-dom?

The Walt Disney Company, which, through it's network, ABC, has channeled right wing messages, has acquired Marvel Entertainment inc.

Will edgy characters become Bambi-like because Disney is pressured by the Religious right? Or will Disney enter the darker worlds that Marvel Comics has historically explored?

Will Disney's management, with its history of channeling conservative messages on ABC, subtly influence the way superheroes operate-- defending torture, invading countries that didn't start a conflict? Will Captain America become a privatized Blackwater or Xe mercenary, killing innocent bystanders in Iraq?

Will the Fantastic four carry signs into outer space demanding they keep their private insurer health care? Will Johnny, the Torch, spell out, in flaming letters in the sky, "NOBAMA."

Will The Hulk-- the big ugly green alter ego for professor Bruce Banner-- become the spokesman for the other green-- capitalist greed? Maybe Disney will spin him off to Goldman Sachs. Then they could name a stadium after him. "The Goldman Sach Hulk Green Is Good Stadium?" Er, maybe not.

But the Disney company DOES have a history of doing conservative message. Take the 9/11 documentary they created. Matt Stoller speculated how it came about, with primarily if not totally conservative input. He commented, back in september 2006,

"Disney wants to buy everything, since media is seen as a scale business. It's pretty obvious to Democrats if this movie airs that Disney is not a responsible public steward of the airwaves it controls right now. Why should they be allowed to engulf even more assets?"

D'ya think Disney has gotten any better?

I have a friend who writes a Disney comic. It'll be interesting to hear from him if anything changes with the new owners. Every day, I see changes in the way the Wall Street Journal handles "news" that shows Rupert Murdoch's hand. It took a little time, but the great WSJ is devolving, losing its news section independence, with more and more conservative perspective and coverage bleeding into the supposedly pristine news pages.

You might be thinking, "hey, it's just a comic book company." But Financial Post reports,

"Today, films starring Marvel characters -- including Wolverine, Spider-man 3 and Iron Man -- are among the highest-grossing at the box office every summer. According to its website, Marvel comics have a higher circulation than People, Time or Sports Illustrated. In the most recent quarter ended June 30, Marvel reported net sales of $116.3-million with a $29-million profit and earnings of 37 cents per share."

Just one more time, let's say it out loud. "Higher circulation than People, Time or Sports Illustrated." And they're buying Marvel for over $4 billion -- over 130 times profits, as in, at that rate, it would take 130 years to return the investment. And by the way, Legendary Stan Lee hasn't been with Marvel for a while. I don't think he comes with the deal.


One thing is very likely. In the past, Marvel could do deals with different movie companies. Now, all the Marvel characters will be Disney characters. We haven't seen many Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck movies or any other media that were not Disney. Thor, The X-men, the Fantastic Four-- I grew up with these heroes. I'm not sure it's a good thing to narrow the diversity of creative viewpoints they will be expressed as by moviemakers. Just as shrinking biodiversity is a bad thing, I wonder if a loss of super hero diversity will also cost us something in the vision and character of our culture.

Or, if Disney let's the cons get their hands on these 5000 Marvel characters, like they did with 9/11, things could be much worse. Frankly, with the billions that right wing billionaires have already invested in right wing policy promotion think tanks and orgs, like CATO, Federalist Society, etc., the idea that one or several might subsidize or outright finance a purchase like this is not that paranoid.

When the left is paranoid, it's because it's true. Bill Maher

Follow Rob Kall on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robkall

Comments

[ClosedEyesOpenMInd]

if Disney starts tinkering with the comics, expect the fanboys to riot. Things are already tense enough with this situation (Mickey Mouse the Punisher's boss?), the big fear being that the Mouse House will try to soften Marvels edgy storylines, making them safe for church-going soccer moms and in the process turn ir all into major suckage. But But turning Spidey and the X-Men into right wing mouthpiece­s...that'l­l destroy Marvel, suck out its soul and leave behind a withered husk where creativity once lived......

[mram50]

It wouldn't surprise me one iota to start reading GOP quote from their other fantasies (They already invoke their "gawd" to defeat health care reform) so why not fool the rest of the nation into believing that only comic book figures should have a word in how politics is run in this nation?

[JScott]

Google "Man In Space' by Disney, (it's on you tube somewhere) at the end they had a female superhero, radical for the 1950's.

[jcwtts1]

Great blog. I was and am heartbroken. It is a disaster

J

[EminemsRevenge]

Forgetting that Disney brought us Tron???

By gobbling up Marvel Disney realizes that the days of catering to the biblehumpers are waning...so they NEED to get edgier in order to survive.

[Just Margaret]

Ugh...Disney buying up Marvel (or any other media co.) bums me out--just as anytime I see that Murdoch is adding to his empire, it bums me out.

My 5 & 7 year olds both know that I will only allow them to watch Disney shows once in a while. They both know that Disney is just trying to sell *stuff* and that is the only reason there even is a Disney Channel, website and radio station. I fervently hope that the Disney mgt. stays out of the Marvel mgt.

[Ozarks]

Lets hope that large debt leverage to buy Marvel will do to Disney what debt leverage has done to Sumner Redstone's Viacom empire.

[LMPE]

Disney can't buy everything. That's Rupert Murdoch's job.

[zombie fairy]

This Disney-Marvel deal is really much better than it's being made out to be - it may actually save comics publishing. Disney may get pressure from the religious right, but they're also in the business of making money. As long as Marvel makes money, Disney will probably not interfere.

The other thing to consider is that comics are dying. The money is in the movies, video games, and tie ins now. The actual readership of the comics is shrinking and the prices are going up. A lot of American comics just don't appeal to kids and without younger consumers to pick up the slack of an aging fanbase, comics are going nowhere.

Disney, however, has a creepy ability to make kids like crap. If they can get millions of kids to buy stuff from talentless puppets like Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, maybe they can get some kids to buy some comics. And if they're buying some comics, it'll be easier to get them to buy others, whether they're published by Marvel or someone else.

[InofTouch]

Radio Host report

[Tages72]

Disney CEO Robert Eiger is the nephew of Jerry Eiger. Jerry was partners with "The Spirit" creator Will Eisner in the Eisner/Iger studio of the 1940's which produced talent such as Marvel's own Jack Kirby. So Robert Eiger knows a bit about the comics biz, you might say.

Walt Disney himself was a conservativ and much of the company's political philosophy has flowed down from him. But Marvel itself has been placing ads in their comics for U.S. Army recruitment since 9/11 where they once advertised video games and trading cards. At this stage of the game, it is anyone's guess what might happen next but I am betting that Disney will stay out of Marvel's way and adopt a hands-off policy much as they're doing with Pixar.

[zbig]

While Eisner was at Disney, he blocked Fahrenheit 911 from being distributed 'cuz he was negotiating with Florida Governor Jeb Bush for Disneyworld deals. This led to the Weintraubs leaving. Eisner also fought with Steve Jobs.

Iger looks more decent, but you don't know if he'll cave in to corporate interest too. Joe Quesada, the current editor-in-chief of Marvel is pretty progressiv­e/liberal. His pro-Obama slant is seen in the Spiderman/Obama comic. And the Civil War Marvel mini-series was all about how the Iraq invasion was bad.

[BlackJAC]

You forget Disney also owns Touchstone Pictures, which has cranked out a fair amount of R-rated Jerry Bruckheimer action flicks. And don't forget the more adult-oriented version of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? with the original profanity intact.

[ifihadahammer]

I was wondering the same thing. Guess we'll just have to see. Good blog.

And Disney is evil... just my two cents.

[TheBaffler]

What's edgy about the adolescent, commercial pap Marvel cranks out? The truly adventurous and worthy comics are being put out by small companies like Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly.