Disney to Purchase Marvel – What Will it Mean?

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm

Disney announced a $4 Billion offer for Marvel Enterprises. Will we be watching Spider-Mouse soon?

What does this mean for comic book collectors and investors?

Only time will tell, but hopefully this won’t hurt old comic book sales.

Disney, without a doubt, has the cash, know-how and marketing muscle to make the Marvel superhero stable even more of a household name. If you read the “Will Comic Book Values Crash” post from way back in February 2008, you know I think that character recognition and appreciation will continue to drive back issue sales. Who knows, with the right marketing and stories you could even see a pickup in new comic book sales.

The fears I have include Disney’s cutthroat business practices, their willingness to clamp down on creators, and their uncanny ability to try and squeeze every last penny of revenue out of a character or idea until everyone is sick of it and it dies. Let’s hope the last option isn’t in the cards for old Marvel. Also worrisome is the history of a giant media company purchasing a comic book house and decimating their movies. Can anyone say Time/Warner and DC? At least they finally came around with Batman Begins.

We’ll be watching this story and hoping for the best.