Disney buying Marvel is huge. I’m not sure people will truly understand the effect this will have on the culture of our superheroes until they walk into a Disney theme park and see Iron Man walking around being kicked in the ass by tweenage bullies. While I don’t believe the extreme predictions that people have been expressing (“They’re going to turn Marvel into a tween empire!”), it’s undeniable that Disney will attempt to make Marvel characters even more mainstream than they’ve become in recent years.
But how does the king feel about all of this? Stan Lee said in a statement, as reported by JoBlo.com, that he’s very happy with the deal. “It's [a] great move for Disney, for Marvel and for my company Pow! Entertainment since Pow! has a first-look deal with Disney,” Lee said. Lee continued, “Just imagine, with this deal Marvel gives Disney a library of literally hundreds of unique and colorful characters that have the potential to make great, high-concept movies and long-lasting franchises—and nobody knows how to play in that ball park better than Disney."
So one would imagine that this would hush the naysayers but does anything ever have the power to do that? If you know of anything, I’ll take ten of them. Then again, there’s always the chance that Lee is putting on his PR face and smiling through the whole situation. I don’t think that’s true though. Stan is going to have even more visibility for his characters and obscure heroes that may have never seen the light of day previously will likely get a chance at Disney.
Watch Stan discuss his views on the merger, in the embedded video below:
