Our friend Michael Bailey shared this interesting article with me about the X-Men from the Business Insider website. It talks about how Disney is moving focus away from it’s X-Men characters and focusing on the Avengers and Spider-Man. 20th Century Fox has the movie rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four and gets most of the profits from those movies.
The article also talks about the way Disney is “hiding” the X-characters.
The X-Men are a bit hidden on Marvel’s website, and store. Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Breevort was quoted as saying
“If you had two things, and on one you earned 100% of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you’d be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn’t you?”
What are your thoughts? Was Spider-Man close to being buried if this recent team up with Sony didn’t happen?
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Good. The universe is too convoluted anyways, and the less exposure given, the more chance they have of getting the rights back. Fight on Marvel/Disney, I’m in your corner. Hell, I’m not even seeing the new FF movie.
I loved the X-Men in the Byrne/Claremont/Austin days, but in the past few years (especially) they’ve gone too far off the rails for me. It’s nice to see some of Marvel’s earliest characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor get some time in the spotlight. I am also a huge fan of Daredevil, so I’m glad Marvel/Disney got the rights back to the character and is doing something with him. And Spider-Man will always be Marvel’s flagship character, and he will always be Peter Parker, otherwise he’s just no really Spider-Man.
Spider-Man wouldn’t be buried, Peter Parker would. I’m sure Miles Morales would become the one and only Spider-Man in Marvel Universe after Secret Wars.
Right now at your local Wal-Mart store there is a T-shirt that is the cover to of Secret Wars #1….kinda. All the characters that are owned by Fox have been removed. Gone are Cyclops, rogue, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Thing, Colossus, Storm, Human Torch and for Monica Rambo Capt. Marvel. (I’m guessing because she isn’t Carol Danvers Capt. Marvel.). Instead we have guys that have upcoming shows or movies taking their place. Dr. Strange, Daredevil, Black Panther, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Thor have taken their places. What is strange is that Wasp has been removed…even though Marvel owns her and she is appearing (in a way) in Ant-Man.
I also agree that Spider-Man was never in too much danger of being” hidden.” Even before Disney acquired Marvel, Sony had a pretty good working relationship with both companies, particularly when it came to video games, and, as George said, there’s no way Marvel would ever want downplay their flagship character.
The irony about the X-Men apparently being downplayed in favor of IPs like the Avengers and Inhumans is that the X-Men as a concept work better within a universe of their own. After all, fans have wondered for years why superheroes like the Avengers, FF, etc. are treated like rock stars while it’s all “lock the doors and hide the kids!” when it comes to the X-Men and mutants–especially considering how one can’t really tell who’s a mutant who isn’t solely based on superpowers.
Im sad but its to be expected, hopefully this means Wolverine will no longer be in almost EVERY team book
What the X-Universe desperately needs right now is downtime and breathing room. One or two titles at most, with just one Wolverine solo book. Smaller, personal stories. No events.
the other factor is that Marvel found an easy replacement for the X-men in the Inhumans. A whole new drama for new readers without the convoluted time jump mess that X-Men history has become. I agree they are pushing the X-Men to the back seat and from a business standpoint understand why. But I would like to see a writer who cared about the characters step up and cut away all the fluff and give us an X-men title to care about again.
Spider-Man is “the face” of Marvel. He is by far the most popular character Marvel has and made far more money in licensing than other heroes (DC or Marvel) combined. He would be so much harder to “hide,” for lack of a better term, even with the character having been so grossly mishandled for the last several years.
@2 – “I’ve been a big X-Men fan for years, but I do think they’re in a slump. I think the brand has just been stretched too thin.”
The X-titles being stretched thin has been going on for well over 20 years. The Avengers have been heading down that same track since Disassembled.
One way you could tell that the X-Men were spread too thin in the past few years is when they would create a new book with a new team of mutants and none of them were brand new characters and weren’t pulled from existing books. Too many characters, too many different teams, no single flagship title/team directing the rest of the books/teams, nothing was related from one book to another. I remember the when they created the Blue and Gold teams – at the time that seemed like too many X-Men books.
It wouldn’t surprise me. Heck, when you think about it, for the most part Ultimate Spider-Man is more about promoting other characters than it is being a Spider-Man cartoon. Just look at all the team-ups and other Marvel characters who have popped up on the show compared to any actual Spidey characters. He’s just a medium for introducing and showcasing other characters more than it is about him, even if there are quite a few Spider-elements central to the show.
The X-Men and FF have it worse though. The former haven’t appeared in any of the current cartoons at all, save for a few Wolverine guest appearances here and there with no connection to the X-Men. And the latter have only made one guest appearance in Agents of SMASH, with The Thing making an occasional appearance here and there across the cartoons. The two teams haven’t had a cartoon in years, and it’s definitely likely that Marvel not owning the movie rights its central to that. Of course, they won’t outright say that’s the reason, and will use excuses such as not owning the animation rights, which isn’t true, or that the movies are too dark for a cartoon which is ridiculous. But that doesn’t take away from the real reason it’s happening.
And it could be seen as effecting the comics as well. The X-Men haven’t lead an event in years and AvX and Axis both ultimately had them in villain roles. Then there’s the cancellation of the FF, and it looking like each member will be on different teams post-Secret War. Spidey’s lucky Marvel managed to finally get him back, for the most part.
I agree with Brad. The X-men were spread too thin for years and while Avengers is everywhere. I do see the trimming of the books too after Secret Wars. They also have the MCU set up pretty nicely to where the Avengers are big movies but the characters can still be in their respective corners and it sells well.
I’ve been a big X-Men fan for years, but I do think they’re in a slump. I think the brand has just been stretched too thin. I think Avengers, comic book wise, is headed in that direction too. Wolverine is in my top five of favorite characters. I do miss him.
This really comes down to merchandising rights. I don’t think Marvel/ Disney was going to bury Spider-Man as much since they had a much more lucrative deal with Sony than they did with Fox, which was done at a time when Marvel was financially very unstable and they were not in a position to dictate terms or conditions, and had to agree to share the profits on their licensing ventures. They had a far more profitable deal with Sony, which is why you saw more Spider-Man merchandise, such as toys, clothing, video games and the like.