Spider-Man Now Living in the House of the Mouse

The Walt Disney Company made the announcement yesterday that they have paid $4 billion for the Marvel Entertainment Group in what is probably one of the largest crossover deals in decades. What this means is that it's very likely that we could start seeing costumed Spider-Men and Fantastic Four characters prancing around Pirates of the Caribbean or in Downtown Disney in Florida. What worries a lot of us who are still living semi-Peter Pan lives (that inner child just doesn't go away) is that the child-friendly world of Disney could have a tremendous impact on Marvel and the empire that has been growing in the movie world and holding moderately steady in the comic world.

Now though the popular opinion is that comic books are just for kids, I suggest you go by your local bookstore (note I said bookstore and not comic book store) and check out the size of the graphic novels section. Again please note that I said graphic novels and not comic books. Sure there are still plenty of comic books that you grew up with as a kid, but not all of the stories are aimed at kids. There have always been more adult themes in comics and some of the characters that can be found in the pages of comic-dom have very adult origins. For example, we all know what caused Bruce Banner to become the Hulk (in case you didn't, he was exposed to a tremendous burst of gamma radiation that altered his body chemistry). But what you probably didn't know is that in current comic book lore, part of the reason for his anger is the fact that he was an abused child. Rightly or wrongly that guilt plays out in his persona and is part of the reason for his lashing out violently as the Hulk.

Or what about the mutant X-Men. When they first started populating comic pages they were meant as a analogy for the way society as a whole treated anyone who was a little different. Sure they had cool superpowers and could do all sorts of amazing things but the subtext was about dealing with intolerance and prejudice which was still a major problem (and some would say that it still is) back in the 1960's when the X-Men was first published. What some people are a bit afraid of (and I admit that I'm one of them) is that the decision to sell to Disney means that some of the more adult themes of the company may get dumbed down a bit if you know what I mean. Not that Disney avoids dealing with adult issues. After all, ABC is owned by Disney and most (if not all) of their shows have fairly adult topics.

What I am hopeful about is that this merger means more recognition for some of the great stories and characters that Marvel has in its roster of characters. Sure some of the more popular ones are gaining great recognition through popular movies but I certainly don't think there's anything wrong in exploring more of these characters through the medium of television. When you have shows like "Battlestar Galactica" by NBC Universal making waves on television and dealing with current topics in an indirect way you have a way of reaching people and I think that one thing that Marvel has is stories that can make effective commentary on our society and sometimes affect change for the better. One can only hope at least.