Originally Posted by
Redjack
as is often the case with outsiders, a lot of incorrect conclusions are drawn from limited data about how this all works.
yes, Disney owns Marvel and, thus, the various TMs and IPs created as work-for-hire by Marvel.
yes, from time to time, an effort is made to more closely tie the look or a story line in the comics with something going on in one of the larger media projects.
yes, Marvel comics editorial "answers" to the higher-ups at Disney.
then thing that has mostly killed comics sales is the Direct Market system of distribution and the ridiculous cover prices which are geared to adult buyers are are still in the fandom out of nostalgia rather than pure fun. The nostalgia engine approach locks out new and younger readers which is what has led to the decline in that quarter and the overall decline in sales.
People on the executive side- those outside the actual making and publishing of the actual comics- like the DM model because it gives them the control all bean counters desire over every market and, as it does in every market, that control is the same that any murderer has when strangling his victim to death.
but
no, they do not dictate the stories themselves.
no, they do not consider the comics an "IP farm." They already own enough material (as well as the Ultraverse, Shadowline, Malibu, New Universe, and Crossgen, etc.) that, if they stopped publishing comics tomorrow, they'd have a century of IP to mine for tv, movies and video games. at least.
while there are occasional homages to iconic shots, unless you're Zach Snyder or Robert Rodriguez, comics books are absolutely not storyboards for the films and TV shows.
while many comics writers DO move to TV and/or film, it is, by no means some sort of automatic or even direct pipeline for that sort of career shift. More often than not the comics writers are NOT tapped to have any influence whatsoever over the film and TV versions of the product. Close to zero times.
it's easy to be cynical about all this but, honestly, people don't get into comics because they think of it as a stepping stone to movies and tv (and they'd be idiots if they did). They get into comics because they love comics. That's the truth and probably always will be.