What-If: Marvel Was Never Bought By Disney?

[Amadeus Arkham]

What if Marvel Studios was never bought by Disney in 2009 how different would Marvel turn out in terms of story and content? Would it even be as successful and good as it is today? Do you think Marvel would eventually had considered doing R-rated and more adult-oriented content if it wasn’t bought by Disney; instead of by Paramount or Comcast/Universal?

[jwatson]

What if Marvel Studios was never bought by Disney in 2009 how different would Marvel turn out in terms of story and content? Would it even be as successful and good as it is today? Do you think Marvel would eventually had considered doing R-rated and more adult-oriented content if it wasn’t bought by Disney; instead of by Paramount or Comcast/Universal?

As much as i don't like what it's doing in a lot of aspects if i'm honest from a company standpoint it wouldn't be whole. It still isn't because of Spiderman but it wouldn't even be close. What risks they are willing to take and what risk disney will let them take is a whole other story though.

[Tofali]

What if Marvel Studios was never bought by Disney in 2009 how different would Marvel turn out in terms of story and content? Would it even be as successful and good as it is today? Do you think Marvel would eventually had considered doing R-rated and more adult-oriented content if it wasn’t bought by Disney; instead of by Paramount or Comcast/Universal?

Feige would have been fired by Ike or he’d have left and the whole thing would have come to a stand still. Or it might continue without the quality control.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

What if Marvel Studios was never bought by Disney in 2009 how different would Marvel turn out in terms of story and content? Would it even be as successful and good as it is today? Do you think Marvel would eventually had considered doing R-rated and more adult-oriented content if it wasn’t bought by Disney; instead of by Paramount or Comcast/Universal?

It's difficult to say.

On a practical level, stuff like THE AVENGERS 2012 for instance still gets made but after that it gets tricky. Not sure how it would affect the comics side but my guess is that without Mickey backing Disney and having an executive interest in IP and brand maintenance, I don't know if stiffing the Inhumans in favor of X-Men happens.

I think this poster hits the nail on head...

Feige would have been fired by Ike or he’d have left and the whole thing would have come to a stand still. Or it might continue without the quality control.

Most likely, Perlmutter remains all-powerful and dominant on matters. Unless Feige in the new timeline directly goes over Marvel's head and speaks to Paramount and studio heads like he did with Disney. That can still happen but Disney being so much more powerful than Marvel directly shortened out Perlmutter's leverage whereas in a studio like Paramount, Perlmutter might have had more leverage.

So with Perlmutter on charge, you can see the can kicked down the road for Black Panther, Captain Marvel and so on.

The so-called "Creative Committee" led by Quesada and others, operating under Perlmutter, might also have more say and influence when Feige and other Marvel film-makers played a big part in driving them away from the movies.

It's likely that eventually Marvel gets bought by either Netflix of Amazon anyway.

[Tendrin]

As much as I don't like Disney owning Marvel, Perlmutter remains poison and I'm glad his power is reduced.

[Digifiend]

If Disney didn't buy Marvel, then Marvel Studios wouldn't have got X-Men and Fantastic Four back, as that happened when Disney bought 20th Century Fox. As such, New Mutants wouldn't have been the last X-Men movie in that universe. None of the Disney+ shows would've happened either.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

If Disney didn't buy Marvel, then Marvel Studios wouldn't have got X-Men and Fantastic Four back, as that happened when Disney bought 20th Century Fox. As such, New Mutants wouldn't have been the last X-Men movie in that universe. None of the Disney+ shows would've happened either.

Likewise, Sony Pictures would maybe not make TASM and rush it out because that was driven by the success of the MCU and the Avengers films. Tom Holland doesn't get to be Spidey either.

On the plus side, maybe Weisman's Spectacular Spider-Man continues for further seasons?!

[Digifiend]

It would've. Probably Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes too.

[Iron Maiden]

I really doubt Perlmutter would have made a success of it. And it has been said it was for the best that Kevin Feige eventually got rid of the Marvel Creative committee of Joe Quesada and some of his "cronies" Bendis and Loeb.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I really doubt Perlmutter would have made a success of it. And it has been said it was for the best that Kevin Feige eventually got rid of the Marvel Creative committee of Joe Quesada and some of his "cronies" Bendis and Loeb.

It's not a given that the success of the MCU or Disney's purchase of Marvel is a good or necessary thing you know.

I don't know if Perlmutter being bad as a movie producer, which absolutely he would be, would necessarily mean a worse place for comics and the world as a whole.

For instance, the lawsuit that Kirby's Estate brought to the Supreme Court was settled by Disney/Marvel for an undisclosed sum. If that lawsuit went to the SCOTUS and got a ruling in favor of freelancers that might have led to a more egalitarian and fairer comics business. Disney wanted to hoard the IP and they threw money at this to ensure it didn't get to the Supreme Court.

So who knows if Marvel didn't get bought with Disney, maybe that lawsuit goes the mile and gets settled in favor of Kirby and that starts a more equitable world for freelancers and others.

A world with a more diminished MCU might not be the worst of all possible worlds. Possibly the opposite.

[Iron Maiden]

It's not a given that the success of the MCU or Disney's purchase of Marvel is a good or necessary thing you know.

I don't know if Perlmutter being bad as a movie producer, which absolutely he would be, would necessarily mean a worse place for comics and the world as a whole.

For instance, the lawsuit that Kirby's Estate brought to the Supreme Court was settled by Disney/Marvel for an undisclosed sum. If that lawsuit went to the SCOTUS and got a ruling in favor of freelancers that might have led to a more egalitarian and fairer comics business. Disney wanted to hoard the IP and they threw money at this to ensure it didn't get to the Supreme Court.

So who knows if Marvel didn't get bought with Disney, maybe that lawsuit goes the mile and gets settled in favor of Kirby and that starts a more equitable world for freelancers and others.

A world with a more diminished MCU might not be the worst of all possible worlds. Possibly the opposite.

I think the only other person that made an attempt was Gary Friedrich over the rights to Ghost Rider. That one eventually got settled too. Marvel won the first round because Friedrich was being paid by check back in the days when Marvel would have language on the back that stated this was payment work for hire and you were relinquishing your rights to the character by cashing the check. But another judge ruled that the language of the agreement was ambiguous and then both sides came to an agreement before going to court again

I think that is one advantage to Disney being involved in that they were able to clear up some of these cases. Granted they were forced to negotiate but Disney has deeper pockets to make the payouts. I don't think there are any other cases out there. Steve Ditko was maybe the last one to have a significant case but he never really did go to court over it AFAIK. There is an interesting quote in this article that has a statement from one of Ditko's neighbors in the building he stayed in...

“One time, about ten years ago, I accidentally got a piece of his mail,” she said, her eyebrows rising scandalously. “I opened it and then realized it wasn’t mine because that check had too many zeroes.” My body jerked up with shock — that contradicted Ditko’s claim that he doesn’t get a cut. I asked for more details. She said it was from a movie studio, and that when she gave it back to him, he just took it and said nothing. “That’s probably why he can work in that little office,” she said, and laughed. “He’s doing all right.”


John Romita Sr has always been a company man you might say and I have never seen any statements from him about Marvel owing him anything.

[Sutekh]

Feige would have been fired by Ike or he’d have left and the whole thing would have come to a stand still. Or it might continue without the quality control.

Yeah, without Disney, I imagine the whole Powers of X thing by Hickman would never have happened and the X-side of the franchise would be down to three books or so, with Hickman being targetted towards doing his magic with Perlmutter's Inhuman babies instead. Any movies involving minorities (Black Panther, Shang-Chi) or women (Captain Marvel, Black Widow) would have been pushed back to the heat-death of the universe. Probably not any Spider-Man movies either, he didn't seem fond of putting company resources into properties they didn't 100% control.

But we'd have an Inhumans movie greenlit.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Marvel is probably still bought by someone. It's the conglomerate era, after all.

My bet would be Amazon, and I can't tell if that would be better or worse. Amazon is more evil than Disney, but Disney is better at covering up their evil. It's a pick-your-poison situation.

[Lee Stone]

We would probably see the slow death of Marvel.
The MCU really helped the comics.

And to clarify: the MCU helped both Marvel and DC. And the superhero genre.
I'm sure that even DC agrees that the MCU is one of the best things that's happened to the superhero genre.

[Mahabash]

I never liked Disney's direction in general. I think Marvel would've been much better off on its own.
I do got to admit though that we got good things from that move thus far.