What-If: Disney Bought WB/DC Instead Of Fox?

[Frontier]

As opposed to the current output of cheaply made and unmemorable animated movies that are mainly Batman, Superman, or Justice League movies?

There's a huge world of difference between "cheap" for DC and "cheap" for Marvel. Even a less than stellar looking DC animated film is still more visually impressive than, say, Avengers Assemble in my opinion.

Would you want no DC Super Hero Girls? Or, like, no Wonder Woman in animated films at all?

No Poochie animated series and no Injustice animated movie is a win in and of itself.

I get not being a fan of those properties but I don't think they're wholesale representative of DC Animation as a whole. At least not enough to want there to be little to no DC Animation at all.

And isn’t DC kind of a mess anyway? There’s several shows taking place in a different universe all at once, lol.

Nothing wrong with a DC Multiverse .

On-topic: My really unpopular opinion is I really don’t see the current DC animated stuff as all that much better than Marvel’s animated stuff. DC is willing to make animated fare aimed at older audiences, but they’ve mostly gone downhill for me and there animated stuff too focused on the Trinity or Batman for myself to really care. So Disney handling the animation like they’ve handled Marvel’s animation department; wouldn’t be that much of a downgrade. We still haven’t even gotten a WW animated series after all these years. Though, I will say the new Superman show looks promising and fun. So I’ll be on the look out for that.

I think you're underestimating how much of a downturn Marvel Animation took after the Disney acquisition and putting Jeph Loeb in charge.

I mean, even Marvel excised the X-Men and focused on Spider-Man and The Avengers mostly.

[Vakanai]

The DC Cinematic Universe: Now with more Quips!

Pretty much. There'd be no difference between the two, just like the MCU with DC characters. It might not even be separate cinematic universes, so the crossover crowd who wants DC and Marvel crossing over would be happy.

DC has had a more extensive Elseworld graphic novel divison than Marvel does, so it probably depends on how hands-off they are.

While I expect Disney to be hands off, I imagine they'd merge their two superhero brands under the same roof, so the people in charge of Marvel now would be in charge of DC and making the same decisions.

[Vakanai]

As opposed to the current output of cheaply made and unmemorable animated movies that are mainly Batman, Superman, or Justice League movies?

No Poochie animated series and no Injustice animated movie is a win in and of itself.

They could actually do Poochie now because Disney owns Poochie through their Fox buyout and getting Simpsons. You're weirdly obsessed with this character, and for some reason you are under the false belief Poochie is a DC character...

[Vakanai]

They barely seem to want Monica Rambeau, Blue Marvel, Storm, characters who should be at the level of wonder woman and superman but crickets.

To be fair for years Storm like the rest of the X-Men was cinematically off limits cause Fox. If Disney can't make a live action movie with them why on earth would they want to push and utilize them elsewhere?

Things might change now with the film rights back.

And isn’t DC kind of a mess anyway? There’s several shows taking place in a different universe all at once, lol.

I consider that a feature, not a flaw. It's enough that every single thing Marvel does has to be tied into the MCU, I don't want to have all DC in live action be in the same universe. The Doom Patrol, Superman & Lois, and Stargirl shows wouldn't benefit by putting them in the same universe and having them crossover repeatedly.

Nothing wrong with a DC Multiverse .

Glad I'm not the only one! I swear, ever since The Avengers broke that billion people've been acting as if one universe alone is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Frontier]

Glad I'm not the only one! I swear, ever since The Avengers broke that billion people've been acting as if one universe alone is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I mean, I'm fine wit ha shared media universe when handled well (DCAU, Arrowverse, etc.) but I'm fine with different takes.

Marvel rigidly having so much match the movies has often felt forced to me.

[Vakanai]

I mean, I'm fine wit ha shared media universe when handled well (DCAU, Arrowverse, etc.) but I'm fine with different takes.

Marvel rigidly having so much match the movies has often felt forced to me.

Yes, but a lot of people now act as if having different takes is inherently "messy" and therefore "bad" now. A lot of people are no longer fine with having different takes and is against that.

And agreed, it's often felt forced to me too. Their cartoons, their live action shows, everything either has to be in their shared universe or feel like it/match it.

[Psy-lock]

I'm fine with the multiverse approach, but I still wanna see a shared DC universe on the big screen eventually. With the amount of well-developed legacy characters DC has, it could have a much better realized passing of the torch thing.

[Vakanai]

I'm fine with the multiverse approach, but I still wanna see a shared DC universe on the big screen eventually. With the amount of well-developed legacy characters DC has, it could have a much better realized passing of the torch thing.

...eventually? There's a shared DC universe on the big screen now!

[Gaius]

There's a huge world of difference between "cheap" for DC and "cheap" for Marvel. Even a less than stellar looking DC animated film is still more visually impressive than, say, Avengers Assemble in my opinion.

Would you want no DC Super Hero Girls? Or, like, no Wonder Woman in animated films at all?

The grand total of...two that they've made over 10 years? And one of which was made two years after WW had a successful movie while a certain Batman-related annoying female clown got multiple sustained pushes across animation and videogames in the same time period? Not a big loss when then there's not much to lose.

I guess it'd be a loss for Batman fans since he gets the lions share of animation output but it's not like any of the animated Batman movies have been much to ride home about.

[Frontier]

The grand total of...two that they've made over 10 years? And one of which was made two years after WW had a successful movie while a certain Batman-related annoying female clown got multiple sustained pushes across animation and videogames in the same time period? Not a big loss when then there's not much to lose.

I mean, neither of which were high sellers (Bloodlines coming out when it did is a consequence of animation production time), but the attempt was made.

Would we have gotten Wonder Woman in Justice League Action or DC Super Hero Girls otherwise?

I guess it'd be a loss for Batman fans since he gets the lions share of animation output but it's not like any of the animated Batman movies have been much to ride home about.

DC still produces non-Batman related animations.

Just this year I would say Soul of the Dragon was well received. Long Halloween I would stay had a fairly, if not overwhelmingly, positive response.

[Digifiend]

Pretty much all of the non-Batman IP would be better suited at Disney than WB. Wonder Woman for example would be huge and would’ve been pushed far more than she is because Disney is great at making content for women. Diana would fit in easily as a Disney Princess.

They’d probably treat Superman with far more respect as well. DC as a whole would be a much better fit at Disney to be honest.

Disney don't treat any Marvel characters (for example Storm, Shuri, Namora) as Disney Princesses, so they wouldn't with DC either.

That’s called a monopoly and it would never pass

Them owning DC and Marvel isn't a monopoly, as the regulators treat them as competitors to the periodicals sold in newsstands. That's how Diamond got away with their comic distribution monopoly for so long.

Depends on when it would have happened. Carol might have stayed Ms. Marvel.

If it was before 2012, quite possibly. Kamala would've had a different name in that case - they came up with the character and powers first, then picked a name for her, and Ms. Marvel happened to be vacant. Considering her powers, she could've easily been Ms. Fantastic.

Wondy, Babs, Kara, and Harley get to be Disney Princesses.

No, they don't.

[Sandy Hausler]

It was revealed that then Disney CEO Bob Iger actually almost purchased Time Warners but AT&T was already in talks on purchasing the company. In an alternate timeline where Iger beat AT&T to the punch and purchased Time Warner(which means he essentially buys Marvel’s biggest competitor - DC Comics) how do you imagine Disney would handle the DC properties? Would Iger get Kevin Feige to run both DC and Marvel, or do you think he simply leaves DC as it is?

I imagine Disney would be in antiturst hell for years.

[Vakanai]

I imagine Disney would be in antiturst hell for years.

If they bought Time-Warner/WB? Sure. But DC? Nope.

[Lee Stone]

Everytime this question comes up, I have the same response:

Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman would likely survive.
Flash, Aquaman and Green Arrow would probably get a mini-series, then disappear.
The rest of the DCU would go join Ultraverse and Crossgen in the 'we own them, but never plan to use them ever again' department.

[Stanlos]

How was she echoing Wonder Woman?

Her ENDGAME sequence is similar to the Wonder Woman versus the Martian space fleet cutscenes and the WW vs the Apokolips Warships