Should Marvel Get The Rights Back To All It's Characters?

[Dr. Evil]

How is that inevitable? Even if they ran out of their 3000+ characters, they can make new ones rather than bringing in the ones that are licensed out.

Well as long as Agents of Shield remains on the air, it's safe to say that Marvel will be making new characters for a long time.

 

[Dr Tactics]

I wouldn't mind either, but the fact is that it will create a larger call for cameos and crossovers which is not an option for financial reasons. They have to be in separate universes, or they have to be under the same company.

Well that ship sailed with the ESU t-shirt on the Item 47 one shot so those floodgates are already open. All I know when Avi Arad was asked about Spidey and the co existence in the MCU (or more specific another Marvel Hero) he didn't confirm nor deny by saying"Avi Arad: Uh... I’d rather not answer that at this point. This is what the word ‘spoiler’ means. We want to always leave the audience with a couple of surprises. All of a sudden, you feel like, yeah, there’s a continuity. So if we say today how we go about it, we’d take away from the surprise of the movie."

 

[SuperT]

I don't particularly have any vested interest in who owns Spider-Man or Fantastic Four so I don't really care who owns those two.

As far as X-Men, I'd much rather it stayed as it's own movie universe. Hell, I wish they had stayed in their own universe in the comics too. To me, it never made a lick of sense that they existed in the same universe as Iron Man, Captain, Hulk etc.

Secondly, I just can't see X-Men being taken seriously or it's stories fitting with the tone that Marvel has set with their movies. They would just seem out of place to me and reduced to just being superheroes when X-Men is way more than that.

I think people just want it all in one universe just for the nerd joy factor, but I don't really think they fit honestly. Just my opinion.

 

[kedrell]

How is that inevitable? Even if they ran out of their 3000+ characters, they can make new ones rather than bringing in the ones that are licensed out.

I just think at some point there'll be no new avenues to milk with the franchise that FOX & SONY have so they'll have to do it. It could take decades but I think it'll happen eventually.

 

[Chance Jackson]

FOX sued Marvel, but not successfully. Marvel won the initial court case, which FOX subsequently appealed. Both parties later settled out of court.

Interesting

 

[Duran Man]

Just the FF.

 

[Rylvan]

Marvel's doing just fine without X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man. Besides, they've got their hands pretty full until Phase 3 is done. They got Blade, Daredevil, and Punisher back but we're not gonna see them for at least another few years.

Sony and Fox aren't gonna sell off those franchises anyway, they're basically a license to print money. They've already got plans for their own cinematic universes with Days of Future Past, Apocalypse, the F4 reboot, Amazing Spider-Man 2, 3, and 4 all planned. Buying them all back would be insanely costly.

For better or for worse, more studios mean more movies. And the competition means more incentive to make good movies.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

I don't think Marvel Studios is even big enough for Spidey, Fantastic Four, and X-Men and what they currently have. Not to mention Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, especially X-Men deserve its own universe. What Marvel is doing right now is fine, and they have a lot of possibilities to work with and they don't need two franchises that blow up any single character that they own.

 

[DeeLovesMarvel]

I agree that if X-Men went back to Marvel, they wouldn't get the attention they deserve. But I also think the films might be a lot better if Marvel was handling them.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

Eh, three of the X-Men movies so far have been better than Thor, Thor 2, IM2, IM3, and TIH.

 

[KangConquers]

Eh, three of the X-Men movies so far have been better than Thor, Thor 2, IM2, IM3, and TIH.

Fox does a decent job with the concept of mutants and creating a good film as a film, but in terms of adapting the comics, they're horrible. Rogue, Ice Man, Juggernaut, Havok and several other characters had nothing to do with their comic book origins.

 

[KangConquers]

I don't think Marvel Studios is even big enough for Spidey, Fantastic Four, and X-Men and what they currently have. Not to mention Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, especially X-Men deserve its own universe. What Marvel is doing right now is fine, and they have a lot of possibilities to work with and they don't need two franchises that blow up any single character that they own.

Two franchises that blow up any character they own? Explain.

 

[roach]

Fox does a decent job with the concept of mutants and creating a good film as a film, but in terms of adapting the comics, they're horrible. Rogue, Ice Man, Juggernaut, Havok and several other characters had nothing to do with their comic book origins.

Very few Marvel characters have their comic book origins...Hulk isn't grey, Thor doesn't turn into Donald Blake....Hawkeye and BW weren't shield agents or founding members of the Avengers.

 

[Chance Jackson]

Very few Marvel characters have their comic book origins...Hulk isn't grey, Thor doesn't turn into Donald Blake....Hawkeye and BW weren't shield agents or founding members of the Avengers.

They were in 1610/Ultimate Universe

 

[KangConquers]

Very few Marvel characters have their comic book origins...Hulk isn't grey, Thor doesn't turn into Donald Blake....Hawkeye and BW weren't shield agents or founding members of the Avengers.

Hulk isn't 15 years younger than he's supposed to be, though...or randomly a bad guy in Magneto's brotherhood, or a mutant when he's not supposed to be.

Black Widow became a SHIELD agent before the end of the 1960s, and both her and Hawkeye are ones in Ultimates. Donald Blake hasn't been a part of the comics since the late 80s

Marvel/ Disney used sort of a Marvel greatest hits philosophy for how they portrayed the characters (Mandarin aside.) Fox will just stick any random mutant into any random situation. It's not nearly the same thing.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Very few Marvel characters have their comic book origins...Hulk isn't grey, Thor doesn't turn into Donald Blake....Hawkeye and BW weren't shield agents or founding members of the Avengers.

Jarvis isn't a computer.
Ivan Vanko was never backlash/whiplash.
Red Skull wore a red mask and was trained by Hitler, not a super soldier recipient.
Jane Foster isn't a astro-scientist but a healthcare nurse.
Heimdall and Sif are brother and Sister not unrelated.
Bucky wasn't Caps friend before the war but was a mascot to his squad as a child, not an adult soldier.
Aldrich Killian was a scientis who killed himself after helping to create Extremis.
War Machine was never Iron Patriot, he was a villain of Stark and other heroes.

or a mutant when he's not supposed to be.

In Ultimate Comics Juggernaut is apparently a mutant.

They were in 1610/Ultimate Universe

Most Marvel CBMs have amalgamated versions of the characters from different eras and canon rather than just 616.

Donald Blake hasn't been a part of the comics since the late 80s.

Pretty sure JMS run on Thor just before Siege had him.

 

[KangConquers]

Jarvis isn't a computer.
Anton Vanko was never backlash/whiplash.
Red Skull wore a red mask and was trained by Hitler, not a super soldier recipient.
Jane Foster isn't a astro-scientist but a healthcare nurse.
Heimdall and Sif are brother and Sister not unrelated.
Bucky wasn't Caps friend before the war but was a mascot to his squad as a child, not an adult soldier.
Aldrich Killian was a scientis who killed himself after helping to create Extremis.
War Machine was never Iron Patriot, he was a villain of Stark and other heroes.


And Juggernaut from X3 is pretty much Ultimate Juggernaut too.
Most CBMs have amalgamated versions of the characters from different eras and canon rather than just 616.

Pretty sure JMS run on Thor just before Siege had him.

A few notes.

- Vanko was originally the Crimson Dynamo. Marvel didn't want to go with another generic suited villain for this film. No idea why they did the Anton/ Ivan change.
- Changed to make Red Skull a physical threat for Cap (Though from the mid-80s until Brubaker's run, Red Skull DID have a super soldier body and a hideously scarred countenance.)
- Changed due to lack of Donald Blake + didn't tie into the concepts of Thor.
- Changed due to race lifting for Heimdall.
- Changed due to the idea of a 15 year old being a relic of naïve 1940s comic book writing.
- Changed due to the other character in the film being an offensive, racist caricature from the days when superheroes were anti-red propaganda.
- Changed due to not having the rights to Norman Osborn.
- Donald Blake hasn't been connected to Thor in years. The last time we saw Donald Blake in a comic, Matt Fraction brought him back [BLACKOUT]in order to kill him.[/BLACKOUT] I think that says a lot about modern Marvel's view of Donald Blake.


Let's look at some of Fox's changes...and if they benefited the story at all the way Disney's did.

- Rogue is a teenager, without accent. Benefit? None.
- Iceman is a self-serious teenager, instead of a jokey contemporary of Cyclops and Jean Grey. Benefit? None.
- Pyro as a New Mutant/ Young X-Men. Benefit? None.
- Arch-Angel as another de-aged X-Men. Benefit? None.
- Juggernaut as a mutant, unrelated to Professor Xavier. Benefit? None. Damage? Killed the character and turned him to generic muscle.
- Multiple Man as a villain. Benefit? None.
- Psylocke is a random mutant on Magneto's side in the final battle of X-3. Benefit? None.
- Blob in Weapon X? Random. Benefit. None!
- Deadpool is turned into Baraka with Cyclops eyebeams, and no mouth. Not only did this benefit no one, it basically killed one of the only viable solo options Fox has with their X-Men franchise.
- Mystique is Professor X's adopted sister...What in the hell? This is as random as making any two unrelated characters brother and sister.
- A completely random list of mutants is used for X-Men: First Class, at the expense of many character relationships.


X-2 and X-Men: First Class are very good movies, and X-Men 1 is decent. But that doesn't make the changes any less random.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

So neither are accurate.

Change is change, whether the changes were good or bad is simply individual opinion, in the end they aren't accurate either way.

I find that (with all comic book movies) some of the changes are better than the material from the comics and some are a severe detriment to the character, but mostly they're in the acceptable and enjoyable column.

 

[metaphysician]

Marvel/ Disney used sort of a Marvel greatest hits philosophy for how they portrayed the characters (Mandarin aside.)

They did it with the Mandarin, too. Iron Man 3 drew elements from a bunch of modern Mandarin-linked stories, as well as a lot of the imagery and style of the modern Mandarin. It just made the Mandarin Killian.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

They did it with the Mandarin, too. Iron Man 3 drew elements from a bunch of modern Mandarin-linked stories, as well as a lot of the imagery and style of the modern Mandarin. It just made the Mandarin Killian.

Problem was they advertised and got people hyped to see Kingsleys classic Mandarin.

I bet the end result wouldn't have been so much of a backlash if they didn't bait and switch the comic fans perceptions.

They'd have accepted the nu-Mandarin like they did the Whiplash/Dynamo hybrid if they hadn't been teased with the classic Mandarin and had him swept out from under them, particularly when the classic Mandarin looked 10x more interesting than what we got.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Well I think we can officially eliminate the Rock from playing any Marvel character, whether it be in MCU, Fox or Sony. He's going to be off limits on any Marvel character.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

While it's assumed yeah, but i doubt there's anything in his contract that states he can't play a Marvel character.

 

[Dr. Evil]

While it's assumed yeah, but i doubt there's anything in his contract that states he can't play a Marvel character.

Yes, but he's friends with the head of Warner Brothers. Plus I think the contracts are iron clad. We're never going to see Lawrence Fishburne lend his voice or CGI to Apocalypse or Thanos since he's Perry White.

 

[metaphysician]

Do we actually have *any* evidence for such contract limits?

 

[SuperT]

No evidence, but I'd probably say I'm 99% sure all these actors that sign on to these superhero movies have non-compete clauses written into their contracts.

For example, Chris Evans is probably under contract with Marvel where he can't go off and be in an X-Men movie, Hugh Jackman probably can't go be in an DC superhero movie or Affleck or Cavill probably can't be in Marvel movies.

It makes sense and helps studio's keep their talent from running off to another franchise until their contracts are up.