Part II, Chapter XLIX: "I Don't Mean To Burst Your Bubble..."
“It really felt like the whole comics industry was dying at that time. I wasn’t actually too involved with the back end at that time, but they were still paying me, so I made sure I knew what was going on. Sure, we managed to avoid a lot of the issues DC were having, but that didn’t stop us from having our own issues. Between Panini and Ron [Perelman], we had enough problems ourself. I think that the industry had a closer brush with death there than most people give it credit for.”
- Stan Lee, speaking about the 1990s comics speculation bubble, and its collapse. [1]
Marvel
Marvel had been racking up steady sales in the comics market, which were helped by the success of the film
Wolverine and the X-Men. However, the 2099 line was beginning to falter, and sales were decreasing, and many of the other experimental comics lines were not performing as expected. Coupled with the loss of many of the artists to Image Comics, Marvel was not in a great position. [2]
Much like DC, Marvel was dipping its toe into the film industry, with its X-Men film series. The first film had been a great success, and plans for the sequel,
The X-Men and Ms Marvel, were well underway, with a 1995 release planned, which would likely see it competing with DC’s Batman films once more. But this was not the only Marvel film being made. [3]
Fantastic Four was not a film that was intended for release. In fact, the only reason it was made was so that Bernd Eichinger could retain the rights to produce a film containing the characters. It had been made with a deliberately low budget, and was originally not going to be shown to audiences. However, the success of
Wolverine and the X-Men led to its release, due to pressure from fans. It was, by all accounts, an unmitigated disaster. The film flopped, making back a tiny amount of its budget, and within two weeks, it had been pulled from most cinemas. [4]
The X-Men would see further success as an animated series based on the Excalibur comics began airing in late 1992, to critical acclaim, as it entertained while tackling heavier subjects. It would, by the end of 1994, be joined by Iron Man, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man animated series. [5]
Film failure would go on to affect Marvel in more ways than one. Marvel Entertainment Group owned Panini as a subsidiary. The vast majority of Panini’s profits came off of the back of Disney releases, and a series of disappointing Disney films meant that that their profits dropped. The trading card subsidiary Fleer’s profits were also harmed by the 1994 MLB strike.
But perhaps the most important event for Marvel in this era was the death of Ronald Perelman, the owner of MEG’s parent company MacAndrew’s and Forbes. For many years, Perelman had been calling the shots from a financial perspective. In June 1994, Ronald Perelman’s car was struck by a drunk driver, killing him. His long time associate, Barry Schwartz, took over as chairman, but would do very little with MEG, largely letting them govern themselves. [6]
But despite all of this, Marvel was still in a better place than DC. [7]
DC Comics
The speculator bubble burst hit DC far harder than it had Marvel. DC had produced many “event” comics, involving the death of Superman, or Batman being crippled. While these led to slight increases in sales, as some fans’ interest was piqued, and many others bought them in the hope that they would increase in value over the years, sales soon dropped off, and many of the large changes were reverted.
Another way that DC had intended to increase sales was by self-distribution from 1994 onwards. The two main distributors, Diamond and Capital city, would retaliate by striking exclusive deals with DC’s competitors. In 1995, Diamond Comics would secure the exclusive rights to distribute Marvel comics. DC’s attempt to increase sales by owning their own distributor, by buying Heroes World, would backfire, as sales declined even further. [8]
But DC’s films would continue to enjoy success. Though there were some clashes between director Tim Burton and executives at Warner Bros., Tim Burton would be able to direct the Batman film he wanted. The film,
Batman Continues, would see Michael Keaton’s Batman facing off against Billy Dee Williams’ Two-Face and Robin Williams’ Riddler. Hype would build for the film, and to see who would win the second round of Marvel vs. DC films. [9]
As with Marvel, DC would see a successful foray into animation. The show
Batman: The Animated Series, would be based loosely on the Burton films, sharing the fame gothic and film noir influenced aesthetic. It would also share the darker tone of Burton’s films. Tim Curry would return as the Joker, while the role of Batman was taken by Kevin Conroy.
DC’s continuing overall commercial downturn would be worrying to many executives, and a new plan was devised. They decided that given the success of the Burton Batman films, that they would begin working on films based on other famous comics characters, most notably Superman and Green Lantern. Whether the Superman film was to continue the Christopher Reeve era would not be decided by the end of 1994, but one thing was clear: DC needed to make a big and successful move if it wanted to avoid further financial difficulties. [10]
[1] I'm having difficulty in finding out who was in charge of MEG at the time, so I've used Stan Lee here as he was still, technically, employed by them.
[2] As established many updates ago, Marvel is managing to avoid a lot of the speculation bubble's effects.
[3] The next Marvel and DC films deserve their own update, which will be very early in Part III.
[4] There was really no way of saving this film, so I made its effects on Marvel worse. This film will hurt the trust in Marvel's TV and film arm.
[5] I have a really big soft spot for Excalibur, so I've had Marvel cash in on the "brit-chic" that is sort of present at the moment. The team will be mainly non-Brits, per OTL, just based there mostly.
[6] God, I hate to do this, but I saw no other way of getting him out of the picture. I've butterflied a couple of the things that bankrupted Marvel in OTL, but really Perelman needed to go.
[7] I will admit that I'm a bigger Marvel fan than a DC one, but I don't want DC to be holding an "idiot ball". It really surprises me how many bad long-term decisions were made for Marvel in OTL though.
[8] So, DC goes down the self-publishing route, not Marvel. The full effects of this won't be seen just yet, but they're pretty major.
[9] We get the Batman Forever Tim Burton wanted.
[10] The comics films industry will be very different from about 1995 on. Also, the comics industry will be quite different from 1995 on. A lot of groundwork has been laid here.
