WI: Marvel buys the DC characters

Just a quick defence of Dark Horse's mainstream penetration: they have Hellboy, who certainly beats Spawn in recognition.
 
They would probably keep it going in a separate universe. This would also make cross overs actually canon. Or Marvel may restart there universe like in the New 52 and create a mixed universe. Marvel would most likely make DC characters look a lot weaker because on average the are stronger then Marvel's. Also they would probably get rid of all B and C lister titles from both companies so they can work more on there huge amount of newly acquired popular titles.

Dark Horse and Image would become the top contenders against marvel and DC. It's also quite likely they would merge so that they can't be bought as easily. But it can be expected that Marvel and Co will begin to earn a lot more money without its biggest competitor. So it will but Dark Horse and Image as well. There by creating a true comics monopoly.
 
Dark Horse and Image though don't exist yet at the time of this particular monopoly forming.

As for getting rid of B and C listerers... no, if only because they all have fans themselves. What's more likely is that they adopt an approach of parallel that can interact with each other.

Their competition will... have a very difficult time, as they'll need to make a completely new brand.
 
Oh? I didn't know that. Interesting... to say the least.

Although, wouldn't this possibly cause them to pass up the comic book market if this Marvel-DC plays its cards and get its lobbyists?

EDIT: I just realized how much this might tar the comic book industry by association with this, which is quite disturbing, to say the least.


Comic book lobbyists? I don't think they really exist at that time. If they do exists, I can't believe that they would be more influential and successful at saving a potential Marvel/DCU monopoly than the lobbysists with the much bigger and better funded lobbying groups were for Bell Telephone.

Torqumada
 
Comic book lobbyists? I don't think they really exist at that time. If they do exists, I can't believe that they would be more influential and successful at saving a potential Marvel/DCU monopoly than the lobbysists with the much bigger and better funded lobbying groups were for Bell Telephone.

Torqumada

The first you have an excellent point with.

But okay, I was hoping the result would be a rival to both DC and Marvel, but it sounds like they'll just be split into two companies again, leading to rather boring results by comparison. Perhaps that's why Marvel didn't try to purchase the characters, they knew it would only lead to what happened to Bell Telephone.
 
For that matter, why was Jim Shooter kicked out? I have to say, I LOVE the ideas he put forth in his comic book universe, and can definitely see how Valiant from it could be a good alternative to Marvel and Image comics.

Because he ended fighting with everybody in Marvel. Look at the writers and artists who left Marvel to DC in the '80s. He was basically the Joe Quesada of the '80s, in that he had good and bad ideas and didn't distinguish between them, for not speaking of his political orientation, "somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan", I have heard it described.

What would I like to see is Time-Warner buying Marvel at the time of its bakruptcy (around 1997).
 
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Because he ended fighting with everybody in Marvel. Look at the writers and artists who left Marvel to DC in the '80s. He was basically the Joe Quesada of the '80s, in that he had good and bad ideas and didn't distinguish between them, for not speaking of his political orientation, "somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan", I have heard it described.

Oh... sounds a lot like Frank Millar actually, from what I understand of him. Has some great ideas, but became a radical rightist and can get REALLY bad.
 
As for the competition, wasnt Archie trying to bring back their superheroes (ie, the shield, the web, etc) around this time? Maybe if Archie was able to market them better (maybe even give them their own cartoon show, better quality action figures), they could be a viable competitor. And the fact that Archie had a reputation even back then as "family friendly" could also help.
 
DC characters aren't very interesting in a Marvel setting.

I don't know, that would probably depend on the character. I will grant you, it could possibly lead to character overload, and they can probably make more money, for the most part, by keeping them alternative universes that cross over occasionally.
 
Hmmm, I could see manga making the jump overseas earlier to compete with DC-Marvel.

This has many interesting implications, especially since it may have higher quality than the anime in the 90s frequently had, and additionally, would definitely form interesting competition. Manga have very different story writing and artistic styles than comic books, especially the latter, which will lead to... interesting implications.
 

FDW

Banned
What would I like to see is Time-Warner buying Marvel at the time of its bakruptcy (around 1997).

Now THAT would be interesting…

DC characters aren't very interesting in a Marvel setting.

Well, it wouldn't be an exclusively Marvel setting, and I would think otherwise, especially in regards to the JLA and Avengers being in the same setting.

Hmmm, I could see manga making the jump overseas earlier to compete with DC-Marvel.

Manga was already starting to trickle over to the US in the 90's, though it took until they stopped trying to flip the books around for american readers for it to really take off.

This has many interesting implications, especially since it may have higher quality than the anime in the 90s frequently had, and additionally, would definitely form interesting competition. Manga have very different story writing and artistic styles than comic books, especially the latter, which will lead to... interesting implications.

It depends upon what genre of manga you're talking about here, manga isn't a single type of art or storytelling (like some people seem to think it is), and it actually has it's own series of genres that are in many ways much more diverse than anything the American comic industry has. (Which is part of the reason why Manga now makes up the majority of the comic market in the US)

And then there's also Webcomics to consider. While most of them don't make any money, they do take eyeballs away from the printed stuff, and also offer greater variety of their own sort.
 
Now THAT would be interesting…



Well, it wouldn't be an exclusively Marvel setting, and I would think otherwise, especially in regards to the JLA and Avengers being in the same setting.



Manga was already starting to trickle over to the US in the 90's, though it took until they stopped trying to flip the books around for american readers for it to really take off.



It depends upon what genre of manga you're talking about here, manga isn't a single type of art or storytelling (like some people seem to think it is), and it actually has it's own series of genres that are in many ways much more diverse than anything the American comic industry has. (Which is part of the reason why Manga now makes up the majority of the comic market in the US)

And then there's also Webcomics to consider. While most of them don't make any money, they do take eyeballs away from the printed stuff, and also offer greater variety of their own sort.

With the 2nd to last, of course. I got into manga far earlier than comic books because unlike comic books, they don't have these immense continuities that are seemingly impossible to get into for someone new.

However, I think manga could easily make a very good competitor to this Marvel-DC, and earlier than it entered the market in OTL. Variety is the spice of life, and they can really benefit from this.
 
I think that a good example of what Marvel will do in case he own DC is the miniseries JLA/Avegers, here the two earths are separated but often characters of both world pass the barrier, with the two premier team in real good friendly terms and Green Arrow has exchanged place with Hawkeye (who go out with Black Canary).
The DC superheroes are too ingrained in their mythos expecially the fictional city, they have a total different vibe than their marvel counterpart...initially the JLA think Marvel Earth is a dystopia and the Avenger think that the JLA (and the others) rules their world as fascist leader, plus all the problem of their fictional cities etc. etc. Better separate them with occasional or periodical cross-over
 
And then there's also Webcomics to consider. While most of them don't make any money, they do take eyeballs away from the printed stuff, and also offer greater variety of their own sort.

Which won't exist for the majority of Americans for another decade or so. Also, their impact overall, I believe, hasn't affected published comics to the level that other printed media has. I'm trying to find some hard numbers, though.

Torqumada
 
Actually, if JLA and Avengers were in the same universe, i can see the Avengers taking on more intergalactic villains who were threatening Earth (therefore making use of the "Earths Mightiest Heroes" moniker) like Thanos or Darkseid, while the JLA could be simply renamed the Justice League and take on more Earthbound threats like the Masters of Evil.
 

FDW

Banned
Actually, if JLA and Avengers were in the same universe, i can see the Avengers taking on more intergalactic villains who were threatening Earth (therefore making use of the "Earths Mightiest Heroes" moniker) like Thanos or Darkseid, while the JLA could be simply renamed the Justice League and take on more Earthbound threats like the Masters of Evil.

I was also thinking that you could see make some interesting tension between the two groups by making some hay out of the fact that the Avengers are government supported, while the JLA is not.
 
Actually, if JLA and Avengers were in the same universe, i can see the Avengers taking on more intergalactic villains who were threatening Earth (therefore making use of the "Earths Mightiest Heroes" moniker) like Thanos or Darkseid, while the JLA could be simply renamed the Justice League and take on more Earthbound threats like the Masters of Evil.

Actually, I think you might need to go the other way around. For much of it's history, the JLA has faced off with probably more intergalactic villains than the Avengers have, particularly by 1984. After all, the JLA has a member of an intergalactic policeman on it's team since the beginning, as well as two aliens from the beginning. Their first enemy was an alien invader, Starro.

The Avengers didn't get their first real extraterrestrial member until the 1980's with Star Fox. (Guardians of the Galaxy were honorary members and Mar-vell was posthumous and honorary.) The Avengers have been reluctant to go out into space to face threats in a proactive manner , while the JLA has done so on many occasions. They are also more prone to dimension hop, but that was probably due more to the nature of the pre-COIE DCU.

Torqumada
 
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