A Fanboy’s Media Notes
Saw the next two episodes of Spider-man on MTV tonight. In general, they lacked the odd false notes of last week’s episodes. The CGI method is still alternately intriguing and disconcerting - in noncombat situations, they often have people moving so slowly you expect Submariner to come swimming into the frame. Then they crank the speed for the action sequences. That said, the cartoon now gets the Unqualified Offerings seal of approval, and I recommend you devote an hour of your week to it, unless you skip all the Fanboy’s Notes items. First run of new episodes is Friday at 10 and 10:30PM. You can see all air dates/times at the MTV schedule page.
Speaking of comics and media, Dirk Deppey has updated his Marvel Movie Doomsday theory to incorporate the modified flop of the Hulk movie. I don’t know the financials the way Dirk does, but my question is: absent the debt load and the Chapter 11 proceedings, hasn’t Marvel simply become DC? Meaning, didn’t DC Comics pioneer living off licensing starting in the 1960s. For almost twenty years between the late sixties and mid-eighties, their books sold relatively poorly, and Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman sold incredibly poorly. But Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman underoos and keychains were everywhere. There was a Wonder Woman TV show and several Superman movies and various Saturday morning cartoons. I have to believe that, until Teen Titans came along, DC’s major revenue stream was licensing too.
So on the one hand, I’d argue that even if the movie deals dry up, Marvel needn’t kiss its merchandising stream goodbye - and I mean general-public merchandising here, not Direct Market sculpture deals. T-shirts, PJs, Halloween costumes, gum wrappers, cereals and so on. They’ve finally succeeded in planting a handful of their characters as firmly in the mass mind as DC’s Big Three. On the other hand, a diminution in actual movie deal revenue would surely still devastate. On any spare hand, though, just how permanent need this sudden aversion to superhero licenses be in Hollywood. Spiderman 2 will get made, as will Punisher. (I will be amazed if the Punisher movie has much success. Call me a cynic.) It’s not mentioned in the article Dirk quotes, but surely the third X-Men movie has or will get the nod too, no? X2 made big big bucks. Hulk will probably still earn out once video and foreign revenues come in. And if two of the next three movies (Spidey, Punisher and X3) succeed, changeable Hollywood opens its checkbook again.
On the fourth and final hand, DC in its ebb tide phase ended up in the deep pockets of Warner Brothers, which is about as far from being in bankruptcy court as you can get, so the two situations aren’t exactly commensurate.
Hey, it could all happen the way Dirk says it could happen.
