With Great Power Comes Global Adaptability
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By the time I woke up yesterday morning, the news had permeated - pretty much clogged - every news outlet on the Web: Disney had finalized a deal to purchase Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Comic fan lamentations were immediate, zine commentaries and blogs ballooned in volume, and Twitter was overrun with suggestions for superhero team-ups from Mickey Mouse joins the X-Men to "Spiderman in Wonderland." Most of these voices were concerned about Marvel characters being tamed to appeal to Disney audiences and the potential loss of edgy creativity in the Marvel brand.
As the news sunk in, however, some tunes changed, and many began to see the relationship as analogous to Warner Brothers' ownership of DC Comics (considered Marvel's main competitor in the comics industry) or Disney's recent acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios. There was talk of the strength Disney would bring to Marvel in the form of broader markets, more powerful multimedia capabilities, and more protection for Marvel's intellectual property.
What struck me yesterday were two distinct thoughts. First of all, the combined forces of the largest comic book company and one of the largest entertainment companies was probably inevitable. This is Disney we're talking about. I imagine a lot of people already thought Spiderman was a Disney character (sorry, fans). From a global perspective, the combination of these two far-reaching American brands is almost irrelevant since one is nearly as ubiquitous as the other.
Secondly, the fact that Marvel will now be able to tap an even wider network of consumers got me wondering about their competition in international markets. After doing some research, I was pleased to find that superheroes are not, as some might venture to say, strictly an American form of storytelling or mythology. Comic book enthusiasts and superhero experts have done much to catalog the art form online, and I thought I would offer some global alternatives to any readers who might want to explore the comics that are or have been sold alongside Spiderman and X-Men on shelves around the world.
Cybersix, Argentina: A truly global series, the books originated in 1993 and were later made into an animated television series, produced by a collaborative Canadian and Japanese team.
Chacha Chaudhary, India: This comic has appeared in newspapers since 1971, and is printed in 10 languages by India's Diamond Comics.
Asterix, France: Very popular with French audiences and around Europe, since 1959 Asterix has appeared in more than 30 books and nearly a dozen adapted films.
Judge Dredd, United Kingdom: A long-running feature in the British Sci-Fi magazine 2000 AD, Judge Dredd was adapted in the United States by DC Comics, and later made into a film starring Sylvester Stallone.
AK Comics, Egypt: This is a relatively new venture mainly distributed in Egypt and the Middle East, though there has been some interest in the United States. The comics are illustrated in Brazil and produced in both Arabic and English.
There are many more where those came from, particularly the huge market of comics originating in Japan - a genre known as Manga. This leads me to my second thought in reaction to yesterday's news. In Japan and throughout the world, the popularity of Manga has grown monumentally as a result of super-fans producing and selling their own versions of these comics. In blatant violation of Japanese copyright law (which is relatively identical to the equivalent American legislation), fans have been "allowed" to reproduce their favorite characters, write new stories around them and sell the product - often at conventions, but also in regular bookstores and newsstands. The result has been positive on both sides and fandom continues to grow across the globe.
Given Disney's reputation for exploiting intellectual property law for all it's worth, we can count on Spidey and Wolverine to become just as protected. And maybe that was part of the draw for Marvel Entertainment executives when they signed the agreement. In the digital age, however, the question arises whether this conglomerate is shooting itself in the foot, losing out on what Wired writer, Daniel Pink described as, "Taking care of customers. Finding new talent," and "Getting free market research." In industry after industry, we are coming to find that bigger doesn't always mean better - particularly when business models are changing, adaptability becomes a stronger characteristic.
This changes the game significantly, and it will be interesting to see where our global superhero super-businesses take industry from here.
