13 years have passed since the purchase of Marvel, this is all that has changed Disney

Today, August 31, 2022, exactly 13 years ago, the process of acquiring Marvel by Disney was completed, a move that changed not only Marvel but also the entertainment industry in general.

The $4 billion deal led to the creation of two divisions known as Marvel Studios and Marvel Television. Marvel is now one of the biggest names in movies and comics, all thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though the brand has been popular for decades, especially among comic book readers.

However, despite the fact that Disney has bought Marvel, they cannot affirm that the success of the comic book company is all their doing. As we all know, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) began to succeed in 2002, when the Spiderman movie was released, and in 2008, when the Iron Man movie became a worldwide blockbuster. 

However, it is true that during those years there were some failures and movies that failed like Daredevil or Ghost Rider. After the purchase of Disney, everything changed.

How Disney’s acquisition of Marvel changed everything

First of all, let’s resolve the question of why Disney bought Marvel. The reason is Bob Iger. A few months after the Pixar acquisition, Iger became CEO of Disney. This is a man with a gift for animation and he said that bringing Marvel to Disney would allow the company a great deal of value and potential growth.

The first film distributed by Disney was The Avengers, in 2012 , and the distribution rights to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were subsequently acquired. 

Marvel movies are influenced by both Disney production and their content. For this reason, Disney chooses to use the terms “family friendly” and “PG-13” to promote its image as a well-intentioned company.

Disney felt that you had to explore other less exploited Marvel Comics characters and see what happened, and that’s how successes like Guardians of the Galaxy emerged.

As part of the MCU, Disney brought Marvel to television and streaming, with series like Agent Carter, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Moon Knight, Loki, Hawkeye, She-Hulk…, as well as series that were not part of the MCU. but that were produced by Marvel Television, like Legion and The Chosen.

It is true that some of them were not very successful, but they have been increasing the dominance of Disney and Marvel in the media. The arrival of Disney+ gave the definitive leap, since they seek to connect the series with the MCU movie universe, which not only further expands this universe but will also make fans subscribe to the platform.

As the MCU prepares for another wave of content not only in theaters but also on streaming, it remains to be seen if Disney will maintain that success and popularity for another 10 years.

Some changes we’ve seen in Marvel characters

Let’s be honest, Disney and the creative teams behind these movies have to constantly walk a tightrope as they have to put out movies that are capable of pleasing the general public and, at the same time, keeping the majority of the fans. of the happy comics and that is almost impossible.

And it is that, many times the changes are updated because we are talking about stories that are already quite old. Sometimes the origins of the superheroes are updated to better reflect modern cultures and attitudes, other times the supervillains are drastically changed to appear truly menacing (what used to be scary is now almost laughable).

Of course, some have turned out well and others not so much, let’s see four of the most recognized:

1. Star-Lord, for example, is already one of the most iconic characters, although it should be noted that he hasn’t always had that personality. The one from the comics was a much more direct authority figure, in true police style. 

However, James Gunn realized that audiences were more likely to root for some sort of underdog antihero, and that’s how we get the Star-Lord we all know and love today.

2. For the most part, the Thor of the comics has never been a fun character. However, in Thor: Ragnarok, director Taika Waititi let actor Chris Hemsworth shine with his humor, something that many have not finished fitting.

3. In 2012, we finally got to see the Avengers reunite on the big screen. However, the lineup was a bit different from the original comics and some have quite liked it, basically because in the early issues, the founding members of the team were Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man and Wasp.

In the movies it was added to Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye and it seems that it has been a great true.

4. Finally, we are going with something that does not finish convincing and that is that the Thanos that we see is quite different from the one in the comics. 

In the comics, Thanos is an outcast on his own planet due to his different appearance from others. Over time, this turned into a kind of hatred towards everyone, which led him to become a supervillain. This is completely obviated in the movies.