So I was doing some brain thinking about Guardians of the Galaxy and Thanos and Avengers 3 and stuff. Then I came back to more brain thinking about “Ah man, Spiderman and Wolverine gotta be in the Avengers man! I want Marvel to get those movie rights back so bad!”
Then I went all wait a second. Would we really even have Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, a shitty TV show, upcoming Netflix series’, the Avengers and Guardians if Marvel still had the rights to Spiderman and Xmen (Their 2 biggest franchises, especially pre-2008)? Or even Fantastic Four? And I came up with, “No”.
If they had those big franchises, they could have easily ridden things out with those. Would they have gotten to the Avengers universe, more or less, as we know it regardless? Probably, but it more likely would have been on the back burner and they would have trickled out more in the way that we’re now getting into Dr Strange and Ant Man and Guardians now.
Why would Marvel have to go so far to secondary/tertiary franchises if they had their big guns? They probably would not have. Heck, Iron Man was a total B class hero before 2008. Now he’s a super hero superstar in pop culture. Unimaginable less than 10 years ago.
We probably would have gotten an Avengers movie in a way that we’re getting basically getting a “Meet the Justice League!” movie in Supes V Batsy: The Saturation Broke on my Camera. Could you imagine that, especially compared to what we’ve gotten instead? Ew.
Not having those big franchises forced Marvel Studios to make good movies. It sounds weird to say, but considering they only make comic book movies, if they screw up then they just poisoned their well. They can’t afford that. Incredible Hulk wasn’t that good, got backburnered indefinitely. Thor: The Dark World underperformed a bit (650 mil and 65% on Rotten Tomatoes), and 3 apparently was pushed back 1 year to a 2017 as a result. Iron Man has done so well they may do a 4th film. Cap 2 may have “only” made $700 million but it got 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and now its a priority.
Now I’d love for Marvel Studios to have Spiderman, X-Men and Fantastic Four all together in one universe. I want to see the Hulk crash through an Oscorp facility, or Banner, Stark and Richards all be smart science guys, or Carnage and Deadpool just staring at each other while they do stuff in New York.
But, we won’t get that. Instead, we’ll get expertly done Dr. Strange and Ant-Man movies and hopefully Black Panther, Nova and Ms. Marvel are just around the corner. And that’s even better.
Marvel’s excellent work has forced Fox into making good movies again with the X-men. It’s forced them to bust their nuts to make good on the upcoming Fantastic Four, which is still TBD.
Sony… well… the less we talk about Sony and Spider Man, the better.
It makes me wonder if DC lost its rights to Batman or Superman for a bit, if they would have taken doing Green Lantern more seriously. Maybe they give a honest try to Aquaman and turn him not into a joke. Maybe we’d already have a live action Flash film, Shazam, and Martian Manhunter. Maybe they make good on doing a serious take on Wonder Woman (I have a script if they want it). Maybe they link their TV and Movie universes, even casually to help add to their universes scale and completeness.
But yeah, this was neat to think/write about.
Adam Reviews Things 