Galactus consumes whole planets or how Marvel Studios is destroying Marvel comics

It’s pretty clear with what has been going on in the Marvel Comics-sphere has stopped being the centre of the Marvel universe in comparison to Marvel Studios. So if you thought Civil War was the greatest Marvel upheaval in history, you should really take a look Marvel Comics Vs. Marvel Studios.

Well, while to some the big Marvel reboot re: Secret Wars may be a colossal kick to the proverbial nads, it’s honestly been a long time coming. Don’t believe us, just have a look how Marvel movies are ruining affecting Marvel comics:

CAPTAIN AMERICAWhen you though nothing could bring back the post WW2 patriotic cheese back into a cooldom, Ed Brubaker defied the impossible and reinvigorated the franchise, bringing Bucky back as a brainwashed assassin, who was non other than the Winter Soldier. A re-reprogramed Bucky then took over the mantle as the new Captain America. A real bad-ass Cap. Guns at the ready and everything. Brubaker of course gave a respectable send off of Steve Rogers as the hero. Most likely to live the rest of his days out in Florida somewhere. And the comic arc was going so well too. Then duh, duh, duuuuh. Marvel Studios happened. The greenlit Captain America: The First Avenger, and felt the fans would be confused if the comic version of Captain America didn’t line up with the film version. So they resurrected Steve Rogers to become Cap again. And we know how fond Marvel is of retconning.

NICK FURY
Another perfect example of Marvel retconning their retconning. So, we know how convolute Marvel comic arc and series can get. Hell look at the X-Men. So here goes. Marvel released a comic arc of comic series called Ultimate, which ambitiously retold the origins of many Marvel heroes that differed greatly from the old school Marvel heroes. One such parallel a young black Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He was created by Mark Millar for the Ultimate universe (Earth-1610), and he was quite the stark contrast with the old, white Fury.

Then came Marvel Studios. They hired Samuel Jackson to play Nick Fury in Avengers which was perfect. He looked like Millar’s version already in print in Marvel comics. But that wasn’t good enough. He had to be the only Fury. Because fans would get confused waling into a comic store and see a whole new Fury that was not exactly similar to the Nick Fury in the comics. So the comics soon then tried to make him part of the ‘official’ Marvel-verse by bringing in a black character named Nick Fury Jr., the illegitimate son of the old white Nick Fury. Marvel really dug deep for that one.

When the Spider-Man title was going through a bit of a stagnating stint, Dran Slott help push the envelope for the series with a comic narrative that saw Doctor Octopus and Peter Parker go through a bit of a Freaky Friday scenario where the switched minds. It took some use getting to, but the series quickly became a fan favourite. Eventually fans knew Parker would regain his own mind, but as the cinema release date of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 loomed, the switch back was ushered along like a confused passenger by an impatient stewardess to his seat. Just in time for the cinemas.

SONY & FOX
It’s bad enough Marvel has inter-body upheavals to contend with, but she also has other institutions that threaten her IP control. So, a brief history- in the mid-1990’s Marvel was pretty much bankrupt. Strapped for cash, they decided to sell the film rights of numerous Marvel characters to various film studio and production giants. Sony got The Amazing Spiderman. Fox however got the jackpot with X-Men and Fantastic Four. Since Marvel got their gwop up recently being swallowed by Disney and the success of their Marvel Studios films, they have managed to buy back most of their film / IP rights that they sold off in the past. Apart from the likes of Spiderman, X-Men and Fantastic Four.

For a second it seemed some middle ground was being met by having a Spider-Man / Civil War but that fizzled out to nothing. But the most legal strain has surely been between Fox and Marvel. Fox is having way too much fun with the X-Men, with the Apocalypse film already casting and the much fanboy-loathed reboot of the Fantastic Four.

Marvel’s response? Legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont has been directed by Marvel editors not to create new mutant characters that Fox could then use in their films. The Fantastic Four reboot has been made the butt of a fantasy killing on Marvel’s pages, and the “first Marvel family” is set to end FOURever. Even killing Deadpool in the comics (who is part of the X-Men universe), could be seen as a means not to give much fanfare to the upcoming Deadpool film starring Ryan Reynolds.

But these are only half measures. So Marvel to even more drastic measures and put on their Soviet thinking caps with the extinction level event succinctly called Secret Wars. A giant reboot button as a means, we hypothesise, of clearing and nullifying the power of Fox IP treasure trove by Marvel effectively performing a lobotomy on itself.
 
In part we understand Marvel’s frustration, particularly with dealing with Fox. Alot of people though would maybe see it as karma, with the amount of years Jack Kirby had to suffer through Marvel’s legal playground. We think it’s quite potentially an unhealthy time for Marvel, even as she gears up to take over both the silver screen and TV on Demand like AKA Jessica Jones and Daredevil.

The fact of the matter is less effort will be made in Marvel’s comics department. In fact, Marvel has stated it will be drastically cutting down on comic book production during the publishing of Secret Wars. The space Marvel needs to occupy is that of Image Comics, as they seem to have found some equilibrium between the film and comic world, granted they are technically ‘smaller’ in scale but nevertheless award-winng juggernauts. The Walking Dead anyone?! But effectively, Marvel Studios seems to have taken precedence over everything else, and the comics, well, are becoming no more than intricate fliers for films “coming soon to theatres near you”.