Cold War: Is Marvel Freezing out Fox?!

Shhhh!.......do you feel that?! A war is brewing. It’s not one that you are bound to hear coming, but rather a quiet one. Subtle warfare.  A cold war. Who knows how far it will go, but most of the time we never know how things will escalate until the battle has been joined by both factions.  No, this isn’t two nations with different ideologies seeking to expand territory or eradicate each other; this is Disney/Marvel vs. Fox Studios.  This may be the start of a long and drawn out conflict between the two juggernauts of the industry, that could have repercussions that will reverberate for years to come in how the comic book industry will license their characters to outside parties. 

 

The buzz has been in the air for some time now that there was a bit of animosity between Marvel and Fox Studios, but the buzz and rumors became louder upon the release of the newest installment of the X-men franchise with X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Now the average fan probably wouldn’t notice, but it became pretty suspicious that there seemed to be no X -Men: DOFP toys released by Marvel to coincide with what could arguably be the biggest Marvel related release thus far, and at this point the lack of merchandising from Marvel is unheard of. 

One of the “reasons” offered in the rumor mill is that Marvel didn’t want to release X-Men toys because it may interfere with the sale of merchandising for Guardians of the Galaxy , which is set to be released in August. Um….yeah, in the realm of marketing strategy what would be viable if X-Men weren’t also a Marvel Universe property. The way I look at it, you can never have too much of a good thing when it comes to merchandising and selling toys to kids.  Go take a look at the toy aisle in your local Target and you will see them littered with Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America & even Amazing Spiderman toys, thus making the absence of the X-Men seem that much more obvious. 

In addition, there is considerable inside information alluding to the possibility that Marvel will temporarily cancel the Fantastic Four books in an attempt to devalue the upcoming Fantastic Four film due to be released by Fox in 2015.  So much so, writers have been actively not using FF characters in other books in the Marvel Universe. When you think about it, you really can’t blame Marvel. I mean why should they go out of their way to promote toy tie-ins for the X-Men when Fox has made it quite clear they have no interest in releasing the property because it’s too much of a money maker for them. Fine then……you make the damn toys Fox!

You want to generate buzz for the Fantastic Four……you do the leg work and make it happen!  Fox obviously didn’t take any steps to obtain merchandising rights, leaving it to the gullible Marvel brass, but now Marvel, with the backing of Disney is playing their hand!

What’s going on you may ask?  Well, it’s quite obvious that Marvel is making it known that they want their properties back in a not so casual way.   A brief history: Back in the mid-90s Marvel was having some financial woes in the sales department. So as a way to stay afloat and generate income, they sold the rights to a few of their properties to be used in movies.  Most notably is X-Men & Fantastic Four (Fox Studios) and Spiderman (Sony).  With the selling of those properties, any and all things associated with them are owned by the respective companies, thus why Marvel cannot use the word “mutant” in their movies or mention X-Men, whereas typically all of these characters live in a shared universe and often interact, date, or fight each other at times. The one loophole they seemed to find was Quicksilver, who will not only appear in X-Men but next year’s Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, due to fact that Quicksilver is not only a mutant; he is also historically an Avenger. (Hope I’m not losing you with the legalese). Same thing with Spiderman with Sony and all things associated with his brand such as Mary Jane, Venom, Green Goblin etc, are all not be mentioned or used by Marvel movies. However relationship between Marvel and Sony seems to be a bit more cooperative.  Marvel has a long history of beefs with Fox over the movie rights. Individually, some pieces of evidence don’t mean much. Coincidental then? Longtime Marvel contributor and Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld doesn’t seem to think so. Here’s a compiled quote taken from his Twitter feed:

“X-Men: Days of Future Past will match If not exceed The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s domestic box office, meaning lots of eyeballs, but there are no toy tie-ins. The Fox shut out is real.

It’s not money that matters in this strategy, it’s the hearts and minds of kids/toy buyers, not-too-subtly communicating what’s “important.”

Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 toys everywhere, X-Men – zippo. No promotions from toy aisles. Starve those properties. Makes X-Men [box office] comeback impressive!

You gotta understand, I love this stuff!! I love the business of comic films/brands and the unique situation Marvel has with their licenses.

My un-informed prediction: Sony will split producing/financing w/Marvel on next Spidey film and open door for inclusion in Avengers 3.”

 While Liefeld is not speaking on behalf of Marvel, per se. His opinion is coming from one that has been working in this industry for over 20yrs.  Only time will tell just where this all will lead us and if Marvel will eventually be able to obtain the rights to arguably their two biggest properties. Me personally, despite how great X-Men: DOFP was, I do relish the day they will return to the Marvel banner and we will finally get an X-Men movie proper.  As it stands right now, Fox & Marvel are at a virtual standstill…….and the cold war forges on. 

 

What's your thoughts on the Disney/Marvel vs. Fox Studios conflict? Do you think the properties should return to Marvel?.....why or why not!?