One doesn’t need to be a movie industry analyst to know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and all other Marvel film and TV productions, have been almost always strong contenders. The MCU films definitely could be counted on to bring in the box-office money, thanks to their great arc-based interconnected storylines and greater visual effects.
It’s easy to forget that the plots of these films are adapted from storylines in Marvel Comics, the original primary arm of Marvel Entertainment which is now a Disney subsidiary. Without the stories written, drawn and inked by various comic book creative teams over the years, they’d have nothing to turn into a successful franchise.
That’s why a recent unfounded rumor, while dismissed by more sensible observers, still managed to cause a panic due to sensationalized reporting over the weekend. The general gist was that Disney was planning to simply shut down Marvel Comics, and focus the Marvel branding on films and TV shows instead.
While it’s true that the comic publishing branch of Marvel, like the whole superhero comic-book industry, is a pale shadow of their past printing output, such an overreach as a closure on Disney’s orders was unbelievable, and for good reason.
It all started from an announcement by Marvel that its Editor in Chief C.B. Cebulsky and Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada were opening a conference panel during the South by Southwest media conglomerate this mid-March. Their panel would discuss the process of adapting Marvel Comics storylines to the big screen.
When a news source interpreted the event as an attempt by Marvel’s comic-book division to highlight its role in creating source material for MCU productions, it started a speculation frenzy preying in unfounded fears that Disney was simply shutting down the low-productivity Marvel Comics arm.
Already Quesada has pooh-poohed the rumors as a dumb conspiracy theory on Twitter. Perhaps he and Cebulksy can shed more light on this during the 2019 SXSW event starting this March 8, until 17. In the meantime, the next MCU film “Captain Marvel†will premiere stateside on that same day.
