By Joshua H. Stulman

On December 14, Disney and 21st Century Fox announced an agreement had been reached for Disney to purchase 21st Century Fox assets for $52.4 Billion dollars. 21st Century Fox will retain production and rights to Fox News and Fox Sports, but is selling their movie studios and entertainment properties like The Simpsons to Disney. This has major repercussions in the comic book world as Fox Studios owns the movie rights to X-Men, Wolverine, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four. This rights and more will now become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at Disney.

Here is BrooklynComicShop.com ‘s list of 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Disney/Fox Buyout.

10. Marvel Studios Now Controls Almost All Of Its Characters

Many people already know that the buyout mean the X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four come to Marvel. This also mean many of their related characters come with as well. This includes major characters like the Silver Surfer, Galactus, the Skrulls, and Mephisto!

9. Marvel Is Still Divided

Marvel has done a good job of recapturing movie rights to its characters. However it’s missing full control over several characters. This includes Universal’s rights to Hulk films, and Sony’s Spider-Man franchise and related characters like Venom. The fate of one of Marvel’s earliest character, the Submariner, is still in limbo.

8. Fox and Disney Have Been Anticipating The Buy For Many Years

As early as the first Captain America film, Disney included a brief appearance and reference to the original Human Torch seen in a Worlds Fair exhibit. Fox’s recent Deadpool movie featured a Disney owned S.H.I.E.L.D. heli-carrier as the backdrop for its final scenes.

7. Star Wars Is Also Re-united!

After the Lucas deal with Disney, he rights to make future films based on old and new characters were transferred to Disney but not the distribution rights to the original Lucas films. Now everything Star Wars is under Disney so expect those box sets to start rolling out. Does this mean we will finally see the Star Wars holiday special on DVD?

6. Key Marvel Stories Can Be Made

The buyout means that Marvel has the ability to produce faithful adaptions of key storylines including Inferno, Acts of Vengeance, House of M, Heroes Reborn, and most importantly the Infinity Gauntlet trilogy and Secret War!

5. Famous Battles Are A Go!

Ever want to know who’s stronger Hulk or the Thing? Now you can and more. Marvel can now produce a faithful adaptation of Wolverine’s first app in Incredible Hulk #181.

4. Quicksilver Is Alive!

One of the quirks prior to the Disney purchase was the dual identity of Quicksilver as both a mutant and an early Avenger. The X-Men version was related to Magneto as in the comics but the Disney version had his twin sister Scarlet Witch. Disney’s Quicksilver was killed off in Avengers 2 but Fox’s Quicksilver still lives in the X-Men universe. Yay!!

3. More Superhero Teams

Prior to the deal Disney had to reconfigure heroes to make up classic groups i.e. Daredevil in Defenders. Now Disney can have classic teams like the Secret Defenders, Champions, and New Avengers!

2. Disney Buys Hasbro Toys

Hasbro has been the toy manufacturer of choice for both Marvel and Star Wars for almost a decade since the fall of Toy Biz in 2007. Mattel currently holds the master license for all D.C. Comics toys, so Hasbro is the only real option for Marvel. This deal is inevitable.

1. Avengers vs. Justice League

Well not quote yet but Disney takes the first step by unifying its Marvel brand. D.C. And Marvel team ups have occurred many times since their Superman vs Spider-Man book in 1976 (no I’m not counting the Wizard of Oz Treasury Edition). A precedent for Disney and Warner Brothers working together already exist with the Disney/Looney Tunes crossover film “Who Framed Roget Rabbit?” While it might not be today, tomorrow, or 10 years from now. When the superhero genre begins to wane, you know they always have that in their back pocket!

Joshua H. Stulman, Owner

Brooklyncomicshop.com