Marvelous News for Disney?

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

07 Jun 2007 09:45 AM

Is it any surprise with the mega success of Spiderman and the NBC series Heroes and not to mention Disney's previous success with The Incredibles that they are getting into the Super Hero business? Stan Lee, the mastermind and creator behind Spiderman the X-Men and other famous super heroes for Marvel and more has teamed up with the House of Mouse through his POW! Entertainment.

What Does Disney Get out of the Deal?

The first look deal will give Disney a wide variety of entertainment options. POW! Entertainment will develop ideas, characters and more for every aspect of the industry that Disney is in. This includes DVDs, television, computer software, books, magazines, comic books and video games. Disney is a huge entertainment franchise and they will be utilizing the creative side of Stan Lee's genius to develop more projects.

According to Stan Lee:

I can only say we're working on a number of things, and the one common denominator is they're all high-concept projects, and hopefully, they'll all lend themselves to being great franchises.

Disney won't have access to the great legacy characters that Lee has created previously. Characters like Peter Parker (Spiderman) and the Fantastic Four are owned by Marvel Entertainment and many of those characters are already optioned to other studios such as Sony and more.

But Lee is excited about the project because it's about breaking new ground, creating new things and doing more. The Incredibles was often compared to the Fantastic Four when it was released in 2004 and when the live action adaptation of the Fantastic Four came out, it suffered by comparison.

Will Disney use this franchise to build more of a fan base for boys? Potentially, they have girls all locked up with their Disney Princesses line, but my daughter was a huge fan of the The Incredibles so I think that by expanding their Disney Heroes line they can appeal to both markets. I'm excited by the idea because I grew up on comic books, Aesop's Fables and heroic mythology - the world can always use a few more heroes and if Stan Lee and Disney can inspire another generation, I'm all for it.

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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