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Well this is an interesting one. Recently we ran a piece looking at the absence of comic book characters associated with Fox Studios on the Marvel 75th Anniversary Magazine cover, in favour of the likes of the Inhumans and Captain Marvel.
Well, now I’m being told from a Marvel source that Marvel are intending to put the Fantastic Four comic books on hold, both Marvel Universe and Ultimate. The characters will still appear, but in other folks’ books such as Inhuman and Avengers. And that artwork featuring the Fantastic Four is even being taken down in the company offices.
Twentieth Century Fox pretty much has an eternal claim on Fantastic Four and X-Men movies, if they keep making them, after the deal was done during Marvel’s bankruptcy days, with very little benefit to Marvel.
The belief inside the higher echelons of Marvel is that promoting these properties in comics only benefits Fox’s movies at the expense of those from Marvel Studios. Which is why the Inhumans are being pushed as mutant replacements in the Marvel Universe. And Marvel have been pushing Avengers, Guardians Of The Galaxy and other comics over the X-Men. And while X-Men comics remain solid sellers, they are no longer the focus of internal promotion unless, as with the upcoming AXIS event, the Avengers get equal billing.
If this story is true, we should be able to watch for an absence of Fantastic Four from upcoming solicitations. Will we get an Ultimate FF for September? The August solicitations seem rather final…
ULTIMATE FF #6The Fantastic Four is Marvel’s longest running comic book and is the foundation of the Marvel Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961, even if its sales have varied, it’s considered the cornerstone of the comic books. What will happen if it goes away…?
(W) Joshua Hale Fialkov (A/CA) Andre Araujo
• The ULTIMATE UNIVERSE’S worst nightmare approaches
• Jump into the future of the Ultimate Universe as the DOOMSDAY CLOCK counts down.
• The END of the FUTURE FOUNDATION.
8/13/2014 $3.99
Marvel gave an “no comment” when approached.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05/29/would-marvel-really-cancel-fantastic-four-to-snub-fox/
From Tom Brevoort‘s Tumblr there. And I would like to assure Tom that I am on a fixed salary.
So, yes. More. When I first heard the story, albeit from a Marvel source, I thought it was ridiculous.
That Marvel Comics were to cancel their Fantastic Four comics (though still using the characters in other titles) as a deliberate snub to Fox, currently producing the Fantastic Four movie. With the belief, from on high, that any publication of Fantastic Four comic books only helped Fox Studios at the expense of Marvel Studios. And while X-Men were just too popular comics to cancel, the Fantastic Four… wasn’t. So both comics would be dropped.
There was flimsy evidence to back it up. That the Marvel 75th Anniversary project had no Fantastic Four on the cover, despite being Marvel’s first superhero team, and the core of the modern Marvel comic. I was told that Fantastic Four imagery had been taken down at Marvel’s offices. And then certain very chatty people in the past suddenly clammed up when this was mentioned.
Well, this morning another shoe on the caterpillar dropped. An artist who I have been asked not to name, told me,
I do a number of sketch card projects for Upper Deck and Rittenhouse using Marvel characters. The most recent projects from both companies, one billed as Marvel 75th Anniversary, gave specific guidelines to NOT use any FF characters or supporting cast such as Dr Doom, Galactus, Surfer, Skrulls etc…So… what do we think?
Another source close to Marvel tells me that this is all coming from Marvel CEO and largest Disney shareholder Ike Perlmutter, who has been known to take these kind of things very personally indeed.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that Marvel has a very different relationship with Fox than it does with Sony.
UPDATE: From another artist, here comes the instruction sheet received by sketch card artists.
UPDATEx2: CBR have gone down the rabbit hole with us. More on Bleeding Cool tomorrow…
CBR cannot confirm the exact future of “Fantastic Four” and “Ultimate FF,” but has confirmed with multiple industry sources speaking on the condition of anonymity that a hiatus for the property is reportedly planned, at least as of recently. Plans can change, something that’s potentially more likely now that the situation has been made public. The Fantastic Four characters are said to continue appearing in other Marvel titles, just not in a specifically branded “Fantastic Four” series.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05...uctions-not-to-use-fantastic-four-characters/On Thursday, Bleeding Cool published a report citing "a Marvel source" that Marvel plans to put current ongoing series "Fantastic Four" and "Ultimate FF" "on hold." The reason for this, according to the article, was that the "high echelons" of Marvel believed that continuing to promote the property would bolster 20th Century Fox's films -- Fox has long held the live-action license to both Fantastic Four and the X-Men -- at the expense of Marvel Studios, owned and operated by Marvel's parent company, Disney.
CBR cannot confirm the exact future of "Fantastic Four" and "Ultimate FF," but has confirmed with multiple industry sources speaking on the condition of anonymity that a hiatus for the property is planned, at least as of recently. Plans can change, something that's potentially more likely now that the situation has been made public. The Fantastic Four characters are said to continue appearing in other Marvel titles, just not in a specifically branded "Fantastic Four" series.
In a second report published on Friday, Bleeding Cool stated the initiative stems from Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter. Additionally, Bleeding Cool published a purported instruction sheet distributed to sketch card artists working on a "Marvel 75th Anniversary" trading card set. The sheet listed the following characters as off-limits: the main Fantastic Four of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing and Human Torch; along with associated characters Doctor Doom, Galactus, Silver Surfer, The Watcher and Skrulls.
While Fox also controls the live-action rights to the X-Men -- the latest film in the studio's franchise, "X-Men: Days of Future Past," opened last weekend to $111 million over four days -- Marvel continues to publish a large line of X-titles. The books are still strong sellers -- "All-New X-Men" appeared twice in the Top 20 for April, with "Uncanny X-Men," "Amazing X-Men," "X-Men" and "Wolverine and the X-Men" all in the Top 60 -- so it's possible continued success has spared the line from being specifically targeted. Bleeding Cool's initial report stated that the X-Men comics are "no longer the focus of internal promotion," unless it's in tandem with the Avengers, as in upcoming Marvel event "AXIS."
Spider-Man is also not under Marvel Studios' purview, having long been a live-action Sony Pictures property. Spider-Man does not appear to be affected by these decisions -- just last month, the character starred in the highly touted "Amazing Spider-Man" relaunch, which received more than 500,000 estimated initial retailer orders -- something that's generally credited to a better relationship between Marvel and Sony than Marvel and Fox. Spider-Man also currently stars on the popular Disney XD animated series "Ultimate Spider-Man," produced in-house by Marvel.
The current "Fantastic Four" series launched this past February with a new #1, from the creative team of James Robinson and Leonard Kirk. The book debuted at No. 7 in Diamond's monthly estimated sales charts for February 2014, dropping to No. 44 in Marvel and No. 60 in April -- still placing it ahead of Marvel series including "Captain America," "Iron Man," "Avengers World," X-Force" and "All New Ghost Rider."
"Ultimate FF," set in Marvel's 14-year-old Ultimate Universe, debuted in April from the creative team of Joshua Hale Fialkov and Mario Guevara. The series features only one classic Fantastic Four member in its main cast: Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, joined by Tony Stark (Iron Man), Sam Wilson (Falcon) and Machine Man. The first issue of the series ranked at No. 100 in Diamond's April 2014 chart.
The original "Fantastic Four" #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby debuted in 1961, and is widely considered the start of the current, 50-plus year-old era of Marvel Comics and continuity. If Marvel ultimately ends up not publishing "Fantastic Four" for an extended period of time, history indicates the title's eventual return is nearly inevitable, most likely sooner rather than later. Marvel went nine months without a "Fantastic Four" title in 2011, while the "FF" series took its place. Fox's next "Fantastic Four" film is scheduled for release on June 19, 2015.
Marvel declined comment to CBR on this matter. On Tumblr, Marvel senior vice president of publishing Tom Brevoort responded to a fan inquiry on the issue, writing, "My denying rumors isn’t likely to keep anybody who’s prone to paranoia from panicking. But really, does this even seem remotely plausible to people? Does it make any sense? Folks have a very strange idea as to the way a business is run."
Stay tuned to CBR News for more on the future of the Fantastic Four.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=53158
Esse tópico não é palhaçada, tudo começou com uma estranha imagem do aniversario de 75 anos da MARVEL que não continha nenhum personagem cujos direitos cinematográficos são da FOX.
Isso foi suficiente para o pessoal indagar sobre o assunto, e a resposta anônima que o Bleeding Cool conseguiu foi bem curta e grossa, a MARVEL vai cancelar as revistas do quarteto fantástico (todavia os personagens ainda podem aparecer em outras revistas) e inclusive começou a remover artwork dos personagens dos escritórios da empresa, simplesmente porque não querem continuar promovendo os filmes da FOX.
Mas não termina ai, muita gente especulou se esse rumor não era completa besteira, mas pouco tempo depois alguns artistas de material promocional da MARVEL anonimamente entraram em contato com alguns sites e a MARVEL vai rejeitar imediatamente qualquer material que tiver uso de qualquer personagem do quarteto fantástico (vilões inclusos).
O CBR então foi investigar mais a fundo e confirmou com varias fontes de que um hiatus das revistas do quarteto vem realmente sendo planejado, eles também informam que atualmente as revistas dos X-MEN mesmo que não sendo canceladas (até porque são tantas revistas que com certeza isso afetaria as finanças da empresa) não são mais foco de promoção interno pela MARVEL, exceto se fizerem parte de algum evento crossover com outras revistas (o próximo evento chamado AXIS por exemplo).
Aparentemente o aranha é imune a essa situação, talvez o relacionamento (royaltis?) da MARVEL com a SONY seja melhor, talvez a revista do aranha vendam bem suficiente ou talvez seja porque a MARVEL tem o direito de varias outras propriedades do aranha que eles podem vender.
O Tom Breevort que é vice presidente da MARVEL Publishing negou os rumores quando indagado por um usuário do tumblr. (o que infelizmente não significa muita coisa já que estamos mais que cansados de ver executivo negando uma coisa para ser verdade no próximo dia, isso se não puxam uma desculpa esfarrapada na cara do pessoal).
Eu até acho que demorou, não me entendam mal, qualquer um com meio cérebro entende que a MARVEL se qualquer coisa é beneficiada pelos filmes de suas franquias (independente de serem donos dos direitos ou não), enquanto sumir com a imagem de qualquer franquia sua dos quadrinhos também não vai afetar em absolutamente nada a performance dos filmes nos cinemas.
E enquanto nós adoramos imaginar que "negócios são negócios" a verdade é que é extremamente fácil achar entrevistas, matérias, etc... sobre decisões de negocio motivadas por motivos extremamente infantis, ilógicos e por puro rancor.
Então é isso, não sei se foi a "humilhação" acumulada de ter vendido os direitos dos filmes por praticamente nada, ou se eles simplesmente tiveram alguma negociação recente com a FOX que acabou mal, mas acho que era só questão de tempo isso, ao longo que as franquias da MARVEL no cinema forem se tornando mais importantes para a empresa, acho até provável que eventualmente outras franquias da MARVEL nos direitos de outras empresas tenham o mesmo destino, até porque no final do dia o que a MARVEL COMICS faz de dinheiro não é nem trocado perto do que os filmes estão fazendo.
Alias, considerando que a relação da divisão de cinema com a divisão de quadrinhos é muito ruim (a divisão de cinema por exemplo não quer mais ver imagens e historias dos filmes sendo utilizadas nos quadrinhos exceto se for uma revista baseada nos filmes) eu nem ficaria surpreso se existe até uma parte da MARVEL querendo o fim da divisão de quadrinhos simplesmente porque na visão deles "mancha a marca", uma visão do mercado de quadrinhos que não é particularmente incomum em hollywood.