One Last Disney-Marvel Thought

[sdelmonte]

Disney bought Marvel because Marvel comes with hundreds of recognizable, established characters. It's why they bought the Muppets, and part of why they bought Pixar. There's no need to create anything new.

Which is becoming the dominant mode of so much of pop culture. By my reckoning, the last time a hit film was built around a new character was (rather ironically) Pirates of the Caribbean, when Jack Sparrow burst forth. Since then, it's a steady diet of familiar faces, even in great films like The Dark Knight and the Hellboy films. The only people who don't fall back on established characters for their hits are the Pixar geniuses, and even they are doing sequels now. And I cannot recall the last time that Marvel or DC created a totally new breakout hero.

I know that some TV shows are totally original, from Lost to Mad Men, and that you can turn old ideas into genius. But in a fall that includes not just TV shows based on films but second efforts to turn films like Parenthood into a series, after a summer where originality was a premium in the blockbusters, and on a day when Disney takes another step towards never having to develop new characters, I find myself wondering about where the next Spider-Man, the next Jack Sparrow, the next New Thing will come from. And if anyone will notice.

Comments

[dotfic.livejournal.com]

I sometimes ask myself that question. But wonder if that's sort of missing the broader picture. I mean, will people really stop creating new characters to build new franchises around?

Look how long people have been telling the King Arthur story over and over and over.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

And I cannot recall the last time that Marvel or DC created a totally new breakout hero.

How big is "breakout"? Does Static count on the DC side?

[sdelmonte]

It depends on who you ask. Dwayne McDuffie would say that Static is not a DC character, and was more or less stolen by them of late.

All I can say is

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

Doctor Horrible