Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief at Marvel, recently spoke at length regarding the details of the Disney/Marvel merger. Quesada does a great job of reassuring fans that Disney’s plans don’t include changing the way Marvel works.
For those that didn’t get a chance to read the entire interview, we’ve outlined finer points:
- Marvel shareholders still have to vote to approve Disney’s offer. As of right now, the deal isn’t completely closed.
- About a month ago, Bob Iger and the team at Disney asked to meet with Joe Quesada, Dan Buckley, Kevin Feige and a few others. This is when Disney made their offer and when Marvel began deciding whether or not the merger would be mutually beneficial.
- Joe Quesada does his best to keep both Marvel fans and employees in the loop at all times, making such big news a very difficult secret to keep.
- Being smack-dab in the middle of con season, the announcement only served to worsen the effects of con fatigue. Quesada’s loyalty to Marvel and its employees caused him to change his family vacation plans in order make sure he was there to answer questions about the merger.
- Bob Iger is the great-nephew of Jerry Iger who famously owned a Golden Age comic shop with Will Eisner. This plus his overall attitude towards Marvel during the merger assured Quesada things would go as smoothly as possible. Quesada described Iger as “incredibly smart, relaxed, personable and extremely likable.”
- Regarding the merger, Bob Iger stressed elements like “content is king, quality-quality-quality” and made it clear that “he wants Marvel to be Marvel in the same way that Pixar remains Pixar.” Iger answered questions from the Marvel staff about the merger and looked “for guidance as to how to continue to run [Marvel] in the same successful manner it’s always been run.”
- Joe Quesada met with John Lasseter, the chief creative officer at Pixar. After being a part of the Disney/Pixar merger in 2006, Lasseter was able to shine some light on the potential aspects of the Disney/Marvel merger. The specifics of Disney and Pixar’s working relationship “seemed ideal from [Quesada's] point of view, something that would benefit [Marvel] tremendously…There is a level of autonomy that [Pixar] was given, while at the same time using the leverage that a big company like Disney can provide when it comes to the ancillary aspects of what they do for a living.”
- Quesada declined comment on a Marvel/Pixar crossover commenting that “these are exactly the kinds of things that we never discuss openly at Marvel until we’re ready to spring them on our unsuspecting public.”
- Bob Iger made it very clear that Disney has no intention of changing the content of Marvel’s books or sanitizing their material. Quesada laid it out for us: “What this simply means is that Marvel is still Marvel and the comics that you know and love will continue as they always have. And, we’ll continue to give you guys the greatest comics in the world.”
- As of now, The Disney logo will not show up on or in any Marvel books.
- In response to “mature content” Quesada reiterated that Disney has “no intention of altering how we go about our business. Bob made it very clear, the reason Disney made this purchase is because they love what we do and have been big fans of it for some time. They want us to continue doing it and with their global reach, we’ll be able to do it even better.”
- There was no discussion of whether or not Disney characters would show up in / interact with Marvel books and characters.
- When asked about the role Disney will play in publishing, Quesada mentioned that, “as always the market will determine the type of product we put out and the freqeuncy.” On the price of books, “I haven’t had those discussions nor would I as that’s not an area of the business that I’m involved with.”
- Further reassuring any naysayers, Quesada made it clear that their “identity will remain the same, though my guess is that our competitors are hoping for a different outcome…in time everyone will see that Marvel will remain the place that every great talent will want to work at and that fans will continue to love. If anything, that feeling will only be strengthened and amplified and perhaps that’s what scares certain people that like to root against us.”
- Quesada can’t wait to “see a day when comics would be as recognized and revered in the mainstream in the same way as the greatest movies, TV Shows, rock music and novels.” He also stated that “this merger makes me smile and excited about the future of not just Marvel, but the entire comics industry.”
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