If you really, really care about all things Disney, then the announcement that Disney is going to acquire Marvel Comics for $4 billion is cause for concern.
Disney is more than a company; it's a 70-plus year old belief system that every kid worldwide seems to adopt at an early age. For some people, the fairy dust dissipates at puberty; for others, it is as ingrained in their personal psyches as much at age 50 as at age 5.
How that feeling can linger much longer, I don't know. Buying up Marvel can't help. We've seen the original Disney characters pushed aside in the past at Disneyland (Toontown, or California Adventure, for example) but I can't bear to see the X Men take over Tomorrowland, or see Spiderman swinging down Main Street USA. I'm sure thousands of people would, but not me. I'm sure it's just not what Walt would have wanted.
Uncle Walt's been dead now (can you believe it?) 43 years, and the stewardship of the Magic Kingdom has strayed from Walt Disney's visage considerably during that time. I like to blame Michael Eisner, the long-time head of the company, but Eisner's been gone now for several years, so who's to say?
Perhaps it's the people that Eisner hired, and still work there; perhaps it's the people who concern themselves with watching the money and the stock price, rather than pretending they work alongside the seven dwarfs or Cinderella.
No matter. I personally now see Disney as just another entertainment empire. Perhaps it was always so, but I think Walt truly wanted us to believe that there was a safe, interesting world of history, science, and nature, and a bright future for all. Bringing Marvel into the Disney fold adds nothing to that vision.
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