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Marvel and Disney 5 years on

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In 2009, a lot of people were upset about Disney purchasing Marvel. They were afraid that their favorite characters were going to become watered down versions of themselves. Five years later, all of those naysayers are the same ones that helped make a movie about a talking raccoon and his best friend the walking tree the highest grossing film of the year.

So, with Big Hero 6 out in theaters (and doing well) and the Avengers Half-Marathon last weekend, I thought it would be interesting to look back and see what Disney has done with Marvel, specifically outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), in the past five years.

One of the first things they did was create a new Avengers cartoon for The Disney Channel. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes lasted two seasons before being scrapped for a different Avengers cartoon: Avengers Assemble! Disney wanted to create its own animated version of the MCU with all of the Marvel cartoons interconnected like their movie counterparts. Unfortunately for EMH, it had already built its own animated Marvel universe (which was awesome) so they had to cancel it in order to start over.

Now they have Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble! and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. with a Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon on the way. To me, this is the closest that Disney has come to making those fans’ fears a reality. With the exception of EMH, these shows are all pretty dull and sacrifice compelling storytelling for a “lesson of the week.”

A notable exception to this is the Phineas and Ferb crossover episode that they did with The Avengers which was hilarious. This is also the second time that Disney has done a crossover with Marvel.

Prep & Landing: Mansion Impossible was the first Disney/Marvel crossover. A back up story in three of Marvel’s main titles, this story featured Wayne and Lanny, the main characters from the vastly underrated Prep & Landing Christmas specials, as they attempt the get the Avengers Mansion ready for a visit from “the Big Guy.” It wasn’t heavy on action or complex plot, but the you can imagine the fun of watching the two elves wander through the mansion.Read More »Marvel and Disney 5 years on

Marvel Cinematic Universe Issues Release Dates through May 2019

Here is what we know from the big Marvel even that happened this morning: Avengers: Age of Ultron — May 1, 2015 Ant-Man — July 17, 2015 Captain America: Civil War — May 6, 2016 Doctor Strange — November 4, 2016 Guardians of the Galaxy… Read More »Marvel Cinematic Universe Issues Release Dates through May 2019

Behind Marvel’s Big Announcement for Iron Man and Captain America

Editor: Please welcome guest author Peter Orrestad as he breaks down the big news in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what it means for our favorite super heros: As was covered on the blog yesterday, Marvel pretty much blew the minds of fans everywhere with… Read More »Behind Marvel’s Big Announcement for Iron Man and Captain America

Iron Man joins Captain America in Marvel Civil War

Last week, while promoting his new movie, The Judge, Robert Downey Jr. teased the audience of The Ellen DeGenerous show by seeming to announce that Iron Man 4 is in the works. Later that day, on the David Letterman show, he denied that announcement. However,… Read More »Iron Man joins Captain America in Marvel Civil War

Robert Downey Jr. Confirms Negotiations for Iron Man 4

Ellen DeGeneres had Robert Downey Jr. on her show yesterday and she was able to extract an answer to one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most interesting questions… will there be any more Iron Man movies staring Robert as Tony Stark? Much to every one’s… Read More »Robert Downey Jr. Confirms Negotiations for Iron Man 4

College Course on Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Ladies and gentlemen of the books, check your course listings, for instead of Chemistry you could be earning credit for studying the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Right now you have to be a student at the University of Baltimore, but if you are look for “Media Genres: Media Marvels” at registration, you and your fellow classmates will soon be exploring Marvel’s modern movie legacy together. The course is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.

According to the press release for the course, “you will scrutinize the intricately plotted world of Marvel films—the Iron Man, Thor and Captain America series, characters from the Avengers, and now the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which is widely expected to be the highest grossing film of 2014 [and] examine how Marvel’s series of interconnected films and television shows, plus related media and comic book sources and Joseph Campbell’s monomyth of the “hero’s journey,” offer important insights into modern culture.”

“One thing we’ll do is dive into the impact of the Guardians of the Galaxy film, which proved two things: Mainstream movie audiences are not remotely tired of superhero movies; and Marvel Studios can now release a sci-fi adventure that actually features talking trees and raccoons,” said course instructor Arnold T. Blumberg, D.C.D. ’04, an adjunct faculty member in UB’s Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences. “It’s not that they’re getting away with it—they’ve created a universe in which fans completely accept these developments, and they’re ready for even more.”
Read More »College Course on Marvel Cinematic Universe

New Extended Trailer from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

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If you weren’t able to make it out to the 17 minute IMAX preview of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, you really missed out. Consider yourself lucky that you won’t have to wait until August 1st to see some of the footage from that special event. Marvel and Disney have released the new trailer that has a ton of new footage from the film. It’s the same preview we saw at the end of the 17 minutes.

Get your tickets from Fandango, enter the Guardians of the Galaxy sweepstakes, and help support The Disney Blog.

This makes it a lot clearer that GotG is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,. which I think will help attract a lot of Marvel Avenger fans who just want to see what’s up.

Full plot synopsis below the jump:

Read More »New Extended Trailer from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel Confirms Peyton Reed as New Ant-Man Director

A little over two weeks after announcing they were parting ways with director Edgar Wright on “Ant-Man,” Marvel has announced his replacement. Peyton Reed will be helming the film, which is already in pre-production. Reed is best known for directing the comedies “The Break-Up” with… Read More »Marvel Confirms Peyton Reed as New Ant-Man Director