On Monday, August 31, 2009, the worlds of the Marvel Universe and the Magic Kingdom collided as The Walt Disney Company announced plans to buy Marvel Entertainment for slightly over $4 billion. Almost immediately, the Disneyana types were excited and the Marvel Zombies were mortified.

Will Mickey Mouse become the newest member of the X-Men? Will Wolverine become a star on Disney on Ice? Will Hannah Montana dress up like Dazzler on an episode of her series? Will they pit Marvel’s Hercules versus Disney’s Hercules? Will Pinocchio be accused of being a mutant? Will The Incredibles fight against and later with the Fantastic Four? Actually, I’d like that one to come true to tell you the truth.

Most critics of the acquisition fail to realize that the same studio that gave us Hannah Montana, Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and G-Force also gave us Gargoyles, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lost, Scream, Kill Bill, Trainspotting, and Clerks. Needless to say, the initial reaction has cooled down compared to what happened upon the announcement. Now, a little clarity is in order.

The long and short of it all. Marvel is still going be Marvel, just with Disney money and global reach behind it. That’s not to say there aren’t going to be changes on both sides.. A little breakdown of what exactly went down:

1. What exactly happened?

The Walt Disney Company has announced that they are acquiring ownership of Marvel Entertainment in a stock-and-cash deal for $4 billion, not including debt (that, along with the transition fees and such, will actually make the deal about $6.4 billion in total). Disney will have 100% ownership in Marvel Studios (film and television production), Marvel Characters (intellectual content company), Marvel Animation, Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz), and, of course, Marvel Comics. Marvel will now be owned by the same company behind Mickey Mouse, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lost, SportsCenter, The Golden Girls, Hannah Montana, The Incredibles, Power Rangers, Gargoyles, and The Muppets.

What this also means is that Marvel is no longer the world’s largest independent company, but rather a part of the Disney corporate machine not unlike how it’s longtime rival, DC Comics, is part of Disney’s longtime rival Time Warner’s corporate machine. Some might see it as a bad thing. Some might see it as a good thing. I’m still looking at both sides myself because, at least from a business and creative perspective, it’s a good thing, at least on Disney’s end.

2. Wait, what about the current film and programming deals Marvel has with companies like Sony, Paramount, Universal, Fox, Lionsgate, Cartoon Network, BET, and Nickelodeon?

The current deals with the Spider-Man and Men in Black franchises at Sony, the Marvel Studios deal with Paramount Pictures, Universal’s Hulk franchise, and Fox’s deal with the Fantastic Four and X-Men/Wolverine franchises are still valid and will be honored by Disney. However, beyond the duration of the deals, Disney intends on becoming sole distributor of those projects.

The Lionsgate DTV projects are still a go, though Disney could eventually take over distribution of anything after the deal (whether that includes the upcoming Japanese adaptations of Iron Man and Wolverine is to be certain the closer they’re completed and distributed). As for Nickelodeon’s current programming deal involving Iron Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and the 2000s Fantastic Four animated series as well as Cartoon Network’s deal to air Marvel Super Hero Squad and BET’s upcoming Black Panther could be in jeopardy in 2010 and could end up elsewhere, particularly Disney XD.

3. Disney XD? What’s that?

To talk about Disney XD, you have to go back to the glorious era of cartoons on cable television. Cartoons were on Cartoon Network on a daily basis. Spongebob Squarepants wasn’t on Nickelodeon. Fox Kids was still on weekday mornings and afternoons as well as Saturday mornings on Fox. 4Kids Entertainment was preparing to syndicate Pokemon that fall. For you younger readers, syndication was a practice studios used to distribute first-run programming as well as off-network reruns that didn’t appear on cable first and used for more than just trashy “talk shows” and court shows.

While Disney was preparing to release Pixar’s second film, A Bug’s Life, they were preparing to launch their second family-themed network, Toon Disney, which would be a commercial-based outlet unlike sibling network Disney Channel, which had just become a basic network rather than subscription-based. Over the years, Toon Disney failed to make an impact. When they introduced Jetix in 2004, many felt it was the beginning of the end of Toon Disney, especially with the dependence on boys’ entertainment and the live-action Power Rangers, which was a gateway to bring in more live-action to Toon Disney.

Good call to those that felt that way.

Disney XD is Disney’s male-oriented network formed from the ashes of Toon Disney after that channel was burned by Jetix. It’s not on many cable systems, and those where it’s on, it’s a digital cable-only network. The Marvel purchase means that Disney has as library of characters they could adapt into live-action and animated projects exclusively for the network. Disney already owns the pre-1997 Marvel Animation library as well as broadcast rights to the Film Roman-produced X-Men Evolution and the Sony-produced Spectacular Spider-Man, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to add more Marvel programs to that channel.

Plus, unlike the Power Rangers franchise (which may or may not be on its last legs depending on the source), Disney would own the Marvel franchises lock, stock, and barrel. In fact, it is believed that Disney XD will be the first Disney outlet to directly benefit from the Marvel purchase. For example, if Marvel wanted to make an animated version of The Avengers, they could. If they wanted to make a Teen Titans-like adaptation of New Warriors or Power Pack, they could. If they wanted to make a live-action series based on Runaways or Araña (think a female Spider-Man/Buffy the Vampire Slayer hybrid), they could. And they’d make for great television possibilities and give Disney XD a foot up on the competition that Cartoon Network once had back when they exclusively showed cartoons and didn’t want to be a third-rate kids’ network.

4. What about the Marvel-themed section of Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios in Orlando?

That’s a tough question and one that could get pretty ugly before it all ends. For now, the section of the park isn’t going anywhere. They’re safe. Spider-Man, The Hulk, Doctor Doom, Iron Man, Wolverine, Storm, all of those characters will be a part of Universal Studios as long as Universal wants them there. They’re just not going to add any new characters or expand on the characters they’ve got at the park. But if it’s one thing Disney knows how to do, its bury their competition, something they have almost 90 years of experience of doing.

5. Speaking of characters, does Marvel REALLY have over 5000 characters?

Yeah, they do.

The core Marvel Universe, Earth-616, are the most familiar ones to the general public. There’s also the Ultimate Universe characters, the 2099 characters, the New Universe, the Squadron Supreme universe, the Ultraverse, the Microverse (home of the Micronauts), the Earth X universe, the Spider-Girl universe, the recently-acquired Marvelman stable of characters, the Genesis universe (mostly populated by public-domain characters), the Aircel Comics titles (including Men in Black), and many, many, many variations of familiar characters and universes.

Not to mention the library of characters from their days as Timely Comics and Atlas Comics like Ziggy Pig, Silly Seal, Super Rabbit, Dippy Duck, Melvin the Monster, Powerhouse Pepper, Millie The Model, and a whole host of characters you’ve never heard of. I don’t know if anybody actually counted them, but it’s probably roughly between 2500 and 6000 characters and counting.

6. Good to know they’re still creating characters. Now, will Disney stifle creativity at The House of Ideas?

On the offset, Disney has announced that they’re going to treat Marvel the same way they treat Pixar. They’re going to still be an autonomous unit free from editorial control from Disney folks who don’t know how to handle the characters. In fact, Disney has been on the record as saying they’re “not only buying great characters, stories and brands, but also excited about working with people who know those characters best and how best to work with them in other media.”

However, I think there could be trouble if Marvel wants to, say, kill a marketable property in the future. I doubt Disney would have let Marvel kill the original Captain America after a major storyline or make Spider-Man sell the soul of his marriage to save his aunt (seriously, I’m still pissed over that), but if DC could kill Superman and take him away from the Earth and his own comics and kill off Batman by, more or less, trapping him in a past where nobody would be looking for him at all, Marvel should be fine.

7. Sorry. Kind of zoned out when you said Pixar and Marvel in the same sentence.

Yeah, Pixar and Marvel are going to be really close when the deal is completed. John Lasseter, head muckety-muck at Disney Imagineering and Pixar, broke bread with Marvel types and practically got giddy over potential projects the two companies could collaborate on together. If anything,good could come out of all of this, it’s Pixar working on Marvel-created properties.

They probably wouldn’t make a major property like Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, or Fantastic Four into an animated film, at least not initially, but they could turn a smaller property like, say, New Warriors, Power Pack, Prime, or even a newer property like Skottie Young and Eric Shanower’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz adaptation. Of course, animation should be fair game for the most part for Marvel properties since they do have all animation rights. So, the skies the limit. I’d personally would love to see Galactcus animated without looking cel-shaded or like a cloud in a Silver Surfer film.

8. Okay, I went back and noticed you made a DC Comics reference. Have they publicly responded to the deal, and what do they plan on doing?

Neither DC Comics nor its own entertainment juggernaut of an owner Time Warner has made a public announcement about Disney’s purchase of Marvel. Aside from the now-dormant Blade franchise, Warner has no connection to Marvel. They’re just going to continue doing what they’re doing. Take that as you will, though I’ll take it as a bad thing because, if anything, DC Comics and Time Warner are tenuous yet successful partners in what they do, especially with their animated productions. Perhaps in the end, Disney will look at Time Warner’s example and treatment of DC Comics and learn from its successes and mistakes when the ink on the Marvel acquisition is finally dry.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert or anything. I just pay attention. But am I happy with Disney buying Marvel? I’m a little torn. As a Warner Bros. cartoon fan, I was literally born to hate the Disney characters (even though I find Donald Duck and Goofy great cartoon characters), and as a DC Comics fan, I was literally born to hate the Marvel characters (though to be fair, Spider-Man is in my top five list of superheroes along with Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Plastic Man). I still have a feeling Marvel is going to end up affecting the storylines in the comics, even though they said they wouldn’t. On the other hand, Disney and Marvel are, to paraphrase Wolverine’s famous quote, the best they are at what they do, and what they do is pretty damned sweet. There’s a reason Disney is still considered the standard all media companies adhere to and why Marvel is called The House of Ideas.

Whatever happens, it’s going to be a fun time.

Photo: lkayama

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To my delight, there is a way. Audio books! Anyone that has used iTunes or Audible.com knows that the selection of audio books (formerly known as books on tape/CD) is expansive. Just type in an author’s name or book title, and load up your iPod, Zune, or other media device and go! Many of the newest titles are read by authors or celebrities which makes for a wonderful experience. As times are tough, I’m making less purchases and audio books were the first expense to go. Is it back to the library again? Almost, until I discovered Librivox, a free open-source depository for public domain audio books.

Librivox is operated by volunteers recording audio chapters and uploading them to the site. The files are then collected to form an entire book and released as downloads and podcasts. The quality ranges from book to book and among the various volunteer readers. Despite the hodgepodge nature, most of the audio is decent. The content produced is created for the public domain, which means you can redistribute it on your own web site or send files to friends.

The types of books you’ll find on Librivox are considered “the classics,” which include great stories such as Dracula, The Wizard of Oz, Ulysses, A Tale of Two Cities, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Treasure Island. Its all the books I avoided in high school, but now wonder about as an adult. Are they really good or just overrated? Now its time to find out. The site offers non-fiction, essays and poetry collections. I’m already two titles in an I’m hooked. The best thing is that I’m going through a book much sooner than two weeks!

Librivox is perfect for lit junkies looking to cram a few more novels into the day. Now if I want to listen to Charles Fontenay’s Rebels of the Red Planet while doing the dishes, I can.

Photo: flattop341

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The book is centered around the events of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, or as its better known, the World’s Colombian Exposition. Rich details about the daily lives, interests, and motivations help to flesh out what life was really like. The book leads up to Chicago’s attempt to gain prominence in the world by hosting the upcoming World’s Fair. The rivalry between the Windy City and New York is tense, as each argues over their cultural importance. In the end, Chicago secures its position as host of the fair and the story beings to unfold.

The book introduces two side stories. The first is about Daniel Burham, the chief architect of the World’s Fair. His grand ideas is to make Chicago’s fair even more impressive than the one held the previous year in Paris and to out-shine Eiffel’s  tower. Burham’s  fair is to be so spectacular that the globe will recognize America’s commitment to beauty and culture. His grandiose intentions actually worked in favor of the city, resulting in many new jobs in construction, rail operators, and other workers.

With the new influx of people coming into the city, Burham’s project unknowingly created the perfect environment for America’s first serial killer. Henry H. Homles, a local hotel owner, was profiting greatly from all the new arrivals to the city. Holmes takes advantage of the rush of people coming into town, and slowly makes his hotel guests start to disappear. He later decides to take a wild road trip with recently orphaned children after their father suddenly “vanishes” during a hotel stay. Suffice to say, it doesn’t end well.

If you’re not intrigued by the whole murder mystery aspect of the book, the coverage of the World’s Colombian Exposition still makes this a worthy read. I was surprised to read the number of “firsts” the fair brought to America, including the Ferris wheel, Aunt Jemima pancakes, Quaker Oats, shredded wheat, ragtime, cream of wheat, the hula, hamburgers, and Cracker Jacks. This is making me hungry! If you’re a history buff or just like a thriller, get your butt to the library or buy a copy. The book was released in 2003, so there are lots of used copies floating around.  Its a history lesson with a dash of murder…and food.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Twilight

I’m usually a sucker (ha ha) for vampire fiction and paranormal type romance, but even by trashy chick-lit standards, Twilight wasn’t that great.  I’m clearly outside the target demographic of tween and teen girls, but good young adult fiction writing should be able to hold up to a slightly older audience. Young Adult writers need to stay away from the topic of vampires if they can’t figure out how to deal with the adult situations presented.

Vampires are usually old, really old. The idea that they would fall in love with a shy, socially awkward, teenage girl is a bit far-fetched. Teenagers are annoying. I doubt old, powerful, blood-sucking fiends are really all that keen on hanging out with them. Once I mastered the suspension of disbelief it took to accept that Edward would ever love Bella, he started glistening in the sun. WHAT?! Let me say that again. Edward’s skin is glittery in sunlight. Really? Glitter skin? Is that really the best explanation for his sun aversion you could come up with? Sadly, I’ve read Sailor Moon fan fiction better than this book.

What I’m saying is that there are books much better than Twilight.  Probably more than any of us would have time to read. However if you do find the time to read and you’re looking for something like Twilight, but less like crap, here’s a list of my personal picks.

Screaming 13 year old girls with unwarranted crushes on Robert Pattinson aren’t really my thing, so this list wont be populated completely by YA fiction, and it certainly won’t have any Anne Rice since I find her writing obnoxious and pretentious.

The Vampire Diaries series by L.J. Smith

This IS a Young Adult series and one which I feel that Twilight borrows from heavily.  Being YA it does tend to be quite G rated.  No sex or serious violence here kids.  The main character is High School student Elena and she and her friends find themselves wrapped up in the affairs of two vampire brothers.  For all my complaining about teen angst, I have read and re-read this series for years and I cannot recommend it enough.

Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

These are the books that the HBO series True Blood is based on so it should go without saying that these books do contain lots of sex and violence.  Whether you’ve seen the show or not the books are definately worth the read.

Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine

This one’s not a vampire series but instead involves a secret organization of people who control the weather.   Joanne is a weather warden who helps to keep mother nature in check.  She falls into forbidden love with a Djinn, which is basically the equivalent of a genie in a bottle.

Sign of the Zodiac by Vikki Peterson

I’ve sadly, only read the first of these novels, but it has a lot of promise.  Joanna lives in Las Vegas and finds out she has super powers and its up to her to balance good and evil.

Candace Steele, Vampire Killer novels by Cameron Dean

This one reads a bit like Buffy, with a strong female protagonist and quick pacing.  You’ll find that this is clearly chick lit as its somewhat smut laced.

Any other suggestions?  I’m always looking for new books to read.

(photo by: Air Hugs)

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Where exactly is somewhere over the rainbow? For many Wizard of Oz fans, the 1939 MGM film was the beginning and the end of their journey into Oz. The film has become iconic and defined the age of Technicolor and grand movie musicals. New interest in the Oz stories emerged in 2003 with the successful Broadway hit, Wicked, based on Gregory Maguire’s novel. My interest in Oz lead me to search more about the original author, L. Frank Baum and his writings. I was astonished to learn that there are 40 official books published by Baum and his successors that explore the land of Oz.

Being an Oz fan, I’ve been privy to the stories shown in the 1985 Disney film, Return to Oz. The movie features Dorothy, returning to a much darker version of Oz, trying to piece together the cause of the destruction. She meets new friends and eventually re-unites with many of her friends from the original journey, including the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion. It was interesting to find out that this screenplay was a combination of two books that followed “The Wizard of Oz.”

I’ve recently read the sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, which takes place after the events of the first book. With the Wizard now gone, the Scarecrow is left to rule Oz (he was smartest in all of Oz); The Tinman went on to rule the Winkie Country (the land in the west, formerly oppressed by the Wicked Witch); the Cowardly Lion returned to the forest in the southern part of Oz. The story is centered around a new character, a little boy named Tip. The plot shares the same “fish out of water” story line as the original book, as Tip travels towards the Emerald City, collecting new friends on the way. One of the main villains is Tip’s ornery caretaker, Mombi, an old crone that dabbles in magic. It also has an interesting arc of rebellion, as Jinjor (pronounced gin-ger), a female Munchkin, leads an all-female revolt against the Scarecrow’s rule of Oz.

Some of the newly introduced characters are endearing, such as Jack Pumpkinhead, a stick-made man that is brought to life after a dusting of magic powder. Another favorite is the Wogglebug, who’s high fluent attitude and intellect creates a contentious relationship with Oz’s ruler. My favorite is the honest, yet, scarcastic Sawhorse, a wooden creature brought to life by same magic powder.  Baum’s collection of bizarre characters and their origins never cease to amaze.

Over all, I don’t think this is the best book of the series, but it does offer some insight as to how L. Frank Baum envisioned his fantastic land. Many Baum scholars are also quick to note that many of the stories are rich in subtext. Many of the characters represent political ideas and predominant groups of the early twentieth century. Even if you chose to read this book for its fairy tale-like surface, you’ll be able to enjoy the pun-ladened dialog that works so well in all the Oz books. Fans of the MGM film will notice that Baum’s intention was to make Oz a real place, not just a dream. The success of his stage adaptations in the early 1900s lead him to gear the early sequel stories around the friendship of the Scarecrow and Tinman, leaving Dorothy and the Lion completely absent. This attempt was chided by the readers, as they wrote Baum to tell him to bring Dorothy back into the fold. Baum relented and eventually brought all the characters back into the later stories.

The Marvelous Land of Oz was made into a musical in 1981 by The Children’s Theatre Company and School of Minneapolis. The production featured nine original songs and elaborate costumes. The play was filmed and edited for television.

Since The Marvelous Land of Oz is in the public domain, you’re able to read the whole story, free and online. Both the texts and illustrations are freely distributed, so I suggest finding an online edition that features the original format, such as the one offered at Google Books.

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