The history of Marvel's movie deals.

Recap for those who haven't kept up.....

All righty, so, back in the 90's, Marvel the comic book company was being mis-managed as badly as WB/DC movies are being today.
There's a whole long saga I could write about that, but let's skip past that for now.
The company finally filed for bankruptcy.
They came > < this close to winking out of existence.
Thankfully for the world, they didn't.

As part of the path to climbing out of the hole, they scattered their movie rights to the four winds like dandelion fluff to just about everybody.

This is where ALL the fucking trouble started.
All the bullshit getting the pieces to come back together has been because of this.


Blade Trilogy (1998-2004)

New Line got Blade, and they were the first ones out of the gate with a Marvel movie.
This got the ball rolling.
This showed everyone else you could make a successful movie with these characters.

Marvel has Blade back now, but they haven't done anything with him yet.


X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra
(2000-2017)

Fox got all of these, and started off with X-men, which was a hit, and they're still playing in that universe today.

Daredevil and Elektra, not so much.

They reverted back to Marvel, and Daredevil got made into a Netflix show, and Elektra has popped up on his show. As has the Punisher, but we'll get to him.
The Netflix shows of course, connect to the MCU.

X-Men and Fantastic Four are about to go back to Marvel as we speak.
Which is why I'm writing this post in the first place.


Spider Man (2002-Present)

Sony got Spider-Man, and after X-Men proved successful, they made the first Raimi-Spidey, which was a monster hit, and that truly (IMHO) led to the MCU.

Sony and Marvel cut a deal to share Spidey, so Marvel doesn't technically "have Spider-Man back", but he gets to play in the MCU, and they profit off him being in their films, so....to every fan's mind, he's effectively back.

To Marvel's mind he's back too, that "Homecoming", in the title doesn't just mean Petey goes to the school dance.

Spidey is about to be in "Avengers: Infinity War", and in a couple years, a sequel to "Homecoming".
Whether Sony will re-up the deal after that is anyone's guess.
They'd be total fools not to though.


Hulk, The Incredible Hulk (2003, 2008)

Universal had Hulk, and once they saw Spider-Man be a huge hit, they jumped on making a Hulk film.
Critics weren't kind, a lot of geeks still sneer at it, but I liked it.

Then, when the MCU started to be a thing, they shared with Marvel, and put the next one into canon.
As I've pointed out before, you can kinda sorta almost wedge the Ang Lee one into MCU canon if you really want to.

Universal has a weird deal where they still own the distribution rights to solo Hulk movies, but if Marvel puts Hulk into a team-up movie, Universal gets nothing.
Which is why Hulk has stayed in Avengers movies since 2012.
When/if Universal's rights lapse is anyone's guess.

Hulk was last seen in "Thor: Ragnarok", and is going to be in "Avengers: Infinity War".

Universal is still sitting on the rights to Sub-Mariner....but no one seems to care.
Hey, if they some day crank out a Sub-Mariner movie, I'll be there, but it's not a character I'm dippy about. Wake me when it happens.


The Punisher, Punisher: War Zone, Man-Thing (2004-2008)

Lionsgate got these.

I of course worship the 2004 Punisher.

War Zone I've grown more affectionate towards.
Patton Oswalt built a cult around it just by raving about it on a podcast.

Lexi Alexander (director of War Zone) has directed a bunch of TV, and is about to do a bio-pic on Chris Benoit.
Disturbing subject matter, but a story that needs telling.
She's awesome, I hope the flick is a hit.
If not, then maybe Oscar bait.

Man-Thing....is the worst thing ever done involved with Marvel.
I finally saw this a couple years back.
Screw "Howard The Duck", screw "Inhumans", screw "Iron-Fist", even screw Roger Corman's "Fantastic Four", this ought to be the movie that trips off people's tongues when they talk about the bad end of the Marvel spectrum.

Boring story, boring pace, shitty detestable characters, below porno level acting, it's a fucking abomination.
No theatrical release, this went straight to SyFy.
WTF were they thinking?

Punisher reverted back to Marvel, and he premiered on Daredevil's Netflix show, and then just this year got his own Netflix show which was the best of all the Netflix/Marvel shows, and was (IMHO) the best Punisher adaptation period.
Yep, sorry Tom Jane, you've been bumped down the list.

Man-Thing reverted back to Marvel, and his face as a statue is an Easter egg in "Thor: Ragnarok".
So, there's a missing movie somewhere where he fought in Goldblum's gladiator ring.


Ghost Rider, 
Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance 
(2007-2011)

Columbia got these.

I finally saw them.
First one's watchable if you make fun of it.
Second one is just torture.

Ghost Rider reverted back to Marvel, and they put him into "Agents Of Shield".
Which of course connects to MCU.
He was awesome.
I wish they'd just give Ghost Rider a spinoff, cancel Shield, and give GR their time slot.
It's what everyone wants!
But..they're being stubborn.
Or, more specifically, Ike Perlmutter is being stubborn.
ABC just tried to cancel Shield, but Perlmutter said "no".


The Marvel Cinematic Universe 
(2008-Present)

Kevin Feige worked on 13 of the above movies that led up to this, and his experience with those showed him what worked, and what didn't.
So, with a fistful of characters that reverted back to Marvel because no one else used them, and a bold vision, and balls big enough to carry in a wheelbarrow, he hatched his plan.

He took out a multi-billion dollar loan, using the box-office of X-Men, and Spidey, (and some of the others that did all right, but also didn't suck) as proof to the bank they were a good risk, and founded a separate Marvel studio.

Then, out rolled Iron Man, and they were off to the races.

Then, Disney bought them out for 5 billion, which paid off their loan, and wiped away the residual bankruptcy damage, and got them back into the black once and for all.

The first movie under Disney was "The Avengers".

Their ABC shows spun off soon after.

The first season of Daredevil on Netflix not long after that.

Along the way, they got back Spider-Man (see above).

And, Disney's supposed to announce their acquisition of Fox Studios, and thus the return of X-Men and Fantastic Four, this Thursday.

The next couple movies are gonna be "Black Panther", and "Avengers: Infinity War".

So, while the slow re-assembly of the Marvel universe in movies may have been torture for geeks like me, if Kevin Feige didn't gain experience with those first 13 movies, and if some of them weren't the hits they were, there'd BE no MCU for them to re-absorb into.

So, in the long run, that Marvel bankruptcy had its good side.
Who woulda thunk, huh?

Maybe DC needs to crash to be reborn too.
Who knows....