User blog:Astroarnav/At long last...

22 years ago, Marvel Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and in a last-ditch effort to get any money, they sold the film rights of all their characters to different studios. 20th Century Fox got their hands on the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, SHIELD, and Daredevil; Sony got their hands on Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Venom, Thor, and Luke Cage; Universal got the Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Namor; Lionsgate had the Punisher and Swamp-uh I mean Man-Thing, and Warner Bros. retained the rights to Captain America, and received Blade through New Line Cinema.

Those film rights have gone through some very weird developments. Iron Man made his way to New Line, then to Paramount; Cap also went to Paramount, as did Thor. Even though Hulk was still at Universal, Marvel saw this as an opportunity to make a deal with Paramount (and Universal) to collect the core members of the Avengers. While the X-Men, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four were continuing their own powerful franchises, Marvel Studios began to rise in power. It was with enough time and success, as well as the release of the Avengers movie, that more rights began coming back to them. From Daredevil to Taskmaster to SHIELD to Punisher to Iron Fist to Luke Cage to Doctor Strange to Man-Thing, and even Spider-Man! They were successfully building up what could be a larger scale universe.

But even as the MCU was blossoming, and gaining competent competitors in DC, there was a gap that they just couldn't properly help. The absence of the Fantastic Four prevented the franchise from reaching true potential on the cosmic expansion level, even with the Guardians of the Galaxy there to give way to that. Without the F4, they lose the Negative Zone, the Multiverse (the real one), Prison 42, Latveria, Annihilus, and of course, the Silver Surfer and Galactus. Apparently there was a case where they approached Fox to keep Daredevil in exchange for  those last two rights, but they rejected. Of course. As for the X-Men, they were kicking ass and making millions in their own franchise, but the absence of the Avengers hindered them from exploring their mythos beyond mutants, and the MCU's response to X-success was ill-fated and ill-attempted. Many were petitioning to bring back the Fox properties back to Marvel (now owned by Disney), but the implications seemed too difficult at the time, and with the introduction of R-rated films like Deadpool or Logan it was near impossible.

But now, all of that is going to change! As of today, Disney has struck a deal to buy the media assets of 21st Century Fox, and an official press announcement highlighted that the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool, and all related Marvel franchises would be among the properties bought by Disney. This resulted in MUCH rejoice from fans, after waiting so long for the entire family to come back together. However, many were worried because of Disney's family-friendly policy that usually restricts R-ratings, and because of the general incompatibility of the timelines it would issue another reboot. But wait! There's more! New developments from the CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, suggest that Disney is considering opening an R-rated brand for the likes of Deadpool 2 and the New Mutants, and is opting to keep Ryan Reynolds and his Wade Wilson should they go to the MCU. For those worried about the XCU, the X-Men may not be getting a reboot, as production on X-Men: Dark Phoenix and the New Mutants haven't halted. However, a reintroduction for the F4 is imminent, and Avengers 4 is reportedly getting a rewrite.

Why I'm making a blog for this is because of this wiki as a whole. Title pages for characters like Iron Man and Wolverine don't differentiate what continuities they hail from, and it creates this feel that they have existed together in this universe forever. And now, it's no longer a fantasy.

I remember making this photo on GIMP, and how much heart went into it. For those who don't know, it's a parody of the Marvel Heroes wallpaper with a comicbook art style. I was initially thinking of editing it, changing the captions that not only say "United we stand, divided we fall", but also "Divided we stand, united we fall". But I'm not, no matter how much I want to, because regardless of whether these heroes are sharing the screen, or delving into separate stories, they will always be a part of the Marvel Universe, and will always be in the same universe, with each Marvel Movie.



Shame no one's payin' attention to this because of the freakin' FCC...