What IF? Marvel really did buy DC

[Artistsean]

What probably would have happened, instead of DC characters being added to Marvel, they most likely would have just dissapeared from comics all together.
Thats exactly what happened with Prime and every character from Ultraverse, after Marvel bought them out.

Now adays, Marvel might still do that, but maybe they would see how much money these characters (like Wonder Woman or that Flash) would make them and actually use them.

 

[MangleBoP]

EDIT.

 

[MangleBoP]

If either of The Big Two were to buy out the other, they would milk that cow until the **** fell off!! There is no way in hell would any of the iconic charectors would ever be "shelved" or "erased"!

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

If Marvel buys DC?

Lois starts acting like a ***** to Clark, then she supposedly dies in an exploding air plane because she's 'aging' the Clark Kent / Superman character.

The Joker would pluck out Batman's eye and force him to be reborn into a totemic bat-god who would eat the Joker's head off.

The Flash mantled would be retconned to being only ever held by Jay Garrick because 'the fans' want to see a 'swingin' speedster'.

Vandal Savage will take over a small Eastern European nation and begin amassing an army of Savage-bots, robots that eat other robots. The Red Tornado's habit of being blown up is replaced by getting eaten every few months forcing Justice League members to go "OMG! You ate Tornado!", "You bastards!".

Everytime Ion does anything, even so much as burp, draw something, or eat some chili fries... THE INTERNET WILL BREAK IN HALF!

Zatana will speak a phrase that shakes the DCU for at least 8 - 10 months before they start getting bored with it.... "SATEM EROM ON"

Yeeaaah... No.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

was this a real possibility a few years ago? cos of monopoly reasons it never wuda been allowed. and (havin read a cupla comics) HOW wuda it stopped image's creation?? there wuda been a crisi. DC's universe wuda been under threat and it wuda merged with marvel's.
so daily planet is daily bugle's main competitor.
superman gets involved in the kree-skrull war.
lex luthor and norman osborn embark on a businees war that turns into a super-powered war. (lex having discovered how to create the mutant gene in people, much like he's doin in 52 right now)

theres lots of cool possibilities. animal man can get in on spider-man's totemistic nature and all that jazz...

 

[supermarvelman]

It wouldn't have been a monopoly there are many other comic companies out there, they just aren't as big as DC and Marvel.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It would've been a monopoly. There are other publishers out there, but the only real competition Marvel and DC get is from each other. Look at the sales numbers. They're almost always split about half and half between Marvel and DC, with one taking a slight majority and the other publishers making up the leftover percentage points.

 

[supermarvelman]

I think DC's Universe wouldv'e been a seperate universe in Marvel's multiverse, along with the rest of DC's universe's, like the the Squadren Supreme universe, AoA, and 2099.

 

[supermarvelman]

It would've been a monopoly. There are other publishers out there, but the only real competition Marvel and DC get is from each other.

Just because Marvel and DC are eachothers only REAL competition doesn't mean it would be a monopoly.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

True, it wouldn't be a literal monopoly, but it'd be pretty damn close. Marvel/DC would probably take up about 98% of the sales figures, with the other publishers splitting the remaining 2% among themselves.

 

[supermarvelman]

They already do. So it really wouldn't make a difference.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

No, Marvel takes up about 50%, DC takes up about 48%, and the other publishers take up about 2%. There's still competition between Marvel and DC. Merge DC with Marvel and Marvel's primary competition goes away. A lack of competition tends to make quality drop, since people are going to buy their crap anyway. Ergo, Marvel's comics would have nothing to compete with and their quality would probably drop over time. More than they already have. Which would suck.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

It wouldn't have been a monopoly there are many other comic companies out there, they just aren't as big as DC and Marvel.

i study economics. in theory 1 firm industry = monopoly. in practice 25%=monopoly power. Marvel and DC hold duopoly power over the market. if they were to merge itd be rediculous.

it can easily be shown with a 5-firm concentration ratio. what concentration of the market is held by the top 5 comic companies? its probs sumthin like 99%! DC, marvel, image and what they own (top cow, vertigo, abc comics etc) [who owns dark horse??] is the far majority of the market.

DC and marvel grew to their size, rather like microsoft. but if a company tries to buy that sort of power the competition commission would stop it. microsoft cannot buy out apple, for example, without selling off other parts of its business. it would never happen. even the dwindling comics industry wouldnt be allowed to fall into a worse situation of monopoly-power abuse.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Dark Horse is independent of Marvel, DC, and Image, so it'd be a separate publisher.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

good, but seeing as i thought 99% would be with 5 top companies and i can only name 4 independent from each other it sounds worse! itd be good to see more team-ups though, and in stories that werent done just for commercial reasons

 

[TheCorpulent1]

There's Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Oni, Top Shelf, IDW, Devil's Due... and I think that's all I can remember at the moment.

 

[Roughneck]

considering in order for MARVEL to buy Dc comics, they would need to buy Warner Brothers.....you know they own Dc comics and stuff. so all Marvel has to do is buy a multi-billion dollar movie/media compnay and try not to file for bankrupcy yet again.

mmmmmmm Yeah.....Look into it. WCW was owned by the WB and got sold.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

yeah, being owned by a big company means DC are MORE likely to be sold off. yknow asset stripping and all that

 

[MyPokerShirt]

There's Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Oni, Top Shelf, IDW, Devil's Due... and I think that's all I can remember at the moment.

yeah but those companies dont hold much sway. somebodys probs gona mention hundreds now. but note most people's pull lists ARE mainly marvel/DC. when i got back into comics mine was mostly Image but then i fell back into even more mainstream titles.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I know, but you said you couldn't even think of 5 publishers to make a top 5 list. I was just naming publishers.

 

[MyPokerShirt]

 

[supermarvelman]

No, Marvel takes up about 50%, DC takes up about 48%, and the other publishers take up about 2%. There's still competition between Marvel and DC. Merge DC with Marvel and Marvel's primary competition goes away. A lack of competition tends to make quality drop, since people are going to buy their crap anyway. Ergo, Marvel's comics would have nothing to compete with and their quality would probably drop over time. More than they already have. Which would suck.

Kinda like WWF, WCW, and ECW

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't know, I don't watch wrestling.

 

[supermarvelman]

I dont watch anymore either, I've become one of those people who think it's corny, cheesy, and fake. When I used to watch it, I hated people who thought like that.

But when WWF bought Dubya C Dubya (WCW) the competition was gone and the quality went way down.

It was really cool in the beginning but it died down quick.

 

[KevanG]

If they did merge, they could make a hell of a Marvel Vs DC movie