Editorial: Marvel and 20th Century Fox Need to Stop Their Pissing Contest Because it Hurts the Fans & Comic Shops

I honestly did not want to have to write about any of this but more and more information keeps hitting the web seemingly confirming that Marvel Entertainment and 20th Century Fox are in the middle of a testosterone-fueled pissing contest right now.

Let me preface what is going on as succinctly as possible.

Fox has the movie rights for X-Men and Fantastic Four but Marvel (and Disney) are increasingly becoming unhappy with this fact. So unhappy that Marvel is not allowing merch for anything X-Men and Fantastic Four, with the rumored exception of Wolverine merch. Plus, no movie tie-in merch — there was nothing for X-Men Days of Future Past — which is a big surprise for Disney because they are merchandising experts who thrive on making tons of money on merch.

Now, Marvel is canceling all of their Fantastic Four comic books in early 2015. This is allegedly being done to not support Fox's The Fantastic Four reboot that is coming in August 2015. Some may think The Fantastic Four reboot could be the reason the comics are being canceled, so they can be more cohesive with the rebooted movie. More and more evidence is being presented that implies Marvel is not doing this and the publisher is sidelining Fantastic Four comics for the foreseeable future.

Now with a Deadpool movie greenlit, does this also mean less Deadpool from Marvel in the coming year(s)? This would be a huge shock seeing as how Deadpool is everywhere and easily one of the publisher's Top 5 characters right now.

Then there's the issue of X-Men comic books. The website BleedingCool has uncovered some revealing quotes from longtime X-Men creator Chris Claremont when he was on the Nerdist's podcast last month. Claremont confirmed Marvel does not want new mutants created for any X-Men comic book and they are moving away from merch for most of the X-Men characters who are under Fox's movie rights deal. Here's Claremont's quote from the podcast, as transcribed by BleedingCool.

“I have to say quite honestly as I understand it now the X department is forbidden to create new characters. 

(SHOCK RESPONSE) 

“Well… who owns them? 

“All because all new characters become the film property of Fox. 

“There will be no X-Men merchandising for the foreseeable future because, why promote Fox material?”

That seems quite straight forward and to the point. This also confirms the pissing contest between Marvel and Fox is definitely real.

Sadly, while giant entertainment companies pull characters and titles from shelves and from monthly publication the losers of all of this is the fans who love these characters and go buy these books from their local comic book shop every Wednesday. And those same comic shops will be hurt too because there will be fewer titles available to sell to their customer base. 

Sounds like a lose-lose scenario for all the people who are PAYING FOR the heroes they love. 

So who is really at fault here? I would have to say all the high-salary executives who are trying to make a power play and, in turn, hurting small local businesses and their own comic book fan base. I won't point a finger at any one person, or one company, but this should be about the fans and local comic shops more so than about which studio owns the movie rights to this character or that hero.