Will old Malibu characters ever reappear?

[helwen]

I know Marvel bought out Malibu comics back in the '90's. How hard would it become for another major comic company to acquire all the Malibu character's?
I'd miss Mantra :( from Malibu

[leonmallett]

I know Marvel bought out Malibu comics back in the '90's. How hard would it become for another major comic company to acquire all the Malibu character's?
I'd miss Mantra :( from Malibu

I think the difficulty is two-fold:

1. buying the rights; I am sure Marvel will not let them go cheaply.

2. Marvel/Joe Quesada maintains that the original contracts are set up in such a way that payments due to the original creators if the characters were republished just did not make a return viable. However, I think I have read a contradiction to this from one of those 'founding fathers' of the Ultraverse to suggest that it is not quite so. The bottom line of that is that even though a company may want to acquire the characters, maybe quesada's pronouncemnt is neough to scare potential publishers off?

[ChastMastr]

It looks unlikely, alas. On his Formspring Tom Brevoort answered this question: (http://4ms.me/OTBLPY)


What if i wanted to buy the rights to the malibu character named Sludge only? Could I work out something with Marvel and Sludge's creator, maybe with a 6-7 figure dollar sign attached?

This is starting to verge uncomfortably close to talking about the Malibu thing, which I cannot do, so I need to shut down this line of inquiry. The same answer as the previous one would apply--you'd inherit the same circumstance, wouldn't be able to publish or talk about it, and we'd get the money.


He's bound by the nondisclosure agreement to not be able to say more than that, sadly. It's some sort of complicated legal morass that prevents Marvel from publishing it as well.

[positronic]

Interesting follow-up question... whatever became of Malibu? Not the characters, not the "Ultraverse", but the company? Since Marvel obviously has no interest in publishing these characters, and it would be too complicated legally for anyone else to do so, what about Malibu brokering a deal between the original creators and Disney/Marvel to recapture the properties for a flat fee (obviously having to involve an investor partner as well) ??

[bchat2]

Interesting follow-up question... whatever became of Malibu? Not the characters, not the "Ultraverse", but the company? Since Marvel obviously has no interest in publishing these characters, and it would be too complicated legally for anyone else to do so, what about Malibu brokering a deal between the original creators and Disney/Marvel to recapture the properties for a flat fee (obviously having to involve an investor partner as well) ??

Malibu Comics (including the Ultraverse line) was purchased by Marvel Comics. When Marvel cancelled the Ultraverse line, "Malibu Comics" ceased to exist.

I really can't imagine Marvel ever selling or licensing superhero characters to another comic company. From a business standpoint, why help the competition by giving them decent superheroes to compete with Marvel's own books? From a creative standpoint, Marvel is known for publishing superhero comics. What kind of statement would they be making to the fans if they licensed superheroes to another publisher? "We can't make these characters work"?

[ChastMastr]

And since everyone involved is bound by a nondisclosure agreement, it may be a long time before we ever know what happened...

[positronic]

I didn't know Marvel bought the whole company; I just thought they bought the Ultraverse characters. So then Marvel owns ALL the characters (except licensed characters) that Malibu ever published. How could they possibly have missed doing an eX-Mutants/X-Men 2099 crossover (Ron Lim drew both series)? :o

[helwen]

Actually through some researching I found one title called, Mutants vs Ultras 11/1/95 issue. I also discovered another title called, Trouble with Girls which first appeared from Comico then Malibu must have carried this title because Marvel launched this same comic out under their Heavy Hitters brand ('93 Marvel Epic). I found yet another Malibu series that looks to have been adapted by Image, The Strangers.

[manga4life]

I didn't know Marvel bought the whole company; I just thought they bought the Ultraverse characters. So then Marvel owns ALL the characters (except licensed characters) that Malibu ever published. How could they possibly have missed doing an eX-Mutants/X-Men 2099 crossover (Ron Lim drew both series)? :o

Yeah, they bought the entire company a whole back in like 1994 or 1995, right around the time Marvel was in the trash for the Maximum Clonage saga and some other faulty decisions they made. Kind of a weird move if you ask me.

[positronic]

That was when they were going nuts trying to buy up everything. They bought Malibu for their computer coloring technology, and to stifle any chance of another Image Comics developing. They also bought Fleer, Skybox, Panini stickers, ToyBiz, and Heroes World Distribution (for a while there retailers could ONLY get Marvel Comics through Heroes World, everything else through either Diamond or Capital City). All of this buying put the company deep in debt when comic book sales dropped precipitously, leading to the late-80s bankruptcy. Ironically, ToyBiz remained the only profitable company, and in turn wound up owning Marvel Comics. Then investor Ron Perelman got involved and things get complicated. The whole mess was detailed in a book called COMIC BOOK WARS.

[helwen]

Something I found while viewing Wikipedia: In June 2005, when asked by Newsarama whether Marvel had any plans to revive the Ultraverse, Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada replied that:
“ Let's just say that I wanted to bring these characters back in a very big way, but the way that the deal was initially structured, it's next to impossible to go back and publish these books.
There are rumors out there that it has to do with a certain percentage of sales that has to be doled out to the creative teams. While this is a logistical nightmare because of the way the initial deal was structured, it's not the reason why we have chosen not to go near these characters, there is a bigger one, but I really don't feel like it’s my place to make that dirty laundry public.[19]
”
In May 2012, Steve Englehart suggested in a podcast interview that the reason Marvel will not presently publish the Ultraverse characters is because five percent of the profits from those books would have to go to the Malibu creators that are still alive. [20] Marvel Editor Tom Breevort later denied that the five percent was what was holding Marvel back, but was unable to give a real explanation due to a nondisclosure agreement.[21]

[helwen]

Los Angeles Times reported:
Company Town : Comic Book Giant Marvel Buys Upstart Rival Malibu:
Marvel Entertainment Group, the behemoth publisher of comic books, said Thursday that it has acquired Malibu Comics Entertainment Inc., the innovative West Coast Wunderkind of the comic book industry, creating an entity that will control 40% of the market.

Details of the sale were not disclosed, though Malibu is to continue fully autonomous operations and remain in sole charge of its business ventures, including plans for feature movies, television cartoons and other merchandising.Marvel Publisher Stan Lee, a longtime Los Angeles resident and renowned creator of such cartoon icons as Spider Man and the X-Men, gains a long-sought West Coast publishing base. One of the first Marvel projects to be launched from the newly acquired Malibu offices in Calabasas will be Excelsior Comics, a new universe of characters created by Lee.

Terry Stewart, president and chief operating officer at Marvel, characterized the acquisition as a step in Marvel's plan to continue aggressive expansion in the industry. Marvel, controlled by financier Ronald Perelman, has recently acquired several companies specializing in youth entertainment products, including sports cards, bubble gum, stickers and toys.

Marvel has long been the industry leader in comic book sales. Malibu ranks fourth. It has briefly ranked as high as No. 2, besting the other longtime industry giant, D.C. Comics.

Scott Rosenberg, founder and president of Malibu, will become a senior executive vice president at Marvel, while retaining his post at Malibu.

Malibu, which was founded in 1986, launched a "universe" of comic books known for sophisticated graphics generated by computerized coloring techniques.
I thought I'd complete this forums page.