Is Marvel going to take over DH's Alien license?

[Nostromo]

Just wondering...any thoughts?

[Ultramorph]

Too soon to say. DH even said on Twitter that they don't know. Either way, we probably won't know for a few months.

One interesting tidbit, someone asked NECA if the buyout effect the figures, and they said it will not, at least not immediately.

https://twitter.com/neca_toys/status/942914436658073600
https://twitter.com/neca_toys/status/942885590516805633

[Naginata]

God, I hope not. No problems with Marvel, but c'mon, not everything needs to be under the same umbrella...

[Kailem]

I'd imagine they will. Dark Horse lost the Star Wars licence to Marvel after Disney bought Lucasfilm after all, so I'd imagine we'll eventually see the same thing happen here.

That is unless Disney doesn't consider the Alien and/or Predator comic licences worth making too much of a fuss over. Star Wars is obviously an enormous moneymaker on pretty much every level, so it could end up depending on how much importance they end up deeming these franchises to be worthy of overall.

[Perfect-Organism]

Well, there is a reason for Disney leaving the Aliens / Predator series alone over at DH.  If Disney picks up too many companies and literally corners the market on comics and other forms of entertainment media, they could be accused of monopolizing the industry and could face anti-trust litigation.  I would be fairly sure that this would happen if they picked up DC comics / Warner Brothers...  If you have everything under one umbrella, the government steps in and breaks up the party so there can be competition.

[SM]

Why would Disney license out a property out to a competitor?

[Kailem]

Though it's not unheard of (like WB Games putting out the Marvel Lego games), I also doubt they'd want to do that. Sadly I feel like after all these years Dark Horse's time with these licences may well soon be drawing to a close.

[Perfect-Organism]

SM, to avoid potential anti-trust litigation.

[SM]

I don't see how that would be an issue.  They moved Star Wars comics back to Marvel they're way more popular than Aliens.  It's not like they're buying out Dark Horse.

[Ultramorph]

The license will move eventually, that's almost a given. The question is when, and whether DH will do anything else with the license before that happens. Hoping we get clarity when the April solicitations drop later this month.

[Perfect-Organism]

I don't see how that would be an issue.  They moved Star Wars comics back to Marvel they're way more popular than Aliens.  It's not like they're buying out Dark Horse.

It's not an issue yet, but if more and more of the world's biggest entertainment properties fall under one umbrella, you can bet it will be an issue.  We are getting close to a monopoly situation with Disney.

[SM]

We're a fair way off yet.

Guys like WB and Universal still have significant shares of the market as well as new mobs like Amazon and Netflix.

[Wweyland]

Maybe they could do another reboot of the EU like they did in Star Wars.
The Alien/AvP/Predator/Prometheus continuity is so convoluted that it would be hard to make clear sense of it all.

[Ultramorph]

I assume that's what they'll do, but it would be disappointing given that they just did the same thing in 2013/14. I would hate for some of those plot lines to get dropped forever.

[Russ840]

If Marvel do take the licence it's almost a certainty that it will be rebooted. They will market it that way and as a jumping on point to attract new readers.

I don't see this as the same scenario as what happened with Star Wars though. They started pumping out the comics at marvel along with the movies becoming an annual thing. If the movies were not such a big money maker I doubt marvel would have been pushing the comic line so much.

I cant see us getting an Alien movie each year so can't see marvel having that big an interest in the Aliens comics as it would have less support in other media and it's never been as big a draw as Star Wars. 

I hope marvel don't get the licence but if they do, they will reboot and we will get series much like we do now and nothing on the level of te Star Wars line.