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Disney now owns Marvel Comics, along with its 5,000 characters, and meetings have already occurred between Pixar and Marvel about potential crossovers. Introducing Disney fandom to Marvel fandom must be done delicately, though, as the two companies have some of the most demanding followings in entertainment.

For today at least, fanboy conversations about Batman and Daredevil crossovers have been completely set aside in favor of Mickey and Magneto suggestions. Here are five Disney properties I'd like to see matched up with Marvel counterparts.

The Incredibles meet The Fantastic Four: There's an astonishing amount of cross-pollination that's already taken place between Marvel and Disney over the course of their creative histories. Seeing as how Disney and Pixar modeled their in-house hero family off of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's boys and girl in in blue, it would be only fitting that they get together for lunch once in a while now that they live under one corporate roof. Read more...

Tags Lists, The Walt Disney Company

In last week's poll, I asked readers to vote on their favorite Batman in movies, video games and television. With so many different actors portraying the iconic character over the years, there were a lot of Dark Knights to choose from—but only one actor earned the top honor among Splash Page readers.

With more than 55 percent of the total vote, Christian Bale was named "Best Batman" in one of the most active polls we've held on Splash Page thus far.

The "Dark Knight" actor beat out voice actor Kevin Conroy, who's played the role for more than a decade in video games ("Batman: Arkham Asylum") and beloved cartoons ("Batman: The Animated Series"), as well as Tim Burton's "Batman" star, Michael Keaton, and 1960s television series Batman, Adam West. Conroy earned 27 percent of the total votes, while Keaton managed to pull in 11 percent and West snagged 3 percent. Read more...

Tags batman, christian bale, poll results, Polls

Last week, we called your attention to a post on Twitter from actress Rose McGowan, which seemed to cast doubt on whether she'd play Red Sonja as was initially announced just over a year ago. Now, McGowan has offered up a few more comments clarifying her attachment to "Red Sonja" and the likelihood of seeing her swing a broadsword any time soon.

"To clarify press reports: Red Sonja is delayed," wrote McGowan on Friday. "I pulled out of doing it in '09. Not permanently. Hopefully will follow Conan."

McGowan followed up with another message regarding the scheduling of the film and the legal side of her attachment to the project. Read more...

Tags red sonja, rose mcgowan

It's no secret that we're big fans of "Batman: Arkham Asylum" around Splash Page HQ, and it just so happens that we're big fans of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, too.

In fact, that's why we found this little item so interesting.

In an interview with Wired, longtime Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy, who played the character in "Arkham Asylum" as well as "Batman: The Animated Series" and nearly every other animated iteration, was asked what he thought of the controversial growl favored by "The Dark Knight" actor Christian Bale for his performances. His response was, well... surprisingly frank. Read more...

Tags batman: arkham asylum, christian bale, kevin conroy

By now, you've all heard the new: the Walt Disney Company announced plans to buy Marvel Entertainment. The $4 billion deal would give Disney ownership of Marvel's stable of characters, as well as Marvel Studios, Marvel Animation and the various other entities falling under the Marvel banner.

While few details of the Marvel/Disney deal have gone public thus far, Marvel stock prices jumped more than 25 percent at the start of trading today—so the deal has yielded at least one immediate result.

However, with so many concerns surrounding the news, here are some of the biggest questions about the Disney/Marvel deal we hope to see answered in the near future. Read more...

Tags The Walt Disney Company

Even with a busy film slate that includes "The Hobbit," "At the Mountains of Madness" and "Frankenstein," not to mention a comic book franchise of his own in "Hellboy," director Guillermo Del Toro is making room for yet another movie, this time rooted in the DC Universe.

According to a report from Bloody Disgusting, Del Toro will produce an adaptation of "Deadman" based on the DC Comics character with Nikolaj Arcel currently attached to direct.

As is the case with most DC Comics properties, the film will be produced through Warner Bros. Read more...

Tags Deadman, guillermo del toro, Nikolaj Arcel

This morning's announcement of Disney acquiring Marvel Entertainment stoked the snarky flames of Twitter commentary all over my feed. Luckily, there were a few level-headed tweets from Marvel EIC Joe Quesada and sharp creators like Gail Simone.

That doesn't mean I left the jokes out of the Twitter Report, though. I just wanted to give you a fair sampling. The bottom line is that Mickey and Spidey are under one roof now, and the following tweets demonstrate just what occurs as folks like Skottie Young, Jill Thompson, Brian Reed and Duane Swierczynski digest—in humor and serious business terms—the fact that the same company now owns both Scrooge McDuck and Howard the Duck.

I'm @brianwarmoth, and this is Twitter Report for August 31, 2009. Read more...

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This week started off with some big news, as the Walt Disney Company announced plans to buy Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion deal. The deal would give Disney ownership of the entire line of Marvel characters, as well as Marvel Studios, Marvel Animation and the various subdivisions under the Marvel banner.

The comics community has reacted to the deal with quite a bit of skepticism thus far, but word from the Marvel camp is that the deal could open more doors than it closes for the so-called "House of Ideas."

Here's what we know thus far about how the deal will affect various Marvel properties:

1. MARVEL MOVIES: Disney will continue to honor Marvel's third-party deals with 20th Century Fox, Sony and Paramount (among others), but will look to bring everything in-house as those deals expire. Read more...

Tags The Walt Disney Company

Superhero movies are all the rage right now, but it's the decidedly kid-unfriendly, non-superhero titles of Vertigo Comics that seem to be getting quite a bit of attention from movie executives, too—and now, another Vertigo character could be emerging from the swampy depths and into theaters.

Collider reports that producer Joel Silver—currently promoting the release of "Whiteout" based on the Oni Press comic book by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber—is interested in pursuing a new "Swamp Thing" movie, based on the popular DC Comics and Vertigo character.

"I'm developing a picture now that I'd like to do," said Silver. "I'll hopefully do 'Swamp Thing,' which is a movie we've had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D. There are a couple of projects I'm thinking about [for the format] but not everything." Read more...

Tags joel silver, swamp thing

If you thought Michael Jackson's almost-purchase of Marvel Comics was bizarre, then wait until you hear who Marvel's newest owner is going to be: none other than Mickey Mouse himself.

Announced this morning via a press release, the Walt Disney Company will purchase Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion stock and cash transaction.

The deal is pending approval from shareholders at Marvel, but the boards of directors at both Marvel and Disney have already approved of the purchase.

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. Read more...

Tags The Walt Disney Company