Over the last 24 hours, entertainment websites are all a buzz about the news that the Aliens and Predator franchises are moving from Dark Horse Comics over to Marvel. Commentators are calling this move “surprising”. Someone who thinks this is surprising is either the kind of man-child who still gets excited about birthday cake, or they are a hack writer or both. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. Here are the reasons why, and what you should really be thinking about:

The 20th Century Fox Acquisition

First and foremost, the idea that Aliens and Predator comics are moving from Dark Horse to Marvel Comics should not be a surprise since Disney just recently bought 20th Century Fox. Both the Aliens and Predator properties were owned by 20th Century Fox. So it should not come as a surprise that these properties are being moved over to a Disney owned company, aka Marvel. The logic being, why license out comic books on properties owned by Disney to a comic book company when they already have a comic book company of their own to public stories about said properties.

This has Already Happened Multiple Times Before

This isn’t the first time that Disney took over ownership of a franchise and chucked it over to Marvel Comics to do comic books about. The big one was when Disney bought Star Wars 2012. Not long after that, the Star Wars franchise license was taken away from Dark Horse Comics and handed over to Marvel Comics. A few years after that in 2018, Marvel required the franchise rights to Conan the Barbarian, a franchise that also found its home over at Dark Horse Comics for almost 2 decades. You can even take a step back further and when Disney first acquired Marvel in 2009, they had the comic book publisher do comics based on various Disney attractions for a short period of time.

In the end, Disney has Marvel publish profitable comics based on their owned properties. They then, in turn, license out less profitable works (Marvel comics written for children and old Disney properties like Mickey Mouse) to other companies (Both Dark Horse and IDW publish licensed Disney books and those books are not huge moneymakers for anyone)

The point here is that it should not be a surprise when Disney moves an owned property from a licensee and over to a subsidiary like Marvel Comics.

Which brings me to my next point….

You Shouldn’t Be Surprised About Disney’s Dilliance In R-Rated Material

Every time an R-Rated property gets into the hands of Disney, fans all over the internet bemoan the idea thinking that, somehow, by being owned by Disney these properties will somehow be toned down. That has not been the case for the 10 years that Disney has rampantly been buying up various commercial properties. Marvel Comics has maintained its autonomy since 2009. Star Wars was dragged out of limbo when it was bought by Disney in 2012 and is actually a thriving franchise with the only change being that George Lucas doesn’t have a stranglehold on the franchise anymore. Since the 20th Century Fox purchase, there have been no changes to anything Fox has produced. The Simpsons haven’t changed, Family Guy hasn’t changed. The New Mutants movie is still on the release schedule. The only thing that’s changing is the removal of the word “Fox”

The idea that Disney only does family-friendly material is an enduring myth for at least the past 40 years. People still can’t seem to look beyond the company as it existed in 1966 before the death of Walt Disney. Yes, back then, the company dealt strictly in family-friendly fare, but since then it has moved on to creating entertainment for various audiences, including the R-Rated audiences.

You’d have to be a complete idiot with no sense of things if you didn’t know that Disney has owned Touchstone Pictures in the 1980s. The first R-Rated film was Down and Out in Beverly Hills in 1986. They also own Miramax Films who own the rights to fucking Pulp Fiction for fucks sake. Through their ownership of Miramax, Disney also owns the rights to a Halloween movie (Part 6, not exactly the best one). They have been dabbling in R-Rated movies longer than most modern fans have been alive. So the fact that they are taking over the Aliens and Predator franchise and keeping them as is should not be a surprise to anybody.

A great example that Disney isn’t going to be toning down any of the R-Rated material in either of these franchises should be made obvious when they allowed the development of the video game Predator: Hunting Grounds for the Playstation 4.

You Should Be Thinking About Why Disney is Buying All These Properties

Over the past 10 years Disney has been scooping up commercial properties all over the place and nobody is talking about why that is the case. The answer is really, really simple. Mickey Mouse is entering the public domain in 2024.

For decades, Disney has fought to extend the length of time that a copyright can be kept on something following the death of its creator. Through legal means, they have extended the copyright and prevented some of their oldest properties from entering the public domain for over 40 years. Now, that’s not to say that Disney isn’t going to fight for another extension of copyright, but it seems like it’s going to be the most difficult legal argument to make after so many years of extensions. I think that Disney is hedging their bets and the reason they are acquiring new properties is so that they have a new stable of content when the old content starts entering the public domain.

They might not have a stranglehold on Mickey Mouse for much longer. but they are going to make up for it by having a stranglehold on Luke Skywalker and Spider-Man. The company is ensuring that it will have commercial properties of which they are the sole owner for the next 100 years.

You Should Also Think About What This Means to Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is getting gutted by Disney. As I mentioned above, Disney has just taken away four major franchises from Dark Horse: Star Wars, Conan, Aliens, and Predator. These were four franchises that made Dark Horse a lot of money. The problem with Dark Horse is that they either published creator-owned works and licensed properties. They may have Hellboy, Sin City, The Mask, and Martha Washington, but these are not exactly huge money makers for the company.

Their big money makers were the commercial properties and those are getting gutted. This also stymies reprints of various crossovers with rival company DC Comics. Batman Vs. Predator comics? Gone. JLA vs. Predator? Gone. Wonder Woman/Conan? Gone. (Which, by the way, they did digital releases of all of those crossovers and you should get them from Comixology before they’re yanked off the market)

Which raises the question: How much longer will Dark Horse Comics survive in its current form? Prior to all of these Disney acquisitions, Dark Horse was the #3 comic book publisher. These days they aren’t putting out much in terms of creator-owned properties, but even if they ramped up production on these kinds of titles, Image Comics and other indie publishers already have a corner on that market. As for acquiring more commercial properties, they’re also in competition with companies like IDW Comics, Boom Studios, and Dynamite Entertainment.

Ironically, Dark Horse has some Disney licenses and I suppose they can get by on that, but unless they come up with a huge hit sometime in the near future, it’s my opinion that Dark Horse is bleeding in the water and a predatory company like Disney is probably circling around waiting to take whatever is left.

You Should Also Think About Who is Next

I don’t think Disney is quite finished absorbing commercial properties. For right now, the company is still digesting its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. That’s probably going to take a few more years, but I don’t think Disney is done quite yet. Disney has been playing an interesting game. They snatch up a small property first. Then go for a larger one and so on. Big property: Marvel Comics. Small Property: Star Wars. Big property: 20th Century Fox.

Suffice to say I think we can see Disney swallowing up something small to start before going after a much bigger company. If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney takes over Dark Horse then sets it sights on Hasbro. Why Hasbro? Hasbro seems like the next logical target for commercial properties to mine. It’ll give Disney properties like G.I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, and Power Rangers. Disney won’t have to pay a licensing fee for Mr. Potato Head appearing in Toy Story movies. They’ll also get back the rights to Rom the Spaceknight and the Micronauts for Marvel Comics. On top of that, who makes Star Wars and Marvel action figures? Hasbro. Why license out a property to a toy company when you could own that toy company. Hasbro is one of the most commercially successful toy companies out there. I would not be surprised if they are the next ones in Disneys sites.