Wisconsin-based author and game designer Matt Forbeck saw Tony Caputo's suggestion that Marvel Comics might license out publishing rights to its comics (see 'Now Comics' Tony Caputo Asks What If?'), and lays out the reasons why he thinks it won't, or shouldn't, happen:

Tony Caputo's analysis of why and how Marvel might license its characters to other publishers makes some bottom-dollar, short-sighted sense.  However I don't think it will fly, and here's why.

Marvel's characters and their universes are the core of Marvel's business.  If Marvel gives over comics publishing to other publishers, Marvel still needs to maintain strict controls over the product to make sure that the images and reputations of its characters aren't irreparably harmed.  Instead of the interesting combinations of creatives and characters that Tony and Steven Bates conjure up, we'd likely get some far duller teams.

Avi Arad has come down on previous Marvel editorial teams for publishing work that's too edgy, that could conceivably harm the company's IPs.  That won't get any better if the approvals team has to cover a dozen or more different licensees, each with their own clashing ideas and agendas.  Instead of giving the creative teams on any given book free reign, we'd likely see them more muzzled than ever.  If you thought the Comics Code was restrictive, wait until you see what a team of approvals specialists frightened for their jobs can do.

Also, Marvel has to hold out some hope that their publishing arm can come up with new, exploitable properties to give them a continuing source of material for both new comics and other media.  If they license out their characters, the new publishers have no incentive to add to the Marvel stable with new and exciting heroes and villains that Marvel would then own.  Marvel's House of Ideas would become the Overworked Farm of Ideas, and that soil would soon turn fallow.

I can see why a bean counter might like the idea of letting other companies do the hard and vital work of publishing for Marvel, but I hope that cooler and more creative heads prevail. In the long term, Marvel Comics needs to remain Marvel Comics.

The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.