Thomas Butt is a senior writer at Collider who focuses on classic movies.
The Big Picture In the last 50 years, two of the most popular and successful entertainment figures/brands are Michael Jackson and Marvel. They revolutionized their respective industries and transcended their medium through brand recognition alone. In between Jackson's reign as the King of Pop in the 1980s and the dominance of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the 2010s was the 1990s, a low point for both figures.
It appeared as though the writing was on the wall for Marvel Entertainment in the '90s. Despite carving out a market in Saturday morning cartoons during the decade, the bubble quickly burst, and in 1996, they filed for bankruptcy. Once a hot commodity, the New York Stock Exchange delisted Marvel. Toy Biz, the manufacturer of toys inspired by Marvel characters, bought a stake in the company, and the two eventually merged.
Related Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web Deserved a Better Marvel Movie Dakota Johnson is innocent! Around the time James Cameron drafted a treatment for his vision for Spider-Man, another titanic figure in entertainment, Michael Jackson, had dreams of swinging across New York City fighting crime. In an interview with the YouTube channel, Popcorned Planet, the late musician's nephew, Taj Jackson, revealed that his uncle openly discussed purchasing Marvel with the family.
Stan Lee suspected that Jackson's decision to buy the rights to Marvel was motivated by his desire to play Spider-Man on the big screen. Even when Lee told him that the rights to the character would not be for sale, an insistent Jackson claimed that he would purchase all of Marvel. Lee and Jackson met occasionally, with one meeting triggering a poignant response from the Spider-Man creator. Lee was overwhelmed by Jackson's sense of isolation and alienation.
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