Marvelously Disneyfied

After watching Disney’s Big Hero 6, I thought about what other properties belonging to Marvel that Disney could translate into a Disney Animated feature.  The one I really thought would be cool could not be, since Fox owns the rights to Fantastic Four.  That property was Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius.  It started out as a Calvin and Hobbes tribute Comic Strip in various Marvel Comics titles.  It was about Franklin Richards, son of Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Sue Storm Richards (Invisible Woman) of the Fantastic Four.  Also the New Mutants, X-Men Academy, Fallen Angels and other Mutants youth teams are also unavailable due to the arrangement with Fox for those properties.  Spider-Man related properties are avoided due to Sony’s rights. There seems to be the possibility at a later date.  Even if these properties that have their movies rights held by other studios were to see those rights returned, I would not included them because I wanted properties that could stand on their own. Others I did not include because of their connection to the Cinematic universe, like Young Avengers, the new Ms. Marvel, Avengers Academy and so on.  As said earlier I wanted properties that could stand on their own.

Power Pack

Power Pack is perfect, because it is the tale of the four Powers siblings two boys (Alex. 12 years old and Jack, 8 years old) and two girls (Julie, 10 years old and Katie, 5 years old) who are given powers by an equine like alien to help fight a lizard like race of aliens. Even if they start with the origin story, where the Snarks (the lizard like aliens) kidnap their parents that story would work since it is the children saving their parents.  A standard trope in this property is that the parents have no clue that their kids are superheroes or that they saved them.  Another trope is that if the parents found out that their kids have super powers and were superheroes it would break their minds.  It has bickering but loving siblings having to work together to win the day. It could teach lessons in getting along and acceptance without being preachy.   It was created in 1984 as its own title for Marvel. It was an all ages title that did not feel that it was talking down to its audience.   The property’s creators are two women, Louise Simonson and June Brigman.   Louise Simonson is known for creating and writing strong female characters and Power Pack was proof of that early on.  The original series was great.  I think it would be great as a Disney Animated Project. It definitely would be a family friendly adventure tale.

Moon-Boy and Devil Dinosaur

Moon-Boy is from a furry predecessor species to Homo Sapiens. He has adventures in a prehistoric world with his pet dinosaur named Devil Dinosaur.   The original stories were set in an alternate reality so they did not need to fit historically.  Devil Dinosaur is a Tyrannosaurus-like dinosaur.  Once again like Moon-Boy not based on a specific species. Moon-Boy is ostracized by his people for befriending Devil Dinosaur.  These characters were created by Jack Kirby in 1978 during his third tenure at Marvel.  This property came out during the whole Cave man meets Dinosaur mania of the 1970’s.  This property would be fun with its crazy Pre-Historic romp way of things.

UPDATE: 

Since this was written a new version was created in 2015, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Moon Girl is an 9 year old genius African-American girl. Moon Girl saves Devil Dinosaur and brings him to the modern era. It became a Disney+ original animated show in 2023.

Clan Destine

Clan Destine was crated in 1994 by Alan Davis.  It is about a family of various Superpowered and magical people. Many are hundreds of years old.  Other than the family theme, the reason I thought this property would work was the two youngest members of the family.  Rory and Pandora Destine are 11 year old twins who have decided to become a superheroic duo.  They drag their elder brother and guardian Walter into their schemes.  The first volume of stories was about the twins discovering the truth of their heritage. They think their Brother Walter is their Uncle and their sister Florence is their grandmother. It goes form the twins finding out they are a little different on their own to learning of the whole magical and wondrous world their family inhabits.

UPDATE:

The Clan Destine were introduced as a race of Djinnis in Ms. Marvel, the Disney+ show (2022).

Runaways

Of these properties there are two I am not that well versed on.  This is the first I ill discuss.  The Runaways are a group of superpowered pre-teens and teens who discover their parents are Supervillains.  It was created as its own title by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona in 2003.  As their name denotes they run away for their parents and their parents machinations.  They reject the idea of being Supervillains themselves. The gender dynamic is fairly even or has slightly more females on the team. Their Tank (super strong and tough) character is one of youngest members, who at one point went by the name of Princess Powerful.  This would be prefect with the pre-teen to teen dynamic.  Many of the reasons it would work as a Disney property is the comradery and like Big Hero 6 creating their own family.

UPDATE:

The Runaways was a Live Action show on Hulu that ran for 3 seasons (2017  - 2019). 

Amadeus Cho

The second of the two Marvel Properties I am not as familiar with.  Amadeus Cho is a young super genius, who at one point used the alias Mastermind Excello.  He was created by Greg Pak and artist Takeshi Miyazawa in 2006 for the Amazing Fantasy volume 2 series.  Part of his origin is someone kills his family, discredits him, and destroys his home to make him a fugitive.  In the comics he has become a supporting character to the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk and Hercules. Disney could really take the concept of Kid Genius on the lam and run with it. Unlike Hiro from Big Hero 6, Amadeus is a loner save his coyote pup companion.

Bonuses

Although the next two Properties are not officially Marvel, they are other comic book properties owned by Disney.  They are both from the defunct Comics publisher CrossGen Comics.

Meridian

Meridian was created in 2000 for CrossGen Comics by Barbara Kesel and Joshua Middleton.  Meridian is set in a world of floating islands and flying ships.   In this world each island is ruled by a Minister. The Minister of the island Meridian dies leaving his fifteen year old daughter Sephie as Minister.  She and her Uncle, Ilahn, have been gifted abilities from powerful beings.  They are opposites whereas her powers are for healing, his are for destruction. They struggle against each other, Ilahn for power and Sephie to protect those she loves.  The fantastic otherworldly setting and the wondrous sights would excite many an animator. Sephie is almost a princess, so she definitely would work in the Disney machine. If I remember right there were a few plots including Sky Pirates and other fantasy elements that would work so well in Disney’s wheelhouse.

Abadazad

Abadazad was created in 2004 by J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog.  Abadazad is about a magical world that was written about by an author during the late 1800’s to the early 1920’s.  A young girl discovers the stories had some grains of truth in them.  It melds Oz, Wonderland and other children’s fantasy from the same era.  The discovery that the real person the stories are based on was a person of color would work well with the need for more diverse characters in all media.  It is a wonderful blend of Nineteenth and early Twentieth century children’s fantasy styles. I think it would work so well to Disney’s strengths, especially after the Great and Powerful Oz.

There they are.  The two CrossGen properties are just sitting there collecting dust, while the Marvel properties are definitely available. Amadeus Cho, Moon-Boy and Devil Dinosaur have made appearances on Marvel animated shows. Power Pack has been developed as a pilot in 1991 for a TV show, but it was not picked up.   It was mentioned in 2010 as possible for development as a film by Marvel, so far no word as to that.  The Runaways was in development as a film in 2010, they had a script and were casting.  That project was cancelled; no word either if it may be revived.  Clan Destine has never come up on anyone’s radar or been in any other media.  This Has Been My Not So Humble Opinion.