I agree with Mr. Byrne; this may be the true death knell for Marvel Comics. Of course, at this late date, it may not matter. They're obviously hoping that the movies and TV shows will keep Marvel afloat. Who knows? Perhaps they will. But I remain pessimistic.

I think Marvel Comics is more at-risk of being farmed out to a third-party. They are already doing that a little bit with IDW. 

Hmmm. Disney has been licensing comics out to other publishers since the very beginning, as well as books, and now video games - and generally tries to keep the in-house focus on the film/tv stuff.

That having been said, Iger seems like a smart guy and would, I presume, recognize the value (monetary and otherwise) that freelancers have brought to the Marvel IP over the last 80 years.  I imagine he'd be hesitant to dissolve a powerful brand and also overturn a work-for-hire model that's been a proven property generator just at random.

If putting in charge the man who made Marvel the multi-billion dollar media empire they currently are (much better than "keeping afloat", mind you) doesn't count as a "big help", I don't know what possibly could.

If they were planning on closing it down (not that any of the news pieces shared here even remotely implied that), they wouldn't have made the announcement in the first place and put Feige's name in the line for nothing.

I guess people see what they want to see. 

No it doesn't, but that was not what I was asking. If Feige, with his incredibly successful background with these same characters and company, isn't a "big help" then who could possibly be? Jesus Christ himself?

Ok, it's officially a recurring theme in the thread now.

Marvel has crazy money. Crazy. The people in charge know they got this crazy money by (skillfully) mining the IP generated in the comic books. Even if the comics division lost money, it would be barely noticeable in the big picture and would be considered a very reasonable loss taking into consideration the possibilities of what can be gained. A hit film (and Marvel has more than 20 of them) could fund a decade of comics losing money (not saying that they are).

Why would they close it?? Do you really think they are going to put their top executive in charge and announce it publicly just to close it down or license it to Dark Horse (!?). Crazy talk.

What's curious is how insistent on this some of the commentators are, almost like they wished Marvel Comics was shut down... I don't care for current Marvel stuff but that's a long way from wishing it closed operations. Having a hard time trying to understand this reasoning, honestly.