I watched a little bit of the Bendis and Maleev Spider-Woman motion comic, I wasn't impressed. I guess I just don't like motion comics, they're like the bastard love child of comics and animation but act more like the ungrateful ginger step-child of the middle-aged single mum you're banging. Too much? Maybe a little too much.

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Link: http://chud.com/articles/articles/23473/1/EXCLUSIVE-MARVEL039S-EXCITING-SMALL-MOVIE-PLANS/Page1.html

It's been reported that Marvel Studios are considering expanding their movie universe with a series of cut price movies starring some of their third tier characters such as Doctor Strange, Luke Cage or even the X-Men's Dazzler. Most of the characters being thrown around are pretty much unknown to most outside of the comic book community but obviously Marvel feel even without the iconic recognition of a Spider-Man or Captain America that there's money to be made if the running costs can be kept low. Is this a huge mistake or just good business sense?

I see this as a possible dilution of the Marvel Studios brand, since Marvel took control of their properties in Hollywood we've seen and heard nothing but good things but a string of low budget horrors could really undermine all that good work. There seems to be a genuine desire to build a Marvel movie Universe similar in structure to that seen in the comic books, all well and good when you're focusing on the big players but when you start to scrape the barrel things become a little more complicated. In comic books you can afford to experiment with characters, put out taster mini series to see how they are recieved but you just can't risk that in movies even at a greatly reduced budget of say $25 million.

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