By: D-Team Member Adam

The Save Pleasure Island blog posted some images this week of store and restaurant brands that will be coming to the soon-to-be-overhauled Downtown Disney.  Disney Springs, as it soon will be called, looks to be something of a shopping mecca.  Some of those names are fully-realized ideas, like Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar which already exists in Disneyland and looks to bring back the old Adventurer’s Club magic.  Other ideas are just nameless placeholders until the Imagineers come up with something.  For instance, it’s highly unlikely Disney Springs with serve food at a place called Italian Restaurant.  It seems there will be an Apple store, which makes me wonder if it will be possible to get an Official Walt Disney World Macbook Pro with Wall-E caved into the aluminum frame. Probably not.

The Marvel icon is also present in the mix.

Of my five passions in life, the 2 biggest are Comics and Disney.  I also work for a retailer, so I have a lot of thoughts on how and where stores work.

Marvel Entertainment and Comics

Marvel Entertainment and Comics

First, it should be pointed out that building a Marvel store does not mean Disney is any closer to breaking Universal’s contract.  Apparently selling merchandise is not a violation of the deal. And in fact, Disney started doing so immediately upon purchasing Marvel. One of my biggest geek-out moments in recent years was stopping in the All Star Sports Resort gift shop and seeing an entire display filled with comic books and collected editions. Someone had finally put their peanut butter in my chocolate.

Now, if you’ve been to a Disney resort recently, you may be thinking “I haven’t seen any comics in the hotels.”  That’s because there aren’t any.  Most likely they didn’t sell.   This is a bit of industry talk, but Marvel and DC decided some years ago that they don’t care about kids.  Ninety-plus percent of their comics are marketed towards an aging fan base.  In truth, I would hesitate to even give a kid a Spider-man comic these days.  This presents something of a problem for selling the comics in WDW.

People like me buy their comics from their local retailer.  It’s possible, but highly unlikely I would purchase anything on vacation.  The goal for having the books in Walt Disney World should be to get kids excited about reading them.  If Disney would put more effort into getting Marvel to put out comics based on Disney, Pixar and the Muppets, they might stand a chance of making that happen.

There actually were comics based on them produced by Boom Studios. The Darkwing Duck comic was amazing.  Boom lost the contracts when Disney bought Marvel and we haven’t seen new comics any in a year.

So if the books aren’t selling, what would the Marvel Store at Disney Springs be?

Downtown Disney to get a Makeover

Downtown Disney to get a Makeover

Merchandise.  T-shirts, toys, DVDs, root beer coozies… anything you can imagine.  That seems awfully commercial though.  If all they’re selling is merchandise, it would be better to push those in places like World of Disney and Once Upon a Toy.  Even Disney’s retail stores need to feel more like a story than a cash-grab.  Think about the Westside.  A few of those shops just don’t fit in with Downtown Disney.  It’s just empty commercialism. Of course the biggest one was replaced with Splitsville, thankfully.

The fanboy in me would love to see a full-on Marvel Comics and Collectibles store at Disney Springs.  The idea brings a special smile to my face.  But if it’s only going to be a store full of things you can find at Wal-mart, they shouldn’t build it.  That combined with some of the other stores listed (MAC make up, New Balance, Dior) could easily make Disney Springs feel like a strip mall.

Downtown Disney deserved better than that.