Michael Jackson once attempted to buy Marvel Comics
Popstar Michael Jackson, who faced numerous child sexual abuse allegations in his lifetime, had a deep obsession with all the things that children were known to love. His truly creepy Neverland ranch was littered with toys, amusements and candy, so much that one would never want to leave, highlighting the genuinely stunted development into adulthood that Jackson had undoubtedly suffered.
In a quite remarkable story, Jackson also once attempted to purchase Marvel Comics during the 1990s, as previously revealed by Marvel icon Stan Lee. Back in 2020, Jackson’s nephew, Taj Jackson, opened up on the prospective deal falling apart and the profound love that his uncle had for Marvel’s comics and their iconic superhero characters.
“It was Marvel, and I remember that. I remember being with my brothers and him talking about purchasing Marvel,” Jackson said. “He wanted to do that with Stan Lee. They had been talking and discussing that. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen; I think they were shut down from doing that. I don’t know the reasons why, but they were adamantly in the process of doing that.”
Marvel had been on the financial tightrope in the 1990s, and it wasn’t until Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man film came out in 2002 with Tobey Maguire in the lead role that Marvel began to see an upshot in their fortunes. Taj Jackson also revealed that it was the heroic web-slinger that most caught the eye of his popstar uncle.
“Besides Spider-Man,” he was a huge Marvel fan, Jackson added. “He knew all the characters. So it was not only Spider-Man [that he wanted to buy]. But yeah, he probably wanted to be Spider-Man. He would be so excited about it. He was such a movie buff in that way that I think he would have thought this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, all these characters coming together.”
Of course, Jackson missed his chance, and Disney is now the owner of the legendary comic book franchise. Disney purchased the Marvel name back in 2009 for a whopping $4billion, an eye-watering sum it might seem at first glance. However, seeing as films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe had grossed $22billion even back in 2020, it looks in hindsight like something of a coup.
However, we can’t help but think of what Michael Jackson’s Marvel universe might have looked like. Would Jackson himself have played Spider-Man, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk? Would each film turn into a musical with a tightly choreographed dance routine at its centre? On second thoughts, let’s thank the Lord that the Jackson Marvel takeover never actually happened.