Word came today that Disney is laying off a lot of people across every division except Pixar. This includes not only Marvel Studios but Marvel Comics, the alleged source material for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of course, little of this are the higher ups or redundant, unnecessary, or just plain fake divisions or their heads, though some of the names in those two articles are rather surprising given their role in the company and their respective branches.
What happened to Marvel? Often the more dominant of the “Big Two” companies that have had the biggest influence on comics, the Carnegie Hall of comic companies along with DC, now the comics aren’t doing so well. If it wasn’t for DC and other crossovers as well as Spider-Man relaunches and the soon to end Ultimate Spider-Man ver. 2, they wouldn’t even be on the top 50 for 2025, or at least not doing as well. Marvel Comics might not be dead, but they aren’t in great condition.
Meanwhile Marvel Studios is putting out more flops in theaters and Disney+ than hits. Fans of these characters mock them, then get attacked by creators so sure that their version is superior to the comics, as if that matters. While the Comics problem started before Disney, the movies definitely fell off after Disney.
It’s so easy to identify what went wrong that I’m hardly the first to do so. I just want to get something current in this week, and this is it. So what did they do wrong, what will they probably continue to do wrong, and what can we learn from all this? After all, Marvel specifically and Disney in general aren’t learning a lousy thing.
Continue reading →
Tell others about the Spotlight:
BW Media Spotlight 
[VIDEO] What Happened To Extra Credits?
There was a time on this website when I used to go to the YouTube series Extra Credits and its spinoff Extra Sci-Fi for filler content. It was a good show. Daniel Floyd based the show on a format he used for a college video project. It promoted video games as a positive force in the world, and the channel had a lot of fans.
Somewhere, something changed. Dan left the show. So did his wife, the former artist. So did another artist. Then the show’s perspective changed, getting a bit more political, until finally it created a video that chased people off. Eventually it lost me as well and I just stopped watching the channel altogether and haven’t looked back. It was worth promoting in the early years with some great videos for discussion, but lost its way as time went on.
Rhythm Rev on YouTube decided to explore the rise and fall of Extra Credits as the politics and the corporate world both altered the show, mostly the corporate side according to the video. Not mentioned are the treatment of the artists, a few of whom have not had the kindest of words for their time doing the art for the show. It’s kind of neat that Rev uses the show’s art style to help visually with going over the show’s many mistakes. Since I have a buffer to build and this is a rather long video (over an hour and a half), I’m going to get this out of my backlog and let you check it out for yourself. Note for BW regulars, there is some occasional swearing.
Continue reading →
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 14, 2026 in Video Game Spotlight, web series and tagged commentary, Extra Credits, rise and fall.
Leave a comment