At the Marvel Comics headquarters, except for people like Arthur Malcolm who have a special mission, almost all the high-level leaders gathered in the large conference room.

Avi Arad, who presided over the meeting, explained the relevant situation in detail as quickly as possible, and the conference room fell into complete silence, and most people even lowered their breathing sounds, as long as they are not stupid, they can understand that Marvel Comics has reached a critical moment of life and death.

"Is this irreparable?" asked CEO Hodner.

Avi-Arad said: "I contacted all the Citibank executives I knew, and the answer was no, and I also asked many friends to lobby, and the feedback for the time being was all negative news. ”

He added: "The public relations department and the legal department have put aside other work for the time being, and all their efforts are focused on Citibank. ”

Isaac Perlmut, president of Marvel Comics, asked, "How much could change be?"

Avi Arad said directly: "We have to prepare for the worst. ”

What is the performance of Marvel in the past few years, everyone here knows that Citibank really wants to draw loans, and it is also in accordance with the contract.

Creative director Mark Durud asked, "With a $40 million loan, we don't have any other way to raise it?"

A nearby executive answered: "We can't raise $40 million unless we sell our headquarters and surrounding toy factories." ”

Isaac Perlmut was the first to object: "Sell these two parts, and even if Marvel gets through this difficulty, it can only wait for death." ”

Avi-Arad stated: "I'd rather go legal with Citibank than sell Marvel's last capital." ”

"Can I borrow money from other financial institutions?" someone asked.

The director of finance said: "If we can raise funds, we will not be where we are now. ”

"Has the news of Citibank's loan withdrawal gotten out?" said another executive in his thirties, "and once it gets out, our stock price is going to plummet again." ”

Someone muttered: "After the failure of the "Hulk" movie, it fell below the listing price, and there is not much room for decline. ”

Others were speechless, they had fallen very badly before, and the shares were held in their hands, which seemed to be valuable, and the company could not make a profit without dividends, and could not be sold.

In 1993, when the comic book industry was at its last glory, Marvel's stock price was as high as $35.75 per share, and then the comic book industry entered a cold winter, with annual comic sales falling at a rate of more than 70 percent, and the stock price had fallen to less than $2.3 by 1998.

After "Spider-Man" was a box office hit, Marvel's stock price rose, slowly surpassing $2.5, and when "Spider-Man" reached $800 million at the global box office, it was close to $3.

But the failure of "Daredevil Man" and "Hulk" dashed hopes of a revival of Marvel Comics, and Marvel's stock price is now only $2.17 per share.

There is no price in the market, because the trading volume has been terrible for several months in a row.

Even if it falls to one dollar, Marvel's executives and shareholders have long been mentally prepared.

Near the end of the long conference table, Maxwell of the Copyright Department had been watching the room change, waiting for the most opportune opportunity.

He is a minority shareholder in Marvel Comics, and someone has approached him in the past two days to buy his shares at the market price three days ago.

It's less than one percent, but it's millions of dollars.

The collapse of Marvel Comics' stock price is inevitable, and the news of Citibank's loan withdrawal will definitely circulate, and the other party has no obligation to help Marvel keep it secret.

Moreover, it is obviously not simple.

Several colleagues spoke one after another, and Maxwell saw that the time was almost up, and said: "We still have thousands of character copyrights in our copyright library, can't we find a way to do something about them?"

Anyway, the sons have sold so much, and no one will resist selling some godsons.

Isaac Perlmut said: "If we could get money for those ordinary characters, we would have mortgaged them a long time ago, and the problem now is that no one is going to buy or mortgage the rights to these characters at a price that we are happy with. ”

"In the past two years, we have contacted hundreds of companies and financial institutions, and some have made offers, but hundreds of thousands of dollars ......," Avi-Arad said.

He didn't go on, just shook his head.

Maxwell didn't give up and said: "I remember that two years ago, Hollywood's Ronan Anderson and Shahai Entertainment bought the rights of many superhero characters from us, many of which can only be regarded as third-tier heroes, and they seem to be very interested in collecting the copyrights, why don't we contact him again?"

Avi Arad said: "I mentioned it to Ronan Anderson and Robert Lee last year and they turned it down. ”

Other people also know about it, and it's normal to be rejected because Marvel asks for a higher price.

Maxwell added: "I think we can lower the price appropriately and then engage with Relativity Entertainment." ”

Isaac Perlmut heard this and said: "In recent years, the company with the best relationship with Marvel Comics is Relativity Entertainment. ”

Creative Director Mark Durud said: "I think we can try to reach out, and even if Relativistic Entertainment refuses, we won't be worse off than we are now. ”

Seeing that several colleagues agreed, Maxwell took the opportunity to say: "In the current situation, it is always the same way. ”

Avi-Arad nodded slowly: "I'll find a way to get in touch with Relativity Entertainment." ”

The meeting was held in the afternoon, and all the feedback was bad news, and the news of Citibank's loan from Marvel spread unexpectedly, and Marvel's stock price, which had fallen to the bottom, fell into the abyss again.

Marvel has also begun to do a lot of preparations, some people do Citibank's work, some look for new investors, and some prepare to file for bankruptcy protection.

Avi Arad contacted Robert Lee and Ronan personally, but did not receive a clear response, and the answer the two gave him was that it would take time to think about it.

This is not what Avi Arad expected, Citibank will take out the loan, and Marvel Comics will turn into a complete mess.

Even, he didn't know how much confidence he had to negotiate a deal with a big company like Relativity Entertainment.

On the fifth day of Citibank's drawdown notice, Marvel Comics' stock price fell to $1.15, and its total market capitalization fell below $500 million.

This also created the lowest market value of Marvel after Perelman spent $82.5 million in 1989 to acquire Marvel from New World Pictures and went public.

And the record is falling.

Avi Arad is well aware that Marvel is in dire need of a fund to resurrect it.

But he doesn't remember himself, Marvel found several funds, and in the end it was never resurrected.

Ronan lives on the other side of the Pacific and has seen the news, and the one who really resurrected Marvel was "Iron Man".

In addition, the comic industry has also begun to recover gradually after 2005, and Marvel Comics launched a comic in 2006, which can be said to have reversed the dilemma that its superhero comics could not be sold.

Once that comic was called "Civil War"!

But now Marvel, "Civil War" has not even been creative.

As for the movie, the copyright Marvel with the mortgage funds is gone......

At the end of the fifth day, Avi Arad received a phone call from a former partner who had asked him to meet as an intermediary.

Inside a clubhouse on Seventh Avenue, Avi Arad met the partner.

"Avi, this is Shaun Downey, from Los Angeles, currently working for Twentieth Century Fox. The partners introduced both parties: "Sean, this is Avi Arad, the chairman and CEO of Marvel Comics, and the largest shareholder of Marvel. ”

After the two sides shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, the partner said, "You talk, I still have something to do here, I'll come back later." ”

Hearing that Sean was from Twentieth Century Fox, Avi Arad couldn't help but think of Arthur Malcolm who was far away in Los Angeles, and asked directly: "I don't know what happened to Mr. Donnie looking for me?"

Sean Downey is also very direct: "Some time ago, Mr. Malcolm of your company approached Twentieth Century Fox and asked to revise the copyright agreement between Fox and Marvel regarding "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four", and I am here for this matter today. ”

Avi Arad said: "Arthur Malcolm can represent Marvel with full powers, and Mr. Downey doesn't need to go to New York again. ”

Sean Downey's face was grim: "Arthur Malcolm can't decide this matter, Twentieth Century Fox thinks it is very necessary to communicate with Mr. Arad first, which is conducive to our later cooperation." ”

Avi-Aradd's expression was equally serious: "The copyright agreement of "Fantastic Four" was signed with Twentieth Century Fox when Perelman was in office, and the agreement lacks the most basic contractual fairness, and Marvel's request is very reasonable and not excessive, otherwise we would not have negotiated with Fox, but took Fox to court in the name of improper theft of commodity proceeds." ”

"You misunderstood me. Sean Downey didn't soften at all: "I came over today, although I also talked about the copyright agreement between "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four", but the content is another matter. ”

Avi Arad stared at Sean Downey, even if he was weak internally, he still looked tough on the outside: "I think Marvel should take back all the spin-off sales rights of these two series. ”

Sean Downey didn't answer him at all, and said a little coldly: "I'm here to negotiate with Mr. Arad to modify the copyright agreement for the X-Men series. ”

Avi Aradd's eyes froze: "How does Fox want to modify it." ”

The specific terms refer to "Fantastic Four", and Marvel no longer has a five-percent revenue share of the "X-Men" series. Sean Downey said it lightly: "In addition, any comics and characters related to X-Men created by Marvel, Twentieth Century Fox automatically acquires the film and television rights......"