Marvel Fans 'Thor' About Disney Takeover

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Bambi, Dumbo, Wolverine? Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Incredible Hulk?

Media observers are still coming to grips with The Walt Disney Co.'s decision to pony up $4 billion to acquire Marvel Entertainment and gauging the impact the megadeal is expected to have on Hollywood, theme parks, video games, comic books and the like.  Disney stock dropped 3 percent to roughly $26 a share, while Marvel stock soared  25 percent to $48.37 a share yesterday on the announcement of the purchase. The stock and cash deal reportedly was valued at $50 a share, a 29 percent premium.

Marvel is the premier comics publisher, holding both a retail dollar share and unit market share edge over rival DC Comics. By acquiring Marvel, Disney is now allied with Sony Pictures Entertainment (Spider-Man), 20th Century Fox (X-Men) and Paramount Pictures (Iron Man), which continue to churn out and distribute films featuring characters from the Marvel stable. The transaction is also a boon for Disney's theme parks and cable channels.

The respective parents of Mickey Mouse and Captain America have not always seen eye to eye. In 2004, Marvel sued Disney  in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging $16 million in damages stemming from Disney's takeover of the Fox Family Channel and conversion to ABC Family. When the acquisition  occurred, Fox Family Channel was airing an animated series starring Marvel characters, prompting Marvel to argue that Fox could not transfer the copyright license of the Marvel creations to Disney.

That was then. Today, entertainment honchos in both camps are singing: "It's a Small (but) Marvel-ous World After All." Marvel's mostly male fan base, however, is already having nightmares about an Incredible Hulk & Hannah Montana music video.