Two of my favorite brands will be joining forces. Disney announced this morning that they will be acquiring Marvel Entertainment in a stock and cash transaction. Here is a clip from the Disney press release..

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. "Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney." "We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Iger said. "Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's Chief Executive Officer. "This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."

There is lots of buzz on the internet today about this merger, both positive and negative. Marvel fans are rightly concerned that the Marvel stories could lose some of their edginess and become watered down, while others are worried that their Heroes will become "wussified".  On the other side, Disney fans are quite bullish pointing to Pixar as a positive example and mentioning that DC has been owned by a conglomerate (Warner Bros.) since 1969 and they have maintained their edge producing hit story lines such as the Dark Knight and The Watchmen. I am excited to see what Disney will do with the characters and expect movies that come from the Marvel universe to get better. Imagine a Pixar created animated Fantastic Four movie. It is unclear to me what will happen  with Universal Islands of Adventure, but my bet would be that Disney Imagineers would make much more immersive theme park rides then what exist today at Universal Studios.