Disney is going to buy Marvel Entertainment for around 4 billion dollars.

That’s, uh, Wow. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this, really. On one hand, having the Marvel comics stable (several thousand characters) attached to one particular media conglomerate is probably good for business; no longer does Marvel Films (which was a good first step, setting up a shared film universe) have to shop around for individual distribution deals for their productions*. And, with Disney’s clout, Marvel films might be able to eventually buy out some licensing deals and bring some of the “big guns” (Spider-Man, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, among others) back into the Marvel fold, so we might one day actually see Spidey and the Human Torch playing practical jokes on Iron Man in a live-action Marvel Universe film.

Also, what comic geek doesn’t salivate at the possibility of a Marvel/Pixar joint project?

At the same time, I’m kind of worried about the “Disney influence” creeping into the Marvel properties. Not that all Disney collaborations are bad (I like Kingdom Hearts!), but I’m not really a big fan of what they’ve done with modern incarnations of Winnie the Pooh and, increasingly, the Muppets**. The Disney corporation just has a way of sapping the inherent charm out of outside properties and making them just really bland.

I don’t necessarily fear editorial mandates saying Dan Slott has to write Spidey-Hannah Montana team-ups in ASM, but if Marvel ever digs deep enough into the vaults, I see Disney execs making sure Miley gets special preference when they’re casting Dazzler. and I really don’t want to EVER see Stephen Strange show up on Wizards of Waverly Place.

For the record, though, I’d not say “no” to a well-produced half-hour animated Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers series.

Anyway, I’m going to be cautiously optimistic, and hope for the best with this development, for now, at least until they disappoint me.

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* – not that Warner Bros/DC has ever made this work, and that relationship’s been solid for decades

** – though it could be argued that the loss of Jim Henson had more to do with the general lameness of modern Muppet stuff./