Disney's purchase of Marvel will be official tonight

A while back we reported that Disney had plans to buy Marvel in a very expensive, 4 billion dollar purchase. Disney from the get-go claimed that they were not going to make any changes to Marvel because “If it ain’t broke…”. The deal that started much controversy to comic fans everywhere is set to be official by the end of the day.

You can see the press release after the jump!

“New York, New York – December 31, 2009 — Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: MVL), a global character-based entertainment and licensing company founded in 1939, announced that at a special meeting held this morning, Marvel stockholders approved the adoption of the Agreement and Plan of Merger entered into by Marvel and The Walt Disney Company (“Disney”), which provides for a merger in which Marvel will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Disney. Marvel anticipates that the merger, which, based on the closing price of Disney’s common stock on December 30, 2009, has an estimated value of approximately $4.3 billion, will be completed today after the close of the market.”

As we said before, there is no reason to think that Disney will change Marvel. It is fairly common surprisingly, Marvel’s biggest competitor DC Comics is actually a subsidiary of Warner Bros. productions. I am seeing so many ways that this deal will benefit Marvel. Disney has said that their intentions are to make use of Marvels extensive catalog of heroes that aren’t getting the movie or cartoon treatment.

Are there any more obscure Marvel heroes (I’m thinking of Namor) you guys would like to see made into a movie or cartoon?

Source Nikki Finke, via /film