Spidey teams with Mickey Mouse!

So I’m putting together my monthly wrap up of “in case you missed it” articles, when I come upon this news at G4TV.com!

The Walt Disney company this morning announced a deal to buy Marvel Entertainment. Disney says it will pay about $4 billion for the company that brought us Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man

Say what now? Sure enough, here’s the press release. And here’s a link to the webcasted conference call. I’m still listening to it as I write this. It wasn’t that long ago that Disney bought out Saban Entertainment, which led to a lawsuit by Marvel over royalites for airing the Saban-produced Marvel cartoons from the 90’s. (Remember when ABC Family actually aired cartoons?) Suffice it to say, the reaction to this out-of-nowhere jaw dropper is net wide.

• reaction from the forums of Bleeding Cool, Variety, Toon Zone, and a Newsarama poll
• Speaking of Newsarama, they’ve collected numerous reactions by insiders and fans on Twitter and blogs. Also, they made a timeline of Marvel’s financial situation over the years, which included a lot of hills and valleys. (Including the infamous bankrupcy following the collecting boom collapse of the 90’s.)
• Bleeding Cool has a few reactions listed as well.

Newsarama’s own blog team has their own questions. How does this affect the Universal Studio’s Marvel Attraction? What about the Disney Store? Come to think of it, there’s the announced “Disney Kingdom” comics and the deal with Boom! Studio’s “Boom! Kids” division, which has Previews listings that go beyond the Pixar titles to include the former Gemstone titles.

Then there’s the animation studios currently making the Nicktoon shows…and the deal with Nickelodeon itself. Will they join The Spectacular Spider-Man and the 80’s/90’s Saban-produced Marvel cartoons on Disney XD or stay where they are for the rest of the line? What about the Marvel DVD movies with Lionsgate? The conference call (highlights at Comic Book Resources) does cover the Paramount deal with the Marvel Movieverse. They’ll finish that deal and eventually be produced at one of Disney’s acquired movie studios. (I’m thinking Miramax more than Disney proper. Although a Pixar movie would be fantastically amazing. Both puns intended.)

A G4TV commentator notes that Pixar’s content and Miramax’s weren not affected by Disney’s acquisition. (In fact, Disney caught some fire from the Disney family after Miramax’s alleged hackjob on President Richard Nixon.) On the other hand, Saban’s properties have gone largely silent, and the current version of Power Rangers, Power Rangers RPM, only airs on ABC’s Saturday Morning lineup (which for some brain-dead reason my local affiliate airs the previous week’s episodes at 5AM rather than the proper day and time).

I think everyone is going to be watching the shrapnel from this bombshell for some time to come. I know I will. I’m not really sure what to make of the news just yet.