Sorry for the all caps headline, but HOLY $H!T! Four billion dollars is enough to make any Marvel shareholder happy, but what does this mean for Marvel Comics? I grew up in Orlando, Home of the Mouse – where most natives grow up hating the corporate Disney entity for it’s policies that put profits first and people second. Not Uncle Walt’s way, but Michael Eisner’s and his ilk that ran the company in the ’80′s and ’90′s. They since changed a bit from that mindset, but I still don’t think that the ABC/ESPN deal has really worked yet. But first, here’s the official press release from Disney:

• “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.”

Now to discuss what this could mean for both the companies and the fans. First off, Sony will probably not get to renew the Spider-Man license. Period. Second, I don’t think this will lead to Disney censoring Marvel’s comics or dumbing down the product. Will we see some Disney characters under the Marvel Comics banner? More than likely. The biggest hit will be Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Marvel Island and the contract BOOM Studios Kids just signed to publish Disney characters and comics. The Universal theme park thing would scare me if I was Universal and BOOM should be fine although they shouldn’t expect to get the license renewed. Movie-wise, Univeral and Paramount will probably lose the distribution deals for any Marvel pictures not already in place. While I imagine that most movies would fall under the Touchtone label, we could still wind up seeing Walt Disney Picture (a la PotC…) before the Avengers movie. Marvel Studios will still be in charge of the movie, Disney will just grab some profits. Still not affecting the fans. For anybody old enough to remember the Warner Bros. purchase of DC, a lot of the same sentiment was floating around. Bottomline, not much changed in the actual comics and more movies got made. And while I’m still not the Disney Company’s biggest fan, I can still sit back and imagine PIXAR doing an all CGI version of X-Men or even the X-Babies.

What do you guys think? Time to panic or business as usual?