Holy crap!

When Marvel went bankrupt i considered buying some Marvel stock just for fun. Guess it would have actually paid off...

Marvel has always been derided by indie comic fans as being "corporate" but Marvel was small potatoes in the real corporate world. Now it's going to be on par with or beyond DC/Time-Warner. It was actually pretty impressive how Marvel's been self-supporting and doing well since bankruptcy, and their self-produced movie venture was looking promising, so it's sad to see them get gobbled up.

I don't expect any immediate 'Disney-fication' of Marvel. I doubt they'll even change the branding. Deadpool will continue to be Deadpool, etc. In the long term we may see some changes. I worry about their susceptibility to boycotts from the religious right. Remember that they had to pass Kevin Smith's Dogma to another company because of protests. But i suspect that the actual comics are a little under the radar of things like that. That would be more about their depictions in movies and tv shows, which we'd probably start seeing a lot more of. We'll see.

On the other hand, it's possible they're interested in Marvel as an idea factory. They may
be more willing to keep low-selling titles alive and stuff like that. So from that perspective it may actually be a positive thing.

Personally, not sure if i like giving money regularly to Disney, which isn't one of the cleanest companies in the world, from a variety of perspectives - human rights/slave labor, labor issues, environmental issues, copyright issues...

are all the marvel employees going to have to shave their beards now?

That's a myth!

Not according to a random site i found on the internet!

http://www.magicalkingdoms.com/blog/2009/02/19/top-ten-disney-urban-myths-true-or-false/

#3. It was true up until 2000.

I can't bother to read to go to that link, but I know of a Disney animator who has a goatee.

You win.