The company that plays home to characters including Wolverine, Iron Man, and Spider-man has been acquired by the company best known for a talking mouse.  Disney bought Marvel today for about $4 billion.

This means that Disney’s getting hold of Marvel’s entire fictional universe, which is said to contain more than 5,000 characters.  It’ll inherit all of the movie projects that are in works, too (and for the record, Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, said that he doesn’t intended to back out of any of them).

The move should help Disney bolster its position with boys, who haven’t exactly latched onto the Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers phenomena.  As for the more grownup comic book fans out there, they shouldn’t worry that their superheroes are about to be ruined, because Pixar continued to do its usual excellent thing even after Disney acquired it.

Anyway, with respect to some financial details: Disney’s stock lost 2.98 percent due to the deal, which isn’t all that bad, while Marvel’s shares gained 25.15 percent.

Also, the cash and stock deal will result in Marvel’s investors receiving $30 for every share of Marvel they own, plus 0.745 shares of Disney stock.