As the year 2009 was leaving, Walt Disney, Co. acquired Marvel Entertainment Inc. after a deal of 4.3 billion dollars was approved by Marvel’s shareholders Thursday, New Year’s Eve.

Disney has promised that there would be no “disneyfication” of Marvel’s properties. The next set of Marvel movies to be released is composed of Spiderman 4, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers.

Disney is expected to explore almost all Marvel comics characters. Stan Lee himself had also thought the same thing would happen after the merge was first officially announced last August 2009. This will broaden Disney’s portfolio, which has been appealing strongly with girls more than with boys.

There are more than 5,000 characters in the Marvel franchise. Spiderman and Iron Man are now joining Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and, and well, Hannah Montana.

Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter, Marvel’s chief executive and 37% stockholder, will continue to oversee Marvel’s business after the Disney acquisition.

The acquisition of the 70-year old Marvel Entertainment is Disney’s largest acquisition since acquiring Pixar Animations, makers of Toy Story, Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Up.