When The Walt Disney Company announced they were purchasing Marvel Entertainment, it set up a barrage of media coverage ranging from the blogs of concerned comic book fans to the financial analysts of Wall Street.

“The possibilities are endless when you think about this new fantasy marriage,” wrote Tony Hicks in the Contra Costa Times.

A number of commentators saw the elevation of characters created or co-created by Stan Lee as a significant side effect of the deal.

"Stan Lee has proven himself to be a creative genius on the same level as Walt Disney. Certainly, one can argue that Spider-Man is just as important as Mickey Mouse," Stephen Fishler, founder of Metropolis Collectibles and ComicConnect, said in USA Today.

Some of the media outlets looked at purely the financial perspective and could be described as generally positive but with some definite skeptics.

“The acquisition of Marvel Entertainment by the Walt Disney Co. is, on a surface level, a perfect, if expensive, fit. But it also represents an interesting evolution in the company’s direction under CEO Bob Iger,” said Fortune.

“Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man may help provide some much needed spark to the sleepy merger market,” wrote CNN’s Paul R. La Monica.

“Meanwhile, ‘we question the value of Marvel’s lesser known characters,’ Forbes quoted Citi Investment Research analyst Jason Bazinet as saying. ‘This suggests future releases may be less successful.’"

Obviously in a deal of this size, one that should rightly be expected to take years to pay for itself, there can be no informed immediate evaluations of its success, but Marvel’s best-known creator seems to think it’s only a positive.

“I couldn’t be happier with this agreement,” said Stan Lee in a statement released by his publicist. “It’s a great move for Disney, for Marvel and for my company Pow! Entertainment since Pow! has a first-look deal with Disney. From every possible point of view, the merger of Disney and Marvel is a match made in heaven. Just imagine, with this deal Marvel gives Disney a library of literally hundreds of unique and colorful characters that have the potential to make great, high-concept movies and long-lasting franchises — and nobody knows how to play in that ball park better than Disney. This is a great day for the two companies and for the entertainment community as a whole. To sum it up as simply as possible, when you combine the best with the best, everyone wins!”