Walt Disney's $4 billion offer for Marvel Entertainment would give it more than 5,000 comic book characters, including such mighty heroes as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four. Disney's Bob Iger told CNBC that the expanded roster will help bring more boys to the home of the Magic Kingdom, where Snow White, Cinderella and the Little Mermaid have long reigned supreme.

The cash and stock deal values Marvel at $50 per share, or a premium of 29 percent to Marvel's closing stock price of $38.65 on Friday. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies, and since Marvel's CEO, Isaac Perlmutter, is also the largest shareholder of the company, it's likely a done deal.

Marvel's second quarter was a mighty one. It beat market estimates on strong DVD and pay TV sales of "Iron Man," sending its shares to an all-time high. This year has been a lull for Marvel, with no new film releases due until 2010, when Iron Man 2 hits screens. Thor and the first Avenger movie, as well as Sony-produced "Spider-Man 4," are slated for a 2011 release and an "Avengers" sequel is due in 2012.

Is this a game changer for Disney's foes? Marvel rival DC Comics, with its stable of Batman, Watchmen and other, darker comic champions, is already a part of Time Warner. For the fantastic leap comic books have made to the big screen, this could be the last hurrah.

The superhero finally gets to meet his humble fan thanks to the magic of Marvel Comics.

The comic book setting is inauguration day 2009. And it is the president-elect who is the superhero and none other than the irrepressible Spider-Man who’s the fan.

“…This is your day, after all, and I know it wouldn’t look good to be seen palling around with me,” Spider-Man says as he tries to leave Obama to the limelight.

“Hey, not so fast,” says the soon-to-be commander-in-chief.

Then comes the confession: I’ve been a big fan of yours. The conversation ends with a fist bump between the two men.

Obama, in turn, might get the services of Spider-Man as he deals with multiple problems that have landed on his plate: the recession, the Iraq war and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“The future president’s gonna need Spider-Man,” the narrator says.

Meanwhile, on the cover page, Spidey is seen trying to broker a deal with Obama: “Hey, if you get to be on my cover, can I be on the dollar bill?”

The issue will hit the stands on Jan. 14 as Marvel joins the long list of newspaper publishers, news stations and gold coin makers hoping to cash in on the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

(Picture: Marvel Comics)

Keep an eye on:

• US Supreme Court asks for governement’s view of an appeal by film studios and TV networks of ruling allowing a new digital video recorder service by Cablevision (Reuters)
• CBS expands carriage deals with Verizon (Reuters) and adds new programs on TV.com (WSJ)
• Time Warner’s AOL Web services arm will expand and centralize is digital publishing operations (Reuters)