A few signatures is all that's left for The Walt Disney Co. to become the new owners of Marvel Entertainment Inc.

Shareholders of Marvel, responsible for such properties as X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, approved the deal Wednesday that would allow Disney to purchase the company for $4.3 billion. The mostly cash deal will result in the exchange of $30 and 0.745 shares of Disney stock for every Marvel share.

The acquisition will strengthen Disney's hold on some key properties that are not only strong in comic book sales, but have been box office smashes as well. That includes more than 5,000 Marvel characters that could be included in theme parks, books and films.

However, it is not expected to affect some of the deals Marvel has with existing studios, including the use of characters at Disney World competitor Universal Studios, as well as active production and distribution agreements with studios.

Marvel was founded in 1933 and was acquired by MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings for $82.5 million in 1989, according to Wikipedia.

The comic book bubble burst hurt Marvel significantly in the 1990s, forcing it to seek bankruptcy protection. That allowed Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad to step in and take over Marvel, who have pushed the company into revenue of $676 million in 2008.

The total acquisition is expected to be finalized after the close of the trading markets on Thursday.