Mergers and acquisitions are hitting the headlines. Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) just bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. The biggest one recently is the Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) bid for Cadbury's at $16.73 billon. It wasn't accepted, but that doesn't mean it won't eventually happen. And Hershey Co (NYSE: HSY) certainly isn't going sit idly by and watch what happens. It may have ideas of its own for Cadbury.

You may think these big deals have no connection to your stocks since you don't own them. But you're wrong. This M & A activity has a very positive influence on all stocks, directly and indirectly. The more mergers there are, the better the stock market will do.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, comic-book publisher Marvel (NYSE: MVL) has come up with another character set to exploit from its vast library. I've never heard of this title, but apparently a comic book called Runaways, which has been around since 2002 and has developed a following. It has been tapped by management to be source material for a movie. It has something to do with teenagers who have parents that are evil villains. This sends them for a loop, causing them to run away and to attempt to process this shock to their systems. I don't really know a lot about this universe.

And that's what fascinates me about it from the perspective of being a shareholder. It both frightens and excites me at the same time. One of the biggest issues surrounding Marvel has been the oft-mentioned value of the company's 5,000 characters. Some have pointed out that, once you get through Hulk, X-Men, Spider-Man ,Iron Man and a few of the other major hitters, Marvel really doesn't have any other big properties to lean on in terms of generating viable movie franchises. For instance, is Ant-Man going to be a huge success at the movies? For that matter, what the heck is an Ant-Man anyway? Wasn't he made fun of in an old Saturday Night Live sketch from the 1970's? I sometimes do have some reticence when thinking about characters such as Thor, Captain America, and, yes, Ant-Man. Will they be accepted by the movie-going youth as readily as Iron Man recently was at the multiplex?

This is why I think it's a neat idea to start testing the perception of Wall Street investors by announcing the film adaptation of a lesser-known quantity. I mean, I haven't heard of this Runaways thing, at least. But maybe something a little more modern compared to the Captain America character will resonate perfectly fine with the youthful target audience of today. Perhaps Marvel will find out the true value of its brand equity when it slaps its name on something that hasn't been promoted over several decades. It's difficult to say at this stage, and I'll concede that it might be a bit early to begin evaluating this concept when investors are more worried at the moment over the potential success or failure of the new Hulk picture that is set to open very shortly.

Still, if Marvel wants to compete with big guns such as Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), then it needs to broaden its horizons and move beyond Wolverine.

This post is part of our Money Face-Offs feature. Let us know who you think comes out ahead in this head-to-head match-up, and check out our other Money Face-Off posts.

In this corner, hailing from Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, is 91-year old billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, one-time amateur boxer know as "Rifle Right Kerkorian." And in the other corner, hailing from New York, is 71-year-old corporate raider and activist private equity investor, Carl Icahn, who is never afraid to go toe to toe with an opponent.

Let's get ready to rumble.

Round One begins: Kerkorian drops out of school and becomes a pilot. He gets his start in business buying surplus planes after World War II, as well as Las Vegas properties, becoming the landlord of Caesar's Palace. Icahn, meanwhile, establishes his reputation as a corporate raider during his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985, and becomes one of the inspirations for the character of Gordon "Greed Is Good" Gekko, the antagonist of the 1987 film Wall Street.

Warren Buffet has joined the Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) craze, at least parenthetically. Fruit of the Loom, owned by Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A), has joined Crocs in licensing the right to use Marvel Entertainment Inc.'s (NYSE: MVL) superheros on their products.

For Crocs, this builds on an already impressive array of tie-in arrangements, including the Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) deal Jon Ogg blogged about here last week, in which they gained the right to Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and Scooby-Doo characters from the Warner Brother's closet.

Among the figures in the Marvel Universe are Spiderman, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk. The Hulk will be featured in one of next summer's blockbuster-wannabes, The Incredible Hulk.

Fruit of the Loom offers character underwear featuring icons such as Batman, Scooby-Doo (they missed a bet here, not naming this line Scooby-Doo-Doo), and (appropriately enough) Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants.

See our Crocs gallery for more about the fashionable footwear.

Gallery: Crocs, from ugly to boots

As "Spider-Man 3" breaks box office records, its studio Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) is about to hit milestone that's not worth celebrating.

The Japanese conglomerate may report its worst quarterly loss in four years tomorrow because of lackluster sales of the PlayStation 3, according to Bloomberg News. The company's movie division, of course, is a bright spot for Chief Executive Howard Stringer.

But before investors' spidey senses start tingling, some reality is in order.

For one thing, "Spider-Man 3" was an extremely expensive film to make. Media reports say it was the costliest film in the history of Hollywood. Radar magazine pegs the price tag at $500 million, Sony says the figure is closer to $270 million.

Everyone agrees that it rewrote the rulebook in Hollywood.