Marvel shareholders were no doubt bracing for lousy news Tuesday when the superhero comics company issued its third-quarter results. After all,they realized that the company had not released a movie during the entire year. As it turned out, the company did indeed report a profits plunge of 60 percent on a 42-percent drop in revenue. It earned just $20 million on about $106 million in total sales. (Spider-Man 3 earned $148 million on its opening weekend.) Shareholder anticipation of the rotten results was apparently already reflected in the stock's price. (And, after all, Disney is acquiring the company in a cash and stock deal worth about $4 billion, keeping its current stock price perhaps artificially high.) In fact, Marvel stock climbed higher on Tuesday and higher still today (Wednesday), trading near its 52-week high of $51.86.