MARVEL COMICS
This article is about the comic book company using this name beginning in 1961. For the earlier comic book series, see Marvel Mystery Comics.
Marvel Comics
Parent companyMarvel Entertainment, LLC
(The Walt Disney Company)
StatusActive
FoundedOctober 1939; 76 years ago(as Timely Comics)
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters location135 W. 50th Street, New York City
Key people
Publication typesComics/See List of Marvel Comics publications
Fiction genresCrime, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, war, Western
Imprintsimprint list
Official websiteOfficial websiteMarvel Worldwide Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwide's parent company.
Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvel's modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created byStan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others.
Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Thor,Hulk, Deadpool and Ant-Man, such teams as the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Fantastic Four, the Inhumans and theX-Men, and antagonists such as Doctor Doom, The Enchantress, Green Goblin, Ultron, Doctor Octopus, Thanos, Magneto and Loki. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locations that mirror real-life cities. Characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Daredevil and Doctor Strange are based in New York City,[1][2]whereas the X-Men have historically been based in Salem Center, New York[3][4][5] and Hulk's stories often have been set in the American Southwest.[6]