In 1933 in New York, an enterprise known as Marvel Publishing was
founded by Martin Goodman. Six years later, in 1939, he
established a comic book newspaper named Timely Comics. The first
of the comic book heroes was Captain America. Following the
successful launch of the character, the publishing house began to
expand gradually and create other characters. In 1950, the
company's name was changed to Atlas Comics. However, readers were
becoming less inclined to purchase comics with the same heroes,
and eventually, after financial troubles emerged, the publishing
house's name was changed in the latter half of the 1950s to a more
universal and distinctive name – Marvel Comics (the publishing
house continues under this name to this day). The 1960s were known
as the golden era for Marvel, called "The Marvel age of comics."
In November 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby published the first
issue of the Fantastic Four[1]. In 1962, Spider-Man made his debut
in the anthology Amazing Fantasy. This character gained immense
popularity among comic book readers, making the company the
largest of its kind in the USA. Today, Spider-Man is one of the
symbols of global pop culture. Lee and Kirby collaborated again in
1963 and created the group of mutants known as the X-Men. Since
then, Marvel has become the largest American comic book publisher,
surpassing its longtime competitor DC Comics.
Currently, Marvel Comics (sometimes referred to as Marvel
Publishing) is one of the branches of Marvel Entertainment, which
is involved in the production of comics, movies, and series with
franchise characters under the Marvel Studios and Marvel Animation
brands. The company also established a holding called Marvel Toys
that produces toys featuring Marvel characters, including
Spider-Man and Iron Man.
On August 31, 2009, it was announced that Marvel Entertainment
would become part of the media giant – The Walt Disney Company.
Later calculations revealed that Disney acquired the company for
approximately 4.5 billion USD. The transaction officially
concluded on December 31, 2009, after legal verifications by
officials.
By November 2014, Marvel had published over 43,000 comic book
issues, while DC Comics – 44,000.
In September 2015, Marvel Studios was directly integrated into
Walt Disney Studios. Marvel Television and Marvel Animation
remained within Marvel Entertainment.