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Marvel Comics is an American comic book company owned by Marvel Publishing, Inc., a division of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. more...

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Marvel counts among its characters such well-known properties as Spider-Man, the X-Men and their member Wolverine, the Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Daredevil, Ghost Rider and many others. Most of Marvel's fictional characters are depicted as inhabiting a single shared world; this continuity is known as the Marvel Universe.

The comic book arm of the company was founded in 1939 as Timely Publications and was generally known as Atlas Comics in the 1950s. Marvel's modern incarnation dates from the early 1960s, with the launching of Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others. Marvel has since become one of the largest American comics companies, along with DC Comics.

History

Timely Comics

Marvel Comics was founded by pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman in 1939 as Timely Publications, based at his existing company at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, New York. Goodman's official titles were editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman officially listed as publisher. The company's roots go back further, to Goodman's first Western pulp, in 1933. A precursor of one Marvel character, the jungle lord Ka-Zar, first appeared in a 1936 pulp; he was adapted to a comic-book story in the first Timely Comics release, and the name became that of a different Marvel jungle lord introduced in the 1960s.

Timely's first publication was Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), contained the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superhero, the Human Torch, and the first generally available appearance of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features. The contents of that sales blockbuster were supplied by an outside packager, Funnies, Inc., but by the following year Timely had a staff in place. With the second issue the series title changed to Marvel Mystery Comics.

The company's first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with soon-to-be industry legend Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). It, too, proved a major sales hit, with a circulation of nearly one million.

While no other Timely character would be as successful as these "big three", some notable heroes — many continuing to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks — include the Whizzer, Miss America, the Destroyer, the original Vision, and Paul Gustavson's Angel. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, "Powerhouse Pepper", as well as a children's funny animal line whose most popular characters were Super Rabbit and the duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.

Read more at Wikipedia.org