Marvel Comics is the brand name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc., formerly Marvel Publishing,
Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, a publisher of American comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney
Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwide's parent company.
Marvel was started in 1939 by Martin Goodman as Timely Comics, and by 1951 had generally become known as Atlas Comics.
Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Wolverine,
Ant-Man, the Wasp, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, She-Hulk,
the Vision, the Falcon, the Winter Soldier, Ghost Rider, Blade, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales, the Punisher,
Shang-Chi and Deadpool. Superhero teams exist such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Marvel universe also features well-known supervillains including Doctor Doom, Magneto, Thanos, Loki, Green Goblin, Kingpin, Red Skull,
Ultron, the Mandarin, MODOK, Doctor Octopus, Kang, Dormammu, Venom and Galactus. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single
reality known as the Marvel Universe, with most locations mirroring real-life places; many major characters are based in New York City.
Additionally, Marvel has published several licensed properties from other companies. This includes Star Wars comics twice from 1977 to 1986
and again since 2015.
The first MCU film is Iron Man (2008), which began the films of Phase One culminating in the crossover film The Avengers (2012). Phase Two began with Iron Man 3 (2013) and concluded with Ant-Man (2015). Phase Three began with Captain America: Civil War (2016) and concluded with Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The first three phases in the franchise are collectively known as "The Infinity Saga". The films of Phase Four began with Black Widow (2021).