The story behind: Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and for erly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media. Marvel Entertainment ,Inc., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company ,owns Marvel Worldwide.The company 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, with the company later that year launching Fantastic Four. Marvel counts among its characters such well-known properties as Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Thor and Captain America; antagonists such as Doctor Doom, the Green Goblin, Magneto, Galactus, and the Red Skull; and others. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locales set in real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.