Marvel Comics was founded by pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman in 1939 as Timely Publications. 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.

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 mutant anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features.

Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Publishing, Inc., a division of Marvel Entertainment, Inc.

Affectionately called "The House of Ideas" by the fan press, Marvel's best-known characters include Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Daredevil and The Punisher. 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 and Steve Ditko, etc. Marvel has since become one of the two largest American comics companies, along with DC Comics