Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwide's parent company, for $4.24 billion.
Marvel counts among its characters such well-known properties as Spider-Man, the X-Men- Wolverine, Cyclops, Proffesor X, Magneto, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and Daredevil; antagonists such as the Green Goblin, Magneto, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Thanos, Loki and the Red Skull. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, also known as Earth-616, with locations that mirror real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.