page_title: Marvel Comics
section_title: Disney conglomerate unit (2009-present)
hierarchical_section_title: Marvel Comics / History / Disney conglomerate unit (2009-present)
caption_attribution_description: English: From the left to right: Writers Ed Brubaker , Christos Gage , Matt Fraction and Brian Michael Bendis at a book signing at Midtown Comics Times Square in Manhattan, June 21, 2010. This photo was created by Luigi Novi. It is not in the public domain, and use of this file outside of the licensing terms is a copyright violation. If you would like to use this image outside of the Wikimedia projects, you may do so, only if I am properly credited, either by linking the photograph to this page, or with an easily visible credit placed near the photo in each instance in which it is used. Please credit authorship as follows: &#160;© Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Please maintain the original file name in all uses. You can see a gallery of some of my other photos here. If you have any questions, you can contact me by sending me an email or leaving a note at the bottom of my Wikipedia talk page.
context_page_description: 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 under a number of corporations and imprints but now known as Timely Comics, and by 1951 had generally become known as Atlas Comics. The Marvel era began in 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. The Marvel brand, which had been used over the years, was solidified as the company's primary brand.
  Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Black Widow, Wolverine, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Blade, Daredevil, the Punisher and Deadpool.
context_section_description: On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced it would acquire Marvel Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for a cash and stock deal worth approximately $4 billion, which if necessary would be adjusted at closing, giving Marvel shareholders $30 and 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they owned.  As of 2008, Marvel and its major, longtime competitor DC Comics shared over 80% of the American comic-book market.
  As of September 2010, Marvel switched its bookstores distribution company from Diamond Book Distributors to Hachette Distribution Services. Marvel moved its office to the Sports Illustrated Building in October 2010.
  Marvel relaunched the CrossGen imprint, owned by Disney Publishing Worldwide, in March 2011. Marvel and Disney Publishing began jointly publishing Disney/Pixar Presents magazine that May.
  Marvel discontinued its Marvel Adventures imprint in March 2012, and replaced them with a line of two titles connected to the Marvel Universe TV block. Also in March, Marvel announced its Marvel ReEvolution initiative that included Infinite Comics, a line of digital comics, Marvel AR, a software application that provides an augmented reality experience to readers and Marvel NOW!, a relaunch of most of the company's major titles with different creative teams. Marvel NOW! also saw the debut of new flagship titles including Uncanny Avengers and All-New X-Men.
  In April 2013, Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC, a Once Upon a Time graphic novel was announced for publication in September. With Disney, Marvel announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first title under their joint "Disney Kingdoms" imprint "Seekers of the Weird", a five-issue miniseries. On January 3, 2014, fellow Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm announced that as of 2015, Star Wars comics would once again be published by Marvel.
  Following the events of the company-wide crossover "Secret Wars" in 2015, a relaunched Marvel universe began in September 2015, called the All-New, All-Different Marvel.
  Marvel Legacy was the company's Fall 2017 relaunch banner starting in September. The banner had comics with lenticular variant covers which required comic book stores to double their regular issue order to be able to order the variants. The owner of two Comix Experience stores complained about the set up of forcing retailers to be stuck with copies they cannot sell for the variant that they can sell. With other complaints too, Marvel did adjust down requirements for new titles no adjustment was made for any other. Thusforthly MyComicShop.com and at least 70 other comic book stores were boycotting these variant covers. Despite the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan, Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming in theaters, none of those characters' titles featured in the top 10 sales and the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series was cancelled. Conan Properties International announced on January 12, 2018 that Conan would return to Marvel in early 2019.
  On January 19, 2018, Joshua Yehl, editor of ign.com, speculated on potential changes if Disney's proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox went through. He expects Fox franchises licensed out to other firms would be moved to Marvel and that Fox's Marvel film properties would be treated better by the publishing division. However, Marvel had licensed Archie Comics to publish Marvel Digests collections for the newsstand market. While Disney has licensed IDW Publishing to produce the classic, all-ages Disney comics since the Marvel purchase and a Big Hero 6 comic book to go along with the TV series despite the fact that the Disney movie was based on a Marvel comic book.  Then on July 17, 2018, Marvel Entertainment announced the licensing of Marvel characters to IDW for a line of middle-grade reader market comic books to start publishing in November 2018.
  On March 1, 2019, Serial Box, a digital book platform, announced a partnership with Marvel. They will publish new and original stories that will be tied to a 
caption: Writers of Marvel titles in the 2010s include (seated left to right) Ed Brubaker, Christos Gage, Matt Fraction, and Brian Michael Bendis.
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