Marvel Comics started out as Timely Comics, a publishing company that produced “pulp magazines” or cheap fiction magazines and books that were made on cheap paper and could be produced economically. The company was started by Martin Goodman and would stay in his possession until the late 60’s.

The first comic book that Timely published was called “Marvel Comics” and featured the android Human Torch and Namor, The Sub Mariner. A few years later Joe Simon and Jack Kirby would create the superhero Captain America for Timely. Due to decreasing sales, the company eventually abandoned its superheroes for horror and adventure comics.

This trend of creating horror, western, adventure, and other comic books would continue through the forties and fifties and wouldn’t change until the early sixties. It was in 1961 when Timely, now called Atlas, would start producing comic books under the name Marvel Comics. DC Comics had great success with Superman and the Justice League comics and Goodman was finally convinced to reenter the fray with their own superhero comics. Creators such as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko greatly helped this resurgence with the creation of many of the characters we know and love today.

Marvel Comics has since become known with DC comics as, “The Big Two”. Together they make up over 70% of the market share of comics sold in the United States. The resurgence of comic book movies of famous characters such as Spider-Man, Daredevil, and The X-Men has cemented Marvel as a comic book company that will be around for decades to come. They continue to add on to their line of comics and create new characters with the hopes that they will catch on as well as the mainstays of the Marvel universe.

Here's a listing of the major comic book heroes that Marvel created over the years.

Spiderman

Captain America

The Incredible Hulk

DareDevil

Fantastic Four

X-Men

The Avengers