Pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman created Timely Publications. Goodman, who had started with a Western pulp was expanding into the emerging and by then already highly popular new medium of comic books. Launching his new line from his existing company's offices. he officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman (Martin's brother) officially listed as publisher.

Goodman hired his wife's 16-year-old cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant. When editor Simon left the company in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber (by then writing pseudonymously as "Stan Lee") interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades.

more staff members were employed, including Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who helped to create one of the most well known Marvel superheroes - Captain America

Timely's first publication, Marvel Comics #1 included the first appearance of Carl Burgos' the Human Torch, and the first appearances of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features. The issue was a great success; it and a second printing sold a combined nearly 900,000 copies.

While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc., Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. 

Goodman's business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these shell companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55 (May 1944). As well, some comics' covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12 (Winter 1946–47), were labeled "A Marvel Magazine" many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961.

Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company, the newsstand-distribution company he owned. This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications.

Goodman switched distributors to the American News Company which shortly discontinued its business. Atlas was left without distribution and was forced to turn to Independent News, the distribution arm of its biggest rival, National (DC) Comics, which imposed restrictions on Goodman's company. 

writer-editor Stan Lee revolutionized superhero comics by introducing superheroes designed to appeal to older readers, thus ushering what Marvel later called the Marvel Age of Comics. Marvel's first superhero team, The Fantastic Four, broke convention with other comic book archetypes of the time by squabbling, holding grudges both deep and petty, avoiding secret identities in favor of celebrity status. Marvel comics developed a reputation for focusing on characterization and adult issues to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them, a quality which the new generation of older readers appreciated. This applied to The Amazing Spider-Man title which turned out to be Marvel's most successful book. Its young hero suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager, something with which many readers could identify.

The first modern comic books under the Marvel Comics brand were the science-fiction anthology Journey into Mystery #69 and the teen-humor title Patsy Walker #95. which displayed an "MC" box on its cover. Then, in the wake of DC Comics' success in reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Marvel followed suit.

A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code published titles themed to horror, martial arts, sword-and-sorcery, satire, and science fiction. Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, under its Curtis Magazines imprint.

Marvel held its own comic book convention, Marvelcon '75, in spring 1975. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee announced that Jack Kirby, the artist co-creator of most of Marvel's signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics. During this time, Marvel and the Iowa-based Register and Tribune Syndicate launched a number of syndicated comic strips (The Amazing Spider-Man, Howard the Duck, Conan the Barbarian, and The Incredible Hulk). None of the strips lasted past 1982, except for The Amazing Spider-Man, which is still being published.

Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux. Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 36 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount.

Goodman retired as publisher and installed his son, Chip, as publisher. Shortly thereafter, Lee succeeded him as publisher and also became Marvel's president for a brief time. During his time as president, he appointed his associate editor, prolific writer Roy Thomas, as editor-in-chief. 

Perfect Film and Chemical renamed itself as Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group. Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals reviving Marvel's old Atlas name for a new Atlas Comics line, but this lasted only a year and a half. In the mid-1970s a decline of the newsstand distribution network affected Marvel. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck fell victim to the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales. But by the end of the decade, Marvel's fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct market distribution

Jim Shooter became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. During Shooter's nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller's run on Daredevil became critical and commercial successes. Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market, institutionalized creator royalties, starting with the Epic Comics imprint for creator-owned material

in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars; and in 1986 launched the ultimately unsuccessful New Universe line to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. 

Marvel earned a great deal of money with their 1980s children's comics imprint Star Comics, and they earned a great deal more money and worldwide success during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, launching the successful 2099 line of comics set in the future.

In 1990, Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card maker SkyBox International. These were collectible trading cards that featured the characters and events of the Marvel Universe. 

Marvel suffered a blow in early 1992, when seven of its most prized artists Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men) — left to form Image Comics in a deal brokered by Malibu Comics' owner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. 

In purchasing Malibu, Marvel now owned the leading standard for computer coloring of comic books that had been developed by Rosenberg, and also integrated the Ultraverse line of comics and the Genesis Universe into Marvel's multiverse.

To help Marvel expand its storytelling during the early to mid-1990s, they began to experiment with their series, to explore new genres. they released the X-Men: The Animated Series which was aired on Fox Kids, they later released a Spider-Man: The Animated Series as well.

Marvel teamed up with Thomas Nelson to create Christian media genre comics, including a Christian superhero named The Illuminator, they made adaptions of Christian novels too, including In His Steps, The Screwtape Letters, and The Pilgrim's Progress.

Marvel had some of its titles participate in "Heroes Reborn", a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and outsource them to the studios of two of the former Marvel artists turned Image Comics founders, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. 

Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc.

In 1997, Toy Biz bought Marvel Entertainment Group to end the bankruptcy, forming a new corporation, Marvel Enterprises. With his business partner Avi Arad, publisher Bill Jemas, and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter helped stabilize the comics line.

Marvel first licensed two prose novels to Bantam Books, who printed The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker by Otto Binder (1967) and Captain America: The Great Gold Steal by Ted White (1968). Various publishers took up the licenses from 1978 to 2002. Also, with the various licensed films being released beginning in 1997, various publishers put out movie novelizations. In 2003, following publication of the prose young adult novel Mary Jane, starring Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man mythos, Marvel announced the formation of the publishing imprint Marvel Press. However, Marvel moved back to licensing with Pocket Books from 2005 to 2008. With few books issued under the imprint, Marvel and Disney Books Group relaunched Marvel Press in 2011 with the Marvel Origin Storybooks line.

Some of the company's properties were adapted into successful film franchises, such as the Men in Black movie series starting in 1997, the Blade movie series, starting in 1998, the X-Men movie series, starting in 2000, and the highest grossing series, Spider-Man, beginning in 2002.

With the new millennium, Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. The first title from this era was X-Force #119. Marvel also created new imprints, such as MAX (an explicit-content line) and Marvel Adventures (developed for child audiences). The company also created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the company to reboot its major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation.

the company launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing. At the December 2007 the New York Anime Fest, the company announcement that Del Rey Manga would publish two original English language Marvel manga books featuring the X-Men and Wolverine to hit the stands in spring 2009.

Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work. The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics, by issuing the one-shot Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 and a variety of other special issues.

Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. part of Marvel Entertainment. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired the parent company.

The Walt Disney Company announced it would acquire Marvel Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment. As of 2008, Marvel and its major, longtime competitor DC Comics shared over 80% of the American comic-book market.

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 Revolution 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.

Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC, a Once Upon a Time graphic novel was announced. With Disney, Marvel announced in that it would release its first title under their joint "Disney Kingdoms" imprint "Seekers of the Weird", a five-issue miniseries.

In 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.

films based on Marvel's properties represent the highest-grossing U.S. franchise, having grossed over $7.7 billion as part of a worldwide gross of over $18 billion. As of May 2019, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has grossed over $22 billion.

Marvel Legacy was the company's Fall 2017 relaunch branding, which began that September. Books released as part of that initiative featured lenticular variant covers that required comic bookstores to double their regular issue order to be able to order the variants. The owner of two Comix Experience stores complained about requiring retailers to purchase an excess of copies featuring the regular cover, which they would not be able to sell in order to acquire the more sought-after variant. Marvel responded to these complaints by rescinding these ordering requirements on newer series, but maintained it on more long-running titles like Invincible Iron Man. As a result, MyComicShop.com and at least 70 other comic bookstores boycotted these variant covers. Despite the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan, Thor: Ragnarök 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.

 Walt Disney Parks and Resorts plans on creating original Marvel attractions at their theme parks, with Hong Kong Disneyland becoming the first Disney theme park to feature a Marvel attraction. Due to the licensing agreement with Universal Studios, signed prior to Disney's purchase of Marvel, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort are barred from having Marvel characters in their parks. This clause has allowed Walt Disney World to have meet and greets, merchandise, attractions and more with other Marvel characters not associated with the characters at Islands of Adventures, such as Star-Lord and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy.