Marvel Worldwide, Inc, commonly referred to as 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 started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics.
Marvel's The Avengers is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, produced by Marvel Studio and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures . In the film , Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to form a team that must stop Thor's brother Loki from subjugating Earth.