Marvel Comics: American Entertainment

Best known for their comic characters like the X-Men and the Incredible Hulk, Marvel Comics has been an essential part of America's current history. The company's comics have entertained people of all ages and all walks of life since the 1960s. What makes their characters unique is the fact that they are all written to exist within the same world, also known to die hard fans as the Marvel Universe.

Founded by Martin Goodman in 1939, they were originally known as Timely Comics. Ironically enough, the first product ever published was called Marvel Comics #1 and featured the Human Torch, a superhero with the power to control flames and eventually to become one of the Fantastic Four.

Eventually, because of the Great Depression and the years that the US was involved in war, Timely Comics had to adjust by writing for more harmless characters which included talking funny animals. Characters like the Human Torch and Captain America did not reach mainstream fame at the time. In fact, it wasn't until 1961 that a comic was actually labeled to be under the company of Marvel Comics. The comic was Amazing Adventures #3.

Not long later that year, the Fantastic Four began to hit the comic pages by artist Jack Kirby, who was earlier an artist for rival company DC Comics. Marvel then released a slew of new (now familiar) superheroes that included Thor, Iron Man, Daredevil as well as villains like Green Goblin, Magneto, and Doctor Doom. The most successful superhero to be drawn out of Marvel was The Amazing Spiderman, a character that has gone through various transformations under different artists and writers. The character is so successful that today there is about four full-length movies featuring him.