Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwide's parent company.

Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvel's modern incarnation dates from 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.

Marvel counts among its characters such well-known properties as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, Hulk and Ant-Man, such teams as the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Fantastic Four, the Inhumans and the X-Men, and antagonists such as Doctor Doom, The Enchantress, Green Goblin, Ultron, Doctor Octopus, Thanos, Magneto and Loki. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locations that mirror real-life cities. Characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Daredevil and Dr. Strange are based in New York City, whereas the X-Men have historically been based in Salem Center, New York and Hulk's stories often have been set in the American Southwest.

Marvel

Marvel may refer to:

Places

People

In print

Comics

Business

Defender

A defender is usually a participant in defense (military) or defense (sports).

Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to:

Art and entertainment

Film and television

Literature

Music

Disney XD

Disney XD is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit of the Disney–ABC Television Group, itself a unit of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, its programming consists of original first-run television series, current and former original series and made-for-cable films from sister network Disney Channel, theatrically-released movies, and some live-action and animated programs from other distributors.

The channel offers an alternate Spanish language audio feed, either via a separate channel as part of a package of Spanish television networks sold by cable and satellite providers or a separate audio track accessible through the SAP option, depending on the provider.

As of February 2015, Disney XD is available to approximately 80,120,000 pay television households (68.8% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.

History

Launching

Disney XD was launched on February 13, 2009 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with the Phineas and Ferb episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together!" as its first program. The channel debuted its first original series, Aaron Stone, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time that day; the first part of the two-part premiere episode aired simultaneously on Disney XD and Disney Channel. New animated series included in the channel's initial lineup were Kid vs. Kat and Jimmy Two Shoes.