Marvel Comics is the brand name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, a publisher of American comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Worldwide's parent company. Marvel was started in 1939 by Martin Goodman under a number of corporations and imprints but now known as Timely Comics, by 1951 had become known as Atlas Comics; the Marvel era began in 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. The Marvel brand, used over the years, was solidified as the company's primary brand. Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, the Wasp, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Blade and the Punisher. Superhero teams exist such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Guardians of the Galaxy as well as supervillains including Doctor Doom, Thanos, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Red Skull, Venom, Dormammu and Kingpin.

Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with most locations mirroring real-life places. Additionally, Marvel has published several licensed properties from other companies; this includes Star Wars comics twice from 1977 to 1986 and again since 2015. Pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman created the company known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Goodman, who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by already popular—new medium of comic books. Launching his new line from his existing company's offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, he held the titles of editor, managing editor, business manager, with Abraham Goodman listed as publisher. Timely's first publication, Marvel Comics #1, included the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superhero the Human Torch, the first appearances of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features; the issue was a great success.

While its contents came from an outside packager, Inc. Timely had its own staff in place by the following year; the company's first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with artist Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1. It, proved a hit, with sales of nearly one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941. While no other Timely character would achieve the success of these three characters, some notable heroes—many of which continue to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks—include the Whizzer, Miss America, the Destroyer, the original Vision, the Angel. Timely published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, "Powerhouse Pepper", as well as a line of children's funny-animal comics featuring characters like Super Rabbit and the duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal. Goodman hired his wife's cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939.

When editor Simon left the company in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber—by writing pseudonymously as "Stan Lee"—interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely. 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; as well, some comics' covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled "A Marvel Magazine" many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion. Goodman's comic book line dropped them for the most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than Timely had published, featuring horror, humor, funny animal, men's adventure-drama, giant monster and war comics, adding jungle books, romance titles and medieval adventure, Bible stories and sports.

Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company, the newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated November 1951 though another company, Kable News, continued to distribute his comics through the August 1952 issues. This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas, rather than innovate, took a proven route of following popular trends in television and movies—Westerns and war dramas prevailing for a time, drive-in movie monsters another time—and other comic books the EC horror line. Atlas published a plethora of children's and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlo's Homer the Happy Ghost and Homer Hooper. Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, Captain America. Atlas did not achiev

The Faroe Islands Football Association, or FSF, is the governing body of all domestic football in the Faroe Islands, the highest level of, the Faroe Islands Premier League. It runs the Faroe Islands national teams for men and women. Established in 1979, it is based in Tórshavn. Organized football has been played in the Faroes since late 19th century; the first Faroese national football league was held in 1942. From 1942 until 1978 all Faroese football was governed by ÍSF. On 13 January 1979 the Faroese Football Association was established. At first it worked with organising Faroese football; the first Faroese national football league for women was held in 1985. In the 1980s the Faroese Football Association started training managers. At first it was done with help from Denmark, but since the mid-1990s this training has been under full Faroese responsibility. On 2 July 1988 the Faroe Islands gained membership of FIFA, on 18 April 1990 they gained membership of UEFA. Since the Faroes have participated in international football competitions.

Faroe Islands national football team results Official website Faroe Islands at FIFA site Faroe Islands at UEFA site List of football stadiums on the Faroe Islands - Nordic Stadiums

The Port of Esbjerg on the southwest coast of Jutland is an important hub for passenger traffic to England and a competitor to Aarhus and Hamburg for freight. Built by the State in 1868, it was once Denmark's principal fishing harbour but today has become Europe's leading port for shipping offshore wind turbines. Esbjerg was established in 1868 as a replacement for the harbour in Altona, Denmark's most important North Sea port but came under German control after the Second Schleswig War in 1864; the harbour was opened in 1874. The same year, it benefited from Esbjerg's rail connection to Fredericia on the east coast of Jutland; the initial development of the harbour was completed in 1874. It became a hub for exporting agricultural goods to England butter and bacon. Thanks to the harbour's shipping facilities, by the end of the 19th century, livestock production in the surrounding region increased significantly. From the beginning of the 20th century, Esbjerg attracted fishermen from across the country for fishing plaice.

Located some 25 km, Blåvand Lighthouse has served traffic from the Port of Esbjerg since its construction in 1900. The Port of Esbjerg was administered by the State until 2000 when it became controlled under Esbjerg Municipality. Today it is one of the four largest ports in Denmark enjoying a central position in the region's infrastructure. In addition to container and passenger traffic, it has attracted fish-processing activities and marine repair work as well as a wide variety of supporting services. DFDS operated an overnight ferry to Harwich in the south of England, taking about 12 hours; the service ended on 29 September 2014 after 140 years. A new ferry company has announced their intention to restart the service in April 2015, but by March 2017 no new ferry service has been opened. There were ferry connections between Esbjerg and Newcastle but these have been discontinued. Over the past few years, the number of passengers using the port per annum has averaged 1.8 million. The Port of Esbjerg covers a total land area of 3.5 million m2, has 10 km of quays and an alongside depth of some 4.5 m.

The Tauruskay offshore wharf has a depth of 6.3 m while the bulk cargo Australienkaj, the Europakaj and the Vestkraftkaj for containers all have an alongside depth of 10.5 m. The Englandskaj serving passenger traffic has a length of 310 m and an alongside depth of 7.6 m while the Færgehavn handling containers and ferries over a length of 420 m has an alongside depth varying from 4.4 m to 9.3 m. Other wharfs include the Humberkaj for frozen cargoes, the Containerkaj for roll-on, roll-off containerized cargoes and the Oliebro for liquid bulk carriers. In recent years, the port has handled some 4 million tons of cargo a year, of which some 500,000 tons have been liquid fuels. Esbjerg has served the Danish offshore industry since oil and gas was first extracted from the North Sea in the early 1970s. More it has become a centre for shipping offshore wind turbines. In addition to handling 65 percent of all Danish wind turbines, the port has shipped components to various British wind farms. In order to cope with future increases in Danish offshore wind power, twelve companies including DONG Energy and Bluewater Energy Services are planning the establishment of a Green Offshore Centre in Esbjerg.

In this connection, in June 2013 the port was expanded with the opening of the Østhavn covering an area of 650,000 m2. Further expansion started including two roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities. Fisheries and Maritime Museum, tracing the history of the region's fisheries and shipping