Have you noticed there's been a lot of comic book-based movies lately? The idea of plotting to take over the world isn't an unusual one for a comic, so it makes sense that Marvel Studios has been slowly conquering the film industry for the past eight years.

"Ant-Man," which is now showing in cinemas across Japan, is the 12th installment in what's being referred to as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This number doesn't include other Marvel projects: TV show "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," the "Agent Carter" mini-series, or the Netflix-exclusive series "Daredevil." "Ant-Man" is the final film in what's being called "Phase Two" — the second stage of introducing a much larger, intertwined plot that stretches across several media and has earned the franchise nearly $9 billion worldwide. What comes next will be even bigger.

The Marvel franchise began with 2008's "Iron Man." Viewers who stuck around after that film's closing credits were given a peak at the Phase One plan to introduce the members of superhero squad the Avengers with their own films — "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), "Thor" (2011) and "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011). They served as tent poles to a larger story that came to fruition in 2012 with "Marvel's The Avengers," which united all of the previous films' main characters. Confused? Trust me, the comics are more complicated.