Marvel's characters include superheroes as well-known as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Wolverine and Captain Marvel, as well as popular superhero teams like the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
His stable of well-known supervillains includes characters like the Doctor Doom, Magneto, Ultron, Thanos, the Green Goblin, Galactus, Loki and KingpinMost of Marvel's fictional characters exist in a single reality, called the Marvel Universe, most of whose locations reflect real-life locations; many major characters are based in New York City. In addition, Marvel has published several properties licensed from other companies. This includes Star Wars comics twice from 1977 to 1986 and again since 2015.
The first modern comics under the Marvel Comics brand were the science fiction anthology Journey into Mystery #69 and the teen humor title Patsy Walker #95 (both dated June 1961), which each featured an "MC" panel on their covers. Then, in the wake of DC Comics' success in reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, notably with Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and the other members of the Justice League of America team, Marvel follows suit.
Marvel Comics
In 1961, writer and editor Stan Lee revolutionized superhero comics by introducing superheroes designed to appeal to readers older than the medium's predominantly child audience, ushering in what Marvel later called the Marvel Age of Comics.
Marvel's first modern superhero team, the titular stars of the #1 issue Fantastic Four (Nov. 1961), broke with other comic book archetypes of the era by bickering, holding grudges both deep and petty, and eschewing anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status.
Afterwards, Marvel comics have gained a reputation for focusing on adult characterization and issues to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them, a quality that the new generation of older readers appreciated. This applies particularly to the title The Amazing Spider-Man, which turns out to be Marvel's most popular book. Its young hero suffers from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager, something many readers can relate to.
Fantastic Four Stan Lee and the independent designer and possible co-author Jack Kirby were born into a Cold War culture that led their creators to revise the superhero conventions of previous eras to better reflect the psychological spirit of their time.By avoiding comic book tropes like secret identities and even costumes at the beginning, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a "superhero in the real world" approach, the series represented a shift that proved to be a great success.
Marvel often features imperfect superheroes, monsters and misfits, unlike the perfect, handsome, and athletic heroes found in previous mainstream comics. Some Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters, like Hulk and the ThingThis naturalistic approach even extends to current politics.
Comics historian Mike Benton also noted:
In the world of comics Superman [of its rival DC Comics], communism did not exist. Superman rarely crosses national borders or gets involved in political conflicts. From 1962 to 1965, there were more communists [in Marvel Comics] than on the subscriber list of Pravda. Communist agents attack Ant-Man In his laboratory, red henchmen blow up the Fantastic Four on the moon and Vietnamese guerrillas attack Iron Man.
In addition to Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, Marvel begins publishing other superhero titles featuring heroes and anti-heroes such as Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, Daredevil, Inhumans, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel and the Silver Surfer, as well as memorable antagonists such as the Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus, Loki, the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus, all existing in a shared reality known as Marvel Universe, whose locations reflect real cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Originally, the company's publications were marked with a lowercase "Mc" in the upper right corner of the covers. However, artist and writer Steve Ditko placed a larger image of the title character from The Amazing Spider-Man in the upper left corner of issue #2, along with the series' number and price. Lee appreciated the value of this visual motif and adapted it to the company's entire line of publications. This branding pattern, which typically consists of a full-body shot of the characters in solo titles or a collection of the main characters' faces in ensemble titles, would become standard at Marvel for decades.
Owned by the Marvel Entertainment Group
Marvel has made a lot of money from its children's comic book brand Star Comics in the 1980s and gained even more money and worldwide success during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, launching the 2099 line of comics set in the future (Spider-Man 2099, etc.) and the creative but commercially unsuccessful Razorline brand of superhero comics, created by novelist and filmmaker Clive BarkerIn 1990, Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card manufacturer SkyBox International. These are trading cards that feature characters and events from the Marvel Universe. The 1990s saw the appearance of different covers, cover enhancements, swimsuit issues, and company-wide crossovers that affected the overall continuity of the Marvel Universe.
To expand Marvel's storytelling in the early to mid-1990s, they began experimenting with their series, including Saturday morning cartoons and various comic book collaborations to explore new genres. In 1992, the series X-Men: The Animated Series airs on Fox Kids, then Spider-Man: The Animated Series on the same channel.
Marvel Enterprises
In 1998, the company launched theMarvel Knights Edition, which takes place just outside of Marvel continuity with better production quality. The title is directed by Joe Quesada, who will soon become editor-in-chief, and offers tough and juicy stories featuring characters such as Daredevil, The Inhumans and Black Panther.
Marvel also created new brands, such as MAX (a line of explicit content) and Marvel Adventures (developed for children). The company also created an alternate universe, Ultimate Marvel, which allowed it to relaunch its main titles by revising and updating its characters to present them to a new generation.
Some of the company's properties have been adapted into successful film franchises, such as the film series Men in Black (which was based on a book by Malibu), from 1997, the Blade film series, from 1998, the film series X-Men, from 2000, and the most profitable series, Spider-Man, from 2002.
The title Conan the Barbarian Marvel's was canceled in 1993 after 275 issues, while the magazine Savage Sword of Conan had lasted 235 issues. Marvel published further titles, including miniseries, until 2000, for a total of 650 issues. Conan was picked up by Dark Horse Comics three years later.
On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced that it would acquire Marvel Comics' parent company, Marvel Entertainment, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at approximately $4 billion, which, if necessary, would be adjusted at closing, giving Marvel shareholders $30 and 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they owned. As of 2008, Marvel and its longtime rival, DC Comics, shared over 80% of the U.S. comic book market.
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