Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics is one of the largest comic book publishing conglomerates in the world and the core intellectual property of parent organization Marvel Entertainment. The company originated during the Great Depression as a small line of comic books but grew into a vast network of imprints and associated ventures. Marvel’s most famous titles include The Amazing Spider Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, The Fantastic Four, and X-Men. Marvel Entertainment was acquired by Disney in 2009. Marvel Comics and chief rival DC Comics are often referred to as “the big two,” mainly because together they control the vast majority of the US comic book market.

Brief History

Marvel Comics began as Timely Publications in 1939 when Martin Goodman, the former head of a company that published cheap, pulpy magazines, decided to take a chance on investing in comic books. A sales manager of a small company that produced comic book series for larger publishers convinced him to do this. The first issue of Marvel Comics, released in October 1939, was priced at 10 cents and was so successful that it was reprinted the following month. The two superheroes featured in the issue were Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch, both notably rebellious characters—one an aquatic half-human and the other an android who could control fire.

Timely Comics introduced a new superhero, Captain America, in 1941. Captain America was an unusual character—rather than having superhuman powers, he had the highest degree of strength, speed, and sensory accuracy that a human could possess. As a representative of the United States, his job at the time was to fight the Nazis, who were encroaching on Europe and on the verge of entering World War II. The first issue of the comic featuring Captain America sold almost one million copies. Timely thrived during the war and expanded to publish many comedy comics as well as titles such as Miss America, which notably featured a female superhero.

After a brief lull in the late 1940s as superheroes fell from popularity, the company surged forward once again with a group of comics on war-related themes directly tied to the Korean War, which began in the early 1950s. In 1951 Goodman changed the name of the company to Atlas Publishing, and it further branched into romance, horror, Westerns, and other genres. Soon, however, Goodman experienced major financial struggles. In the mid-1950s, a US Senate committee was formed with the goal of preventing young people from performing violent acts in imitation of comic book characters. This committee’s activities, while brief, were enough to damage comic book sales. After losing a distribution deal, Goodman had to seek the aid of DC Comics, which offered to distribute a few of his company’s comics; this assistance helped keep the venture afloat but limited its output.

The company officially took on the name Marvel Comics by 1961. That same year Marvel began to revolutionize the comic book world with the first appearance of The Fantastic Four. “The Four” were superheroes of vastly differing appearances and capabilities: Invisible Woman, who could remove herself from human visibility at will; a new version of the Human Torch, who could cover himself with flame and fly; the Thing, a 500-pound behemoth with skin of rock; and Mr. Fantastic, a scientist who could stretch himself to absurd lengths. Yet despite their powers, they otherwise acted much like ordinary people, developing a relatable family dynamic including occasional squabbles—a far cry from the idealized and simplistic portrayals of most previous superheroes. The 1960s would turn out to be a remarkable decade for Marvel with the introduction of such famous figures as the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Daredevil, Black Panther, and the X-Men. Many of these characters were developed at least in part by writer and editor Stan Lee, who is widely credited with helping modernize the entire superhero genre with more complex and realistic characterization and would remain closely associated with Marvel throughout his life. Another important contributor was artist and writer Jack Kirby, who co-created many of the company's most famous characters and heavily influenced its visual style before moving to DC in 1970.

Much of the 1970s was rocky for Marvel, as market forces negatively affected comic book sales. Consumers were becoming more interested in movies and television and less interested in seeking thrills from reading comics. A bright spot during this time was the television adaptation of The Incredible Hulk, with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno starring as a scientist and the monster he turns into when angered.

Marvel’s profits soared in the late 1970s when it adapted the motion picture blockbuster Star Wars in comic form. Sales for the adaptations almost immediately equaled and exceeded the success of long-standing hits for the company, such as The Amazing Spider-Man. The series was popular despite some stringent requirements by George Lucas, the film’s director, such as the omission of mention of the film’s villain Darth Vader, along with any discussion of the relationship of the original film’s heroes Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Marvel would adapt many other properties as well over the years. The late 1980s would also see strong sales and critical acclaim for such comics as the Daredevil series, as rising crime in urban centers like New York City drove interest in urban superheroes and readers who had grown up reading Marvel titles looked for more mature storylines.

In 1986 Marvel Entertainment Group was formed as a parent company for Marvel Comics and the film and television wing Marvel Productions, and sold to New World Entertainment. The Marvel Comics wing itself remained focused on comic book publishing and thrived amid a comics-industry boom in the early 1990s. However, the broader organization's direction during this period was dominated by corporate expansion and reorganization. Marvel Entertainment Group expanded widely into other media and industries, including trading cards and toys, but by the mid-1990s this contributed to serious financial struggles. In 1996, the entire Marvel corporate group filed for bankruptcy. It would subsequently be reorganized as Marvel Enterprises in 1998 and then renamed Marvel Entertainment in 2005.

Acquisition by Disney and the Rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Entertainment was purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2009. Meanwhile, its film division, Marvel Studios, released the live-action film Iron Man in 2008. This became the first installment in what came to be called the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a hugely popular multimedia franchise based around classic Marvel Comics characters. The massive success of subsequent films such as The Avengers (2012), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Avengers: Endgame (2019) made Marvel a major force in pop culture and helped bring fresh attention to the company's comic books as well. Marvel Comics itself continued to publish many ongoing series, often following the same continuity established in the 1960s or even earlier, a fictional shared universe sometimes known as "Earth-616," "Prime Earth," or simply the "Marvel Universe." Other comics presented different universes featuring alternative versions of Marvel characters, such as the Ultimate imprint and Marvel Zombies, or licensed properties such as Star Wars. Comics building on the world of the MCU also appeared, illustrating the frequent crossover between various branches of the broader Marvel organization. The concept of the "multiverse," or many parallel universes existing simultaneously, became an important part of Marvel's storytelling, allowing countless reimaginings of core characters.

Aside from Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios, Marvel Entertainment also continued to operate in various other areas, including action figures, games, and other merchandise as well as television and online content based around Marvel characters and other intellectual property. Notably, Marvel Television was formed in 2010 and released several live-action and animated shows featuring Marvel characters (and sometimes connected to the MCU) before being absorbed by Marvel Studios in 2019. Marvel also released several projects through the streaming service Netflix before turning its focus to the Disney+ service that launched in 2019. Meanwhile, in 2015, Marvel Studios was split off from Marvel Entertainment and integrated with the Walt Disney Studios.

In 2023, Marvel Comics became a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

While Marvel Comics is technically a distinct corporate entity from Marvel Studios, they overlap in many ways and are often discussed interchangeably as "Marvel." Marvel Comics characters have been adapted into various other media over the years, but the creation of the MCU proved to be unprecedented in the way it replicated the model of a shared comic book universe on screen, presenting multiple serialized franchises with numerous interconnections and frequent crossovers. With rights to use most characters, storylines, and other fictional elements from decades worth of Marvel comics, the MCU came to span films, television shows, web series, and other formats—including its own comic books. It became not only an enormous commercial success but also a cultural phenomenon, helping to renew the popularity of Marvel characters for new generations and audiences.

Following Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (2011), Iron Man 2 (2010), and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) were released as part of the first phase of MCU films, which culminated with the crossover blockbuster The Avengers. The Blu-Ray releases of certain Phase One films came with related short films known as Marvel One-Shots, also considered part of the MCU, as are MCU Tie-in Comics, canonical comics associated with the release of each of the main MCU films. Phase Two and Phase Three MCU films continued some of these franchises and introduced others. New characters were introduced in the films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man (2015), Doctor Strange (2016), Black Panther (2018), and Captain Marvel (2019). The first three phases of Marvel films culminated in the two-part crossover Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Phase Four of the MCU began in January 2021 with the debut of the television miniseries WandaVision, the first of several MCU projects to be released on the streaming service Disney+. With Phase Four, Marvel representatives noted that they made an effort to increase on-screen diversity, including the MCU's first deaf superheroes—Makkari in the film Eternals (2021) and Echo in the series Hawkeye (2021), first Asian title character with the film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and first on-screen same-sex kiss in Eternals. Phase Five of the MCU began with the film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023. During Phase Five, the 2024 release of Deadpool and Wolverine marked the official connection of Fox's X-Men franchise to the MCU.

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