Comic books are loved not only by children, but also by adults. They are read, collected, and old issues of magazines are sold for a bargain price. Marvel isn’t just a graphic novel company… It’s one of the biggest vehicles of comic book culture, an integral part of many of our childhoods and youth.
“Marvel means “wonder.” Marvel Comics was founded in 1939 by Palp magazine publisher Martin Goodman as a group of subsidiaries under the common name Timely Comics.
The first publication was a comic book in which the Torch Man, the android superhero and the mutant antihero Nemore the Submariner appeared. The comic was a smash hit with readers!
Writer and artist Joe Simon, the company’s first editor, joined forces with future comic book industry legend Jack Kirby to create the first patriotic superhero, Captain America. He first appeared in the comic book in March 1941 and became a major sales hit.
Other Timely characters, were not as popular, but some of them such as; Yula, Miss America, Destroyer, Vinge and Angel continue to appear in modern comic books. By the 40s, Martin Goodman’s business had grown and he needed assistants. Goodman hired his wife’s cousin’s son, 17-year-old Stanley Lieber, who would become internationally popular 20 years later as Stan Lee.
In the post-war years, comic book sales dropped significantly as the superhuman image popularized during the war and Great Depression went out of fashion. And in the 50’s “Timely” changed genre to westerns, horror, crime, love and spy novels and even medieval adventures popular at the time. Attempts to revive superhero comics featuring the trio of Torch Man, Submariner and Captain America were not successful. In the late 50’s, Goodman on the wave of success of science fiction films launched a new direction “Amazing Worlds”, “Fantasy World”, “Amazing Histories”, “Journey into Mystery”. But space fantasy comics are not popular and become second-rate monster comics. In the 1960s, editor and writer Stan Lee, along with artist Jack Kirby, create “Fantastic Four.”
“Superheroes in the real world”, they fight with each other, experience everyday hardships and it was this approach that was the reason for the success of this comic and all subsequent ones based on it. Marvel began creating comics about other super and anti-heroes such as Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, Daredevil and memorable villains such as Dr. Octopus, Venom, Dr. Doom, Galactus, Magneto, Green Goblin.
Most of the characters in Marvel Comics live in one fictional universe called Earth-616. Marvel Comics paid special attention to revealing the characters of superheroes. They suffer from internal problems, they are lonely more than ordinary people. And some Marvel heroes are more like villains and monsters. At the time, this unconventional approach revolutionized comic books. Most of the heroes created at that time belong to the authorship of Stan Lee and his name becomes one of the most famous in the comic book industry. Thanks to artist Jack Kirby, characters such as the Silver Surfer, the Watchers, Ego the Living Planet, and Dr. Strange appear. Together they created what is known as the “Marvel method”, which consists of the author coming up with the story, the artist drawing it and thinking out the fine details of the plot, dialogues and even characters, and then the author completes the process with the final polishing of the plot and dialogues.
In 1970, Marvel conquered the British public by creating a comic book about Captain Britain, which was released first in the UK and later in America.
In 1972, Goodman retired from publishing, replaced by Stan Lee. The new editors returned to the old fantasy genres: Conon-Warwar, Red Sonja, the horror Tomb of Dracula, satire and science fiction. In the mid-70s, in addition to newsstands, Marvel began to venture into comic book stores. Hits were the reincarnated X-Men series and a comic book about the urban crime fighter Daredevil.
In the 80’s, new Marvel Comics editor Jim Shooter relaunched the “Mighty Thor” comic book and made it a bestseller. In the early 90’s Marvel launching the successful Spider-man 2099 comic book series made a lot of money and reader recognition, but in the middle of the decade the industry hit a slump and in 1996 Marvel took advantage of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This included the departure of seven of the most successful, award-winning artists Todd McFarlane known for his work on Spider-Man, Jim Lee (X-Men), Max Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), and William Partacio. They left Marvel and started their own successful company, Image Comics. With the arrival of a new millennium, Marvel Comics avoided bankruptcy and began trying to diversify its offerings. It launched new comic book lines, “MAX” for older readers and “Marvel Age” designed conversely for younger readers. By 2010, while Marvel remained a major comic book publisher, despite a significant decline in the industry compared to previous decades, several characters were changed to become franchises. The highest-grossing of which: the X-Men film series, which began in 2000, and the Spider-Man trilogy, which came out in 2002.
In 2007, the company launched an online digital archive of over 2,500 comic books available for viewing, monthly or yearly subscription. In 2009, Marvel Comics celebrated its 70th anniversary with a single-series Marvel Mystery Comics, the 70th Anniversary Special, and other variations of special issues.
In 2009, after a decade of negotiations between the companies, The Walt Disney Company struck a deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion dollars. The deal was favorable to both companies. Disney had found it increasingly difficult over the years to create and promote new characters, while Marvel lacked the investment to promote existing ones. The head of the Walt Disney Company Robert Eiger called the deal a great opportunity for the studio to make billions of dollars, turning 5,000 characters from the Marvel library into characters for movies, video games, toys and, of course, comic books.
Thanks to Disney, Marvel characters have become more famous outside of America because of the studio’s incredible distribution potential. But it’s only because of Stan Lee that we read, watch and know these Marvel superheroes.