History Creator / MarvelComics

Marvel's big innovation was introducing characterisation and personal problems to a greater extent than had ever been done with superheroes. {{Spider-Man}} in particular suffered from insecurity, teenage {{angst}}, and trying to pay the bills in addition to fighting bank robbers. While this caused [[{{Antihero}} controversy at first]], it ultimately proved popular with readers, with the result that Marvel ended up massively exceeding DC in popularity, as well as drawing in teenagers and, later, adults who would previously have been considered too old to read comics. DC would later experience similar success when Kirby and Ditko started contributing to it.

Due to Lee's busy schedule, he implemented a manner of writing comics known as the MarvelMethod, in which the writer, rather than writing a full script, just gave the artist a story synopsis, and left details like pacing and panel layout to the penciller. Afterward, Lee would receive the finished pencils from the artists and write (or rewrite if the artist added a preliminary draft) the dialogue and/or captions. This, coupled with Marvel's seemingly more respectful treatment of artists, served to further bolster its popularity with fans. However, Ditko in 1966 and Kirby in 1970 eventually came to the end of their patience with being relegated to work for hire contracts that seemed to grow increasingly unfair while Lee got all the plaudits, and jumped ship.

Following several reorganisations, buyouts, and layoffs, Marvel emerged from bankruptcy in 2000, and has been reasonably successful since then. In late 2009, it was bought out by Creator/{{Disney}} for $4 billion. The full effect of this remains to be seen, but it has mostly been business as usual except for Marvel becoming the publishing arm for the comic versions of a few of Disney's properties.

* CrossGen

In 1956, Atlas switched from distributing comics itself to going via the American News Company, the biggest and most powerful magazine and comic distributor in the USA. Unfortunately, ANC was shortly thereafter was forced out of business due to unlawful business practises, and Atlas was forced to turn to National Comics, owned by their rival, [[DCComics DC]], for distribution. This drastically reduced the number of comics Atlas was able to get onto shelves. This, plus a recession in 1957, forced Atlas to retrench, and for a time relied on art they had commissioned but not yet published.

Following several reorganisations, buyouts, and layoffs, Marvel emerged from bankruptcy in 2000, and has been reasonably successful since then. In late 2009, it was bought out by Creator/{{Disney}} for $4 billion. The full effect of this remains to be seen, but it has mostly been business as usual except for Marvel becoming the publishing arm for the comic versions of a few of their properties.

* AmalgamUniverse

->''One of the things StanLee is credited with in Marvel comics is how he made superheroes relatable... Before Stan Lee, comics related to kids by just having the heroes hang out with kids, [[{{HoYay/Batman}} usually without pants]].''
-->--'''{{Seanbaby}}'''

Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics in 1961, and the first comic published under the new name was issue 3 of the scifi anthology ''Amazing Adventures''. Following DC's successful revival of superheroes in 1958 - 1960, Goodman had one of his staff writers, Creator/StanLee, come up with their own superhero team, the Franchise/FantasticFour. This team {{subverted}} many existing superhero tropes by eschewing secret identities (and, for some time, costumes), having a monster as a member of the team, and having the personalities of the members clash regularly. With the ComicsCode in full force, Marvel began aggressively creating more and more superheroes, drawn from the considerable energy and talents of Creator/StanLee, JackKirby, and SteveDitko. It was during this time that many of their most popular characters were introduced.

]

In 1971, Marvel further innovated by violating the ComicsCode. Lee, at the urging of the Department of Health, wrote a ''Spider-Man'' story with an [[DrugsAreBad anti-drug message]]. Since the Code forbade ''any'' mention of drugs, doing this story was a radical action in comic publishing. When the story proved a success despite opposition, it opened the door to comics unapproved by the Code, ushering in the so-called BronzeAge and bringing sex and violence to the medium. Despite early successes in the 70s and 80s, Marvel began losing sales to DC after 1986, both as a result of many of its writers and artists defecting to the latter, and DC's shocking deconstructions ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' and ''TheDarkKnightReturns'', as well as the epic ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''. It suffered a further setback in 1992, when seven of its top writers and artists left to found [[{{Image}} Image Comics]], and in late 1996, Marvel filed for bankruptcy protection.

Following several reorganisations, buyouts, and layoffs, Marvel emerged from bankruptcy in 2000, and has been reasonably successful since then. In late 2009, it was bought out by {{Disney}} for $4 billion. The full effect of this remains to be seen, but it has mostly been business as usual except for Marvel becoming the publishing arm for the comic versions of a few of their properties.

See MarvelComicsCharacters for an index of the characters in the Universe, and check MarvelComicsSeries for an index of all the series published by MarvelComics, both inside and outside the larger continuity. For the films and [[AnimatedAdaptation Animated Adaptations]] produced by the company, see the MarvelCinematicUniverse, WesternAnimation/MarvelUniverse and MarvelAnimation. For the anime series produced by {{Madhouse}} using MarvelUniverse characters, see MarvelAnime.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-superheroes-who-completely-lost-their-shit/#ixzz2UY1BxYAL

->''One of the things StanLee is credited with in Marvel comics is how he made superheroes relatable... Before Stan Lee, comics related to kids by just having the heroes hang out with kids, [[{{HoYay/Batman} usually without pants]].''

'''Marvel Comics''' is one of the two biggest comic publishers active in the United States today, the other being DCComics.

Due to Lee's busy schedule, he implemented a manner of writing comics known as the MarvelMethod, in which the writer, rather than writing a full script, just gave the artist a story synopsis, and left details like pacing and panel layout to the penciller. Afterward, Lee would receive the finished pencils the artists and write (or rewrite if the artist added a preliminary draft) the dialogue and/or captions. This, coupled with Marvel's seeminglly more respectful treatment of artists, served to further bolster its popularity with fans. However, Ditko in 1966 and Kirby in 1970 eventually came to the end of their patience with being relegated to work for hire contracts that seemed to grow increasingly unfair while Lee got all the plaudits and jumped ship.

In 1971, Marvel further innovated by violating the ComicsCode. Lee, at the urging of the Department of Health, wrote a ''Spider-Man'' story with an [[DrugsAreBad anti-drug message]]. Since the Code forbade ''any'' mention of drugs, doing this story was a radical action in comic publishing. When the story proved a success despite opposition, it opened the door to comics unapproved by the Code, ushering in the so-called BronzeAge and bringing sex and violence to the medium. Despite early successes in the 70s and 80s, Marvel began losing sales to DC after 1986, both as a result of many of its writers and artists defecting to the latter, and DC's shocking deconstructions ''{{Watchmen}}'' and ''TheDarkKnightReturns'', as well as the epic ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''. It suffered a further setback in 1992, when seven of its top writers and artists left to found [[{{Image}} Image Comics]], and in late 1996, Marvel filed for bankruptcy protection.

See MarvelComicsCharacters for an index of the characters in the Universe, and check MarvelComicsSeries for an index of all the series published by MarvelComics, both inside and outside the larger continuity. For the films and [[AnimatedAdaptation Animated Adaptations]] produced by the company, see the MarvelCinematicUniverse and MarvelAnimation. For the anime series produced by {{Madhouse}} using MarvelUniverse characters, see MarvelAnime.

Marvel began its life as Timely Comics, founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman as the comic branch of his {{pulp}} empire. It began by publishing scifi, horror, and {{western}} [[AnthologyComic anthologies]], one of which happened to be named ''Marvel Mystery Comics''. Timely's biggest sellers at this time were the {{superhero}}es CaptainAmerica, {{Sub-Mariner}}, and the Human Torch (nothing to do with the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' character of the same name).

Following several reorganisations, buyouts, and layoffs, Marvel emerged from bankruptcy in 2000, and has been reasonably successful since then. In late 2009, it was bought out by {{Disney}} for $4 billion. The effect of this remains to be seen, but it will most likely be business as usual except that they don't have to directly concern themselves with pleasing stockholders anymore.

See MarvelComicsCharacters for an index of the characters in the Universe, and check MarvelComicsSeries for an index of all the series published by MarvelComics, both inside and outside the larger continuity. For the films and [[AnimatedAdaptation Animated Adaptations]] produced by the company, see the MarvelCinematicUniverse and MarvelAnimation.

Marvel began its life as Timely Comics, founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman as the comic branch of his {{pulp}} empire. It began by publishing scifi, horror, and {{western}} [[AnthologyComic anthologies]], one of which happened to be named ''Marvel Mystery Comics''. Timely's biggest sellers at this time were the {{superhero}}es CaptainAmerica, {{Sub-Mariner}}, and the Human Torch (nothing to do with the ''FantasticFour'' character of the same name).

Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics in 1961, and the first comic published under the new name was issue 3 of the scifi anthology ''Amazing Adventures''. Following DC's successful revival of superheroes in 1958 - 1960, Goodman had one of his staff writers, Creator/StanLee, come up with their own superhero team, the FantasticFour. This team {{subverted}} many existing superhero tropes by eschewing secret identities (and, for some time, costumes), having a monster as a member of the team, and having the personalities of the members clash regularly. With the ComicsCode in full force, Marvel began aggressively creating more and more superheroes, drawn from the considerable energy and talents of Creator/StanLee, JackKirby, and SteveDitko. It was during this time that many of their most popular characters were introduced.

See MarvelComicsCharacters for an index of the characters in the Universe, and check MarvelComicsSeries for an index of all the series published by MarvelComics, both inside and outside the larger continuity. For the films and [[AnimatedAdaptation Animated Adaptations]] produced by the company, see the MarvelCinematicUniverse, and MarvelAnimation.

See MarvelComicsCharacters for an index of the characters in the Universe, and check MarvelComicsSeries for an index of all the series published by MarvelComics, both inside and outside the larger continuity. For the films and AnimatedAdaptations produced by the company, see MarvelStudios, the MarvelCinematicUniverse, and MarvelAnimation.

See MarvelComicsCharacters for an index of the characters in the Universe, and check MarvelComicsSeries for an index of all the series published by MarvelComics, both inside and outside the larger continuity.

Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics in 1961, and the first comic published under the new name was issue 3 of the scifi anthology ''Amazing Adventures''. Following DC's successful revival of superheroes in 1958 - 1960, Goodman had one of his staff writers, StanLee, come up with their own superhero team, the FantasticFour. This team {{subverted}} many existing superhero tropes by eschewing secret identities (and, for some time, costumes), having a monster as a member of the team, and having the personalities of the members clash regularly. With the ComicsCode in full force, Marvel began aggressively creating more and more superheroes, drawn from the considerable energy and talents of StanLee, JackKirby, and SteveDitko. It was during this time that many of their most popular characters were introduced.

Due to Lee's busy schedule, he implemented a manner of writing comics known as the MarvelMethod, in which the writer, rather than writing a full script, just gave the artist a story synopsis, and left details like pacing and panel layout to the penciller. Afterward, Lee would receive the finished pencils the artists and write (or rewrite if the artist added a preliminary draft) the dialogue and/or captions. This, coupled with Marvel's seeminglly more respectful treatment of artists, served to further bolster its popularity with fans. However, Ditko in 1966 and Kirby in 1970 eventually came to the end of their patience with being regulated to work for hire contracts while Lee got all the plaudits and jumped ship.

[[http://www.comicvine.com/news/marvel-now-will-relaunch-the-marvel-universe-this-october/144901/ Seems like the entire Marvel Universe is going to be relaunch]]. [[{{New52}} Sounds familiar?]]

Marvel Comics is one of the two biggest comic publishers active in the United States today, the other being DCComics.

Following several reorganisations, buyouts, and layoffs, Marvel emerged from bankruptcy in 2000, and has been reasonably successful since then. In late 2009, it was bought out by {{Disney}} for $4 billion. The effect of this remains to be seen, but it will most likely be business as usual except that they don't have to directly concern themselves with pleasing stockholders anymore

Following several reorganisations, buyouts, and layoffs, Marvel emerged from bankruptcy in 2000, and has been reasonably successful since then. In late 2009, it was bought out by {{Disney}} for $4 billion. The effect of this remains to be seen, but it will most likely be business as usual.

Due to Lee's busy schedule, he implemented a manner of writing comics known as the MarvelMethod, in which the writer, rather than writing a full script, just gave the artist a story synopsis, and left details like pacing and panel layout to the penciller. Afterward, Lee would receive the finished pencils the artists and write (or rewrite if the artist added a preliminary draft) the dialogue and/or captions. This, coupled with Marvel's generally more respectful treatment of artists, served to further bolster its popularity with fans.

Also, surprisingly for the modern reader, events proceeded in approximately real time for the first few years, with one year passing the comics for every year hat passed in the real world - Spider-Man and the Human Torch both started off as teenagers in {{high school}}, but over a few years, graduated and went on to college. Also, when Namor was reintroduced, the writers actually came up with an explanation as to where he had been for 20 in-universe years. However, around 1968, things were stretched out by the introduction of 'Marvel time', in which a year in the comics corresponded to three years in the real world. This had morphed into full-blown ComicBookTime by about 1980.