Line #45 Creator/MarvelComics


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marvel.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Make Mine Marvel.]]]]
3
4	->''"One of the things Stan Lee 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]]."''
5	-->-- '''Creator/{{Seanbaby}}'''
6
7	Marvel Comics is one of the two biggest comic publishers active in the United States today, the other being Creator/DCComics. A subsidiary of [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]] since 2009, it's one of the largest, oldest, and most well-known comic book publishing companies in the world.
8	!History
9	Marvel began its life as Timely Comics, founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman as the comic branch of his {{pulp\|Magazine}} empire. It began by publishing sci-fi, horror, and {{western}} [[AnthologyComic anthologies]], one of which happened to be named ''ComicBook/MarvelMysteryComics''. Timely's biggest sellers at this time were the {{superhero}}es ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, ComicBook/SubMariner, and the Android Human Torch (predecessor to the ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' character who would later go on [[TropeCodifier to take the same name to new heights]]). To achieve this, Goodman had stellar talents such as Creator/JoeSimon and Creator/JackKirby who created Captain America, although he also indulged in some nepotism such as hiring his nephew, [[Creator/StanLee Stanley Martin Lieber]] as the office boy, although he got to write the token text stories under the pen name, Stan Lee.
10
11	After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ended, sales of superhero comics began to suffer. Timely's big three ceased printing, and the company changed its name to Atlas in 1950. Atlas published anthologies and single-story comics in a wide variety of genres, and made some sporadic efforts to revive its superheroes, but with little success.
12
13	Around 1947, it became part of a holding company founded by Goodman known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine_Management Magazine Management]], which also published men's adventure and erotic magazines, some of which later became pornographic magazines, as well as humor, celebrity and movie magazines. This company, although later important, was obscure to the public and even its employees; as one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas once said: "I was startled to learn in '65 that Marvel was just part of a parent company called Magazine Management."
14
15	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 forced out of business due to unlawful business practices, and Atlas was forced to turn to Independent news, owned by their rival, National Periodical Publications, now known as Creator/DCComics, for distribution. This drastically reduced the number of comics Atlas was able to get onto shelves: 16 bimonthly titles was the dictated limit. This, plus a recession in 1957, forced Atlas to retrench, and for a time relied on art they had commissioned but not yet published. The fact that Goodman's long-serving editor/writer, Stan Lee, had to be the one to break this bad news to the staff that they were all dismissed outside himself was just one of the grievances that was driving him to consider quitting himself. The fact that Lee had to obey Goodman's relentless FollowTheLeader dictates of genre trends was another frustration to him.
16
17	Atlas changed its name to Marvel Comics in 1961, and the first comic published under the new name was issue 3 of the sci-fi anthology ''Amazing Adventures''. Following DC's successful revival of superheroes in 1958--1960, Goodman had Creator/StanLee, follow the SuperHero trend again. On the advice of his wife, Joanne Lee, to try writing something the way he liked before quitting, Lee, in cooperation with Jack Kirby who liberally borrowed from his older ComicBook/ChallengersOfTheUnknown concept, took his notions of deeper characterisation and created their own superhero team, the ComicBook/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 MediaNotes/TheComicsCode in full force, Marvel began aggressively creating more and more superheroes, drawn from the considerable energy and talents of Creator/StanLee, Creator/JackKirby, and Creator/SteveDitko.[[note]]Who took to the new approach more easily than Kirby.[[/note]] It was during this time that many of their most popular characters were introduced.
18
19	Goodman later sold Magazine Management to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation in 1968, which renamed itself Cadence Industries in 1973, at the same time renaming its magazine subsidiary as the Marvel Comics Group. The latter was the first step taking into turning Marvel into the comic book giant it is today. Although Goodman was able to make Independent ease up on its publishing restrictions, the next step was to find a new distributor who was obviously open to carrying as many titles as Marvel was in the mood to publish.
20
21	Marvel's big innovation was introducing characterization and personal problems to a greater extent than had ever been done with superheroes. ComicBook/SpiderMan 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. Incidentally, DC was completely baffled by Marvel's success, outside of the writers Creator/ArnoldDrake (''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'') and a teenage Creator/JimShooter (''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes''), and would have to adapt to the competition when Ditko and then Kirby along with new talent who were Marvel fans like Dennis O'Neil started contributing to it.
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23	From the start, Marvel's comics were tied to the real world to a much greater extent than those of DC or other companies. Characters lived in New York, not a fictional city like Metropolis or Gotham. Real-life events [[RippedFromTheHeadlines often impacted the plot]]; for example, ''Fantastic Four'' plots revolved around the space race and the 1962 stock market crash.
24
25	[[index]]
26	[floatboxright:Multimedia Production Houses
27	* Creator/MarvelStudios
28	* Creator/MarvelTelevision
29	* Creator/MarvelAnimation
30	* Anime/MarvelAnime
31	* Creator/MarvelGames
32	]
33	[[/index]]
34
35	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 that 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, roughly when Franklin Richards—the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm—was born, things began stretching out. Thus was 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. According to editorial, a total of only 14 years has passed in the last 63 years of publication history.
36
37	[[index]]
38	[floatboxright:Imprints
39	* Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudiosMarvelComics
40	* Creator/AmalgamComics
41	* Creator/CrossGen
42	* ComicBook/DisneyKingdoms
43	* Creator/EpicComics
44	* Magazine/EpicIllustrated
45	* Creator/IconComics
46	* Creator/InfiniteComics
47	* Creator/InfinityComics
48	* Creator/MalibuComics
49	* Creator/Marvel2099
50	* Creator/MarvelAbsurd
51	* ComicBook/MarvelAdventures / Marvel Age
52	* Creator/MarvelBooks
53	* Creator/MarvelCyberComics
54	* Creator/MarvelEdge
55	* Creator/MarvelGraphicNovel
56	* Creator/MarvelIllustrated
57	* Creator/MarvelKnights
58	* Creator/MarvelMangaverse
59	* Creator/MarvelMusic
60	* Creator/MarvelNext
61	* Creator/MarvelNoir
62	* ComicBook/MarvelOGN
63	* Creator/MarvelUK
64	* Creator/MarvelMAX
65	* Creator/NewUniverse
66	* Creator/{{Paramount}}
67	* Creator/{{Razorline}}
68	* Creator/SeasonOne
69	* Creator/StarComics
70	* Creator/TheEnd
71	* Creator/{{Tsunami}}
72	* Creator/UltimateMarvel
73	]
74	[[/index]]
75
76	Due to Lee's busy schedule, he implemented a manner of writing comics known as the ''Marvel Method'', 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.
77
78	[[index]]
79	[floatboxright:Universes
80	* ComicBook/AmalgamUniverse
81	* ComicBook/EarthX
82	* ComicBook/MarvelAdventures
83	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
84	* Manga/MarvelMangaverse
85	* ComicBook/MarvelNoir
86	* Franchise/MarvelUniverse
87	* ComicBook/TheNewUniverse
88	* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel
89	* ComicBook/MarvelComics2
90	* ComicBook/Marvel1602
91	* ComicBook/Marvel2099
92	* ComicBook/SeasonOne
93	* ComicBook/TheUltraverse
94	* ComicBook/TheWastelands
95	]
96	[[/index]]
97
98	In 1971, Marvel further innovated by violating MediaNotes/TheComicsCode. Lee, at the urging of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 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 MediaNotes/{{the Bronze Age\|OfComicBooks}} and bringing sex and violence to the medium. The story also prompted swift changes in the Code itself, so that when DC followed suit with their own anti-drug story in the pages of ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'', the book kept the Code stamp.
99
100	Marvel expanded its line with licensed properties throughout the '70s and '80s, and was instrumental in the development of [[MerchandiseDriven toy-based fiction]]. ''ComicBook/{{Micronauts\|MarvelComics}}'' and ''ComicBook/RomSpaceKnight'' significantly outlasted their original toylines, and led to a partnership with Creator/{{Hasbro}} to relaunch ''Franchise/GIJoe'' and create the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''. {{Comic Book Adaptation}}s were also a staple from Marvel in this period, as the cable TV and home video markets were in their infancy. Marvel also promoted creator-owned work through its Epic Comics imprint, and kid-friendly fare under the Star Comics banner. They also helped to pioneer the CrisisCrossover with the twelve-issue limited series ''[[ComicBook/SecretWars1984 Secret Wars]]''.
101
102	Despite early successes in those decades, 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 ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', as well as the epic ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths''. The flop of Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/TheNewUniverse New Universe]]'' line led to the firing of editor-in-chief Creator/JimShooter, whose continuity-driven editorial style had led to some of those defections to DC and the company's sale to New World Pictures (founded by Creator/RogerCorman) and later [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Perelman Ronald Perelman]]'s Andrews Group. The company suffered a further setback in 1992, when seven of its top writers and artists left to found Creator/ImageComics. The subsequent increase in ExecutiveMeddling led to Marvel having a major contributing role in [[MediaNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996 the bursting of the collector bubble]], and in 1996, Marvel was forced to file for bankruptcy.
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104	Following several reorganizations, 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. Despite that, some of the only changes to the company's business structure included becoming the publishing arm for the comic versions of a few of Disney's properties, including once again becoming the comic book publishing home of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise in 2015, Disney's high profile purchase of 2012, when its contract with Creator/DarkHorseComics ended. Other franchise licenses include ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'', ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' and ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes''. In 2023, Marvel as a company (as in the Marvel Entertainment group) dissolved as part of cost-cutting moves at Disney, absorbing its remaining divisions into its publishing and licensing units. As a result, Marvel Comics is currently a part of Disney Publishing Worldwide.
105
106	Has [[https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Database wikis]] [[https://marvel.com/universe/Main_Page here]].
107
108	See [[MarvelComicsCharacters here]] for an index of the characters created by Creator/MarvelComics, See [[MarvelComicsSeries here]] for an index of all the series published by Creator/MarvelComics, See [[MarvelComicsEvents here]] for an index of all the events in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, And see [[MediaNotes/MarvelComicsEditorsInChief here]] for an index of all the Editors-In-Chief for Creator/MarvelComics.
109
110	For the films and [[AnimatedAdaptation Animated Adaptations]] produced by the company, see the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, WesternAnimation/MarvelUniverseDisneyXD and Creator/MarvelAnimation. For the anime series produced by Creator/{{Madhouse}} using Franchise/MarvelUniverse characters, see Anime/MarvelAnime.

Context Creator / MarvelComics