Marvel TL;DR is an animated web series on the Marvel Entertainment YouTube channel. Originally pitched and helmed by former Marvel Entertainment intern Noah Sterling, the series is an anthology that adapts some of the storylines from Marvel Comics' decades-long history into short and comical videos as a way to make the stories and characters accessible for newcomers, or to give longtime readers a laugh. The videos always end with a plug for the original storyline, encouraging interested viewers to read it themselves on the Marvel app or in graphic novel edition at their local comic book retailer.
Marvel TL;DR has examples of:
- Another Story for Another Time: After recapping the storyline in question, there's usually a quick denouement that explains what happens from here to the characters, teasing future adventures. Thus far, the only one that's received any direct continuation was a video about World War Hulk following Planet Hulk, and to a lesser degree The Coming of Galactus following the Fantastic Four story The Inhumans Among Us.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: When Sterling briefly mentions the events of One More Day at the tail end of the Civil War (2006) recap, the background music suddenly stops and Spider-Man's Aside Glance expression is shown to be deeply resigned.Sterling: Boy, Spider-Man just can't catch a break.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Whenever Deadpool is in the story being retold, expect plenty of this. The same is also true for Gwenpool and Squirrel Girl.
- Butt-Monkey: Spider-Man can't seem to catch a break, and it's lampshaded on more than one occasion that nothing ever seems to work out for him - the madness that followed him exposing his double life in Civil War (2006) or the destruction of Spider-UK's entire dimension following Spider-Verse and just before Secret Wars (2015).Sterling: But hey, it's not a Spider-Man story if someone doesn't suffer, right?
- Christmas Episode: December 2018 saw a recap of The Unbelievable Gwenpool Holiday Special.
- Denser and Wackier: The stories are told more-or-less faithfully, but always much more comically. Almost none of the original dialogue is used, and some darker aspects are completely glossed over. For example, in the Weapon X retelling, a second narrating voice cuts in the describe a pleasant tea party before Noah Sterling can say what really happened between Wolverine and those wolves.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Deadpool loves to abuse Sterling any chance he gets, bounding and gagging him so Deadpool can narrate the Deadpool: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly video, and the implication that Deadpool straight-up murders Sterling in Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe.
- Halloween Episode: October 2018 included a video of the horror-themed character Man-Thing.
- Lampshade Hanging: The show mines a lot of jokes out of the many less-than-sensible things that happen in the Marvel Universe, such as questioning why that spider decided to bite Peter Parker, or Jean Grey's transformation into a "black lingerie enthusiast" when she's brainwashed into thinking she's the villainous Black Queen.
- Rule of Funny: Some changes are made to the stories or the wider Marvel mythos to suit a joke. For example, Black Bolt is able to speak normally in order to coo over Lockjaw after the very good boy saves the universe in Pet Avengers.
- Self-Parody: The whole premise of the series is that Marvel is retelling their own storylines in an intentionally irreverent way.
- Spoof Aesop: Several videos end with a "TL;DR" moment that relates to the story but has little to no relevance to the real world. For example, the video on Captain Marvel recounts the Higher, Further, Faster, More story arc, where the Captain teams up with Star-Lord the Guardians of the Galaxy to stop Star-Lord's evil father J'Son. The video ends with the sage advice: "Remember kids, being nice to your friends' parents is important... unless those parents are genocidal space kings."
