Marvel Comics
After watching Endgame this past weekend, I couldn’t resist the urge to do a blog post about the history of the comic books that started it all.
Marvel was started in 1939 and was known as Timely Comics. By the 1950s, it was known as Atlas Comics. The fame started in 1961 when The Fantastic Four was released along with other titles. The key people involved in Marvel at this time were Steve Ditko, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.
Stan Lee revolutionized the world of superhero comics by appealing more to the older generation rather than the younger ones which all the other creators were doing. From the Fantastic Four, Marvel’s reputation started to focus on more adult issues that went more in-depth than other comics did. The superheroes in Marvel comics experienced everyday struggles that readers could relate to.
Lee and Kirby started out in the Cold War era and this prompted them to reflect the “psychological spirit” of the age. They introduced characters that weren’t perfect -- ones with flaws and troubled lives. They were more human than those of other comics which made their stories even more popular with more diverse groups of people.
In the 1970s, Marvel became involved with the radio industry and started a series in addition to releasing a record. Stan Lee was the narrator of the radio series (entitled the Fantastic Four) and the record was a Spider-Man concept album. From there, Marvel held its own comic book convention in 1975 called Marvelcon.
Over the years, Marvel has changed hands a lot, but the original workings of the comics never left. Even with the bankruptcies and the close calls, Marvel has overcome many obstacles and is now one of the biggest franchises ever.
A new face of Marvel emerged with the release of Iron Man in 2008. This prompted Disney to buy the company in 2009. Since then, the franchise has only grown and Disney has only made it a larger universe. The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) has grown since the first Iron Man and this phase of the original Avengers ends with Endgame.
Stan Lee has been famous for appearing in all the MCU films to date. However, he died earlier this year. They still have footage for some upcoming movies, but he was a key player in the formation of the Marvel Studios. It is amazing to see how a couple of comic books and their creators can lead to an enterprise that appeals to people of all ages and is becoming more and more inclusive. The impact that Marvel has had on the world will not be forgotten.
I saw endgame recently and reading this post was a cool way to learn about the past as we step into the next phase of marvel movies! It's crazy that Stan Lee was really involved from the start, in the 1940s, and remains an icon to this day. It's also crazy that the Fantastic Four set them apart when all the Fantastic Four movies are known as flops.
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