Marvel Comics

What is Marvel Comics?

I INTRODUCTION

Marvel Enterprises Inc., one of the world’s leading comic book, toy, and entertainment companies. It is the holding company for Marvel Entertainment Group, the largest publisher of comic books in the United States and the creator of many of the comic book industry’s most popular characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and Captain America. Marvel characters have formed the subjects of many television programs, animated cartoons, books, and video games.

Marvel Enterprises also makes action figures and other toys based on Marvel characters and owns Panini, an Italian manufacturer of children’s stickers. Marvel Enterprises was formed when Toy Biz, a toy maker, acquired Marvel Entertainment Group in 1998. The company is based in New York City.

II EARLY HISTORY

Marvel dates to 1932, when magazine distributor Martin Goodman founded Western Fiction Publishing Co. in New York City. Goodman later launched a separate comic book company, Timely Publications. In 1939 Timely released the first issue of its 10-cent Marvel Comics, which featured two superheroes: the Human Torch, a man who could turn his body into flame; and Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, an undersea superhero.

In 1941 Timely’s Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America, a patriotic character whose sole purpose was to battle the German Nazis. Timely’s superhero titles enjoyed great popularity during the early 1940s, and by 1950 the company was publishing 82 titles. A year later the company was renamed Atlas Publishing. In the 1950s, with superhero comic books declining in popularity, Atlas published mostly romance, Western, war, and horror titles.

III INNOVATIVE CHARACTERS

In 1961 Stan Lee, the company’s editor, head writer, and art director, created a team of superheroes, the Fantastic Four, to compete with the popular Justice League of America created by rival DC Comics. Disliking the simplistic and stereotyped characters of the time, Lee included sarcasm, antisocial superheroes, character flaws, and even sympathetic villains in Fantastic Four. The comic book was an enormous success, and readers responded to Lee’s innovations with an outpouring of fan mail.

Hoping to build on the success of these unconventional characters, in 1962 Lee created The Incredible Hulk, drawn by Jack Kirby. The comic book told the story of Dr. Bruce Banner, a nuclear scientist who, after an accidental exposure to massive amounts of gamma radiation, transforms into a raging, super-strong monster with green skin—the Hulk (originally the Hulk had gray skin). Lee’s influences in developing the character included English novelist Mary Shelley and Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. Like Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Hulk was a frightening yet misunderstood monster who did not seek to harm people. Like Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he involuntarily and constantly changed between Banner and the Hulk. The character was a huge hit, and Atlas’s sales soared.

Only three months after the Hulk’s debut, Lee unveiled the character that would become the symbol of Marvel Comics and one of the most popular superheroes in history: Spider-Man. Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962), illustrated by Steve Ditko, told the story of Peter Parker, a socially awkward high-school teenager who acquires superhuman strength, speed, and agility when he is bitten by a radioactive spider. The comic book was one of the first to feature a teenager as a superhero rather than as a sidekick. In addition, Lee gave Peter Parker personal problems—with his love life, self-esteem, and bullies—that many young male comics readers shared. The issue was a bestseller, and Spider-Man soon was featured in his own comic book, The Amazing Spider-Man.

IV GROWTH AND EXPANSION

In 1963 Goodman renamed the company Marvel Comics Group. Marvel’s ascendance, and that of the entire industry, continued throughout the 1960s. The company introduced many new characters, including Thor, God of Thunder, a superhero based on Norse mythology (1962); the X-Men, a team of mutant superheroes (1963); Daredevil, the first blind superhero (1964); Silver Surfer, an alien with energy-based powers who flies on a silver surfboard (1966); and Black Panther, the first black superhero (1966). Marvel characters soon found their way onto television programs, T-shirts, board games, and lunch boxes. By 1968 Marvel sold 50 million comic books a year. That year Goodman sold the business to Cadence Industries Corporation.

The 1970s brought another slump in the comics industry. Marvel rebounded by licensing its characters to other media. “The Incredible Hulk” television series ran from 1977 until 1982. In the 1980s Marvel’s sales surpassed those of DC for the first time. In 1986 New World Entertainment, a motion-picture company, bought Marvel. Two years later Marvel was acquired by MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, controlled by financier Ronald O. Perelman.

V RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

During the 1990s Marvel stepped up its licensing, diversification, and globalization efforts. Marvel purchased several companies, including trading-card companies Fleer Corporation and Skybox International, and invested in toy company Toy Biz, which was given licensing rights to make products based on Marvel characters. Several animated television series were released about Marvel characters, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, and Silver Surfer. The X-Men emerged as Marvel’s most successful line of comics in the 1990s.

Marvel’s revenues more than quadrupled from 1991 to 1994. Shortly thereafter, however, sales of comics fell across the industry, and the 1994 professional baseball players’ strike hurt Marvel’s trading-card business. In 1996 Marvel eliminated unprofitable titles, laid off nearly one-third of its staff, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. A lengthy legal battle ensued over the control of the company, and a federal judge ruled in 1997 that an independent trustee should run the company.

In 1998 Toy Biz and Marvel merged into a single company under a Chapter 11 reorganization plan. The combined company sold Fleer/Skybox International, its trading-card business, in 1999. That same year Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel agreed to collaborate on the production of movies, television shows, and related merchandise involving Marvel’s Spider-Man character.

Source by: Microsoft Encarta

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