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Curated playlist

Marvel Comics American superheroes

  • Cyclops (Marvel Comics)In Avengers vs. X-Men in 2012, Cyclops killed his mentor, Professor X. The Phoenix Force had concentrated in him alone.
  • Tony Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Marvel's Tony Stark was created in 1963 to be the quintessential capitalist. Stan Lee based him on Howard Hughes.
  • Scott Lang (Marvel Cinematic Universe)A rat set Scott Lang free from the Quantum Realm in 2023. He had been trapped there after the Blip erased his allies.
  • Avengers (comics)Loki's revenge plot against his brother Thor accidentally created the Avengers in 1963.
  • Iron ManIron Man, the armored Marvel Comics hero, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date. His creator, Stan Lee, had set himself an awkward assignment during the Vietnam War. His readers…
  • Emma FrostEmma Frost made her first appearance in The Uncanny X-Men #129, published in January 1980, as an enemy of the X-Men. Decades of Marvel Comics stories later, she is one of that team's most central members and leaders. She is a mutant, one…
  • Captain AmericaCaptain America Comics #1 reached newsstands on the 20th of December 1940, carrying a cover date of March 1941. Its cover showed the hero punching Adolf Hitler. That hero, Captain America, was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Timely…
  • Peter Parker (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Peter Benjamin Parker, better known as Spider-Man, was born on the 10th of August 2001 in Forest Hills, Queens. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Holland plays him across six films. After the death of his Uncle Ben, Peter is raised…
  • Spider-ManMarvel's publisher told Stan Lee that Spider-Man would never work. The comic was being canceled anyway.
  • Fantastic FourThe Fantastic Four heroes argued, held grudges and wore no masks. Marvel's 1961 team broke the polished hero mold.
  • HulkThe Hulk is a Marvel Comics superhero who lives as two people in one body, and the two typically resent each other. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him, and he first appeared in the debut issue of The Incredible Hulk in May 1962. One half…
  • Daredevil (Marvel Comics character)Daredevil is a Marvel Comics hero who first appeared in an issue with an April 1964 cover date. He is a blind lawyer by day and a costumed fighter by night, dressed in a devil-like outfit. His series sold modestly for years, and it came…
  • Kitty PrydeKitty Pryde is a Marvel Comics mutant who can pass through solid walls, and she owes her name to a real person. In 1973, an art student at Canada's Alberta College of Art and Design met a classmate named Kitty Pryde. His name was John…
  • Miles MoralesMiles Morales makes his first public appearance as Spider-Man by stopping an assault by a villain called Kangaroo. The bystanders are not impressed. They tell him his Spider-Man costume is in bad taste, and he considers changing it. That…
  • X-23X-23 is the designation of Laura Kinney, a Marvel Comics superheroine who began life on a television screen rather than a comic page. Her creator, writer Craig Kyle, described her as "Pinocchio for Marvel Comics, she's a samurai sword…
  • Jessica JonesJessica Jones is a Marvel Comics superhero who spends much of her story trying not to be one. She runs a detective agency called Alias Private Investigations, and she is usually its only employee. Yet Marvel eventually placed her in a high…
  • X-MenThe X-Men comic was cancelled in 1970 after seven years of weak sales. A new team in 1975 turned it into a hit.
  • Mister FantasticMister Fantastic, the comic book hero whose real name is Dr. Reed Richards, owes his stretching power to a borrowed idea. Stan Lee, who created him with Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics, once explained the choice in an interview. His words…
  • Quicksilver (Marvel Comics)Quicksilver, the Marvel Comics speedster whose real name is Pietro Django Maximoff, first appeared in The X-Men #4, dated March 1964. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him. He can move and think at extreme speeds, and that second half of the…
  • Rogue (Marvel Comics)Rogue, the Marvel Comics heroine best known as a member of the X-Men, cannot touch another person without taking something from them. One brush of skin lets her absorb a person's life force, abilities, memories and superpowers. The longer…
  • Doctor StrangeDoctor Strange, the sorcerer of Marvel Comics, began life with a lukewarm review from the man who edited him. In a 1963 letter to Jerry Bails, Stan Lee described a five-page filler for Strange Tales and admitted that "The first story is…
  • Black Cat (Marvel Comics)Black Cat, the thief whose real name is Felicia Hardy, first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 in July 1979, yet she was never meant for that comic. Her creators had a different hero's book in mind when they dreamed her up. She…

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