In 1939, a 16-year-old office assistant named Stanley Lieber walked into a publishing house on West 42nd Street in New York City and was hired to stuff envelopes. He was the cousin of the company owner, Martin Goodman, and his job was to deliver finished comics to the mailroom. This unremarkable start would eventually lead to a partnership that would redefine the superhero genre. Goodman, who had started with Western pulp magazines in 1933, was expanding into the emerging medium of comic books. He officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, while his brother Abraham Goodman was listed as the publisher. The company was called Timely Publications, and its first publication, Marvel Comics #1, was released in October of that year. It featured the first appearance of the Human Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner, selling nearly 900,000 copies. Lieber, who would soon adopt the pseudonym Stan Lee, began writing for the company, contributing to various titles. When editor Joe Simon left in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber the interim editor, a position he would hold for decades, except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, but it was his collaboration with artist Jack Kirby that would change everything. Together, they created Captain America, a patriotically themed superhero who appeared in Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941. The issue sold nearly one million copies, proving that Timely had found a winning formula. While no other Timely character would achieve the same success, the company continued to publish a wide variety of genres, including humor, horror, and Westerns. Goodman's business strategy involved having various magazines published by a number of shell companies, all operating out of the same office with the same staff. One of these shell companies was named Marvel Comics, a name that would eventually become synonymous with the company itself.
The Age of Flawed Heroes
The modern era of comic books began in August 1961 with the launch of The Fantastic Four, a title that broke all the rules of the superhero genre. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a team of superheroes who squabbled, held grudges, and lacked secret identities. They were not perfect, handsome, athletic heroes like those found in previous comic books. Instead, they were flawed, freaks, and misfits. The Thing looked like a monster, and the Human Torch was a literal fireball. This naturalistic approach extended into topical politics, with comics presenting heroes who were more like real people. The Fantastic Four #1, cover-dated November 1961, was the first modern comic book under the Marvel Comics brand. It was followed by The Amazing Spider-Man, which became Marvel's most successful book. Spider-Man was a young hero who suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager. He was not a perfect hero, but a flawed one who readers could identify with. In 1965, Spider-Man and the Hulk were both featured in Esquire magazine's list of 28 college campus heroes, alongside John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan. This was a stark contrast to the perfect heroes of DC Comics, which seemed like boring old Pat Boone to the new generation of readers. Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion. The company began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and antiheroes as the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, the Inhumans, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and the Silver Surfer. All these characters existed in a shared reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locations that mirrored real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The company even lampooned itself and other comics companies in a parody comic, Not Brand Echh. The branding pattern, being typically either a full-body picture of the characters' solo titles or a collection of the main characters' faces in ensemble titles, would become standard for Marvel for decades.The Spider-Man Drug Story
In 1971, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry's self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with Goodman's approval, published the story regardless in The Amazing Spider-Man #96, 98, which ran from May to July 1971, without the Comics Code seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA subsequently revised the Code the same year. This was a pivotal moment in the history of comic books, as it showed that the industry could push boundaries and still succeed. Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and installed his son, Chip, as publisher. Shortly thereafter, Lee succeeded him as publisher and also became Marvel's president for a brief time. During his time as president, he appointed his associate editor, prolific writer Roy Thomas, as editor-in-chief. Thomas added Stan Lee Presents to the opening page of each comic book. A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code published titles themed to horror, martial arts, sword-and-sorcery, satire, and science fiction. Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, under its Curtis Magazines imprint. Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux. Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 36 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount. In 1973, Perfect Film & Chemical renamed itself as Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group. Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name for a new Atlas Comics line, but this lasted only a year and a half.The King Returns and the Image Split
In 1975, Marvel held its own comic book convention, Marvelcon '75, in spring 1975, and promised a Marvelcon '76. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Jack Kirby, the artist co-creator of most of Marvel's signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics. This was a significant moment, as Kirby had been one of the most influential artists in the history of comic books. In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. During Shooter's nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller's run on Daredevil became critical and commercial successes. Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market, institutionalized creator royalties, starting with the Epic Comics imprint for creator-owned material in 1982, and introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars. In 1986, he launched the ultimately unsuccessful New Universe line to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics, a children-oriented line differing from the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful during this period, although hampered by legal action by the owners of the recently defunct Harvey Comics for purposefully plagiarizing their house style. In 1986, Marvel's parent, Marvel Entertainment Group, was sold to New World Entertainment, which within three years sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Revlon executive Ronald Perelman in 1989. In 1991, Perelman took MEG public. Following the rapid rise of this stock, Perelman issued a series of junk bonds that he used to acquire other entertainment companies, secured by MEG stock. In early 1992, seven of Marvel's prized artists left to form Image Comics. These artists included Todd McFarlane, known for his work on Spider-Man, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, and Whilce Portacio. Three years later, on the 3rd of November 1994, Rosenberg sold Malibu to Marvel. In purchasing Malibu, Marvel now owned computer coloring technology that had been developed by Rosenberg, and also integrated the Ultraverse line of comics and the Genesis Universe into Marvel's multiverse. Earlier that year, the company secured a deal with Harvey Comics, whereas Marvel took on the publishing and distribution of Harvey's titles. In late 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. Then, by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped, and in December 1996, MEG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with Marvel, giving the company its own section of its comics catalog Previews.The Rebirth of a Giant
In 1997, Toy Biz bought Marvel Entertainment Group to end the bankruptcy, forming a new corporation, Marvel Enterprises. With his business partner Avi Arad, publisher Bill Jemas, and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter helped stabilize the comics line. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place with reduced Marvel continuity, according to one history, with better production quality. The imprint was helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Daredevil, the Inhumans, and Black Panther. With the new millennium, Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. X-Force #116 and X-Force #119, which were published in October 2001, were the first Marvel Comics titles since The Amazing Spider-Man #96, 98 in 1971 to not have the Comics Code Authority approval seal, due to the violence depicted in the issue. The CCA, which governed the content of American comic books, rejected the issue, requiring that changes be made. Instead, Marvel simply stopped submitting comics to the CCA. It then established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. Marvel also created new imprints, such as MAX, an explicit-content line, and Marvel Adventures, developed for child audiences. The company also created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the company to reboot its major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation. Some of the company's properties were adapted into successful film franchises, such as the Men in Black film series, which was based on a Malibu book, starting in 1997, the Blade film series, starting in 1998, the X-Men film series, starting in 2000, and the highest grossing series, Spider-Man, beginning in 2002. In a cross-promotion, the 1st of November 2006, episode of the CBS soap opera Guiding Light, titled She's a Marvel, featured the character Harley Davidson Cooper, played by Beth Ehlers, as a superheroine named the Guiding Light. The character's story continued in an eight-page backup feature, A New Light, that appeared in several Marvel titles published November 1 and 8. Also that year, Marvel created a wiki on its Web site. In late 2007, the company launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing, for a monthly or annual subscription fee. At the December 2007 the New York Anime Fest, the company announced that Del Rey Manga would publish two original English language Marvel manga books featuring the X-Men and Wolverine to hit the stands in spring 2009. In 2009, Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work. The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics, by issuing the one-shot Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 and a variety of other special issues.The Disney Acquisition
On the 31st of August 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced it would acquire Marvel Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for a cash and stock deal worth approximately $4 billion, which if necessary would be adjusted at closing, giving Marvel shareholders $30 and 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they owned. As of 2008, Marvel and its major competitor DC Comics shared over 80% of the American comic-book market. As of September 2010, Marvel switched its bookstore distribution company from Diamond Book Distributors to Hachette Distribution Services. Marvel moved its office to the Sports Illustrated Building in October 2010. Marvel relaunched the CrossGen imprint, owned by Disney Publishing Worldwide, in March 2011. Marvel and Disney Publishing began jointly publishing Disney/Pixar Presents magazine that May. Marvel discontinued its Marvel Adventures imprint in March 2012, and replaced them with a line of two titles connected to the Marvel Universe TV block. Also in March, Marvel announced its Marvel ReEvolution initiative that included Infinite Comics, a line of digital comics, Marvel AR, a software application that provides an augmented reality experience to readers, and Marvel NOW!, a relaunch of most of the company's major titles with different creative teams. Marvel NOW! also saw the debut of new flagship titles including Uncanny Avengers and All-New X-Men. In April 2013, Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC, a Once Upon a Time graphic novel was announced for publication in September. With Disney, Marvel announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first title under their joint Disney Kingdoms imprint Seekers of the Weird, a five-issue miniseries. On the 3rd of January 2014, fellow Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm announced that as of 2015, Star Wars comics would once again be published by Marvel. Following the events of the company-wide crossover Secret Wars in 2015, a relaunched Marvel universe began in September 2015, called the All-New, All-Different Marvel. Marvel Legacy was the company's Fall 2017 relaunch branding, which began that September. Books released as part of that initiative featured lenticular variant covers that required comic book stores to double their regular issue order to be able to order the variants. The owner of two Comix Experience stores complained about requiring retailers to purchase an excess of copies featuring the regular cover, which they would not be able to sell in order to acquire the more sought-after variant. Marvel responded to these complaints by rescinding these ordering requirements on newer series, but maintained it on more long-running titles like Invincible Iron Man. As a result, MyComicShop.com and at least 70 other comic book stores boycotted these variant covers. Despite the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan, Thor: Ragnarok, and Spider-Man: Homecoming in theaters, none of those characters' titles featured in the top 10 sales and the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series was canceled. Conan Properties International announced on the 12th of January 2018, that Conan would return to Marvel in early 2019. On the 1st of March 2019, Serial Box, a digital book platform, announced a partnership with Marvel, in which they would publish new and original stories tied to a number of Marvel's popular franchises. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March to May 2020, Marvel and its distributor Diamond Comic Distributors stopped producing and releasing new comic books. On the 25th of March 2021, Marvel Comics announced that they planned to shift their direct market distribution for monthly comics and graphic novels from Diamond Comic Distributors to Penguin Random House. The change was scheduled to start on the 1st of October 2021, in a multi-year partnership. The arrangement would still allow stores the option to order comics from Diamond, but Diamond would be acting as a wholesaler rather than distributor. On the 29th of March 2023, as a part of a corporate restructuring to fold Marvel Entertainment into The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Comics was transferred to Disney Publishing Worldwide. In June 2024, Marvel unveiled a new logo for Marvel Comics, similar in style to the logos for Marvel Studios and Marvel Studios Animation. This logo was meant to be used for more corporate purposes and on new social media channels for Marvel Comics, and would not appear on comics themselves.The Universe Expands
Marvel characters and stories have been adapted to multiple media platforms. Some of these adaptations were produced by Marvel Comics and its sister company, Marvel Studios, while others were produced by companies licensing Marvel material. In June 1993, Marvel issued its collectable caps for milk caps game under the Hero Caps brand. In 2014, the Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers Japanese TV series was launched together with a collectible game called Bachicombat, a game similar to the milk caps game, by Bandai. The RPG industry brought the development of the collectible card game in the early 1990s, which there were soon Marvel characters were featured in CCG of their own starting in 1995 with Fleer's OverPower, which ran from 1995 to 1999. Later collectible card games included Marvel Superstars, ReCharge Collectible Card Game, Vs. System, X-Men Trading Card Game, and Marvel Champions: The Card Game. Miniatures games such as Marvel Crisis Protocol and HeroClix were also developed. TSR published the pen-and-paper role-playing game Marvel Super Heroes in 1984. TSR then released in 1998 the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game, which used a different system, the card-based SAGA system, than their first game. In 2003, Marvel Publishing published its own role-playing game, the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game, that used a diceless stone pool system. In August 2011, Margaret Weis Productions announced it was developing a tabletop role-playing game based on the Marvel universe, set for release in February 2012 using its house Cortex Plus RPG system. Video games based on Marvel characters go back to 1984 and the Atari 2600 game, Spider-Man. Since then, several dozen video games have been released and all have been produced by outside licensees. In 2014, Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes was released that brought Marvel characters to the existing Disney sandbox video game. As of the start of September 2015, films based on Marvel's properties represent the highest-grossing U.S. franchise, having grossed over $7.7 billion as part of a worldwide gross of over $18 billion. As of 2024, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grossed over $32 billion. Many television series, both live-action and animated, have based their productions on Marvel Comics characters. These include series for popular characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Avengers, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, the Punisher, the Defenders, S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Deadpool, Legion, and others. Additionally, a handful of television films, usually also pilots, based on Marvel Comics characters have been made. Marvel has licensed its characters for theme parks and attractions, including Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, which includes rides based on their iconic characters and costumed performers, as well as The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride cloned from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios Japan. Years after Disney purchased Marvel in late 2009, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts plans on creating original Marvel attractions at their theme parks, with Hong Kong Disneyland becoming the first Disney theme park to feature a Marvel attraction. Due to the licensing agreement with Universal Studios, signed prior to Disney's purchase of Marvel, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort are barred from having Marvel characters in their parks. However, this only includes characters that Universal is currently using, other characters in their families, and the villains associated with said characters. This clause has allowed Walt Disney World to have meet and greets, merchandise, attractions and more with other Marvel characters not associated with the characters at Islands of Adventures, such as Star-Lord and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel has also licensed its characters for live shows, including Spider-Man's Wedding, Spider-Man On Stage, Spider-Man Stunt Show: A Stunt Spectacular, Spider-Man Live!, The Marvel Experience, Marvel Universe Live!, and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a Broadway musical. Marvel first licensed two prose novels to Bantam Books, who printed The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker by Otto Binder in 1967 and Captain America: The Great Gold Steal by Ted White in 1968. Various publishers took up the licenses from 1978 to 2002. Also, with the various licensed films being released beginning in 1997, various publishers put out film novelizations. In 2003, following publication of the prose young adult novel Mary Jane, starring Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man mythos, Marvel announced the formation of the publishing imprint Marvel Press. However, Marvel moved back to licensing with Pocket Books from 2005 to 2008. With few books issued under the imprint, Marvel and Disney Books Group relaunched Marvel Press in 2011 with the Marvel Origin Storybooks line.In 1939, a 16-year-old office assistant named Stanley Lieber walked into a publishing house on West 42nd Street in New York City and was hired to stuff envelopes. He was the cousin of the company owner, Martin Goodman, and his job was to deliver finished comics to the mailroom. This unremarkable start would eventually lead to a partnership that would redefine the superhero genre. Goodman, who had started with Western pulp magazines in 1933, was expanding into the emerging medium of comic books. He officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, while his brother Abraham Goodman was listed as the publisher. The company was called Timely Publications, and its first publication, Marvel Comics #1, was released in October of that year. It featured the first appearance of the Human Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner, selling nearly 900,000 copies. Lieber, who would soon adopt the pseudonym Stan Lee, began writing for the company, contributing to various titles. When editor Joe Simon left in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber the interim editor, a position he would hold for decades, except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, but it was his collaboration with artist Jack Kirby that would change everything. Together, they created Captain America, a patriotically themed superhero who appeared in Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941. The issue sold nearly one million copies, proving that Timely had found a winning formula. While no other Timely character would achieve the same success, the company continued to publish a wide variety of genres, including humor, horror, and Westerns. Goodman's business strategy involved having various magazines published by a number of shell companies, all operating out of the same office with the same staff. One of these shell companies was named Marvel Comics, a name that would eventually become synonymous with the company itself.
The Age of Flawed Heroes
The modern era of comic books began in August 1961 with the launch of The Fantastic Four, a title that broke all the rules of the superhero genre. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a team of superheroes who squabbled, held grudges, and lacked secret identities. They were not perfect, handsome, athletic heroes like those found in previous comic books. Instead, they were flawed, freaks, and misfits. The Thing looked like a monster, and the Human Torch was a literal fireball. This naturalistic approach extended into topical politics, with comics presenting heroes who were more like real people. The Fantastic Four #1, cover-dated November 1961, was the first modern comic book under the Marvel Comics brand. It was followed by The Amazing Spider-Man, which became Marvel's most successful book. Spider-Man was a young hero who suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager. He was not a perfect hero, but a flawed one who readers could identify with. In 1965, Spider-Man and the Hulk were both featured in Esquire magazine's list of 28 college campus heroes, alongside John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan. This was a stark contrast to the perfect heroes of DC Comics, which seemed like boring old Pat Boone to the new generation of readers. Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion. The company began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and antiheroes as the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, the Inhumans, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and the Silver Surfer. All these characters existed in a shared reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locations that mirrored real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The company even lampooned itself and other comics companies in a parody comic, Not Brand Echh. The branding pattern, being typically either a full-body picture of the characters' solo titles or a collection of the main characters' faces in ensemble titles, would become standard for Marvel for decades.
The Spider-Man Drug Story
In 1971, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry's self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with Goodman's approval, published the story regardless in The Amazing Spider-Man #96, 98, which ran from May to July 1971, without the Comics Code seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA subsequently revised the Code the same year. This was a pivotal moment in the history of comic books, as it showed that the industry could push boundaries and still succeed. Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and installed his son, Chip, as publisher. Shortly thereafter, Lee succeeded him as publisher and also became Marvel's president for a brief time. During his time as president, he appointed his associate editor, prolific writer Roy Thomas, as editor-in-chief. Thomas added Stan Lee Presents to the opening page of each comic book. A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code published titles themed to horror, martial arts, sword-and-sorcery, satire, and science fiction. Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, under its Curtis Magazines imprint. Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux. Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 36 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount. In 1973, Perfect Film & Chemical renamed itself as Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group. Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name for a new Atlas Comics line, but this lasted only a year and a half.
The King Returns and the Image Split
In 1975, Marvel held its own comic book convention, Marvelcon '75, in spring 1975, and promised a Marvelcon '76. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Jack Kirby, the artist co-creator of most of Marvel's signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics. This was a significant moment, as Kirby had been one of the most influential artists in the history of comic books. In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. During Shooter's nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller's run on Daredevil became critical and commercial successes. Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market, institutionalized creator royalties, starting with the Epic Comics imprint for creator-owned material in 1982, and introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars. In 1986, he launched the ultimately unsuccessful New Universe line to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics, a children-oriented line differing from the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful during this period, although hampered by legal action by the owners of the recently defunct Harvey Comics for purposefully plagiarizing their house style. In 1986, Marvel's parent, Marvel Entertainment Group, was sold to New World Entertainment, which within three years sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Revlon executive Ronald Perelman in 1989. In 1991, Perelman took MEG public. Following the rapid rise of this stock, Perelman issued a series of junk bonds that he used to acquire other entertainment companies, secured by MEG stock. In early 1992, seven of Marvel's prized artists left to form Image Comics. These artists included Todd McFarlane, known for his work on Spider-Man, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, and Whilce Portacio. Three years later, on the 3rd of November 1994, Rosenberg sold Malibu to Marvel. In purchasing Malibu, Marvel now owned computer coloring technology that had been developed by Rosenberg, and also integrated the Ultraverse line of comics and the Genesis Universe into Marvel's multiverse. Earlier that year, the company secured a deal with Harvey Comics, whereas Marvel took on the publishing and distribution of Harvey's titles. In late 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. Then, by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped, and in December 1996, MEG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with Marvel, giving the company its own section of its comics catalog Previews.
The Rebirth of a Giant
In 1997, Toy Biz bought Marvel Entertainment Group to end the bankruptcy, forming a new corporation, Marvel Enterprises. With his business partner Avi Arad, publisher Bill Jemas, and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter helped stabilize the comics line. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place with reduced Marvel continuity, according to one history, with better production quality. The imprint was helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Daredevil, the Inhumans, and Black Panther. With the new millennium, Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. X-Force #116 and X-Force #119, which were published in October 2001, were the first Marvel Comics titles since The Amazing Spider-Man #96, 98 in 1971 to not have the Comics Code Authority approval seal, due to the violence depicted in the issue. The CCA, which governed the content of American comic books, rejected the issue, requiring that changes be made. Instead, Marvel simply stopped submitting comics to the CCA. It then established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. Marvel also created new imprints, such as MAX, an explicit-content line, and Marvel Adventures, developed for child audiences. The company also created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the company to reboot its major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation. Some of the company's properties were adapted into successful film franchises, such as the Men in Black film series, which was based on a Malibu book, starting in 1997, the Blade film series, starting in 1998, the X-Men film series, starting in 2000, and the highest grossing series, Spider-Man, beginning in 2002. In a cross-promotion, the 1st of November 2006, episode of the CBS soap opera Guiding Light, titled She's a Marvel, featured the character Harley Davidson Cooper, played by Beth Ehlers, as a superheroine named the Guiding Light. The character's story continued in an eight-page backup feature, A New Light, that appeared in several Marvel titles published November 1 and 8. Also that year, Marvel created a wiki on its Web site. In late 2007, the company launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing, for a monthly or annual subscription fee. At the December 2007 the New York Anime Fest, the company announced that Del Rey Manga would publish two original English language Marvel manga books featuring the X-Men and Wolverine to hit the stands in spring 2009. In 2009, Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work. The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics, by issuing the one-shot Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 and a variety of other special issues.
The Disney Acquisition
On the 31st of August 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced it would acquire Marvel Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for a cash and stock deal worth approximately $4 billion, which if necessary would be adjusted at closing, giving Marvel shareholders $30 and 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they owned. As of 2008, Marvel and its major competitor DC Comics shared over 80% of the American comic-book market. As of September 2010, Marvel switched its bookstore distribution company from Diamond Book Distributors to Hachette Distribution Services. Marvel moved its office to the Sports Illustrated Building in October 2010. Marvel relaunched the CrossGen imprint, owned by Disney Publishing Worldwide, in March 2011. Marvel and Disney Publishing began jointly publishing Disney/Pixar Presents magazine that May. Marvel discontinued its Marvel Adventures imprint in March 2012, and replaced them with a line of two titles connected to the Marvel Universe TV block. Also in March, Marvel announced its Marvel ReEvolution initiative that included Infinite Comics, a line of digital comics, Marvel AR, a software application that provides an augmented reality experience to readers, and Marvel NOW!, a relaunch of most of the company's major titles with different creative teams. Marvel NOW! also saw the debut of new flagship titles including Uncanny Avengers and All-New X-Men. In April 2013, Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC, a Once Upon a Time graphic novel was announced for publication in September. With Disney, Marvel announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first title under their joint Disney Kingdoms imprint Seekers of the Weird, a five-issue miniseries. On the 3rd of January 2014, fellow Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm announced that as of 2015, Star Wars comics would once again be published by Marvel. Following the events of the company-wide crossover Secret Wars in 2015, a relaunched Marvel universe began in September 2015, called the All-New, All-Different Marvel. Marvel Legacy was the company's Fall 2017 relaunch branding, which began that September. Books released as part of that initiative featured lenticular variant covers that required comic book stores to double their regular issue order to be able to order the variants. The owner of two Comix Experience stores complained about requiring retailers to purchase an excess of copies featuring the regular cover, which they would not be able to sell in order to acquire the more sought-after variant. Marvel responded to these complaints by rescinding these ordering requirements on newer series, but maintained it on more long-running titles like Invincible Iron Man. As a result, MyComicShop.com and at least 70 other comic book stores boycotted these variant covers. Despite the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan, Thor: Ragnarok, and Spider-Man: Homecoming in theaters, none of those characters' titles featured in the top 10 sales and the Guardians of the Galaxy comic book series was canceled. Conan Properties International announced on the 12th of January 2018, that Conan would return to Marvel in early 2019. On the 1st of March 2019, Serial Box, a digital book platform, announced a partnership with Marvel, in which they would publish new and original stories tied to a number of Marvel's popular franchises. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March to May 2020, Marvel and its distributor Diamond Comic Distributors stopped producing and releasing new comic books. On the 25th of March 2021, Marvel Comics announced that they planned to shift their direct market distribution for monthly comics and graphic novels from Diamond Comic Distributors to Penguin Random House. The change was scheduled to start on the 1st of October 2021, in a multi-year partnership. The arrangement would still allow stores the option to order comics from Diamond, but Diamond would be acting as a wholesaler rather than distributor. On the 29th of March 2023, as a part of a corporate restructuring to fold Marvel Entertainment into The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Comics was transferred to Disney Publishing Worldwide. In June 2024, Marvel unveiled a new logo for Marvel Comics, similar in style to the logos for Marvel Studios and Marvel Studios Animation. This logo was meant to be used for more corporate purposes and on new social media channels for Marvel Comics, and would not appear on comics themselves.
The Universe Expands
Marvel characters and stories have been adapted to multiple media platforms. Some of these adaptations were produced by Marvel Comics and its sister company, Marvel Studios, while others were produced by companies licensing Marvel material. In June 1993, Marvel issued its collectable caps for milk caps game under the Hero Caps brand. In 2014, the Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers Japanese TV series was launched together with a collectible game called Bachicombat, a game similar to the milk caps game, by Bandai. The RPG industry brought the development of the collectible card game in the early 1990s, which there were soon Marvel characters were featured in CCG of their own starting in 1995 with Fleer's OverPower, which ran from 1995 to 1999. Later collectible card games included Marvel Superstars, ReCharge Collectible Card Game, Vs. System, X-Men Trading Card Game, and Marvel Champions: The Card Game. Miniatures games such as Marvel Crisis Protocol and HeroClix were also developed. TSR published the pen-and-paper role-playing game Marvel Super Heroes in 1984. TSR then released in 1998 the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game, which used a different system, the card-based SAGA system, than their first game. In 2003, Marvel Publishing published its own role-playing game, the Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game, that used a diceless stone pool system. In August 2011, Margaret Weis Productions announced it was developing a tabletop role-playing game based on the Marvel universe, set for release in February 2012 using its house Cortex Plus RPG system. Video games based on Marvel characters go back to 1984 and the Atari 2600 game, Spider-Man. Since then, several dozen video games have been released and all have been produced by outside licensees. In 2014, Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes was released that brought Marvel characters to the existing Disney sandbox video game. As of the start of September 2015, films based on Marvel's properties represent the highest-grossing U.S. franchise, having grossed over $7.7 billion as part of a worldwide gross of over $18 billion. As of 2024, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grossed over $32 billion. Many television series, both live-action and animated, have based their productions on Marvel Comics characters. These include series for popular characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Avengers, the X-Men, Fantastic Four, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, the Punisher, the Defenders, S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Deadpool, Legion, and others. Additionally, a handful of television films, usually also pilots, based on Marvel Comics characters have been made. Marvel has licensed its characters for theme parks and attractions, including Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, which includes rides based on their iconic characters and costumed performers, as well as The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man ride cloned from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios Japan. Years after Disney purchased Marvel in late 2009, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts plans on creating original Marvel attractions at their theme parks, with Hong Kong Disneyland becoming the first Disney theme park to feature a Marvel attraction. Due to the licensing agreement with Universal Studios, signed prior to Disney's purchase of Marvel, Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disney Resort are barred from having Marvel characters in their parks. However, this only includes characters that Universal is currently using, other characters in their families, and the villains associated with said characters. This clause has allowed Walt Disney World to have meet and greets, merchandise, attractions and more with other Marvel characters not associated with the characters at Islands of Adventures, such as Star-Lord and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel has also licensed its characters for live shows, including Spider-Man's Wedding, Spider-Man On Stage, Spider-Man Stunt Show: A Stunt Spectacular, Spider-Man Live!, The Marvel Experience, Marvel Universe Live!, and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a Broadway musical. Marvel first licensed two prose novels to Bantam Books, who printed The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker by Otto Binder in 1967 and Captain America: The Great Gold Steal by Ted White in 1968. Various publishers took up the licenses from 1978 to 2002. Also, with the various licensed films being released beginning in 1997, various publishers put out film novelizations. In 2003, following publication of the prose young adult novel Mary Jane, starring Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man mythos, Marvel announced the formation of the publishing imprint Marvel Press. However, Marvel moved back to licensing with Pocket Books from 2005 to 2008. With few books issued under the imprint, Marvel and Disney Books Group relaunched Marvel Press in 2011 with the Marvel Origin Storybooks line.