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Marvel Comics
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Marvel Comics is the common name and primary imprint of Marvel Worldwide Inc. formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, an American publisher of comic books and related media. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Worldwides parent company, Marvel started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvels modern incarnation dates from 1961, the year that the company launched The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and many others. Most of Marvels fictional characters operate in a reality known as the Marvel Universe. Martin Goodman founded the later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Martin Goodman, a magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. The issue was a success, with it and a second printing the following month selling, combined. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc, Timely had its own staff in place by the following year. It, too, proved a hit, with sales of one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941, Goodman hired his wifes cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles, Goodmans business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55. As well, some covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12, were labeled A Marvel Magazine many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion and this globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas also published a plethora of childrens and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlos Homer the Happy Ghost, Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. Atlas did not achieve any hits and, according to Stan Lee, Atlas survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply. During this time, the Comic Code Authority made its debut in September 1954, Wertham published the book Seduction of the Innocent in order to force people to see that comics were impacting American youth. He believed violent comics were causing children to be reckless and were turning them into delinquents, in September 1954, comic book publishers got together to set up their own self-censorship organization—the Comics Magazine Association of America—in order to appease audiences
2.
Limited series (comics)
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In the field of comic books, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from a series in that the number of issues is finite and determined before production. The term is used interchangeably with miniseries and maxiseries, usually depending on the length. In Dark Horse Comics definition of a series, This term primarily applies to a connected series of individual comic books. A limited series refers to a book series with a clear beginning, middle. Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics refer to limited series of two to eleven issues as miniseries and series of issues or more as maxiseries. The limited series has a story to tell. It follows the standard plot set-up of beginning, middle, usually, all plot points are covered by the end of the series. There have been limited series done in a format. Limited series are often done by a creative team, but in cases where there are changes. The number of issues is determined by some combination of the writers plotting. In 1979, in the process of recovering from the DC Implosion, publisher DC Comics experimented with a new format in the World of Krypton miniseries, as DC termed such short-run works. The new format allowed the company to tell stories that may not have fit into a series and to showcase characters into a short story without the risk. With the success of the format, DC followed by experimenting with longer stories. Debuting in 1982, Camelot 3000 was the first limited series to run to twelve issues, DC coined the term maxiseries as a promotional description for this. It did not take long for other publishers to begin using the limited-series format, Marvel Comics used it to feature popular characters from team titles and put them in solo adventures. Wolverines earliest solo adventures were told in limited series, crossovers were introduced in limited series form before the concept of multi-title crossovers was conceived. Contest of Champions brought forth the idea of an event affecting the Marvel Universe
3.
Brian Michael Bendis
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Brian Michael Bendis is an American comic book writer and artist. He has won acclaim, including five Eisner Awards for both his creator-owned work and his work on various Marvel Comics books. Starting out with crime and noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero work, with Bill Jemas and Mark Millar, Bendis was the primary architect of the Ultimate Marvel Universe, launching Ultimate Spider-Man in 2000, on which he continues as writer. He relaunched the Avengers franchise with New Avengers in 2004, and has written the Marvel event storylines Secret War, House of M, Secret Invasion. In addition to writing comics he has worked in television, video games and film and he has also occasionally taught at Portland State University. In 2014, Bendis wrote Words for Pictures, a book about comics published by Random House, brian Michael Bendis was born on August 18,1967 in Cleveland, Ohio to a Jewish-American family. Bendis grew up in University Heights where, despite rebelling against a religious upbringing, he attended the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, a private, modern Orthodox religious school for boys. He decided he wanted to be a book industry professional when he was 13, working on his own comics. A fan of Marvel Comics in particular, he emulated idols such as George Pérez, John Romita, Sr. John Romita, Jr. Jack Kirby and Klaus Janson. These in turn led him to discover the documentary Visions of Light, which taught him the explicit rules of film noir. At 19, Bendis began attending the Cleveland Institute of Art, Best known as a writer, Bendis started out as an artist, doing work for local magazines and newspapers, including caricature work. He worked at The Plain Dealer as an illustrator, although he did not enjoy caricature work, it paid well and funded his interest in writing crime fiction for graphic novels. He eventually moved into writing and illustrating his work, before he began producing work for Caliber Comics, including Spunky Todd. K. A. Most of these works share a common universe, with Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso and Total Sell Out sharing characters. In 1996/1997, Bendis moved from Caliber to Image Comics, where Jinx, at Image, he also produced five more issues of Jinx. Goldfish, Image founder Todd McFarlane sought out Bendis, which led to his writing Sam, although set in the Spawn universe, Bendis approached Sam and Twitch primarily as a crime comic. He wrote Sam and Twitch for twenty issues, as well as most of the first ten issues of Hellspawn and that same year saw the debut of the superhero police/noir detective series Powers, co-created with and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming and published by Image. Powers won major comics industry awards, including Harvey, Eisner, around the time Bendis began Sam and Twitch, his friend David Mack began working for Joe Quesadas Marvel Knights imprint, of which Bendis was a fan
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Mark Bagley
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Mark Bagley is an American comic book artist. He has worked for Marvel Comics on such titles as The Amazing Spider-Man, Thunderbolts, New Warriors, Mark Bagley was born to a military family in Frankfurt, West Germany. After his work in the military and at Ringling College of Art and Design, while working a construction job, he suffered a severe injury to his leg while using a handsaw that required 132 stitches. He eventually ended up working for Lockheed Martin making technical drawings, in 1983, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter created the Marvel Try-out Book to draw new talent into the comic book industry. The contest involved a comic book which contestants could complete. The winner would be awarded a professional assignment with Marvel, at the time, Bagley was 27 years old and living in Marietta, Georgia. He had almost given up on trying to find a job in comics and was satisfied with his position at Lockheed Martin, Bagley was reluctant to enter the contest because of the cost of the Try-out Book itself. His friend, Cliff Biggers, gave him the book and persuaded Bagley to enter the contest, Bagley won first place for penciling, finishing ahead of thousands of other hopefuls. After winning the contest, he didnt hear from Marvel for several months, after approaching Shooter at a comic convention, Bagley was assigned to a series of low-profile penciling jobs. In 1989, Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz created a team of superheroes called the New Warriors. The following year, Marvel launched a new series based on heroes and assigned Bagley. Bagley stayed on the title until #25, at which point he left to transition directly onto The Amazing Spider-Man, when Erik Larsen left The Amazing Spider-Man in 1991, Bagley was assigned to the title. He and David Michelinie introduced the Carnage character in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 and produced the Venom, Bagley was one of the artists on the Maximum Carnage and Clone Saga storylines which ran through the Spider-Man titles. In 2012, Comic Book Resources ranked Bagley fourth on its list of the 50 Greatest Spider-Man Creators, in 2000, Marvels then-publisher Bill Jemas was looking to relaunch Marvels primary franchises in a way that would make them accessible to newer readers. Ultimate Spider-Man would be a title that began the Spider-Man mythos from the set in modern times. Bagley was assigned to Ultimate Spider-Man with writer Brian Michael Bendis, Bagley collaborated with Bendis on The Pulse and a four-issue arc on Mighty Avengers. Bagleys long and successful run on Ultimate Spider-Man earned him recognition in Wizard magazines top ten artists of the 2000s in Wizard #219. Ranked #2 on the list, article writer Mark Allen Haverty noted of Bagley, no other artist came close to the number of comics Bagley sold, in 2008, Bagley signed an exclusive three-year contract with DC Comics
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Age of Ultron
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Age of Ultron is a 2013 comic book fictional crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics that involved the conquest of the Earth by the sentient robot tyrant Ultron. The storyline consisted of an eponymous, 10-issue core miniseries, the storyline was published between March and June 2013 and featured a storyline by Brian Michael Bendis. Artist Bryan Hitch provided the art for one through five. Other artists who contributed to the series include Carlos Pacheco and Joe Quesada, Marvel stated that all art for the series was completed before it was solicited, ensuring deadlines were met and that there were no more than thirteen tie-ins to the four-month event. In mid-November,2012, Marvel Comics released a cryptic teaser written Age of Ultron in binary code, three days later the event was officially announced, although by this point it had been over a year since the event had been originally announced. An Age of Ultron #10 A. I. one-shot by writer Mark Waid, following the conclusion of Age of Ultron, a new ongoing series titled Avengers A. I. by writer Sam Humphries and Andre Lima Araujo will launch in July. For example, The Hunger serves as a catalyst for the Cataclysm event in the Marvel Ultimate Comics universe, Ultron has returned and has taken over. Ultron Sentinels are guarding the streets, looking for fugitives, after locating where Spider-Man is being held by the Owl and Hammerhead, Hawkeye attempts to rescue him. Ultron locates the two heroes and launches an assault to kill them, defending the rescue, Hawkeye states that at least he did not give up on the world. Iron Man responds that they have not as he shows Hawkeye a saddened Captain America sitting by his broken shield, sneaking around a decimated San Francisco, a disfigured Black Widow meets with Moon Knight in one of Nick Furys old bases. Back in New York, Spider-Man recalls how he woke up, as the heroes wonder why Ultron took over the world just to make deals with criminals like Owl and Hammerhead, Captain America declares that he has a plan. He explains that if heroes can be offered to Ultron as Spider-Man was, Luke delivers She-Hulk to Ultrons forces. A group of Ultron Sentinels guide Luke Cage and She-Hulk through the fortress to make the deal, Cage is shocked when he discovers that they are to negotiate with the Vision instead of Ultron. The Vision reveals that Ultron is using him as a conduit and is punishing humankind from the future, after learning this, She-Hulk is killed while trying to get Cage out of Ultrons lair. Cage survives a nuclear explosion while the other superheroes flee from Manhattan, in the San Francisco base, Black Widow and Moon Knight find Furys fail-safe plans for different apocalyptic scenarios, including one involving Ultron taking over the Earth. Later, the heroes who had escaped from New York arrive in the Savage Land where they meet Ka-Zar, the heroes arrive as Luke Cage dies from radiation poisoning after telling them what he has learned. Red Hulk, Moon Knight, and Black Widow arrive and reveal a plan made by Nick Fury to defeat Ultron, the heroes find a hidden bunker in the Savage Land. They meet Nick Fury, who reveals his plan to use Doctor Dooms Time Platform to go into the future to defeat Ultron before he attacks the present, Tony Stark points out that Ultron will be ready for them
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Galactus
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Galactus is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Formerly a mortal man, Galactus is an entity who originally consumed planets to sustain his life force. Galactus was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in the comic book Fantastic Four #48, Lee and Kirby had desired to introduce a character that broke away from the archetype of the standard villain, culminating in the creation of Galactus. Frequently accompanied by a herald, the character has appeared as both antagonist and protagonist in central and supporting roles, since debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books, Galactus has played a role in over five decades of Marvel continuity. The character has featured in other Marvel media, such as arcade games, video games, animated television series. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist-coplotter Jack Kirby, the character debuted in The Fantastic Four #48, as Lee recalled in 1993, Galactus was simply another in a long line of super-villains whom we loved creating. We felt the way to top ourselves was to come up with an evil-doer who had almost godlike powers. Therefore, the choice was sort of demi-god, but now what would we do with him. We didnt want to use the tired old cliche about him wanting to conquer the world, why not have him not be a really evil person. After all, a demi-god would be beyond good and evil. Hed require is the force and energy from living planets. Kirby described his Biblical inspirations for Galactus and an accompanying character, and I had to come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. I had to get something new. And. for some reason, I went to the Bible, and I came up with Galactus. They were above mythic figures, and of course, they were the first gods, Kirby elaborated, Galactus in actuality is a sort of god. He is beyond reproach, beyond anyones opinion, in a way he is kind of a Zeus, who fathered Hercules. He is his own legend, and of course, he and the Silver Surfer are sort of modern legends, in the nascent Marvel Universe, characters acted consistently, whatever comic they were appearing in. Their actions reverberated through every title and it was pure soap opera but on a cosmic scale, and Galactus epitomized its epic sweep. This led to the introduction of Galactus in Fantastic Four #48–50, Kirby did not intend Galactus to reappear, to preserve the characters awe-inspiring presence
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Ultimate Galactus Trilogy
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The Ultimate Galactus Trilogy is a collection of three comic book limited series published by Marvel Comics. All three series are set in the Ultimate Marvel universe and are written by Warren Ellis, the series showcase the arrival of the planet-eating entity Gah Lak Tus on Earth. Published from August 2004 to May 2006, the three series were titled Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate Secret, and Ultimate Extinction and they were all written by Warren Ellis. Ultimate Nightmare is a comic book limited series. Issues 1,2,4 and 5 were penciled by Trevor Hairsine, the third issue was drawn by Steve Epting. Ellis notes that Ultimate Nightmare was originally intended as a set-up for a big Ultimate-line event that Mark Millar was going to do. Mark, however, has had health issues for some time, and that and his workload led to him bowing out and me once again being asked to step in and help out. And then, while I was getting into Nightmare, Joe Quesada had the idea of turning this event into a trilogy. So I needed to come up with a second step in the trilogy fairly quickly. Ultimate Secret is a comic book limited series with art by Steve McNiven. Ultimate Extinction is a comic book limited series began in January 2006, cover dated March. A broadcast disrupts the worlds communications systems, filling televisions and computer monitors with images of death, neither team is aware of the others involvement. Two characters who make appearances, though unnamed, are Ultimate Unicorn, after defeating the humans the two teams meet, with Furys team capturing the X-Men and then discovering the source of the broadcast - a sentient, self-repairing robot called Vision. Vision has repaired itself enough to communicate with the world, and warns Fury of an impending threat, the X-Men subsequently escape and Furys team takes the Vision back to S. H. I. E. L. D for further analysis. Installation in New Mexico investigating revolutionary methods of travel is attacked by the alien Kree. This forces resident scientist Dr. Philip Lawson to change to his identity of Captain Mahr Vehl. Although able to defend the installation, Mahr Vehl is rendered unconscious and is eventually questioned by Fury. Mahr Vehl explains he is a member of the Kree himself, observing mankinds violent nature, Mahr Vehl reveals that the Kree have recently decided to confine humanity on Earth until the entity Gah Lak Tus can destroy them, thus ending the potential threat. Realizing that other Kree will be coming and that the threat the Vision foretold is now real, Fury summons the Fantastic Four
8.
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man
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Ultimate Comics, Spider-Man was an ongoing monthly comic book series published by Marvel Comics that debuted in September 2011 as part of the second re-launch of the Ultimate Marvel imprint. It followed the Death of Spider-Man storyline that concluded the series Ultimate Spider-Man, to which Ultimate Comics, the series was set in a continuity shared with other relaunched Ultimate Marvel titles including Ultimate Comics, X-Men and Ultimate Comics, Ultimates. The title ended in October 2013, the adventures of Miles continue in Miles Morales, Miles Morales/Spider-Man, Currently lives with both his parents, though he also attends a charter school and roommates with his best friend Ganke and another student named Judge. He has managed to meet a few members of the former Spider-Man cast, including Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane, Aunt May, Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy, Now living a normal life, having briefly dated Peter Parker prior to his death. May Parker, Aunt of the deceased Peter Parker, jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, A female clone of Peter Parker, sharing most of his memories. Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, Spider-Mans oldest nemesis, thought to be dead, he returns and breaks the Ultimate Six out of the Triskelion to kill Peter Parker, calling themselves the Men of God. Max Dillon/Electro, A former criminal empowered with electrokinesis by Hammer Industries, freed from prison by Osborn to kill Peter Parker. Tinkerer, An evil scientist who tries to get revenge on the Roxxon Company, Aaron Davis/Prowler, A cat burglar named Aaron Davis, brother of Miles father Jefferson, and Miles paternal uncle. Maximus Gargan/The Scorpion, A Mexican mob boss named Maximus Gargan that worked with Miles Morales uncle Aaron Davis aka The Prowler, edward Brock Jr. /Venom, Peter Parkers childhood friend, bonded to a protoplasmic, semi-sentient black suit known as a Symbiote. Omega Red, A mutant zealot who was created by Weapon X, reviewing the first issue, James Hunt of Comic Book Resources rated issue #1 four and a half out of five stars. Hunt called the issue technically strong, and praised the writing, although Hunt noted that while Bendis paced Miles origin story slowly enough that Miles does not yet appear in costume, he did so in order to emphasize character, which Hunt felt Bendis did well. Reviewing the same issue for Newsarama, David Pepose wrote that the biggest victory that Bendis scores with Miles Morales is that he makes us care about him, and care about him quickly. Even though were still scratching the surface of what makes him tick, were seeing the world through his eyes, but that kind of Parker-style guilt — that neurotic, nearly masochistic tendency for self-sacrifice that comes with great power and greater responsibility — is still intact. Jesse Schedeen of IGN wrote that Miles still feels like a bit of an outsider in his own book, Bendis never quite paints a complete picture of Miles - his thoughts, motivations, personality quirks, and so forth. Miles is largely a reactionary figure throughout the book as he confronts struggles like registering for a school or dealing with family squabbles. Schedeen also opined that Miles occupies a more urban, racially diverse, all the story doesnt pander or lean too heavily on elements like racial and economic tension to move forward. Miles is simply a character who speaks to a slightly different teen experience, and one not nearly as well represented in superhero comics as Peters
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Ultimate Comics: X-Men
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Ultimate Comics, X-Men is an ongoing monthly comic-book series published by Marvel Comics. It made its debut in September 2011 as part of the second re-launch of Ultimate Marvel and this title also exists alongside other relaunched Ultimate Marvel works, including Ultimate Comics, Spider-Man and Ultimate Comics, Ultimates. It was announced in May 2011 that Ultimate X-Men would be re-launched under the Ultimate Comics Universe Reborn tagline, written by Nick Spencer, and illustrated by Paco Medina, the title was called Ultimate Comics, X-Men. Announced members of the X-Men included Jimmy Hudson, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Rogue, the story also apparently expanded upon Ultimate Origins’ revelation of the mutant race actually being the result of a government bio-experiment. As a result of Magnetos attack that we saw in Ultimatum, were really in a Days of Future Past-type scenario. As revealed in Ultimate Origins, mutants in the Ultimate Universe are not the next step in evolution, Spencer said that information is going to go public, and the entire world is going to learn that the government created mutants. Spencer also told Newsarama that its a feeling to be writing an X-Men comic in a world where Cyclops, Wolverine, Professor Charles Xavier. I think its what makes it more exciting and these kids are living in a world where the legends are dead. This is more than just the dream is dead, this is and that is just so much more fascinating. To me, what was really intriguing to me about where they were now is just in that and these kids have heard both sides, and seen both sides fail miserably. A lot of X-books have been built around that idea, that were just one away from everything going to Hell. Its too late to put the back in the bottle. This relationship between humans and mutants is not going to repair itself and this list only includes comics already released. Karen Grant visits the home of a mutant named Chelsea Pleasant hoping to bring her under her guidance. However, her father murders Chelsea in her sleep, Valerie Cooper addresses the media regarding the recently released news that Mutants are being man-made at an American-funded lab based in Canada using experiments on a Mutant known as Wolverine. She states that conditions within the Mutant Internment Camps are good and, in some cases, Jimmy Hudson, hearing the news about his biological father, decides to abandon both Liz Allan and Derek Morgan and travel to Canada to investigate further. As the President of the United States also watches the news conference, he talks with Nick Fury about the situation involving Mutants and they are interrupted by Quicksilver who offers his assistance to the President, against Furys better judgement. Meanwhile, Rogue is being hunted by a Nimrod Model Sentinel, the story makes its way to the Daily Bugle website where Bobby discovers it through his internet-enabled device
