1.
Marvel Mystery Comics
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Marvel Mystery Comics is an American comic book series published during the 1930s–1940s period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books. It was the first publication of Marvel Comics predecessor, Timely Comics, in 1939, pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman expanded into the newly emerging comic book field by buying content from comics package Funnies, Inc. A painted cover by science fiction pulp artist Frank R. Paul featured the Human Torch. With a hit on his hands, Goodman began assembling a staff, hiring Funnies. Simon brought along his collaborator, artist Jack Kirby, followed by artist Syd Shores, the Torch and the Sub-Mariner would continue to star in the long-running title even after receiving their own solo comic-book series shortly afterward. The Angel, who was featured on the covers of issues #2–3, issue #13 saw the first appearance of the Vision, the inspiration for the same-name Marvel Comics superhero created in 1968. The original Vision appeared in stories through Marvel Mystery Comics #48. In 1949, with the popularity of superheroes having waned, the book was converted into the horror anthology Marvel Tales from issue #93–159, note, This is a different Marvel Tales than that published by Marvel in starting in the 1960s and primarily reprinting Spider-Man stories
2.
Marvel Entertainment
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Marvel Entertainment, LLC is an American entertainment company founded in June 1998, merging Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. and ToyBiz. The company is an owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, for financial reporting purposes, Marvel is reported as primarily a part of Disneys Consumer Products segment. Over the years, Marvel Entertainment has entered in several partnerships, as of 2017, Marvel has film licensing agreements with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures, and a theme park licensing agreement with Universal Parks & Resorts extant before Disneys acquisition. Aside from their contract with Universal, Marvels characters and properties have appeared at Walt Disney Parks. It is a mini-Disney in terms of property, said Perelman. Disneys got much more highly recognized characters and softer characters, whereas our characters are termed action heroes, but at Marvel we are now in the business of the creation and marketing of characters. Marvel Entertainment Group then began expanding with acquisitions and forming new divisions, Marvel purchased the trading card company Fleer on July 24,1992. On April 30,1993, Marvel acquired 46% of ToyBiz, the Andrews Group named Avi Arad of ToyBiz as the president and CEO of the Marvel Films division and of New World Family Filmworks, Inc. a New World Entertainment subsidiary. In 1993 and 1994, Marvels holding companies — Marvel Holdings, Inc. and Marvel Parent Holdings, Marvel continued making acquisitions with Panini, an Italian sticker-maker on August 4,1994 for $158.4 million, and SkyBox International on March 8,1995 for $150 million. Marvel also purchased Heroes World Distribution, a distributor to comic-book shops on Dec.28,1994. While licensing revenue reached $50 million in 1995, MEG laid off 275 employees on January 4,1996, meanwhile, Carl Icahn began buying Marvels bonds at 20% of their value and moved to block Perelmans plan. The Marvel group of companies filed for bankruptcy on December 27,1996, in August 1996, Marvel created Marvel Studios, an incorporation of Marvel Films, due to the sale of its film and TV sister company, New World Communications Group, to News Corporation. Icahn fought to control of the company from Perelman. The court ruled on February 26,1997 that Icahn could foreclose on a controlling interest in Marvel shares put up for collateral for the companys bonds, finally Icahn took control of Marvels board and became Marvels chairman on June 20. Bankruptcy proceedings continued with multi-way arguments among Perelman, Icahn, Toy Biz, a plan for reorganization agreed to by Icahn and the MEGs secured creditors fell apart on October 8 with the introduction of the better Toy Biz plan. The Bankruptcy Court on December 24 appointed a trustee to oversee the company, in June 1997, Marvel formed its Marvel Enterprise division, headed by president and CEO Scott C. Marden, to manage its trading card and sticker businesses, as well as Marvel Interactive, the lawsuit asked for $470.8 million in damages
3.
The Walt Disney Company
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The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Disney was founded on October 16,1923 – by brothers Walt Disney, the company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing. In addition, Disney has since created corporate divisions in order to more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is best known for the products of its studio, Walt Disney Studios. Disneys other three divisions are Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6,1991, Mickey Mouse, an early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, is a primary symbol and mascot for Disney. In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a film entitled Alices Wonderland. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice, in January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studios name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars, Disney completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, due to a legal loophole, when Winklers husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disneys primary animators to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies. In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films, ub Iwerks refined Disneys initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disneys first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18,1928 through Pat Powers distribution company and it was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin Gaucho. Disney used Pat Powers Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forests Phonofilm system, Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Mosss Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disneys Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks, Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929
4.
Timely Comics
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Timely Comics, initially Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. The company was founded in 1939 as Timely Publications, based at his company in the McGraw-Hill Building at 330 West 42nd Street in New York City. In 1942, it moved to the 14th floor of the Empire State Building, in 2016, Marvel announced that Timely Comics would be the name of a new imprint of low-priced reprint comics. to supply material. His first effort, Marvel Comics #1, featured the first appearances of writer-artist Carl Burgos android superhero, the Human Torch, a painted cover by veteran science-fiction pulp artist Frank R. Paul featured the Human Torch, looking much different from the interior story. That initial comic, cover-dated October 1939, quickly sold out 80,000 copies, prompting Goodman to produce a second printing, the latter is identical except for a black bar over the October date in the inside-front-cover indicia, and the November date added at the end. With a hit on his hands, Goodman began assembling a staff, hiring Funnies. Simon brought along his collaborator, artist Jack Kirby, followed by artist Syd Shores, Goodman then formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941. But it appeared intermittently, when someone remembered to put it on cover. The Grand Comics Database identifies 23 issues of Goodman comic books from 1944 to 1959 with Red Circle, Inc. branding, Marvel Comics was rechristened Marvel Mystery Comics with issue #2, the magazine would continue under that title through #92 before becoming Marvel Tales through #159. Timely began publishing additional series, beginning with Daring Mystery Comics #1, Mystic Comics #1, Red Raven Comics #1, The Human Torch #2, and Captain America Comics #1. Going on sale in December 1940, a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and already showing the hero punching Hitler, timelys other major competitors were Fawcett Publications, Quality Comics, and Lev Gleason Publications. Just as Captain America had his teenage sidekick Bucky and DC Comics Batman had Robin, stan Lee, a cousin of Goodmans by marriage who had been serving as an assistant since 1939, at age 16, was promoted to interim editor just shy of his 19th birthday. Showing a knack for the business, Lee stayed on for decades, fellow Timely staffer Vincent Fago would substitute during Lees World War II military service. The staff at that time, Fago recalled, was, Mike Sekowsky, gary Keller was a production assistant and letterer. Ernest Hart and Kin Platt were writers, but they worked freelance, george Klein, Syd Shores, Vince Alascia, Dave Gantz, and Chris Rule were there, too. In 1942, Goodman moved his operations to the 14th floor of the Empire State Building. The superheroes were the products of what Timely referred to as the adventure bullpen. k. a, moe Worth, and future Mad magazine cartoonists Dave Berg and Al Jaffee. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolvertons best-known features, the first issue, cover-dated January 1943, bore no number, and protagonist Pepper looked different from his more familiar visualization as the bullet-headed naif in the striped turtleneck sweater
5.
Magazine Management
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It was the parent company of Marvel Comics. Founded by Martin Goodman, who had begun his career in the 1930s with pulp magazines published under a variety of shell companies, by the early 1960s, the company occupied the second floor at 60th Street and Madison Avenue. One division of the company was the Marvel Comics Group, as one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas recalled, I was startled to learn in 65 that Marvel was just part of a parent company called Magazine Management. Goodman remained as publisher until 1972, as writer Dorothy Gallagher reminisced in 1998, At Magazine Management, magazines were produced the way Detroit produced cars. I worked on the fan-magazine line, on the other side of a five-foot partition was the romance-magazine line. Im almost forgetting the comic-book line, where Stan Lee created Spider-Man, E decor was insurance-company blah, grayish white walls and foam-tile ceilings, overhead fluorescent fixtures, gray metal desks. Except for the offices, which faced Madison Avenue and had carpets and windows. Editors got an area in each bullpen. It would be years before he could raise his head at industry cocktail parties, best Cartoons from the Editors of Male & Stag, Magazine Management—published at least from 1973 to 1975) Breezy Cartoon Capers—published at least from vol. 10, #3 Cartoon Laughs—confirmed extant, vol 12, #3 Magazine Managements publications included such mens magazines as For Men Only, Male and Stag. Marvel Comics writers Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Ernie Hart, and artists Wally Wood, Al Hartley, Jim Mooney, action Life — ran 16 issues, Atlas Magazines Complete Man — published June 1965. to April 1967. Atlas Magazines/Diamond For Men Only — confirmed at least from vol,4, #11 through at least vol. 26, #3 Published by Canam Publishers at least 1957), Newsstand Publications Inc, perfect Film Inc. Magazine Management Co. Inc. Male — published at least vol,1, #2 through 1977 Male Home Companion Stag — at least 314 issues published February 1942 – Feb.1976 Published by Official Communications Inc
6.
Martin Goodman (publisher)
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Martin Goodman, born Moe Goodman, was an American publisher of pulp magazines, paperback books, mens adventure magazines, and comic books, launching the company that would become Marvel Comics. Moe Goodman, who would adopt the name Martin, was the oldest son of 13 recorded children of Isaac Goodman. His parents were Jewish immigrants who had met in the United States after separately moving from their native Vilna, Lithuania, the family lived at different homes in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As a young man, Moe traveled around the country during the Great Depression, Goodman later became circulation manager himself, but the company went bankrupt in October 1932. Goodmans first publication was the Newsstand Publications pulp magazine Western Supernovel Magazine, after the first issue he renamed it Complete Western Book Magazine, beginning with cover-date July 1933. Marvel Comics #1, cover-dated October 1939 and published by his newly formed Timely Publications and it featured the first appearances of the hit characters the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, and quickly sold out 80,000 copies. Goodman produced a second printing, cover-dated November 1939, that sold an approximate 800,000 copies. With a hit on his hands, Goodman began assembling a staff, hiring Funnies, Inc. writer-artist Joe Simon as editor. Goodman then formed Timely Comics, Inc. beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941, Timely Comics became the umbrella name for the several paper corporations that comprised Goodmans comic-book division, which in ensuing decades would evolve into Marvel Comics. In 1941, Timely published its third major character, the patriotic superhero Captain America by Simon, the success of Captain America #1 led to an expansion of staff, with Simon bringing freelancer Kirby on staff and subsequently hiring inker Syd Shores to be Timelys third employee. Simon and Kirby departed Timely after 10 issues of Captain America, and Goodman appointed Stan Lee as Timelys editor, a position Lee would hold for decades. The name Timely Comics went into disuse after Goodman began using the logo of the newsstand-distribution company he owned, Atlas. This united a line put out by the publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies. Throughout the 1950s, the formerly known as Timely was called Atlas Comics. A red disk surrounded by a ring that bore the phrase A Red Circle Magazine. But it appeared intermittently, when someone remembered to put it on cover. Most were novels, but there was a smattering of mostly sports-oriented nonfiction, Goodman eventually developed two lines, the 25¢ Lion and the 35¢ Lion Library. New American Library bought Lion in 1957, and several Lion titles were reprinted under its Signet label, authors that Lion published included such notables as Robert Bloch, David Goodis and Jim Thompson
7.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
8.
Diamond Comic Distributors
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Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. is the last remaining comic book distributor serving retailers in North America and worldwide, since the end of the comic book distributor wars in the 1990s. They transport comic books from both big and small comic book publishers, or suppliers, to retailers, Diamond is also the parent company of Alliance Game Distributors, Diamond Book Distributors, Diamond UK, Diamond Select Toys, Gemstone Publishing, E. The publication is available to both comic shop retailers and consumers, in 1982, Baltimore-based comics retailer Steve Geppi founded Diamond Comic Distributors. Diamond became the successor to direct market pioneer Phil Seulings distribution dream when it took over New Media/Irjaxs warehouses in 1982, by 1981/82 Geppi had four comics retail locations and was already doing a little informal distributing. Geppi found himself one of the biggest accounts for New Media/Irjax, Geppi had been a sub-distributor for Hal Shusters Irjax in the late 1970s. Almost overnight, noted Rozanski, e went from being a retailer in Baltimore to having warehouses all over the place, Geppi named his new company Diamond after the imprint Marvel Comics used on non-returnable comics, and although the publisher discontinued the symbol months later, the name remained. Diamond grew an average of 40 percent a year, as comics retail took off, in 1983, Diamond hired an accounting firm, and in 1985 hired no-nonsense CPA, Chuck Parker as Diamonds first controller. In 1994, Diamond employee Mark Herr noted that this move was Geppis best decision, to him, its dollars and cents. Parker describes his role as smooth the emotion out of some decisions, Steve is a visionary and a risk-taker. and I tend to be more conservative. After starting his business through buying New Media/Irjaxs warehouses and offices in 1982, many fans with little experience started rival distribution companies only to find they were in over their heads, allowing Geppi to out the smart ones or pick. Up the pieces after the stupid ones went out of business, Diamond was aided in his efforts by the publishers themselves. Most notably, in 1988, Geppi bought up early mail-order distributor Bud Plant Inc. who had bought out Charles Abar Distribution in 1982. Plant had, since 1970, been selling underground comics, after making $19m in sales in 1987, Diamond bought West Coast distributor Plants business in 1988 and went national thereby assuming control of 40 percent of the direct-sales market. In 1990, Diamond acquired the Seattle-based sub-distributor Destiny Distribution, Destiny had been started by Phil Pankow in the early 1980s, and was initially supplied by Bud Plant. Also in 1990, Diamond acquired Oregon-based Second Genesis Distribution, in 1991, Diamond moved into the UK market, acquiring Pacific Distribution, Ltd. In 1992, Diamond acquired the British distributor Titan Distributors, an arm of Titan Entertainment Group, in 1994, Diamond acquired Staten Island-based distributor Comics Unlimited. In 1995, Marvel Comics challenged Diamond and main rival Capital City by buying the third distributor — Heroes World Distribution —, Diamond reacted by outbidding Capital City for exclusive deals with Marvels main rivals DC Comics, as well as Dark Horse, Image, and Archie Comics. Capital Citys response saw it sign exclusive deals with Kitchen Sink Press and Viz Comics, Diamond bought Capital City in the summer of 1996, assuming near-control of the comics distribution system
9.
C. B. Cebulski
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C. B. Cebulski is an American writer and editor for Marvel Comics, known for his work on titles such as Marvel Fairy Tales. As of 2011, he holds the position of Senior Vice President of Creative & Creator Development, Cebulski started his comics career editing manga for Central Park Media in New York City. He started actively writing manga-influenced work like Marvel Mangaverse, as writer, he has contributed three installments of Marvel Fairy Tales, X-Men Fairy Tales, Spider-Man Fairy Tales, and Avengers Fairy Tales. Although Cebulski has not directly worked on the Runaways series, he has worked on series directly related to it, what if the Runaways became the Young Avengers. and leader of the Runaways Nico Minorus section in the series Mystic Arcana. As well as writing for Marvel he continues his duties as well as working on creator-owned titles at Image Comics, like Drain. Cebulski received an homage in the video game Marvel Ultimate Alliance, in a sub-quest, the player needs to recommend one of two hackers to help Weasel hack into S. H. I. E. L. D. Files and find out if the Black Widow is an agent or not. One of them is named after Cebulski, and proves to be the choice, since the other is a squealer. In 2013, he was named on IGNs list of The Best Tweeters in Comics for his advice on breaking into the industry, in 2016, he hosted the inaugural Hall M in Asia Pop Comic Convention Manila. Cebulski at the Grand Comics Database C. B, Cebulski at the Comic Book DB C. B. Cebulski on Myspace X-POSITION, C. B. Cebulski & Cammo, Comic Book Resources, December 9,2008 Interview in Portuguese Webzine
10.
Dan Buckley
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Dan Buckley is an American comic books executive, currently President of Marvel Entertainment. Dan Buckley was raised in upstate New York and later a New York City resident and he graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the St. Lawrence University. Buckley continued his studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute which granted him a MBA in Marketing, as a part of his studies at Rensselaer, he took a stint through MBA Exchange Program with International University of Japan which allowed him to study in Japan. In 1990, Buckley joined Marvel Enterprise where he served in different positions from new development to international publishing. His last position was as president of marketing services in 1997 In 1997, Buckley left for a position at Omnicom’s Radiate Group. His last position at Radiate was as president of operations & communications in 2003. At that time, he resided it Florida, Buckley returns to the New York Metro area from Florida in October 2003 when he was named Marvel publisher in 2003. On January 18,2017, he was promoted to President of Marvel Entertainment from president for TV, publishing, Dan Buckley at the Comic Book DB Dan Buckley at the Grand Comics Database Interview with Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley. Interview with Marvels Dan Buckley, Part 1
11.
Joe Quesada
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Joseph Joe Quesada is an American comic book editor, writer and artist. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, in 1998 he became an editor of Marvel Comics Marvel Knights line, before becoming editor-in-chief of the company in 2000. He was named Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment in 2010 and left his role in January 2011. He was, at his retirement, the longest-serving Marvel editor-in-chief other than Stan Lee, as the character resonated with him, Spider-Man remains a character he particularly enjoys drawing. Quesada majored in illustration at the School of Visual Arts, from which he graduated with a BFA in 1984, Quesada started out as a freelance artist for Valiant Comics in the early 1990s. His first widely distributed works were for Valiant Comics, specifically penciled interiors and covers for Ninjak, Solar, Man of the Atom and his art was heavily influenced by Alex Toth, Mike Mignola and Alphonse Mucha. At DC Comics, he and writer Jack C. Harris co-created an updated version of the Golden Age character the Ray, Quesada co-created the character Azrael with writer Dennis ONeil in the Batman, Sword of Azrael miniseries in 1992. Later, Quesada and his inking partner Jimmy Palmiotti, formed a company, Event Comics, and co-created Ash. Quesada cites his experience with Event, and the creators he formed relationships with during that period as that which best prepared him for the later role of Marvels editor in chief. Mack, Mike Oeming, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, Quesada also illustrated a Daredevil story written by film director Kevin Smith. Two and a years after starting Marvel Knights, Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics in 2000. At the same time, Bill Jemas succeeded to the presidency of the company, the relationship culminated in the establishment of the Ultimate line of Marvel titles, which were aimed at teenagers and took place outside of the restrictive continuity of the Marvel Universe. In the mid-2000s, Quesada imposed a moratorium on the practice of bringing back characters thought to be dead. Joe Quesadas predecessor as Marvel editor in chief, Bob Harras, in June 2009 Quesada began writing a weekly column for Comic Book Resources called Cup O Joe, in which he answers questions every Friday from readers or provides information on Marvel projects. Also at issue was the slogans on some of the held by the protestors. Quesada stated that future reprints of that story would have the offending material omitted, on June 2,2010 Marvel announced that it promoted Joe Quesada to Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. In this position Quesada will help ensure that all portrayals of Marvels characters and he will also oversee the creative aspects of media adaptations of Marvel properties, which include participating in story and script development. On January 4,2011, Quesada stepped down as editor-in-chief, during this time, Tom and Axel have been handling the more detailed functions of the stories within our comics
12.
Stan Lee
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Stan Lee is an American comic-book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor, and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. In addition, he challenged the comics industrys censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation. He was inducted into the book industrys Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994. Lee received a National Medal of Arts in 2008 and his father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression, and the family moved further uptown to Fort Washington Avenue, in Washington Heights, Manhattan. When Lee was nearly 9, his sibling, brother Larry Lieber, was born. He said in 2006 that as a child he was influenced by books and movies, by the time Lee was in his teens, the family was living in a one-bedroom apartment at 1720 University Avenue in The Bronx. Lee has described it as an apartment facing out back, with he and his brother sharing a bedroom. Lee attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, in his youth, Lee enjoyed writing, and entertained dreams of one day writing the Great American Novel. He graduated from school early, aged 16½ in 1939. With the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon, Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics division of pulp magazine, Timely, by the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Lee, whose cousin Jean was Goodmans wife, was hired by Timely editor Joe Simon. His duties were prosaic at first, in those days dipped the pen in ink, I had to make sure the inkwells were filled, Lee recalled in 2009. I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, Lee later explained in his autobiography and numerous other sources that he had intended to save his given name for more literary work. This initial story also introduced Captain Americas trademark ricocheting shield-toss, which became one of the characters signatures. He graduated from writing filler to actual comics with a feature, Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent. Lees first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6, other characters he created during this period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comics include Jack Frost, debuting in USA Comics #1, and Father Time, debuting in Captain America Comics #6. When Simon and his creative partner Jack Kirby left late in 1941, following a dispute with Goodman, Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 and served in the US in the Signal Corps, repairing telegraph poles and other communications equipment. He was later transferred to the Training Film Division, where he worked writing manuals, training films, and slogans and his military classification, he says, was playwright, he adds that only nine men in the US Army were given that title
13.
Genre
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Genre is any form or type of communication in any mode with socially-agreed upon conventions developed over time. Genres form by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented, often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, some genres may be rigid with strictly adhered to guidelines while others may be very flexible. Genre began as a classification system for ancient Greek literature. Poetry, prose, and performance each had a specific and calculated style that related to the theme of the story. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, in later periods genres proliferated and developed in response to changes in audiences and creators. Genre became a tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictable art. Because art is often a response to a state, in that people write/paint/sing/dance about what they know about. Genre suffers from the ills of any classification system. Genre is to be reassessed and scrutinized and to works on their unique merit. While the genre of storytelling has been relegated as lesser form of art because of the heavily borrowed nature of the conventions, proponents argue that the genius of an effective genre piece is in the variation, recombination, and evolution of the codes. The term genre is used in the history and criticism of visual art. These are distinguished from staffage, incidental figures in what is primarily a landscape or architectural painting, Genre painting may also be used as a wider term covering genre painting proper, and other specialized types of paintings such as still-life, landscapes, marine paintings and animal paintings. The concept of the hierarchy of genres was a one in artistic theory. It was strongest in France, where it was associated with the Académie française which held a role in academic art. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as adult, young adult. They also must not be confused with format, such as novel or picture book
14.
Superhero fiction
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Superhero fiction is a genre mainly originating in and most common to American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works. A superhero is most often the protagonist of superhero fiction, although some titles, such as Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, a superhero is a type of stock character possessing extraordinary or superhuman powers and dedicated to protecting the public. The word itself dates to at least 1917, a female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine. SUPER HEROES is a trademark co-owned by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, such characters were generally referred to as mystery men in the so-called Golden Age of Comic Books to distinguish them from characters with super-powers. Normally, superheroes use their powers to counter day-to-day crime while also combating threats against humanity by their criminal counterparts, long-running superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Iron Man have a rogues gallery of such enemies. One of these supervillains might be the superheros archenemy, Superheroes will sometimes combat other threats such as aliens, magical/fantasy entities, natural disasters, political ideologies such as Nazism or communism, and godlike or demonic creatures. A supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies. They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other heroes, whereas superheroes often wield fantastic powers, the supervillain possesses commensurate powers and abilities so that he can present a daunting challenge to the hero. Even without actual physical, mystical, superhuman or superalien powers, another common trait is possession of considerable resources to help further his aims. Many supervillains share some characteristics of real world dictators, mobsters. Superheroes and supervillains often mirror each other in their powers, abilities, in some cases, the only difference between the two is that the hero uses his extraordinary powers to help others, while the villain uses his powers for selfish, destructive or ruthless purposes. Both superheroes and supervillains often use alter egos while in action, while sometimes the characters real name is publicly known, alter egos are most often used to hide the characters secret identity from their enemies and the public. Fans have termed the practice of bringing back dead comic book death. Another common trait of superhero fiction is the killing off of a significant other by a supervillain to advance the plot. Comic book writer Gail Simone has coined the term Women in Refrigerators to refer to this practice, often, many works superhero fiction occur in the a shared fictional universe, sometimes establishing a fictional continuity of thousands of works spread over many decades. Changes to continuity are also common, ranging from changes to established continuity, commonly called retcons, to full reboots. It is also common for works of superhero fiction to contain established characters. Crossovers often occur between characters of different works of superhero fiction, in comic books, highly publicized events are published featuring crossovers between many characters
15.
Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
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Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
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American comic book
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An American comic book is a thin periodical, typically 32-pages, containing primarily comics content. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics and this was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the book industry rapidly expanded, and genres such as horror, crime. The 1950s saw a decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television. The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a revival. Since the later 20th century, comic books have gained note as collectable items, Comic shops cater to fans, and particularly valuable issues have fetched in excess of a million dollars. Systems of grading comic books have emerged with plastic sleeves and cardboard backing available to maintain the condition of comic books, standard comics are 6.625 inches ×10.25 inches and about 32 pages long. While comics can be the work of a creator, the labour of making them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be a writer and artist, or there may be separate artists for the characters. The process begins with the coming up with an idea or concept, then working it into a plot and story. After the art production, letters are placed on the page, the creative team, the writers and artists, may work with a comic book publisher for help with marketing, advertising, and other logistics. A distributor like Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest in the U. S. helps to distribute the product to retailers. Another part of the involved in successful comics is the interaction between the readers/fans and the creator. Fan art and letters to the editor were printed in the back of the book until the early 21st century. Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independently-produced comics, the development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U. S, the Yellow Kid in McFaddens Flats, in 1897. The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5×7 inches. The neologism comic book appears on the back cover, despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Companys Comic Monthly, did not appear until 1922
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Atlas Comics (1950s)
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Atlas Comics is the 1950s comic book publishing company that evolved into Marvel Comics. Atlas evolved out of Goodmans 1940s comic book division, Timely Comics and this company is distinct from the 1970s comic book company, also founded by Goodman, that is known as Atlas/Seaboard Comics. The early to mid-1950s found comic books falling out of due to competition from television. Timely made one attempt at superheroes with the publication of Marvel Boy #1-2. As did other publishers, Atlas also offered comics about models, the Atlas logo united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas attempted to revive superheroes in Young Men #24-28 with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the short-lived revival also included restarts of Sub-Mariner Comics and Captain America. All three superheroes also appeared in the two issues of Mens Adventures. As Marvel/Atlas editor-in-chief Stan Lee told comic book historian Les Daniels, Goodman would notice what was selling, commented Daniels, The short-term results were lucrative, but while other publishers took the long view and kept their stables of heroes solid, Goodman let his slide. While Atlas had some horror titles, such as Marvel Tales, as far back as 1949, Lee recalled, t was usually based on how the competition was doing. When we found that ECs horror books were doing well, for instance, we published a lot of horror books. The Atlas bullpen had at least five staff writers besides Lee, Hank Chapman, Paul S. Newman, Don Rico, Carl Wessler, daniel Keyes, future author of Flowers for Algernon, was an editor beginning 1952. Other writers, generally freelance, included Robert Bernstein, the artists — some freelance, some on staff — included such veterans as Human Torch creator Carl Burgos and Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett. Others included Russ Heath, Gene Colan, and the fledgling, Atlas also published various childrens and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlos Homer, the Happy Ghost, Homer Hooper and the Joe Maneely-drawn Melvin the Monster. Sergeant Barney Barker, drawn by John Severin, was Atlas answer to Sgt. One of the most long-running titles was Millie the Model, which began as a Timely Comics humor book in 1945 and ran into the 1970s, lasting for 207 issues, deCarlo wrote and drew Millie for 10 years. The high-school series Patsy Walker, co-created by Atkinson and writer Otto Binder in 1944, featured art by Al Hartley, Al Jaffee, Morris Weiss and others, ran until 1967, Patsy herself would be integrated into Marvel Universe continuity years later as the supernatural superheroine Hellcat. Atlas funny animal books featured cartoonist Ed Winiarskis trouble-prone Buck Duck, Maneelys mentally suspect Dippy Duck, and Howie Posts The Monkey, Buck and the other funny animal characters briefly returned in the early 1970s when Marvel published the five-issue reprint title Lil Pals. Staff artist Stan Goldberg recalled in 2005, I was in the Bullpen with a lot of artists who worked up there at that time
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Fantastic Four
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The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1, which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium. As the first superhero team title produced by Marvel Comics, it formed a cornerstone of the companys 1960s rise from a division of a publishing company to a pop culture conglomerate. Since their original 1961 introduction, the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a dysfunctional, yet loving. Breaking convention with other comic book archetypes of the time, they would squabble, the Fantastic Four have been adapted into other media, including four animated series and four live-action films. According to Lee, writing in 1974, Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes, if the Justice League is selling, spoke he, why dont we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes. Determined to carve a career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books, Lee concluded that, For just this once. Lee said he created a synopsis for the first Fantastic Four story that he gave to penciller Jack Kirby, Kirby turned in his penciled art pages to Lee, who added dialogue and captions. Kirby claims he came up with the idea for the Fantastic Four in Marvels offices, Kirby also sought to establish, more credibly and on numerous occasions, that the visual elements of the strip were his conceptions. He regularly pointed to a team he had created for rival publisher DC Comics in the 1950s, F you notice the uniforms, theyre the same. I always give them a skintight uniform with a belt, the Challengers and the FF have a minimum of decoration. And of course, the Things skin is a kind of decoration, the chest insignia of a 4 within a circle, however, was designed by Lee. The characters wear no uniforms in the first two issues, given the conflicting statements, outside commentators have found it hard to identify with precise detail who created the Fantastic Four. Comics historian R. C. Harvey believes that the Fantastic Four was a furtherance of the work Kirby had been doing previously, but Harvey notes that the Marvel Method of collaboration allowed each man to claim credit, and that Lees dialogue added to the direction the team took. Wells argues that it was Lees contributions which set the framework within which Kirby worked, and this made Lee more responsible. Comics historian Mark Evanier, an assistant to Jack Kirby in the 1970s, says that the considered opinion of Lee and Kirbys contemporaries was that Fantastic Four was created by Stan. No further division of credit seemed appropriate, the release of The Fantastic Four #1 was an unexpected success
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Jack Kirby
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Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer, and editor, widely regarded as one of the mediums major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. Kirby grew up in New York City, and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and he entered the nascent comics industry in the 1930s, drawing various comics features under different pen names, including Jack Curtiss, before ultimately settling on Jack Kirby. In 1940, he and writer-editor Joe Simon created the highly successful superhero character Captain America for Timely Comics, during the 1940s, Kirby, generally teamed with Simon, created numerous characters for that company and for National Comics Publications, later to become DC Comics. After serving in World War II, Kirby produced work for a number of publishers, including DC, Harvey Comics, at Crestwood Publications he and Simon created the genre of romance comics and later founded their own short-lived comic company, Mainline Publications. Ultimately, Kirby found himself at Timelys 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics, there, in the 1960s, Kirby and writer-editor Stan Lee co-created many of the companys major characters, including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk. The Lee-Kirby titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim, but in 1970, feeling he had been treated unfairly, at DC, Kirby created his Fourth World saga, which spanned several comics titles. While these series proved unsuccessful and were canceled, the Fourth Worlds New Gods have continued as a significant part of the DC Universe. Kirby returned to Marvel briefly in the mid-to-late 1970s, then ventured into television animation, Kirby was married to Rosalind Roz Goldstein in 1942. They had four children, and remained married until his death from heart failure in 1994, the Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor. Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28,1917, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City and his parents, Rose and Benjamin Kurtzberg, were Austrian Jewish immigrants, and his father earned a living as a garment factory worker. In his youth, Kirby desired to escape his neighborhood and he liked to draw, and sought out places he could learn more about art. He was rejected by the Educational Alliance because he drew too fast with charcoal and he later found an outlet for his skills by drawing cartoons for the newspaper of the Boys Brotherhood Republic, a miniature city on East 3rd Street where street kids ran their own government. At age 14, Kirby enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, I wasnt the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted people who would work on something forever, I didnt want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done, Kirby joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, working there on newspaper comic strips and on single-panel advice cartoons such as Your Health Comes First. He remained until late 1939, when he began working for the animation company Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener on Popeye cartoons. I went from Lincoln to Fleischer, he recalled, from Fleischer I had to get out in a hurry because I couldnt take that kind of thing, describing it as a factory in a sense, like my fathers factory. Around that time, the American comic book industry was booming, Kirby began writing and drawing for the comic-book packager Eisner & Iger, one of a handful of firms creating comics on demand for publishers
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Steve Ditko
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Stephen J. Steve Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist and co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics superheroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Ditko studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City and he began his professional career in 1953, working in the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning as an inker and coming under the influence of artist Mort Meskin. During this time, he began his long association with Charlton Comics, where he did work in the genres of science fiction, horror. He also co-created the superhero Captain Atom in 1960, during the 1950s, Ditko also drew for Atlas Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics. He went on to contribute much significant work to Marvel, in 1966, after being the exclusive artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and the Doctor Strange feature in Strange Tales, Ditko left Marvel for reasons never specified. Ditko also began contributing to small independent publishers, where he created Mr. A, since the 1960s, Ditko has declined most interviews, stating that it is his work he offers readers, not his personality. Ditko was inducted into the comics industrys Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, the second-eldest child in a working-class family, he was preceded by sister Anna Marie, and followed, according to the 1940 census, by sister Elizabeth and brother Patrick. Good with his hands, Ditko in junior school was part of a group of students who crafted wooden models of German airplanes to aid civilian World War II aircraft-spotters. Upon graduating from Johnstown High School in 1945, he enlisted in the U. S. Army on October 26,1945, and did service in postwar Germany. Following his discharge, Ditko learned that his idol, Batman artist Jerry Robinson, was teaching at the Cartoonists, moving there in 1950, he enrolled in the art school under the G. I. He was in my class for two years, four or five days a week, five hours a night, Ditkos first published work was his second professional story, the six-page Paper Romance in Daring Love #1, published by the Key imprint Gillmor Magazines. Beginning as an inker on backgrounds, Ditko was soon working with and learning from Mort Meskin, Meskin was fabulous, Ditko once recalled. I couldnt believe the ease with which he drew, strong compositions, loose pencils, yet complete, Ditkos known assistant work includes aiding inker Meskin on the Jack Kirby pencil work of Harvey Comics Captain 3-D #1. For his own published story, Ditko penciled and inked the six-page A Hole in His Head in Black Magic vol. 4, #3, published by Simon & Kirbys Crestwood Publications imprint Prize Comics, Ditko then began a long association with the Derby, Connecticut publisher Charlton Comics, a low-budget division of a company best known for song-lyric magazines. He first went on hiatus from the company, and comics altogether, in mid-1954, hed take those skeleton outlines I had given him and turn them into classic little works of art that ended up being far cooler than I had any right to expect. Kirby told Lee about his own 1950s character conception, variously called the Silver Spider and Spiderman, Comics historian Greg Theakston says Lee and Kirby immediately sat down for a story conference and Lee afterward directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages. A day or two later, Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, and, as Lee recalled, not that he did it badly — it just wasnt the character I wanted, it was too heroic
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Captain America
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Captain America is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 from Timely Comics, Captain America was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who often fought the Axis powers of World War II and was Timely Comics most popular character during the wartime period. The popularity of superheroes waned following the war and the Captain America comic book was discontinued in 1950, since Marvel Comics revived the character in 1964, Captain America has remained in publication. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, near the end of the war, he was trapped in ice and survived in suspended animation until he was revived in the present day. Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character to have appeared in media outside comics with the release of the 1944 movie serial, in 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume. I wrote the name Super American at the bottom of the page, Simon said in his autobiography, there were too many Supers around. Captain America had a sound to it. There werent a lot of captains in comics, the boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team. Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead, there were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from Kirbys, if they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset, youre still number one, Jack, I assured him. Its just a matter of a deadline for the first issue. Ill make the deadline, Jack promised, ill pencil it myself and make the deadline. I hadnt expected this kind of reaction, but I acceded to Kirbys wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby, I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas, then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures. Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirbys regular letterer and we wanted to have our say too
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Iron Man
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Iron Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, the character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39. He instead creates a suit of armor to save his life. Later, Stark augments his suit with weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company and he uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man, while at first concealing his true identity. Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology, subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War themes to contemporary concerns, such as corporate crime and terrorism. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films, the character is portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the live action film Iron Man, which was a critical and box office success. Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGNs Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011, in 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the quintessential capitalist, a character that would go against the spirit of the times, Lee said, I think I gave myself a dare. It was the height of the Cold War, the readers, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military. So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies man, writer Gerry Conway said, Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just cant be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, but theres a metaphor going on there. And thats, I think, what made that character interesting, Lee based this playboys looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies man, without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes, Lee said. While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the issue to Lieber. The art was split between Kirby and Heck and he designed the costume, Heck said of Kirby, because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first, but I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts. In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had a model for Tony Stark. Heck replied No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the kind of characters that Alex Toth liked
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Thor (Marvel Comics)
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Thor is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has starred in several ongoing series and limited series, and is a member of the superhero team the Avengers. The character has appeared in associated Marvel merchandise including animated television series, clothing, toys, trading cards, video games. The character was first portrayed in action by Eric Allan Kramer in the 1988 television movie The Incredible Hulk Returns. Thor placed 14th on IGNs list of Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time in 2011, a different version of the mythological Thor had appeared previously in Venus #12-13. Lee in 2002 described Thors genesis early in the Marvel pantheon, following the creation of the Hulk and it finally came to me, Dont make him human — make him a god. I decided readers were already pretty familiar with the Greek and Roman gods and it might be fun to delve into the old Norse legends. In a 1984 interview Kirby said I did a version of Thor for D. C. in the fifties before I did him for Marvel. I created Thor at Marvel because I was forever enamored of legends, which is why I knew about Balder, Heimdall, I tried to update Thor and put him into a superhero costume, but he was still Thor. And in a 1992 interview, Kirby said knew the Thor legends very well, I felt that might be a new thing for comics, taking the old legends and modernizing them. Subsequent stories of the 13-page feature The Mighty Thor continued to be plotted by Lee, various artists penciled the feature, including Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, and Al Hartley. With Journey into Mystery #101, the series began a long and definitive run by writer and co-plotter Lee, Lee and Kirby included Thor in The Avengers #1 as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has appeared in every subsequent volume of the series. The five-page featurette Tales of Asgard was added in Journey into Mystery #97, the feature itself expanded to 18 pages in #105, which eliminated the remaining anthological story from each issue, it was reduced to 16 pages five issues later. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that the adventures of Thor were gradually transformed from stories about a superhero into a spectacular saga. Artist Chic Stone, who inked several early Thor stories, observed that Kirby could just lead you through all these different worlds, the readers would follow him anywhere. Journey into Mystery was retitled Thor with issue #126, Tales of Asgard was replaced by a five-page featurette starring the Inhumans from #146–152, after which featurettes were dropped and the Thor stories expanded to Marvels then-standard 20-page length. Marvel filed for a trademark for The Mighty Thor in 1967, after Kirby left the title, Neal Adams penciled issues #180-181
25.
Spider-Man
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Spider-Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko, when Spider-Man first appeared in the early 1960s, teenagers in superhero comic books were usually relegated to the role of sidekick to the protagonist. Marvel has featured Spider-Man in several book series, the first. In the 2010s, he joins the Avengers, Marvels flagship superhero team, Spider-Mans nemesis Doctor Octopus also took on the identity for a story arc spanning 2012–2014, following a body swap plot in which Peter appears to die. Spider-Man is one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes, the character was first portrayed in live action by Nicholas Hammond in the 1977 television movie Spider-Man. Reeve Carney starred as Spider-Man in the 2010 Broadway musical Spider-Man, in 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in demand for comic books. At that time Lee had to get only the consent of Marvel publisher Martin Goodman for the characters approval, in a 1986 interview, Lee described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodmans objections. In particular, Lee stated that the fact that it had already decided that Amazing Fantasy would be cancelled after issue #15 was the only reason Goodman allowed him to use Spider-Man. While this was indeed the issue, its editorial page anticipated the comic continuing. Will appear every month in Amazing, regardless, Lee received Goodmans approval for the name Spider-Man and the ordinary teen concept, and approached artist Jack Kirby. Lee and Kirby immediately sat down for a conference, Theakston writes. Steve Ditko would be the inker, when Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, Lee recalled, I hated the way he was doing it. Not that he did it badly—it just wasnt the character I wanted, Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual style Lee found satisfactory. Ditko recalled, One of the first things I did was to work up a costume, a vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked, for example, A clinging power so he wouldnt have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc. I wasnt sure Stan would like the idea of covering the characters face and it would also add mystery to the character. Although the interior artwork was by Ditko alone, Lee rejected Ditkos cover art, as Lee explained in 2010, I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jacks covers
26.
Wolverine (character)
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Wolverine is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, mostly in association with the X-Men. He is a mutant who possesses animal-keen senses, enhanced capabilities, powerful regenerative ability known as a healing factor. Wolverine has been depicted variously as a member of the X-Men, Alpha Flight, the character first appeared in the last panel of The Incredible Hulk #180, with his first full appearance in #181. He was created by writer Len Wein and Marvel art director John Romita, Sr. who designed the character, as a result, the character became a fan favorite of the increasingly popular X-Men franchise, and has been featured in his own solo comic since 1988. Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas asked writer Len Wein to devise a character specifically named Wolverine, John Romita, Sr. designed the first Wolverine costume, and believes he introduced the retractable claws, saying, When I make a design, I want it to be practical and functional. I thought, If a man has claws like that, how does he scratch his nose or tie his shoelaces, Wolverine first appeared in the final teaser panel of The Incredible Hulk #180 written by Wein and penciled by Herb Trimpe. The character then appeared in a number of advertisements in various Marvel Comics publications before making his first major appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181 again by the Wein–Trimpe team. In 2009, Trimpe said he distinctly remembers Romitas sketch and that, The way I see it, sewed the monster together and I shocked it to life. It was just one of secondary or tertiary characters, actually. We did characters in The Hulk all the time that were in issues, though often credited as co-creator, Trimpe adamantly denies having had any role in Wolverines creation. The characters introduction was ambiguous, revealing little beyond his being an agent of the Canadian government. In these appearances, he does not retract his claws, although Wein stated they had always envisioned as retractable. He appears briefly in the finale to this story in The Incredible Hulk #182, Wolverines next appearance was in 1975s Giant-Size X-Men #1, written by Wein and penciled by Dave Cockrum, in which Wolverine is recruited for a new squad. Gil Kane illustrated the artwork but incorrectly drew Wolverines mask with larger headpieces. Dave Cockrum liked Kanes accidental alteration and incorporated it into his own artwork for the actual story, Cockrum was also the first artist to draw Wolverine without his mask, and the distinctive hairstyle became a trademark of the character. A revival of X-Men followed, beginning with X-Men #94, drawn by Cockrum, in X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine is initially overshadowed by the other characters, although he does create tension in the team as he is attracted to Cyclops girlfriend, Jean Grey. Byrne modeled his rendition of Wolverine on actor Paul D’Amato, who played Dr. Hook in the 1977 sports film Slap Shot, Byrne also created Alpha Flight, a group of Canadian superheroes who try to recapture Wolverine due to the expense their government incurred training him. Later stories gradually establish Wolverines murky past and unstable nature, which he battles to keep in check, Byrne also designed a new brown-and-tan costume for Wolverine, but retained the distinctive Cockrum cowl
27.
Hulk (comics)
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The Hulk is a fictional superhero created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, who first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book The Incredible Hulk in May 1962 published by Marvel Comics. The Hulks level of strength is normally conveyed as proportionate to his level of anger, however, his uncontrollable power has brought him into conflict with his fellow heroes and others. Lee stated that the Hulks creation was inspired by a combination of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll, although the Hulks coloration has varied throughout the characters publication history, the most usual color is green. He has two catchphrases, Hulk is strongest one there is. And the better-known HULK SMASH. which has founded the basis for pop culture memes. The Hulk first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1, written by writer-editor Stan Lee, penciled and co-plotted by Jack Kirby, and inked by Paul Reinman. Lee cites influence from Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Hulks creation, for a long time Id been aware of the fact that people were more likely to favor someone who was less than perfect. Its a safe bet that you remember Quasimodo, but how easily can you name any of the heroic, handsomer, ive always had a soft spot in my heart for the Frankenstein monster. No one could ever convince me that he was the bad guy and he never wanted to hurt anyone, he merely groped his torturous way through a second life trying to defend himself, trying to come to terms with those who sought to destroy him. I decided I might as well borrow from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well—our protagonist would constantly change from his identity to his superhuman alter ego. Kirby, commenting upon his influences in drawing the character, recalled as inspiration the tale of a mother who rescues her child who is trapped beneath a car, Lee has also compared Hulk to the Golem of Jewish mythology. In The Science of Superheroes, Gresh and Weinberg see the Hulk as a reaction to the Cold War and the threat of nuclear attack, in the debut, Lee chose grey for the Hulk because he wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Colorist Stan Goldberg, however, had problems with the coloring, resulting in different shades of grey. After seeing the first published issue, Lee chose to change the color to green. Green was used in retellings of the origin, with reprints of the original story being recolored for the next two decades, until The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, #302 reintroduced the grey Hulk in flashbacks set close to the origin story, since then, reprints of the first issue have displayed the original grey coloring, with the fictional canon specifying that the Hulks skin had initially been grey. Lee gave the Hulks alter ego the alliterative name Bruce Banner because he found he had difficulty remembering alliterative names. Despite this, in stories he misremembered the characters name and referred to him as Bob Banner
28.
Daredevil (Marvel Comics character)
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Daredevil is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Daredevil was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, the character first appeared in Daredevil #1. While he no longer can see, the radioactive exposure heightens his remaining senses beyond normal human ability and his father, a boxer named Jack Murdock, supports him as he grows up, though Jack is later killed by gangsters after refusing to throw a fight. After donning a yellow and dark red costume, Matt seeks out revenge against his fathers killers as the superhero Daredevil, fighting against his enemies, including Bullseye. He also becomes a lawyer after having graduated from law school with his best friend and roommate, Daredevil is also commonly known by such epithets as the Man Without Fear and the Devil of Hells Kitchen. Frank Millers influential tenure on the title in the early 1980s cemented the character as a popular, the character debuted in Marvel Comics Daredevil #1, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with character design input from Jack Kirby, who devised Daredevils billy club. Writer and comics historian Mark Evanier has suggested without confirmation that Kirby also designed the image of Daredevils initial costume. That original costume design was a combination of black, yellow, wally Wood introduced Daredevils modern red costume in issue #7 in which Daredevils battle against the far physically superior Sub-Mariner has become one of the most iconic stories of the series. Jack instills in Matt the importance of education and nonviolence with the aim of seeing his son become a man than himself. In the course of saving a man from the path of an oncoming truck. The radioactive exposure heightens his remaining senses beyond normal human thresholds, enabling him to detect the shape, in order to support his son, Jack Murdock returns to boxing under the Fixer, a known gangster, and the only man willing to contract the aging boxer. When he refuses to throw a fight because his son is in the audience, having promised his father not to use physical force to deal with things, Matt gets around that promise by adopting a new identity who can use physical force. Daredevil would embark on a series of adventures involving such villains as the Owl, Stilt-Man, the Gladiator, in issue #16, he meets Spider-Man, a character who would later be one of his greatest hero friends. Murdock reveals his identity to his girlfriend Karen Page in issue #57. This was the first of several long-term breakups between Murdock and Page, who would prove the most enduring of his love interests and he also moved Daredevil to San Francisco beginning with Daredevil #86, and simultaneously brought on the Black Widow as co-star. The Black Widow served as Daredevils co-star and love interest from #81–124, of which #93-108 were cover titled Daredevil, jann Wenner, the co-founder and publisher of the Rolling Stone music magazine appeared in Daredevil #100 by Gerber and Colan. The writing and editing jobs went to Marv Wolfman with issue #124, Wolfman promptly introduced the lively but emotionally fragile Heather Glenn to replace the Black Widow as Daredevils love interest. Wolfmans 20-issue run included the introduction of one of Daredevils most popular villains, Bullseye, with issue #144, Jim Shooter became the writer and introduced Paladin in issue #150
29.
Ghost Rider
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Ghost Rider is the name of several fictional supernatural antiheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was changed to Phantom Rider. The first supernatural Ghost Rider is stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze, who, in order to save the life of his father, at night and when around evil, Blaze finds his flesh consumed by hellfire, causing his head to become a flaming skull. He rides a motorcycle and wields blasts of hellfire from his body. He eventually learns he has bonded with the demon Zarathos. Blaze starred in the series from 1972 to 1983, the subsequent Ghost Rider series featured Danny Ketch as a new Ghost Rider. After his sister was injured by ninja gangsters, Ketch came in contact with a motorcycle that had somehow been mystically enchanted to contain the essence of a Spirit of Vengeance. Blaze reappeared in this 1990s series as a character, and it was later revealed that Danny. In 2000s comics, Blaze again became the Ghost Rider, succeeding Ketch, in 2013, Robbie Reyes became Ghost Rider as part of the Marvel NOW. initiative. Nicolas Cage starred as the Johnny Blaze iteration of the character in the 2007 film Ghost Rider, gabriel Luna currently plays the Robbie Reyes version in the television series Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. He received his own series in 1973, with penciller Jim Mooney handling most of the first nine issues, several different creative teams mixed-and-matched until penciller Don Perlin began a considerably long stint with issue #26, eventually joined by writer Michael Fleisher through issue #58. The series ran through in issue #81, Johnny Blaze was the son of Naomi Blaze and Barton Blaze, Naomi being the previous Ghost Rider. The next Ghost Rider, a man named Daniel Ketch. His new motorcycle resembled a futuristic machine and the front of it could lower to serve as a battering ram, like the original Ghost Riders bike, the wheels were composed of mystic hellfire. Unlike the relationship between the previous Ghost Rider and the demon with which he was bonded, Ketch and his demon — who in vol,2, #91 is revealed to be Marvels incarnation of the Angel of Death/Judgment — are cooperative with each other. At the close of the series with vol, the following year, however, Peter Parker, Spider-Man #93 revealed Ketch was still alive. Nearly a decade later, Marvel published the final issue as Ghost Rider Finale, which reprints the last issue. Though she demonstrated many previous unknown powers of the Ghost Rider entity, in March 2014, a new Ghost Rider series debuted featuring a new Mexican-American character named Roberto Robbie Reyes, taking on the mantle
30.
Doctor Strange
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Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange, M. D. is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by artist Steve Ditko and writer Stan Lee, the character first appeared in Strange Tales #110, Doctor Strange serves as the Sorcerer Supreme, the primary protector of Earth against magical and mystical threats. Inspired by stories of magic and Chandu the Magician, Strange was created during the Silver Age of Comics to bring a different kind of character. The characters origin story relates that he was once a brilliant, after a car accident severely damages his hands and hinders his ability to perform surgery, he searches the globe for a way to repair them and encounters the Ancient One. After becoming one of the old Sorcerer Supremes students, he becomes a practitioner of both the arts as well as martial arts. Along with knowing many powerful spells, he has a costume with two mystical objects—the Cloak of Levitation and Eye of Agamotto—which give him added powers, Strange is aided along the way by his friend and valet, Wong, and a large assortment of mystical objects. He takes up residence in a called the Sanctum Sanctorum. Later, Strange takes the title of Sorcerer Supreme, in 2008, Doctor Strange was ranked 83rd in Wizards 200 Greatest Comic Book Characters of All Time list, and in 2012 was ranked 33rd in IGNs list of The Top 50 Avengers. He was also ranked 34th on IGNs list of Top 100 Comic Book Heroes, the character was first portrayed in live-action by Peter Hooten in the 1978 television film Dr. Strange. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and my character wound up being named Dr. Strange because he would appear in Strange Tales. In a 1963 letter to Jerry Bails, Lee called the character Ditkos idea, saying, Well and it has sort of a black magic theme. The first story is nothing great, but perhaps we can make something of him-- twas Steves idea and I figured wed give it a chance, although again, Doctor Strange debuted in Strange Tales #110, a split book shared with the feature The Human Torch. Doctor Strange appeared in issues #110–111 and #114 before the characters origin story in #115. Scripter Lees take on the character was inspired by the Chandu the Magician radio program aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System in the 1930s. Ditko showcased surrealistic mystical landscapes and increasingly vivid visuals that helped make the feature a favorite of students at the time. Comics historian Mike Benton wrote, The Dr. Strange stories of the 1960s constructed a cohesive cosmology that would have thrilled any self-respecting theosophist. College students, minds freshly opened by psychedelic experiences and Eastern mysticism, read Ditko, meaning was everywhere, and readers analyzed the Dr. Strange stories for their relationship to Egyptian myths, Sumerian gods, and Jungian archetypes. But I dont use hallucinogens, nor do I think any artists do, as co-plotter and later sole plotter in the Marvel Method, Ditko took Strange into ever-more-abstract realms
31.
Punisher
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The Punisher is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, the Punisher made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #129. The Punisher is a vigilante who employs murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence and his familys killers were the first to be slain. A war veteran and a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper, Frank Castle is a master of arts, stealth tactics, guerrilla warfare. The Punishers brutal nature and willingness to kill him a novel character in mainstream American comic books in 1974. In feature films, Dolph Lundgren portrayed the Punisher in 1989, as did Thomas Jane in 2004, jon Bernthal portrays the character in the second season of Marvels Daredevil as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Bernthal is set to reprise the role in The Punisher, his own self-titled series, the Punisher was conceived of by Gerry Conway, writer of The Amazing Spider-Man, who helped design the characters distinctive costume. I had done that with the Punisher at Marvel, Conway had drawn a character with a small deaths head skull on one breast. Marvel art director John Romita, Sr. took the design, blew the skull up to huge size. Amazing Spider-Man penciller Ross Andru was the first artist to draw the character for publication, and I mentioned that I didnt think we could ever have a comic book where the hero would be called the Assassin, because theres just too much of a negative connotation to that word. And I remembered that, some time ago, I had had a relatively unimportant character. Was one of Galactus robots, and I had called him the Punisher, and, since I was the editor, Gerry said, Okay. Appearing for the first time in The Amazing Spider-Man #129, the Punisher was initially an antagonist of the titular hero and he is portrayed as a bloodthirsty vigilante who has no qualms about killing gangsters, something that most superheroes of the time refrain from doing. J. Jonah Jameson describes him as the most newsworthy thing to happen to New York since Boss Tweed, in this appearance, the Punisher is determined to kill Spider-Man, who is wanted for the apparent murder of Norman Osborn. The Punisher is shown as a fighter, a master marksman. All he reveals himself is that he is a former U. S. Marine. He has a fierce temper but also signs of considerable frustration over his self-appointed role of killer vigilante. Spider-Man, who is no stranger to such torment, concludes that the Punishers problems made his own seem like a birthday party
32.
Avengers (comics)
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The Avengers are a fictional team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, labeled Earths Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers originally consisted of Hank Pym, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the Wasp. The original Captain America was discovered, trapped in ice, a rotating roster became a hallmark, although one theme remained consistent, the Avengers fight the foes no single superhero can withstand. The team, famous for its battle cry of Avengers Assemble. has featured humans, mutants, inhumans, robots, aliens, supernatural beings, and even former villains. The team has appeared in a variety of media outside of comic books including a number of different animated television series. A second Avengers film titled Avengers, Age of Ultron was released on May 1,2015, the team debuted in The Avengers #1. Much like the Justice League, the Avengers were an assemblage of pre-existing superhero characters created by Lee, between 1996 and 2004, Marvel relaunched the primary Avengers title three times. In 1996, the Heroes Reborn line took place in an alternate universe, the Avengers vol.3 relaunched and ran for 84 issues from February 1998 to August 2004. In January 2005, a new version of the team appeared in the ongoing title The New Avengers, followed by The Mighty Avengers, Avengers, The Initiative, Avengers vol.4 debuted in July 2010 and ran until January 2013. Vol.5 was launched in February 2013, after Secret Wars, a new Avengers team debuted, dubbed the All-New, All-Different Avengers, starting with a Free Comic Book Day preview. After the group vanquished Loki, Ant-Man stated that the five worked well together and suggested they form a team, Captain America soon joined the team in issue #4, and he was given founding member status in the Hulks place. The Avengers went on to fight such as Baron Zemo, who formed the Masters of Evil, Kang the Conqueror, Wonder Man. The next milestone came when every member but Captain America resigned, Giant-Man, now calling himself Goliath, and the Wasp rejoined. Hercules became part of the team, while the Black Knight, Spider-Man was offered membership but did not join the group. The Black Panther joined after rescuing the team from the Grim Reaper, the X-Men #45 featured a crossover with The Avengers #53. This was followed by the introduction of the android the Vision, Pym assumed the new identity of Yellowjacket in issue #59, and married the Wasp the following month. The Avengers headquarters was in a New York City building called Avengers Mansion, the team encountered new characters such as Arkon in issue #75, and Red Wolf in #80. The Avengers briefly disband when Skrulls impersonating Captain America, Thor, the true founding Avengers, minus the Wasp, reformed the team in response after complaints from Jarvis
33.
X-Men
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The X-Men is a fictional team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, the characters first appeared in The X-Men #1 and they are among the most recognizable and successful intellectual properties of Marvel Comics, appearing in numerous books, television shows, films, and video games. The X-Men are mutants, a subspecies of humans who are born with superhuman abilities, the X-Men fight for peace and equality between normal humans and mutants in a world where antimutant bigotry is fierce and widespread. They are led by Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X and their archenemy is Magneto, a powerful mutant with the ability to generate and control magnetic fields. Professor X and Magneto have opposing views and philosophies regarding the relationship between mutants and humans, Professor X is the founder of Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters at a location commonly called the X-Mansion, which recruits mutants from around the world. Located in Westchester County, New York, the X-Mansion is the home and training site of the X-Men. The founding five members of the X-Men who appear in The X-Men #1 are Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, since then, dozens of mutants from various countries and diverse backgrounds have held membership as X-Men. In 2004, Stan Lee recalled, I couldnt have everybody bitten by a spider or exposed to a gamma ray explosion. And I took the way out. I said to myself, Why dont I just say theyre mutants, in a 1987 interview, Jack Kirby said, The X-Men, I did the natural thing there. What would you do with mutants who were just plain boys and girls, so I gave them a teacher, Professor X. Of course, it was the thing to do, instead of disorienting or alienating people who were different from us, I made the X-Men part of the human race. Possibly, radiation, if it is beneficial, may create mutants that’ll save us instead of doing us harm. I felt that if we train the mutants our way, they’ll help us - and not only help us, and so, we could all live together. Lee devised the title after Marvel publisher Martin Goodman turned down the initial name, The Mutants. Within the Marvel Universe, the X-Men are widely regarded to have named after Professor Xavier himself. Xavier however claims that the name X-Men was never chosen as a tribute to himself, the name is also linked to the X-Gene, an unknown gene that causes the mutant evolution. The original explanation for the name, as provided by Xavier in The X-Men #1, is that mutants possess an extra power, one which ordinary humans do not
34.
Doctor Doom
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Doctor Victor Von Doom is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The son of Romani witch Cynthia Von Doom, Doctor Doom traditionally has been the archenemy of the Fantastic Four, and he is both a genius inventor and a sorcerer. While his chief opponents have been the Fantastic Four, he has come into conflict with Iron Man. Doctor Doom has made appearances in video games, television series. He was ranked as the 4th Greatest Villain by Wizard on its 100 Greatest Villains of All Time list, iGNs list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Doctor Doom as #3. Toby Kebbell portrays the character in the 2015 reboot, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #5 wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak. Like many of Marvels Silver Age characters, Doctor Doom was conceived by writer Stan Lee, with the Fantastic Four title performing well, Lee and Kirby were trying to dream up a soul-stirring…super sensational new villain. Looking for a name, Lee latched onto Doctor Doom as eloquent in its simplicity — magnificent in its implied menace, due to the rush to publish, the character was not given a full origin story until Fantastic Four Annual #2, two years after his debut. Jack Kirby modeled Doctor Doom after Death, with the standing in for that characters skeleton, It was the reason for the armor. Death is connected with armor and the inhuman-like steel, Death is something without mercy, and human flesh contains that mercy. Kirby further described Doctor Doom as being paranoid, wrecked by his twisted face, Kirby went on to say that Doctor Doom is an evil person, but hes not always been evil. He was …but through a flaw in his own character, he was a perfectionist, at one point in the 1970s, Kirby drew his interpretation of what Doctor Doom would look like under the mask, giving Doctor Doom only a tiny scar on his cheek. Due to this slight imperfection, Doctor Doom hides his face not from the world, to Kirby, this is the motivation for Doctor Dooms vengeance against the world, because others are superior due to this slight scar, Doom wants to elevate himself above them. Typical of Lees writing characterization of Doctor Doom is his arrogance, his pride leads to Doctor Dooms disfigurement at the hands of his own machine, there is also an idea that Doctor Doom placed his mask on his face before it fully cooled, burning his face. In some early stories glimpses of his face are shown, in which he appears to be bald, Doctor Dooms origin was also a feature in Astonishing Tales when his ties to the villain Mephisto were revealed. Their greatest hero against our greatest villain, Doctor Doom made his first appearance under Byrnes tenure with issue #236. Byrne emphasized other aspects of Dooms personality, despite his ruthless nature, returning to Latveria after being temporarily deposed, Doctor Doom abandons a scheme to wrest mystical secrets from Doctor Strange in order to oversee his lands reconstruction. Despite a tempestuous temper, Doctor Doom occasionally shows warmth and empathy to others, he tries to free his mother from Mephisto, under Fantastic Four writer Steven Englehart, Doctor Doom became exiled from Latveria by his heir Kristoff, who was brainwashed into thinking he was Doctor Doom
35.
Red Skull
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The Red Skull is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as the archenemy of the superhero Captain America. Portrayed as a Nazi agent, the character was created by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and France Herron, the character has been adapted to a variety of other media platforms, including animated television series, video games and live-action feature films. He was portrayed by actor Scott Paulin in the 1990 direct-to-video film Captain America, Red Skull was ranked number 21 on Wizard Magazines Top 100 Greatest Villains Ever list and was also ranked as IGNs 14th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. While considering ideas for an appropriate archenemy for Captain America, writer and artist Joe Simon saw a hot fudge sundae melting, inspired, Simon at first considered calling his new villain Hot Fudge. However, as the cherry on top of the sundae seemed like an exposed skull, the original Red Skull was introduced in Timely Comics Captain America Comics #1 which was edited and drawn by the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and written by France Ed Herron. The Skull was to again in issue #3 of Captain America Comics. As in issue #1, The Red Skulls secret identity is George Maxon, Maxon wears a mask to create the look of the Red Skull and his face is often exposed. As the Red Skull, Maxon attempts to rob banks in order to raise money to overthrow the U. S. Government, in the comic he says, Of course you realize the main item in overthrowing the government is money. A new, more lasting version of the Red Skull was introduced in Captain America #7 and this Skull claims to be the real one and states that George Maxon was but a pawn posing as the Red Skull. In later comics this Red Skull is identified as the Nazi, after an absence from comics for many years, both Captain America and the Red Skull were brought back in 1954 in Young Men Comics #24, in a story entitled Back From The Dead. Here the Red Skull, thinking Captain America was dead, has left politics, in his next appearance, in issue #27, the Red Skull is once again left for dead. In that issue it is revealed that the Red Skull, like Steve Rogers, had been in suspended animation since World War II. For decades, the true face was hidden, but in Captain America #297 the Red Skull unmasks in front of Captain America and his face. In the next issue, the Red Skull retells his story with his face visible in his various ages. The characters origin was more fully illustrated in the series, Red Skull, Incarnate. Johann Schmidt was a Nazi general officer and confidant of Adolf Hitler and he has been closely affiliated with Hydra and is an enemy of S. H. I. E. L. D. The Avengers, and the interests of the United States and the world in general
36.
Green Goblin
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The Green Goblin is the alias of several fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first and best known incarnation is Norman Osborn, created by Stan Lee, the Green Goblin is a Halloween-themed supervillain whose weapons resemble bats, ghosts and jack-o-lanterns. The Green Goblin has appeared in films including 2002s Spider-Man as Norman Osborn. According to Steve Ditko, Stans synopsis for the Green Goblin had a crew, on location. Inside was an ancient, mythological demon, the Green Goblin, on my own, I changed Stans mythological demon into a human villain. The Green Goblin debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #14, at this time his identity was unknown, but he proved popular and reappeared in later issues, which made a point of his secret identity. Lee elaborated, At some point we had to tell the reader who The Green Goblin really was, and Steve wanted him to turn out to be just some character that we had never seen before. Because, he said, in life, very often a villain turns out to be somebody that you never knew. And I felt that that would be wrong, I felt, in a sense, it would be like cheating the reader. If its somebody you didnt know and had never seen, then what was the point of following all the clues, I think that frustrates the reader. So that was a big argument we had, however, Ditkos account contradicts Lees, So I had to have some definite ideas, who he was, his profession and how he fit into the Spider-Man story world. I was even going to use an earlier, planted character associated with J. Jonah Jameson and it was like a subplot working its way until it was ready to play an active role. John Romita, Sr. who replaced Ditko as the titles artist, recalled, Stan wouldnt have been able to stand it if Ditko did the story, I didnt know there was any doubt about Osborn being the Goblin. I didnt know that Ditko had just been setting Osborn up as a straw dog, I just accepted the fact that it was going to be Norman Osborn when we plotted it. I had been following the last couple of issues and didnt think there was much mystery about it. Looking back, I doubt the Goblins identity would have revealed in Amazing #39 if Ditko had stayed on. In 2009, Ditko made a statement in his essay, The Ever Unwilling he wrote for the March issue of The Comics, Now digest this, I knew from Day One, from the first GG story, who the GG would be. I absolutely knew because I planted him in J. Jonah Jameson’s businessmans club, it was where JJJ and the GG could be seen together
37.
Thanos
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Thanos is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as a Titanian mutant–Eternal superhuman. The character first appeared in Iron Man #55 and was created by writer Mike Friedrich, debuting in the Bronze Age of Comic Books, the character has been featured in over four decades of Marvel continuity and a self-titled series. The character has appeared in other Marvel-endorsed products, including animated series, arcade. Writer-artist Jim Starlin originally conceived of Thanos of Titan during college psychology classes, so I came up to Marvel and Roy asked if I wanted to do an issue of Iron Man. I felt that this may be my only chance ever to do a character, so they got jammed into it. Thanos was a much thinner character and Roy suggested beefing him up, and later on I liked beefing him up so much that he continued to grow in size. Starlin has admitted the character is influenced by Jack Kirbys Darkseid, Kirby had done the New Gods and he was over at DC at the time. I came up with things that were inspired by that. Youd think that Thanos was inspired by Darkseid, but that was not the case when I showed up, in my first Thanos drawings, if he looked like anybody, it was Metron. I had all these different gods and things I wanted to do, which became Thanos, Roy took one look at the guy in the Metron-like chair and said, Beef him up. If youre going to one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid. Thanoss first appearance was in Iron Man #55, featuring a story by Jim Starlin that was scripted by Mike Friedrich, the storyline from that issue continued through Captain Marvel #25–33, Marvel Feature #12, Daredevil #107, and Avengers #125. He returned in a storyline that spanned Strange Tales #178-181, Warlock #9-11, Marvel Team Up #55. He was also featured in a backup story in Logans Run #6 and had a small role in the Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel. The character was revived in Silver Surfer vol.3 #34 and guest-starred until issue #50, while appearing in The Thanos Quest #1–2. After an appearance in Spider-Man #17, Thanos had a role in Warlock. Thanos appeared in a storyline in Ka-Zar vol.2 #4–11, Ka-Zar Annual, and the X-Man and Hulk Annual, before featuring in Thor vol.2 #21–25
38.
Ultron
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Ultron is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is most recognized as a foe of the Avengers, and has a relationship with several of their members. He was the first Marvel Comics character to wield the fictitious metal alloy adamantium, Ultron has appeared in several media adaptations, including animated television series, an animated film, and video games. The character is portrayed by actor James Spader in the 2015 film Avengers, the character initially appeared as an unnamed character in a cameo in The Avengers #54, with a first full appearance in Avengers #55. Ultron was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, Thomas, who has acknowledged he finds naming characters difficult, said he liked the -tron suffix and went from there. Thomas said the idea of the character and his appearance were heavily based on Makino and he liked the robots malicious looking smile, and showed it to Buscema. The character leads the Masters of Evil against the Avengers, having hypnotized Edwin Jarvis into working for him, in the following issue, Avengers #55, the character is identified as Ultron-5, The Living Automaton. In Avengers 57–58, a flashback revealed that Ultron is the creator of the synthezoid Vision as a weapon to destroy the Avengers. The Vision—having Wonder Mans brain patterns—destroys Ultron with the aid of the Avengers, further flashbacks reveal that Ultron is the creation of Hank Pym, and is based on his makers brain patterns. Rebuilding itself, learning how to turn itself on, and upgrading five times and its plans to destroy humanity are again thwarted by the Avengers. The character next appears in Avengers #161–162 as Ultron-8 where it is responsible for the creation of Jocasta as a robotic bride, shortly afterwards, in Avengers #170–171, the Avengers, with the aid of Ms. Marvel battle and defeat Ultron-8. His next appearances are in Avengers #201–202 as Ultron-9 and in Marvel Two-In-One #92–93 as Ultron-10, after being briefly recreated by the Beyonder and appearing on Battleworld during the Secret Wars, and for a brief encounter with the Thing, Ultron is destroyed again. The Thing, however, does bring Ultrons head back to Earth as a souvenir, the head of Ultron-11 is dropped and forgotten by the Thing when there is an attack by the alien Dire Wraiths. A new Ultron enters into an alliance with the villain the Grim Reaper, although the villains are defeated by the West Coast Avengers, Ultron-12 begins to form a relationship with his father Henry Pym. Ultron-12 begins calling itself Ultron Mark 12, in an effort to more human. Rebuilding itself, Ultron-11 comes into conflict with Hank and Ultron-12, with the assistance of Wonder Man, they destroy Ultron-11. Ultron-12 then deactivates, but tells Pym it was glad it could save him. Doctor Doom rebuilds Ultron using a combination of all of Ultrons previous personalities with a strong dose of Ultron-12
39.
Doctor Octopus
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Doctor Octopus, also known as Doc Ock and Superior Spider-Man is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has appeared in numerous Spider-Man cartoons and video games, in 2009, Doctor Octopus was ranked as IGNs 28th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time. His first brief appearance as the Superior Spider-Man was in Daredevil vol.3 #21, IGN rated him as the greatest enemy of Spider-Man. Though usually portrayed as a supervillain, he is depicted as a more noble and honorable character. The character of Doctor Octopus first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #3, for some reason, I thought of an octopus. I thought, I want to call somebody Octopus, and I want him to have a couple of extra arms just for fun. But I had to figure out how to do that, the character soon appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #11-12, and again in #31-33. Born in Schenectady, New York, Otto Octavius had a turbulent upbringing and his father Torbert Octavius, a factory worker, was abusive and violent towards both Otto and his mother Mary Octavius. Young Ottos shyness and good work in school got him labeled as a teachers pet, Torbert did not appreciate having a bullied son, and roared at Otto to use violence in dealing with the bullies. Mary Octavius would defend her son from Torberts tirades, saying Otto was a thinker who would use his brain to solve problems. Ottos devotion to study paid off with him being awarded a university scholarship, during Ottos freshman year of college, his fathers death due to an industrial accident pushed Otto towards the study of, and obsession with, physical science. After graduating from college, Otto found work in an engineering firm, Otto became a brilliant and respected nuclear physicist, atomic research consultant, inventor, and lecturer. He designed a set of advanced mechanical arms controlled via a brain–computer interface to assist him with his research into atomic physics. The tentacle arms were resistant to radiation and were capable of strength and highly precise movement. Later in his career, he claimed the inspiration for the device came from The Vitruvian Man. In due time, Otto proposed marriage to Mary Alice, however, Ottos mother did not approve, believing that no woman was good enough for her son. To please her, he ended his engagement, later, when he discovered that his mother had begun dating a librarian, he rebuked her, causing her to have a fatal heart attack in the heat of their argument. His co-workers often called him Dr. Octopus behind his back, a pun on his name inspired by the four-armed apparatus, he was aware of this insult
40.
Magneto (comics)
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Magneto is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appears in The X-Men #1 as the archenemy of the X-Men. The character is a mutant, one of a fictional subspecies of humanity born with superhuman abilities. He is a friend of Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, Magnetos role in comics has varied from supervillain to antihero to superhero, having served as an occasional ally and even a member of the X-Men at times. His characters early history has been compared with the civil rights leader Malcolm X, Magneto resents the pacifist attitude of Professor X and pushes for a more aggressive approach to achieving civil rights. In 2011, IGN ranked Magneto as the greatest comic book villain of all time, sir Ian McKellen portrayed Magneto in four films of the X-Men film series, while Michael Fassbender portrayed a younger version of the character in the 2011 prequel X-Men, First Class. In addition, both actors reprised the role in the film X-Men, Days of Future Past, set in two different eras, Fassbender reprised his role in the 2016 film X-Men, Apocalypse. Magneto first appeared in the issue of X-Men in 1963. In a 2008 interview, Stan Lee said he did not think of Magneto as a bad guy and he just wanted to strike back at the people who were so bigoted and racist. He was trying to defend the mutants, and because society was not treating them fairly he was going to teach society a lesson and he was a danger of course. But I never thought of him as a villain, in the miniseries, Magneto had been de-aged and suffered from amnesia, calling himself Joseph, it was later revealed that Joseph was a younger clone of Magneto. Later, Magneto became ruler of the nation Genosha, later, Magneto appeared in two miniseries, Magneto Rex and Magneto, Dark Seduction. A trade paperback novel detailing Magnetos childhood, X-Men, Magneto Testament was written by Greg Pak, Pak based Magneto Testament on accounts from Holocaust survivors. Before the publication of X-Men, Magneto Testament, Magnetos personal background and he was portrayed as a Jewish Holocaust survivor, while searching for his wife Magda, a Sinti, Magneto maintained a cover identity as a Sinti. This created confusion among readers as to Magnetos heritage, until his Jewish background was confirmed in Magneto. Magneto was born Max Eisenhardt sometime in the late 1920s to a middle-class German-Jewish family, maxs father, Jakob Eisenhardt, was a decorated World War I veteran. Max and his family escaped the ghetto, only to be betrayed and captured again and his mother, father, and sister were executed and buried in a mass grave, but Max survived, possibly due to the manifestation of his mutant powers. Escaping from the grave, he was ultimately captured yet again and sent to Auschwitz
41.
Loki (comics)
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Loki is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the brother and often the enemy of Thor. He is based on the being of the name from Norse mythology. The character first appeared historically in Venus No.6 and in modern-day in Journey into Mystery No.85, the character was created by writer Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby. Though normally portrayed as a supervillain, he is depicted as an antihero. Loki has appeared in several ongoing series, limited series and alternate reality series and he appeared in the new issues of Young Avengers in 2013. He began appearing in his solo series Loki, Agent of Asgard in 2014, the character has also appeared in associated Marvel merchandise including animated television series, clothing, toys, video games, and movies. In 2009, Loki was ranked as IGNs 8th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time, Loki made his first Marvel Comics appearance in Timely Comics publication Venus No. 6, where Loki was depicted as a member of the Olympian gods exiled to the Underworld and he convinced Jupiter to let him into Earth as Venus was allowed onto it, planning to spread hate. Venus pledged herself to him to stop his plans, but Jupiter saw her act and freed her from the pledge. He made his first official Marvel appearance in Journey into Mystery No,85, where Loki was reintroduced as Thors sworn enemy. The modern age Loki was introduced by brothers and co-writers Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, as one of Thors arch-nemeses, Loki has frequently made appearances in Thor-related titles like Journey into Mystery and Thor, as well as other Marvel Universe titles such as The Avengers and X-Men. As well as appearances in the Spider-Man and Defenders comic series. He was the character in two four-issue miniseries Loki in 2004 and 2010. Loki played a key role in the 2010s company-wide Siege storyline, starting with issue No.622 the ongoing series Thor reverted to the original title Journey into Mystery and shifted focus to Loki. Under the pen of Kieron Gillen, Loki is resurrected but exists in a childs body and he remained the main character from 2011-2012, his final issue as lead being No.645. Gillen, joined by penciller Jamie McKelvie, continued his Loki storyline by introducing Loki, still as Kid Loki, as a character in the second Young Avengers. 11, he manipulated Wiccan into restoring him to a teenaged form, a Loki solo series called Loki, Agent of Asgard was announced for 2014
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Marvel Universe
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The Marvel Universe is the shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place. Marvel superheroes such as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men are from this universe, in this context, Marvel Universe is taken to refer to the mainstream Marvel continuity, which is known as Earth-616 or currently as Earth Prime. Headline characters in one title would make cameo or guest appearances in other books, eventually many of the leading heroes assembled into a team known as the Avengers. The Marvel Universe was also notable for setting its central titles in New York City, by contrast, care was taken to portray the city and the world as realistically as possible with the presence of superhumans affecting the common citizens in various ways. What happens on Earth in the main Marvel Universe would normally have no effect on what happens on a parallel Earth in another Marvel-created universe, however, storywriters would have the creative ability to write stories in which people from one such universe would visit this alternative universe. In 1982, Marvel published the mini-series Contest of Champions, in all of the major heroes in existence at the time were gathered together to deal with one threat. The Marvel Universe is strongly based on the real world, Earth in the Marvel Universe has all the features of the real one, same countries, same personalities, same historical events, and so on. However, it contains many other fictional elements, countries such as Wakanda and Latveria, and organizations like the espionage agency S. H. I. E. L. D. and its enemy, HYDRA. In 2009 Marvel officially described its worlds geography in a two-part miniseries, most importantly, the Marvel Universe also incorporates examples of almost all major science fiction and fantasy concepts, with writers adding more continuously. Aliens, gods, magic, cosmic powers and extremely advanced human-developed technology all exist prominently in the Marvel Universe, monsters also play a more prominent role with east Asian origins of magical incantation, outlandish sorcery and manifesting principle in the Marvel Universe. One such case is Fin Fang Foom arising from the ashes of tantric magic, thanks to these extra elements, Earth in the Marvel Universe is home to a large number of superheroes and supervillains, who have gained their powers by any of these means. Marvels major heroes were created in the 1960s, but the amount of time that has passed between then and now within the universe itself has most recently identified as thirteen years. Consequently, the settings of some events which were contemporary when written have to be updated every few years in order to sense in this floating timeline. Thus, the events of previous stories are considered to have happened within a number of years prior to the publishing date of the current issue. Because of the timeline, where stories refer to real-life historic events. For instance, the origin of Iron Man was changed in a 2004 storyline to refer to armed conflict in Afghanistan, additionally, the DC Comics Universe is also said to exist in the Marvel Universe as one of the many alternative universes. The reverse may also be said with respect to the DC Universe and this is one method of explaining the various crossover stories co-published by the two companies. Pop culture characters such as Dracula and Frankenstein actually exist in the Marvel Universe and this is usually justified as a second hand account of events as told to credited authors Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley although the general public continues to believe them as fictional
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