Modern Marvels (Marvel History Part 3)

   This is the important stuff. We skipped merrily through the origins in the first post (HERE) and glazed over the developments in the following decades (HERE) but now we find out about how the modern stories started. If you want in, listen up! Also watch your feet when you stand up because I'm about to drop some knowledge.

The last roster of the original team.

   Let's start with Avengers Disassembled. The Scarlet Witch, Magneto's daughter is married to the android The Vision, and she's loosing control of her reality altering powers, going insane, imagining the pair of them have children. She unknowingly sets about the death of Jack of Hearts and Scott Lang's Ant Man. She then crashes a Quinjet into the Avengers Mansion and gets the She Hulk into such a rage that she tears The Vision in two. All of Earths heroes come together one last time, their only choice to put her down for good, when Magneto appears and whisks her away to heal her mind himself. The Avengers shocked by one of their own being capable of such a thing the Avengers call it quits and end the team. Thor returns to Asgard as Ragnarok, the norse version of the apocolypse, takes place and all of the Gods are wiped out. 

An alternate world created by the
Scarlet Witch!

   This is directly followed by House of M. After Charles Xavier and Magneto fail to help the Scarlet Witch and they gather the ex-Avengers together in Tony Stark's Tower to think of a solution. She's too powerful though, they decide that ending her life is the only way, much to many of their disgust. Before they reach her room however, she mutters a spell and the entire planet changes. The Mutants are everywhere now and the humans are the endangered species. The House of Magneto rules the land and life is good. The human heroes, start an underground resistance after Wolverine's healing power corrects his memories and he realises things are wrong here. They take the fight to the house of M and during the battle The Scarlet Witch mutters the spell "No more Mutants". The world changes back.

Millions of mutants
left powerless.

   This world is different however. The mutant population used to number in the millions and now there are only 198 of them left. The fall out of House of M is called Decimation. Mutant town no longer exists. Many mutants de-power to still find they are hated or feared. Flying mutants fall to their deaths, healing powers no longer work, hell on earth for those who had powers. The hatred and discrimination still exists. Wolverines memories of his long past are restored. The X-Factor team becomes a detective agency and tries to figure out the cause of this all.

Evolve or die, Spider-man!

   Spider-man goes through a life changing metamorphosis after seemingly dying at the hands of Morlun. He goes into a cocoon state and comes out with organic web shooters and new stingers that emerge from his hands a la Wolverine when he is in mortal danger. In a story called The Other. 

   Then Planet Hulk starts as the Illuminati get tired of the Hulk and his lack of control over his anger so they send him into space in exile, destined to land on an uninhabited planet and then the ship to blow up. He instead landed on the Gladiator like planet and rose through the ranks to become a warrior and later king of the planet. He got a queen and she was pregnant when the ship finally exploded killing her and his child. As you probably know the madder Hulk gets the stronger he gets. So killing his love and child will make him pretty darn strong. He sets off back to Earth with his warrior team intending to kill every last member of the Illuminati.

Gladiatorial combat against the Silver Surfer in the arena, in Planet Hulk!

INSIIIIDEEE OF ME!
Yes a Forgetting Sarah Marshal reference. 

(Update) I should probably also add Extremis an Ironman story where a terrorist is using nano robots to execute terrorist attacks. Ironman infects himself to get a cure and winds up merging with his ironman armour. He is now the suit. He doesn't put it on to go into battle, it GROWS OUT OF HIM! Also around the same time in Captain America The Winter Soldier is revealed to be Bucky Barnes, Cap's old wartime sidekick, who has been trained and brainwashed by the Russians. These two modern stories are being mined to give the plot bases for the Ironman 3 and Captain America 2 movies. It will be interesting to see the movie equivalents up to date with the comics incarnations. Plus it makes sense from a marketing point of view. No point having people like your films and try the comics only to find a completely different story going on. 

Cap Vs Bucky the Winter Soldier.

The lines are drawn for the Super-human registration act!

   The New Warriors team, while filming for their reality show get into a fight they cant handle and a villain blows himself up killing hundreds of children in a nearby school. The Government quickly passes a Superhuman registration act, that requires each powered individual to put their secret identities into public domain and be trained by the government so no tragedy like the Stamford massacre can happen again. Heroes are naturally split down the middle. A super powered Civil War. Some already are public with their identities and others like Spider-man, would put their families and friends at risk by coming clean. Captain America turns against his government while Tony Stark heads the new initiative. Spider-man comes public with his identity and puts Mary Jane and Aunt May into Stark Tower for protection. After the Civil War Captain America is seemingly assassinated and Bucky takes his place in the suit.

   The act is carried out and each state in America is given a superteam and new powered children and older individuals are trained across the land in The Initiative.

The large cast involved in teaching and running the 50 state Initiative,
and a few students to boot.

Hulk VS Sentry!

   In World War Hulk, it's exactly what it says on the tin. Hulk gets back from space, madder than he's ever been and smashes the f*ck out of everyone and everything. Thor and Asgard are back and Asgard is now hovering over a small western town in the USA rather than in it's own realm. He takes a crack at beating Hulk but he isn't strong enough. He is only finally put down by The Sentry. A recent addition to the Marvel U, who is supposed to have been around for decades but who wiped everyones minds of his existence. Anyway the, mentally unstable, Sentry puts the smack down on the Hulk. 

Mr. Sinister and his marauders hunt the first
new mutant child.

   An X-men cluster of stories is next up. In Endangered Species, the Beast tries to explain why only a few mutants kept their powers and where all that energy went. Then when the first new mutant since M day is born the X-men, Cable, Bishop, Mister Sinister and the Purifiers go after it in Messiah Complex. The X-men disband after the mansion is knocked down are there are almost no mutants left. Divided We Stand deals with several solo stories about what the members do next. This is followed by the teams eventual reformation in San Francisco rather than Westchester New York, in a story aptly named Manifest Destiny.

The X-men relocate to San Fran!

One Moment In Time.

   And back to Spidey again as the fallout of his secret identity reveal is made deadly serious. Aunt May is hit by a snipers bullet intended for Peter and as she is in hospital he dons a black (non-symbiote) suit and goes out to take down the killer who targeted his family, in the story Back in Black. Then in One More Day, after exhausting all possible scientific and magical ways to bring Aunt May back out of her coma his only remaining option presents itself. In the form of a deal with Mephisto. He can trade his love and marriage with Mary Jane for Aunt May to be restored to health, as the demon Mephisto feeds off unhappiness, and Peter and MJ's love is super special. They make the deal and the past is rewritten. Most if not all of the stories happened the same from his marriage to present day only Pete and MJ are just friends and not married and nobody knows his identity again. The details of this new timeline are told more clearly later in the story One Moment In Time. After this new world is brought about Pete's life gets even more bizarre with a whole new bunch of villains like Mr Negative, Overdrive and Menace. 

The shape changing Skrulls launch a full Earth invasion!

  After the Illuminati meddled with the Skrulls for the first time after the Kree/ Skrull war the Skrulls wanted revenge. They developed ways to not be detected while shape changing and planted sleeper agents posing as characters on each of the major teams in the Marvel U. This Secret Invasion, was a devastating war as they try to take over the planet. It resulted in the death of long time Avenger The Wasp and the war was only won by a long range sniper attack by none other than long time Spidey villain Norman Osborn the now current head of The Thunderbolts, a government rehabilitation unit for super villains. In the aftermath Ironman the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. was fired and blamed for the breach in security. S.H.I.E.L.D. was disbanded and the madman Norman Osborn was given the lead of the newly formed H.A.M.M.E.R. world security. During his Dark Reign he formed the Cabal a sort of anti-Illuminati made up of powerful ex and present villains of the Marvel U to decide it's new direction. He created the Dark Avengers using villains like Bullseye and Venom posing as Hawkeye and Spider-man. 

Osborn in his Iron Patriot armor
takes down cyclops in his Dark Avengers.

   Learning that Bishop is chasing after Cable to kill Hope Summers the only mutant born since M day, Cyclops and Beast make time machines to send Wolverines secret assassin squad X-Force, into the future to protect her from him, in a story called Messiah War. Then anti-mutant riots in San Francisco result in marshal law and Norman Osborn's formation of his own Dark X-men to control it, in Utopia. Followed up by Nation X where the mutants eventually settle on Magento's old asteroid base that after leaving orbit crashed not far from the bay and is now an island.

The Sentry brutally kills Ares during the Siege of Asgard.

   Norman Osborns leadership ends as he crazily lays Seige on the newly reformed Asgard and crashing it into the ground. The Sentry dies taking him out and his Dark Avengers and X-men come to an end. The Superhuman act is abolished and a new Heroic Age comes about where heroes can just be that. A return to classic no nonsense story telling. Luke Cage is put in charge of the New Thunderbolts.

Asgard crashes into the desert during Osborn's attack on the Gods.

Mutant savior
Hope Summers.

   Then the third part of major X-book stories starting with Messiah War and continuing through Messiah Complex ends with Second Coming. A conclusion to Cables efforts to raise Hope Summers in the future, and not have Bishop kill her, and return her back to the present to become the mutant kinds saviour. Cable sacrifices himself to save Hope and she is left in the care of Scott Summers.

The Young Avengers hunt the
Scarlet Witch!

   Shortly after the Avengers Disassembled a Young Avengers was formed with Scott Lang's Daughter, the grandson of the original black guy who the Captain America super serum was tested on, a shape shifting skrull and what was later discovered to be the magical and speedster powered possible children of the Scarlet With. The ones they thought she imagined/ created with her powers somehow existed. They set off on a Children's Crusade to find and save the Scarlet Witch.

Daredevil takes New York!

   A prison temple of the Hand, a ninja assassin bad guy guild, is erected on the ruins of the Hell's Kitchen building Bullseye destroyed in the Dark Reign event and Matt Murdock comes back from visiting Japan, as a changed and now mind controlled individual. He seeks to utilise the Hand for good but he isn't the man he used to be and starts taking over the streets in Shadowland. Of course Marvels street heroes stop him and put and end to his nonsense. 

God of Chaos wants his Universe
back as the nothing it started out as!

   In Chaos War, the nothingness from before the big bang comes back in the form of the Chaos King with an army of demons and Gods to turn the universe back to nothingness. He pauses all mortals taking them out of the fight but as he breaks down the barriers of existence all the dead Avengers and X-men team up and take the fight to him, with Hercules leading the charge. 

   In Three Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four sacrifices himself and is seemingly killed by trapping himself inside the Negative Zone as Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave try to break through. He saves Ben Grimm and the kids by doing so. In his honour, the fantastic four is no more and it is replaced by the Future Foundation. Where Spider-man is given his spot on the team in Johnny's will, and lots of child genius characters are taught by Reed Richards. 

The Future Foundation and the class of child geniuses.

Spidey splashes his cash on a stealth mode
suit during a team up with Black Cat.

   After his Brand New Day, Peter Parker hits the Big Time and gets a perfect job at Horizon Labs where he can come and go as he pleases and gets a private secure lab. Spending time making products for Horizon while updating his Spider-man gadgets. Plus the whopping great pay check. He starts dating forensic scientist Carlie Cooper (Yay!) but they break up after she finds out he is Spidey. 

   Shortly after Odins brother the Serpent God of Fear, is released from his underwater prison by Sin, the Red Skulls daughter and they spread fear and doubt throughout the world, in Fear Itself. They release 7 hammers to give out to "worthy" characters as weapons. Good guys like the Thing are targeted and after touching the hammers, they transform into creatures of fear and destroy all in their path. They are only eventually stopped by Tony Stark making an offering to Odin to appear and getting him to make them their own weapons to fight against them. The after affects of the event are called Shattered Heroes as the heroes pick up the pieces.

The Marvel good guys use their God forged weapons to fight back during Fear Itself.

Cyclops VS Wolverine!

   In Schism Wolverine and Cyclops' differing opinions clash. Wolverine wants to teach the kids and keep them out of harms way. With so few mutants left he doesn't want them training as soldiers. Cyclops however wants them to prepare for the worst. The X teams split in two with the two defined leaders. In Regenesis Wolverine opens the school in Weschester again, now called the Jean Grey Institute instead of the Xavier Institute and Cyclops keep things going on Utopia off of San Fran. 

   Which all leads up to the current big Summer event going on at the minute. 

   

The last decade of story telling has led to a fight
for the survival of the mutant race, or is it a fight
for the safety of planet Earth?
AVX!

   Avengers Vs X-men. The Phoenix Force, the God of rebirth that once possessed Jean Grey and ultimately left her dead, is coming back to Earth. The Avengers want to stop it, as it has the power to wipe Earth out. The Cyclops led X-men want to capture it inside Hope Summers. With Wolverine an Avengers member and all of his X-teams and the school left in the crossfire to take sides. So far there has been a failed attempt to capture it in space and Hope rejected the Phoenix when it finally got to Earth so it has split into 5 pieces and possessed Cyclops, his current flame Emma Frost, Colossus and his sister Illyana/ Magik and Namor the Submariner. They used there power to change the world for good, planting crops for starving people ect. changing landscapes and whatnot. Only problem is they are treating Avengers like war criminals and keeping them locked up. However this story ends there must be major consequences and I'd be willing to bet that even if one side wins they will both ultimately have losses. At the end of this series lots of writers and artists are switching series and new series like Uncanny Avengers suggest a team up of Mutants and Avengers. This next initiative is called Marvel Now! and if all of this insane backstory has titillated your brains story box then i'd recommend jumping on then. Marvel now starts in september so hop on with the new issue 1's of countless series. 

Marvel Now, coming soon!

Marvelous Expansion (Marvel History Part Two)

   Yes I soon realised as I was writing the first post (Click HERE to read the first installment), that there is too dang much to fit into a brief space. So, I'm making this a trilogy, like all good things are. This is the second part and will take us right up to just before Avengers Disassembled, where my last post will cover the modern Marvel stories.

   A lot happens between the mid 70's and the late 90's so I'm going to take this character by character like I did last time.

Doctor Doom

The Inhumans

   For starters The Fantastic Four fought Namor the Submariner, their long time nemesis, scientist and magician Doctor Doom, mind controller the Puppet Master, the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android, The Red Ghost and his Super Apes, Diablo and Dragon Man (who later reformed and joined the team in some capacity- more next post!), The Frightful Four a team of four villains with a changing line-up and Moleman a scientist who lives underground in tunnels with his monsters and molemen. Their space adventures also discovered The Watcher on the moon, a being from a race of many who watch and record major events of other species without intervening, the alien shape-shifters The Skrulls (who also later come back in a major way), and the space species the Kree whom 25,000 years ago during their long war with the Skrulls came to earth to experiment on us to one day allow us to join their war. They made a group of humans into super humans and they went into hiding first in the hidden city, Attilan, and later on the moon. They became known as The Inhumans and went on to include their King Blackbolt and wife Medusa, as well as Crystal whom had romantic entanglements with Johnny Storm and later Quicksilver of the Avengers. Crystal owns a giant teleporting dog known as Lockjaw.

Galactus the world eater and his Herald
The Silver Surfer.

   Other major F4 stories include the coming of Galactus, a being from the previous universe to our own who eats planets due to insufferable hunger, and his herald (and later, earth hero), Silver Surfer. While searching through a dimension known as the Negative Zone the team made an enemy in Annihilus an intelligent insect creature and also recurring villain.


   Nick Fury went on to become the head of Earth Security in the organisation known as S.H.I.E.L.D. which currently stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

   Spider-Man racks up an impressive rogues gallery for a lone hero including, perfect impressionist Chameleon, winged villain Vulture, 8 legged scientist Doctor Octopus, dusty criminal Sandman, a scientist who's self experimenting went wrong The Lizard (star of the summer film), shocking villain Electro, ex-special effects creator and illusionist Mysterio, Norman Osborn his arch nemesis Green Goblin, Kraven a deranged hunter, stinging tailed Scorpion, power suited Rhino, on again off again lover and later reformed hero, cat burglar Black Cat, another Goblin by the name of Hobgoblin, X-men villain Juggernaut and scientists The Jackal and Morbius the Living Vampire.

Spidey and Black Cat face off against The Sinister Tweleve! A team up of
spidey's worst foes.

The horrible moment when Gwen broke
her neck as Spidey attempted to
stop her fall.

  Important stories during this period include Peter's first love Gwen Stacy and her farther being shockingly killed off. His finding of an alien symbiote that became his costume for some time only to leave him and bond with others becoming the villain Venom and giving off more symbiotes that attached to worse minded individuals including serial killer Cletus Cassidy who became Carnage. Many different people assumed the mantel Spider-Woman. Kraven's last hunt where Kraven had one last no holes barred push to kill Spidey. After being framed for murder Spider-man went on to assume many new secret identities most of which were taken over by others after him. Peter Parker was cloned several times by the Jackal and many of which went on to become long running characters including one clone who couldn't be distinguished between the real one, leading to years of guessing. Ben Reilly as he was later known went on to take Spidey's place for a long while during which Peter took time off with his new girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. Ben Reilly eventually died, revealing he was in fact the clone.

   Peter went on to marry Mary Jane only to have this erased from history decades later as part of a deal with the devil to save his last living relative Aunt May. More on this in our next post about modern day marvel.

A small fraction of the X-men. Yes I said SMALL.

   X-men history is very hard to follow so here is the very basic pattern. After the second team was revealed many mutants are introduced and they sort of go on to multiply like rabbits. During the 80's a Canadian super team Alpha Flight is introduced as well as a new young team and class of x-men named the New Mutants. What with many of the previous members having graduated and the school not really teaching any more. The original X-men reformed in a team called X-factor, and a Brittish team called Excalibur emerged. The main team fights enemies including the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants headed by master of magnetism Magneto and lots of anti-mutant threats. Jean Grey became possessed by the Phoenix Force a God of rebirth, on a space mission. They introduce alien race the Shi'ar, their leader Lilandra and her Imperial Guard headed by Gladiator as well as the renegade ship and crew of misfits, The Starjammers, captained by Cyclop's father. Notable newcomers include Havok who is Cyclops's brother, his girlfriend Polaris, Shadowcat, Dazzler, Forge, Longshot, Psylocke, Rogue, Rachel Summers, and Jubilee.

The X-Statix, a recommended
read from me.

   In the 90's lots more mutant teams appeared including the new government funded X-Factor which later became pop culture and media obsessed X-Statix, a Cable lead team of X-force, a second main X-men team, another new class of mutants with Generation X, and solo characters Deadpool, X-man and Cable get time to shine in their own books. Notable villains include Apocolypse, Sinister and Mojo. Like I said this is a very brief overview as each year brought a brand new X-men crossover event between the multiple books being published. To go into detail or name every teams characters could take decades in istself.

Bullseye kills Elektra.

   Daredevil had tragedy as his on again off again lover, assassin Elektra died at the hands of his enemy Bullseye. He had many run in's as a lawyer in court and as a vigilante outside with the Kingpin of crime.

   The Avengers welcome to their elite ranks, over the next three decades: The Swordsman, the God, Hercules, African, Black Panther, the android known as the Vision, time lost Black Knight, Russian spy Black Widow, Mantis, X-men's Beast, Moondragon, Hellcat, time lost cowboy The Two Gun Kid, energy absorbing Wonderman, Ms. Marvel, Cap's team mate Falcon, Tigra, She Hulk, Captain Marvel, Starfox, Nova and Doctor Druid. They expand to have both a West Coast Avengers and often times laughed at Great Lakes Avengers. Adding Mockingbird, War Machine, The Thing from Fantastic Four, Moonknight, Firebird, US Agent, Quasar, Sersi, Spider Woman, Crystal from the Inhumans, Thunderstrike, Dark Hawk, Marvel Boy, Firestar, 3D Man, Jack of Hearts, a second Antman with Scott Lang in the suit and Lionheart a new Captain Britain.

A Small selection of Marvel's Avengers teams.

   The team up of Iron Fist and Powerman joined the Heroes for Hire. A team who worked for money on cases set by clients.

   Stunt biker Johny Blaze does a deal with the devil only to wind up being tricked into becoming his servant as the Ghost Rider.


   Ex-cop, Frank Castle's family are all killed by the mob and he starts a one man war on crime using extreme force as The Punisher.

The young pre teen, Power Pack.

   Lots of new teams emerged as Marvel's universe began to flesh out. The Defenders gathered the last of the none Avengers characters together in a separate team. Although originally it was started by a curse put on Silver Surfer, Hulk, Doctor Strange and Namor to come together when needed, others joined after. Guardians of the Galaxy were an Avengers-in-space premise that gathered the galaxies greatest heroes as apposed to Earth's. Including Nova of the Nova corps, a space police force. Seriously you are going to want to read up on them before more GotG movie news comes out. The New Warriors were a team of young super heroes who made videos and a reality show about their adventures. Power Pack a group made up of four young family members having got their powers from their Dad's failed science experiment by accident. Agents of Atlas were a team that were created recently and were fitted retro actively back into continuity so that they have been around since the 1950's in the stories (This style of writing backwards has become normal in comics story telling, as Stan Lee in the 60's wasn't writing plot lines to be resolved 70 years or so down the line). Same goes for a team known as The Illuminati. The Illuminati were formed after the Avengers joined the Kree/ Skrull war and the Skrulls got mad at Earth, so Ironman, Mr Fantastic, Professor X, Namor, Doctor Strange and Black Bolt started meeting in secret to try and save the Earth from major threats.

   And that's the end of that chapter. Next up: the last decade of Marvel stories in as much detail as I can muster, as it will be of utmost use to those of you considering picking up a new comic book.

Early Marvel History

   Listen up class, and take your seats. Class is in session. Today we teach Marvel History 101. A brief origin of all the major players in the Marvel Comics Universe today.

  Let's face it, plenty of people must have been dragged along to see the big summer blockbusters these past few years who wouldn't have normally seen them. Or maybe you are only familiar with them through film and television and want to find out about the rich tapestry and history of them in there original medium. Maybe you want to start reading the comics. Where do you start? There's 70+ years of history, characters and story to catch up on! Don't worry, it may look daunting but just keep calm and read on. We'll breeze through the origins of all your favorites in this first part of our Marvel fast track program.

   In The Golden Age (1938-1950) the company we now know as Marvel was originally called Timely Comics and in 1939 a comic titled Marvel Comics #1 came out featuring the original version of the Human Torch, a flame producing humanoid robot.



   During the World War II years lots of anti-Nazi propaganda filled the publications like Captain America and Bucky, featuring Steve Rogers, a weak young man transformed into a perfect super soldier being via a super soldier serum and Bucky his teen sidekick. He was the first super human in the Marvel Universe and the serums maker perished, leaving Steve as the only superhuman. Namor the Submariner the Prince of Atlantis also debuted. Soon the first Marvel comics team The Invaders gathered their entire character set together to fight the Nazis.

   After the war years in the 1950's Timely changed it's name to Atlas Comics and without the need for Heroes anymore due to changing audience tastes went into Horror, Sci-fi, Western, Adventure, War, Humour and Romance comics instead, after failed revivals of it's heroes.

   Following DC's lead in the early 1960's and success of it's own Superhero revival now called The Silver Age (1956-1970) and changing it's publication title to Marvel Comics. Stan Lee along with artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko created many of the characters recognisable today.


   The Fantastic Four, compromised of brainy Reed Richards a.k.a Mr Fantastic, his future wife Sue Storm The Invisible Woman, her brother Johnny Storm The Human Torch and Reed's friend and pilot Ben Grim The Thing, were blasted with radiation in space changing their appearance and granting them with superpowers of stretchability, invisibilty with force fields, fire and a rocky hide, respectively. They became Marvel's first family.

   Nick Fury, a later revealed super-soldier like Captain America was leading the Howling commandos an elite war squadron.


   Bruce Banner was blasted with Gamma radiation and is physically altered into The Hulk. A being that gets stronger the madder it gets. Don't make him angry!

   Teenager Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider that grants him all the proportionate strength, speed and agility of a spider, as well as the ability to crawl walls. Being an avid scientist himself he creates the web shooters and adhesive webbing himself, and after a terrible lesson in responsibility, when he has the chance to stop a robber who later kills his Uncle Ben learns that; with great power comes great responsibility! He suits up and becomes the Amazing Spider-Man.

   Professor Charles Xavier or Prof. X, assembles teenagers born with unique abilities, called mutants, literally the next step of human evolution (and a great way to not have to make up lots of origin stories!). They include Scott Summers who has optic force blasts code named Cyclops, scientist Henry McCoy the monkey like and later blue furred character known as Beast, the frosty ice powered Bobby Drake Iceman, winged vigilante Warren Worthington III Angel and female Jean Grey telekenitic and telepathic nicknamed at first as Marvel Girl and later after run ins with the cosmic force of the same name, Phoenix. They were trained to grow up in a world that fears and hates them, to control their powers and work towards a brighter tomorrow. They were the team the X-men.


   Billionaire Tony Stark was captured in a war zone and escaped after making the armor and battle suit to escape. Upon returning home he continued developing the armor and became the hero Iron-Man.


   The fantasy stories of the Norse God, Thor and his half brother Loki changed as Thor was banished to earth to learn more about humans and too on the guise on Donald Blake a doctor. He soon learned responsibilities and what it was to be human.

   Matt Murdock a blind attorney of law after being hit by a truck of toxic waste develops even more super senses, incuding increased smell, hearing and touch. He can almost see through sound waves and an echo location like ability to "see". Fighting justice in the courtroom leads to vigilante aspects outside of it as he takes the monicker Daredevil, to deliver his own costumed justice.

  Surgeon Stephen Strange recovers his broken hands whilst training to become a master magician and later becomes earth Sorceror Supreme Dr Strange.


  Scientist Hank Pym and model wife Janet Pym develop Pym particles, a way of shrinking down to miniaturised size, combine that with his translator to speak to ants and you have yourself Ant-man and The Wasp. Having gone through many name changes including Giant Man, Goliath and Yellow Jacket and developing the Pym particles to allow growth also, you get the last major original player in the Marvel Universe.


   While fighting Loki, Earths Mightiest Heroes teamed up for greatest effect and thus the original line up of The Avengers was born with, Iron-man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-man and The Wasp. Which is why fandom caused such uproar about the lack of the insect based heroes from marvels big summer movie incarnation. After a while Captain America was found frozen in ice and after being thawed out, readjusted to the modern world and joined the Avengers with a cast of reformed villains including the archer that can never miss Hawkeye and X-men's nemises Magneto master of magentism's children the reality altering magician Scarlet Witch and the speedster Quicksilver.

   The Bronze Age in the 1970's brought great changes to the Marvel Universe. Comics in general were getting darker and more grown up.


   Later on the original X-men had to be saved from a mission and a second team was created consisting of Canadian, James Howlett/ Logan the healing and clawed member named Wolverine, the Scottish Sean Cassidy with sonic screams known as Banshee, the super strong apaché tribe member James Proudstar known as Thunderbird, the German demon looking teleporter, Kurt Wagner or Nightcrawler,  African "Goddess" and one time street thief, Ororo Munroe with her weather manipulation known as Storm and Russian Piotr Rasputin with the power to turn his entire body into metal, code named Colossus. Later the X-men would grow and grow, multiplying like rabbits over a dozen different team names and titles.




   That's the basic first installment of Marvel's history. Now, where is best to read these origins? It depends if you want to read the now slightly outdated originals or if you want to read a modern retelling. If you want to read the originals I would suggest going into your local comic shop or decent book store and asking for, or even just searching online, for the "Essential.." books range. Marvel put about 25 issues in each volume and they aren't too pricey as they are printed on black and white paper and have a similar paper quality and size as a telephone directory. They are good value for money and you get the original books as they were first printed. Plus there are about 10 volumes each of the main characters nowadays so you can collect a good chunk of their history for dirt cheap.

  
   Black and white not your style? Try searching for the Marvel "Masterworks.." range. You get roughly 10 issues in each volume and they are in colour. Thing is there aren't as many volumes of these collections so you wont be able to read as far and they can be quite pricey compared to the Essential books.

   Cant be bothered to read the originals? Find them archaic and a bit stunted to read? Yeah I feel the same way sometimes too. Luckily Marvel have the recent Season One Graphic Novel range were each character is given a 100+ page modern day re-telling of their origin stories. They are all by modern writers and artists so they will be much easier to read for a newcomer to comics.

Or you could literally just go and roll with the origins you've seen in the blockbuster movies and go pick up a recent issue off the news stands as many do. The origins don't differ THAT much from the books. It's the supporting cast and villains you may have trouble recognizing though. But after so long you'll get the gist of it.



   A good read for a brief history of the Marvel Universe as told by a newspaper reporter in the graphic novel Marvels is also a great place to start.

   I'll be back soon with what happened to Marvel's main bunch during the following decades and what new characters and major stories came next.