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.
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.
Early Marvel History
Reviewed by Matt
on
14:46:00
Rating:
Reviewed by Matt
on
14:46:00
Rating:
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