Ladies and gentlemen, whether or not you are aware of it, we are currently in the midst of a second Marvel Age. What's a Marvel Age? When did the first one happen? Why are we getting a second? Let me explain.
The Marvel Age of comics refers to the era in the 1960's when Marvel released all of its golden franchises. Since World War II comic books had lost their flair without conflict to sell their books. The 1950's had sent the industry to its death bed and even characters like Captain America had bit the dust. Superman and Batman had tough times surviving. All that remained were lackluster heroes and westerns. Then something marvelous happened; in the 1960's, Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee was about ready to quit comic books all together until his wife convinced him to do a comic book the way he would like to do one. The result was the Fantastic Four. They sold out immediately. Lee's Fantastic Four was a hit and business was booming.
Soon after the success of the Fantastic Four, Lee experimented with a new character, a character that didn't want his super powers; he came up with the Incredible Hulk. Lee was now two for two with massive hits in the decade and then the Kennedy Assassination happened. Jack Kirby, the creator of Captain America, thought that America needed a symbol of hope, freedom and bravery. Shortly after, Captain America was revived and immediately became a hot best seller. Kirby would also go on to create The Mighty Thor that would debut later in the decade.
It was becoming apparent that anything that Marvel Comics was releasing was becoming gold and so they decided to see how far they could push their luck. In the spring of 1963, they did something unprecedented for comic book heroes; they made the main character a teenager; Lee was encouraged many times to abandon his teenage hero idea but he pressed on. Then when Amazing Fantasy 15 hit shelves that spring, it sold out. The leading man in the comic book? Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Spider-Man immediately got a solo series and the rest is history, The Amazing Spider-Man remains one of the highest selling comic books to date and Spider-man is arguably Marvel's most popular character. Straying away from the humble Peter Parker, Marvel then tried to see if they could make a character that was the opposite of the prototypical hero and out came Tony Stark, The Invincible Iron Man.
So now Marvel has all these successful titles, so what did they do with them? They became the masters of the crossovers, they were the first comic book company to successfully create a universe where all the characters live side by side. That's how we got the Avengers. Along with the Avengers came along another title that would explode.
The 1960s was a turbulent time in American history. Marvel answered by putting out a group of heroes that were hated for something they could never control. The X-Men were born. The group presented heroes from different parts of the world with different religions and different background entirely. It was truly earth shattering for its time but wouldn't take off until the 1970's with the introduction of Wolverine.
Eight of the most iconic marvel titles came out in the 1960's and have been staples of the marvel universe ever since. Similarly speaking almost every major Marvel character has had or is getting a major motion picture since the turn of the century including but not limited to; Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man and Thor. Almost all of the movies released by Marvel Studios have been well received by fans and critics alike. We are experiencing the second Marvel Age and it has never been a better time to be a Marvel fan and a comic book enthusiast.
