For the beginning of the Marvel Comics world, we need to go back to 1939. Marvel was founded under the name Timely Comics in New York, United States, in December 1939.
The name of the founder of the company was Martin Goodman. Goodman wanted to publish superhero stories in his comics, unlike the traditional comics at that time.
Martin Goodman (January 18, 1908 – June 6, 1992) was an American publisher and businessman. He is best known as the founder of Marvel Comics. In 1939, he founded the company Timely Publications and began publishing magazines of various genres. He later expanded the company to produce Western, romantic, horror, and crime-themed comics, as well as a variety of superhero characters.
Led by Martin Goodman, the company was named Marvel Comics in the early 1960s and introduced a variety of popular superheroes. Characters such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Captain America contributed to Marvel's great success.
Martin Goodman (January 18, 1908 – June 6, 1992) was an American publisher of pulp magazines, digest sized magazines, paperback books, men's adventure magazines, and comic books, who founded the comics magazine company Timely Comics in 1939. Timely Comics would go on to be become Marvel Comics, one of the United States' two largest comic book publishers along with rival DC Comics.
Goodman is known for his influence and achievements in the comic book industry. However, many creative names (such as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko) had a great influence on Marvel's process of creating and developing these characters. Goodman died in 1992, but Marvel Comics continues to exist as an entertainment giant today.
Competition in the early years
The company, known today as DC and then known as National Comics, launched the Action Comics series, whose first hero was Superman. After National Comics achieved great success with Superman, the second superhero it published in 1939 was Batman.
Martin Goodman, the head of Timely Comics, worked constantly to show that he was better than the rival company. Also in 1939, Timely Comics published Namor, the first superhero series. Namor's most distinctive feature was that he came from Atlantis, known as the lost continent in mythology and that he hated people. On the other hand, Namor went down in history as the first anti-hero in comic book history.
With the United States entering World War II, the Timely world also took action. Namor and Human Torch characters began to use their powers against the Nazis. 6 months after the United States entered the war, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created Captain America, one of the most important characters in the Marvel Comics universe. Stan Lee, whose name we have heard in many places, first wrote dialogue for the Captain America character in the Marvel world.
With the end of the war, the popularity of superhero comics gradually declined. Comic books based on westerns, melodramas, and horror stories came to the fore. In these years, Timely Comics made an innovation and changed its name to Atlas Comics. Kid Colt and Two-Gun Kid were among the most important characters of this period. One of the surprising details was that Two-Gun Kid, who came from the Wild West to the present day as a result of the time change, later joined the Avengers.
The reputation of the Marvel Comics universe took a different step in 1956, when DC Comics made a surprising move and republished the Flash, one of the Golden Age heroes, in the story called Shadowcase. DC applied the same move to Green Lantern and Hawkman and started the silver age in the comic book world with its extraordinary success. With this success, they managed to draw the public's attention to superheroes again.
The Justice League of America was formed with the participation of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman. With this great team, the DC Universe established the first superhero team in comic book history and left its mark on the 1950s.
In 1961, Martin Goodman, the owner of the Marvel Comics publishing house, thought that he should create a superhero team to rival this alliance created by DC. Upon the instructions he gave to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the duo rolled up their sleeves to create a big sound. The resulting work was Fantastic Four. Thanks to the unexpected success of the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics overcame the economic difficulties and breathed a sigh of relief. Marvel, which strengthened its structure with young writers and cartoonists such as Don Heck and Steve Ditko, started a great attack in two years.
Thunder god Thor, Spider-Man, Green Giant Hulk, Avengers and X-Men. With the success of these comic book characters, Marvel Comics was able to expand its market share considerably. As a result, it became the leader in the market, surpassing DC.
Stan Lee's method, which he called the "Marvel Method" and followed when writing stories, was as follows: He roughly summarizes the plot to the writers and expects them to exhibit their creative freedom, and after the drawing and coloring part is completed, the story and dialogues are finalized. After this process, speech bubbles are written.
Despite the Marvel Method and the existence of successful illustrators such as Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, Marvel's main secret was adding personality and character to its heroes. Every Marvel Comics hero was struggling with human problems we can encounter in daily life. In this way, readers could easily identify themselves with the heroes in the work.
During the 1970s, Marvel Comics continued to maintain its leadership in the comic book world, especially thanks to the joint work of X-Men writer Chris Claremont and Daredevil writer Frank Miller. Chris Claremont took the X-Men series, which was on the agenda for closure, to the top with John Byrne.
Marvel Comics, which gathered remarkable cartoonists such as Steve Ditko and John Buscema in the 1960s and achieved great success, continued to apply the same strategy successfully in the late 80s. Jim Lee, Mark Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, and Todd Mc Farlane have raised the bar to the highest levels with their drawing techniques. Especially the adventures of Spider-Man and his unforgettable enemy Venom, re-arranged by Mc Farlane, took Marvel to the top in sales.