Marvel Quiz
One of Marvel's biggest heroes debuted in a comic that was about to be cancelled.
A Marvel quiz with answers that goes back to the comics: first appearances, the people who wrote and drew them, and the odd turns on the way to the cinema. Film fans and comic readers both get a fair chance.
Did you know?
- In the 1960s Marvel invented the No-Prize for readers who spotted mistakes in its comics and could explain them away. Winners eventually received an envelope in the post, printed with congratulations, that was completely empty. The joke became so popular that fans competed for it for decades.
- Spider-Man's mask covers his whole face, which was unusual for a 1960s hero. Stan Lee later said he liked the design because readers of any background could imagine themselves inside the costume, and because it hid how young and worried the character really was.
- Groot is older than most of Marvel's famous heroes. He first appeared in 1960, a year before the Fantastic Four, as a giant tree monster from another planet in the anthology series Tales to Astonish. He was only reinvented as a friendly hero decades later.
From newsstand comics to a shared universe
Marvel's story starts in New York in 1939, when the pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman moved into the new business of comic books. His first issue featured the Human Torch, an android who burst into flame, and Namor the Sub-Mariner, a prince from under the sea. Captain America followed in 1941, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Superheroes then faded during the 1950s, and the company turned to westerns, romance, humour and monster stories.
The 1961 turning point
In November 1961 the first issue of Fantastic Four, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, changed the company's direction. Its heroes argued with each other, worried about money and did not always want their powers. Spider-Man, created with the artist Steve Ditko, was a teenager with homework and an elderly aunt to look after. The stories took place in real New York neighbourhoods rather than invented cities, and characters from one title regularly walked into another, building a single shared world.
Readers as part of the club
Marvel in the 1960s spoke to readers directly. Letters pages were answered in a chatty voice, credits gave the staff playful nicknames, and a monthly column described life in the office, which was called the Bullpen. A fan club, the Merry Marvel Marching Society, was launched in 1964. This friendly tone helped the comics spread to university campuses, where older readers treated them as something worth discussing rather than throwing away.
From page to screen
The company's path to cinema was not smooth. After a boom and collapse in the collectors' market, Marvel filed for bankruptcy protection in December 1996. To raise money it licensed film rights to different studios, which is why Spider-Man and the X-Men were first filmed by other companies. Marvel Studios later borrowed against its own characters to pay for films itself, the first of which were released in 2008, and in 2009 Disney agreed to buy the company for about four billion dollars.