This is my tribute page to Marvel Comics!!
I don't even remember when I first became a Marvel fan, it was so long ago. My dad would bring back comics every once and a while after work, and also we have some local comic shops that are pretty great -- the people who run them are really knowledgeable and talkative. Through these I started to hone down my favorite characters and teams, and it must have been pretty early that I started to Make Mine Marvel! There are a few DC heroes I enjoy, and definitely a lot of independent comics, but for superhero comics I always go back to Marvel Comics. The creative superpowers of Jack Kirby, Stan "The MAN" Lee, Steve Ditko, Chris Claremont and so many others are so much more exciting and relatable. I like collecting the issues that are my favorite characters/teams, but also the series that have really great stories and cover art.
Of course, the team that really stands out, both on comic book store shelves and in TV and movies, is the Uncanny....
X-Men is really the star, even though they weren't the first of the Marvel comics to take off. In fact, the story of the Mutants being oppressed by humans was a big commentary on Civil Rights, but the series didn't start to become popular until they brought it back in the late 70's and into the 80's. The writing of Chris Claremont really gave way to a new era of realistic characters and storylines at Marvel, something they always prided themselves on over DC. There are really interesting moments like the introduction of younger mutants and entire teams, the diversity of personalities and powers clashing, and the interrelationships being often more like a soap opera than a superhero epic. By the time that Jim Lee started making the character designs into the iconic ones we love today, the dynamics between characters, team leaders, love interests, and villains was established but also constantly changing and challenging itself. X-Men has altered their own timelines, developed allegories and new insights into mutantkind, and shown characters growing and making personal realizations: all very fitting for a series about evolution.
Wolverine is my best bud Mike's fave. The mysterious Logan recently had his full backstory released, but for most of X-Men history it was basically a black box. I think a lot of other comic artists copied the sharp look of Wolvie.
My favorite X-Men are Nightcrawler, Gambit, Beast, and Storm.
The X-Men, Wolverine, and other Marvel characters have made it into some pretty fun video games. Children of the Atom, Age of Apocalypse, even the Sega Game Gear X-Men game was fun. But I think that X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the X-Men arcade cabinet games were the ones that everyone in my generation remembers lining up for at the arcade.
Of course, the X-Men were made into a film and cartoon, but I really would love to see my favorite team adapted for live action...
My favorite being the charging star, sentinel of liberty, puncher of nazis...
I was never a huge fan of the Fantastic Four (except who doesn't love the ever-lovin Thing) but they do have one of the best villains... Doctor Doom.
Spidey is Marvel's most sensational and amazing character, meaning he sells the most merch. I also enjoyed Spider-Man when I was younger, but now I notice he's more for my little cousins. I do still enjoy Spider-Man, but usually as a team-up with other characters. He's used well as someone who can swing from title to title and connect a lot of the world, since he kind of goes everywhere. Venom, on the other hand, is one of my favorite villains, or more accurately, anti-heroes.
Marvel really has the best villains. Magneto is someone that you can kind of agree with a lot of the time.
You could find episodes of the X-Men cartoon in reruns, but also on VHS. Not just your local video store, but Pizza Hut released their own tapes of these same episodes. You could also get specific limited edition comics of the X-Men from places like Pizza Hut and Toys R Us. I remember being at my friend Matt's house, and he showed me and Mike an obscure VHS tape of an earlier X-Men episode from the '80s, with Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and an Australian Wolverine for some reason. Matt's parents ran a video store, so he always had access to some pretty interesting stuff.
Another cool thing about Marvel is that they take place in the real world. Unlike DC and other comic companies, who put their characters into fictional places like Gotham or Fawcett City, Marvel populates New York City. So it makes sense that there would be attempts to bring Marvel into our real world. Marvel Mania is a themed restaurant at City Walk in Hollywood near Universal Studios. And the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando Florida opened their Islands of Adventure, and one of them is Marvel's Superhero island. It's pretty fun and interactive, with actual heroes walking around and little references to other characters in every corner. They put on shows, and the rides are thrilling (the Spidey ride is very interactive, even the wait in line immerses you in the Daily Bugle office), and they sell unique trading cards.
Speaking of trading cards, my buds and I used to collect and trade Marvel cards even more than baseball or other sports cards. It would really depend on the set, and if the artwork was good. I think they started to flood the market (the same thing happened to baseball cards and with Star Wars figures), but another problem is that the cards got more gimmicky (all-metal foil cards all the time) but without quality art work. This first card is from when I met Spider-Man in person at the roller rink. The second isn't an especially memorable or favorite, but it's pretty indicative of the times.
Wizard and Toyfare magazine is where we would get a lot of comics news. Of course, Marvel was always great at providing bullpen news and letters, but these magazines also had industry insider scoops, parody comics, info for collections, and other great tidbits.
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I meantioned games, and two others that I used to love to play at home were Maximum Carnage for SNES, which had a red cartridge and music by Green Jelly. The other was a CD-ROM for the computer called "How to Draw the Marvel Way", which had also been educational book and VHS. The CD-ROM version was all interactive, and narrated by Stan Lee himself. There were lessons, fun tests, trivia, printouts for drawing experiments and blank comic pages, and digital art boards to practice designing layouts. The radio was also really fun, since it led me to buy some albums like Reel Big Fish and Fleming & John.
Other merch included playsets and action figures, even miniature "pocket" versions, trading cards and pogs. I finally finished a few of my trading card collections of Marvel (and X-Men and Spider-Man). My friend and I used to lug our playsets to each other's houses when we were kids, or just go outside and all of us would pick X-Men to play as.
Doctor Strange should get a special mention, he's also one of my favorites. Steve Ditko is one of the greatest of all time, but he's pretty shy and reclusive, so good luck getting an autograph!
Excelsior, true believers!