Nowadays it seems like Marvel is everywhere. Whether you see it on movie posters, in commercials, on shirts, or kids running around with an Iron Man mask, Thor’s hammer, Captain America’s shield, or Hulk gloves, there is no doubt that Marvel has become a topic that has been skyrocketing lately. How did Marvel come to be what it is famously known as today?

Stan Lee, one of the most distinguished faces of Marvel, was born on December 28th, 1922. According to Inc.com and biography.com, It wasn’t until 1939 that Stan Lee was offered a job by his cousin’s husband, Martin Goodman for a company named Timely Publications. By the time Lee was 17, his co-workers, Joe Simon the editor and Jack Kirby the artist, were fired. So Lee accepted Martin’s offer to run the department. He started to think about a superhero that would be able to climb walls. He went down the list and settled with Spider-Man. But Stan wasn’t writing what he wanted to. He was told to write whatever other companies were selling. After working for Timely Publications for 20 years Stan wanted to quit. Instead he decided to make a change. DC comics at this time had came out with The Justice League, Stan Lee co-created a superhero group which is known as The Fantastic Four. In 1961, Lee wanted the superheroes to have real emotions and problems. After The Fantastic Four became a hit, Lee was asked to create more superheroes. He then went on to make Hulk in 1962, X-Men in 1963, and Daredevil in 1964.  Eventually they decided they needed a new name. That’s when Marvel was born. This name was chosen because The fist book that was published when Stan Lee started working there was called Marvel Comics.

Marvel doesn’t cease to solely bring comic books to the table however. When Marvel had its first movie released, a whole new game was brought to the table.

In it’s cinematic universe, Marvel follows the story lines of some of it’s most famous and favored characters. Such as the Iron Man series that started back in 2008 with the first movie of the series starring Robert Downey Jr. However there are many more Marvel characters and movies that have captured the public’s attention Thor starring Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, Captain America starring Chris Evans, Ghost Rider starring Nicholas Cage, Spider-Man staring Tobey Maguire, the Punisher starring Thomas Jane, the Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman, The Hulk starring Lou Ferrigno, Eric Bana, Edward Norton, and Mark Ruffalo. Along with

With Marvel’s many movies already made, there is still more to come for Marvel’s Cinematic Universe which has skyrocketed. Upcoming titles include

Deadpool on February 12th, 2016

Captain America: Civil War on May 6th, 2016

X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27th, 2016

Gambit on October 7th, 2016

Doctor Strange on November 4th, 2016

The Wolverine 3 on March 3rd, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on May 5th, 2017

Spider-Man (untitled) on July 7th, 2017

Thor: Ragnarok on November 3, 2017

Black Panther on February 16th, 2018

The Flash on March 16, 2018

Avengers Infinity War Part 1 on May 4th, 2018

Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, 2018

Captain Marvel on March 8th, 2019

Shazam! on April 5th, 2019

Avengers Infinity War Part 2 on May 3rd, 2019

Inhumans on July 12, 2019

Along with several others whose names and details have yet to be released.

Marvel’s latest movie, Deadpool, hits theaters on February 12th. Which Marvel must already assume will be a hit due to the fact that on February 9th it was confirmed that the movie is going to have a sequel. This movie will be particularly interesting due to the fact that Deadpool will be Marvel’s first rated R movie. Deadpool is also intended to be more comedic than the other marvel movies due to the character’s mentality as well. The comedic effect has already taken  place through the movie’s advertising. One of the most well known humorous advertisements is the the advertisement with the emojis. The emojis were a skull (dead) the poop emoji (Poo) and then an L, standing for Deadpool. However due to everyone reading the add wrong, it has inspired another advertisement mocking the first one. The next advertisement read “Skullpoopl”, showing that Marvel was actually being as sarcastic towards the advertising as the movie is intended to be. There have been various other ads as well, one with deadpool with a Santa Clause hat on, another one of him vandalizing DC comic’s movie posters, a closeup on his abdomen with him holding a gun, and one that made the movie look like a love story, due to the fact that it comes out on Valentines day.

One of Marvel’s most well known franchises is The Avengers. With the first movie making $1,519,557,910 worldwide, and with the second movie, The Avengers Age of Ultron, making $1,388,692,001 worldwide. This series is about a team of superheroes that team up together to fight a great evil. However many of the main characters have their own series as well, such as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk. Other heroes in the series include Hawkeye, and Black Widow, appearing in both of the movies, along with Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Quicksilver introduced in Avengers Age of Ultron, and lastly some side characters introduced in other Marvel movies like War Machine and Falcon. These heroes work off of each other in combat, making them the ultimate team despite their differences.

Another big Marvel title is the X-Men group. The X-Men is a group of humans, or “mutants” as they are called,  that have special abilities that they were born with or obtained, and is probably the larger chunk of superheroes that Marvel has as far as numbers of heroes go. One of the most well known characters of this series is Charles Xavier. Charles Xavier runs a school for these mutants called “Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters” where he educates the mutants, as well as helping them learn about their abilities. He finds these mutants by using his telepathic abilities through a machine called  “cerebro”, meaning “brain”,  to reach larger boundaries using his telepathic consciousness and to recruit new mutants into his school. A largely known characters other than Xavier in this series are the Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Mystique, Beast, Kitty, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Ice Man, Emma Frost, and Jean Grey. One of the main enemies of this series is Magneto and his army of mutants. Magneto thinks that mutants are superior to normal humans, while Xavier thinks that mutants and normal humans should live in peace.

Then there is The Fantastic Four, composed of Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch, the Thing, and Invisible Woman. Mr. Fantastic has the ability to stretch his body out into any shape he desires, the Human Torch has the ability to light his body ablaze and to fly, Invisible Woman has the ability to turn invisible, and the Thing has the power of strength and has a trademark rocky orange appearance. These four superheroes gained their powers after being exposed to cosmic rays during a mission to outer space for scientific purposes. They use their abilities to fight crime and fend off villains such as Doctor Doom, Galactus, and Silver Surfer.

Fun fact: Did you know that Stan Lee has made appearances in many of the marvel movies? What movies do you ask? A better question would be the movies he doesn’t appear in. Stan Lee appears in all of the Marvel movies except Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, X-Men: First Class, X2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Howard the Duck, Punisher, Punisher: War Zone, Man-Thing, Elektra, Blade, Blade 2, Blade: Trinity, and Captain America (1989) along with the Captain America short films,

Marvel even goes so far as to have its own website, Marvel.com. On the website you can find the latest information on the Marvel cinematic universe, like what movies were made, and some of the upcoming titles. They also have descriptions of the characters, a shop to buy merchandise, games, comics, and more.

Marvel is a superhero database that captures peoples attention. One of the major factors that appeal their audience is that many of the superheroes in Marvel are more relatable to normal people than the heroes of other comics. The characters are mostly human, unlike that of DC comic’s superheroes. There are some characters in the X-Men that have been in accidents that turned them into what they call “mutants” but the characters are still inherently human despite that.

Overall, Marvel has become one of the most, if not the most, iconic databases for Superheroes. What all started with a job offer for Timely Publications that Stan Lee got back in 1939, blossomed into a large and unforgettable franchise of Superheroes and villains that will surely never be forgotten.