History of Marvel

Ever since the release of Iron Man back in 2008, Marvel has dominated the film industry. While not nearly the first comic book to be adapted into a hit movie, Iron Man quickly grew into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has since become the most successful film franchise of all time, with 24 installments and counting. It’s not just the popularity of the superheroes or the quality of the movies themselves that have allowed the MCU to have such lasting power—surely those facets have existed in cinema since 1978’s Superman: The Movie—but much like Superman, the Marvel films have never been afraid to take risks and push the boundaries of what’s possible in storytelling. And for the first time, bringing comic books to life wasn’t just being done on an isolated level, but on a macro one.

Creating an expansive universe that, over the years, has slowly added to its cast of characters, culminating but not ending with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, Marvel

had a vision for something greater than just one movie—although they well understood the value of making each installment stand alone on its own merit. Even with Endgame and the preceding Infinity War, the studio was able to subvert our expectations of blockbuster entertainment, surprising audiences and giving us a whole lot to talk about, even beyond the water cooler. In an age when the line between film and TV is becoming thinner and thinner, Marvel has developed their characters’ arcs much similarly to a television series with multiple seasons of investment: characters change, stories evolve, “episodes” have different directors, writers. If you’re a fan of the MCU, you’re in it for the long haul. Although, fans of Marvel Comics are used to this sort of thing. The Cinematic Universe—and thus the “Superhero Age of Film”—began in 2008, but of course the company’s history dates back almost 70 years earlier.