Marvel Comics left a significant effect on american pop culture by discussing current social and political issues.
Because comic books come out on a monthly basis, they are able to keep up with current news and issues around the world. Their weekly showings of their spin off shows, Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Agent Carter, also help show the current issues of the world.
The Marvel Universe as a whole is just as vital to the company's sucsess as the constant updates because of how itracate each story line is. Unlike it's largest competator, DC Comics, every story line and every character is realated, this creates an entire alternate universe in which one characters acts can directly effect a compleatly otherwise unrelated character. For the reader, this universe is a highly imersive world for them to explore. For the company, the universe is the greatest marketing idea of all time, because a reader could be reading one comic, for example Avengers, and there could be a refrence to, say, Loki from Thor, and because of that now this reader is not only buying one comic but two. This can generate a huge amount of revenue as well as popularity.
On top of that Marvel offers truly complex characters that readers can relate to because the characters are not perfect they all have faults and problems that make it easy for everyone to find a character to relate to. And the heros face villans that are just as complex and are not all ways as bad as they come off as.
Another reason Marvel is so succesful is because they are willing to take risks and are willing to try new things. When Stan Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel, proposed the idea of Spider-Man, the whole essence of the character was unheard of. Spider- Man was a teenager, teens in comics were never the main character only a sidekick. Also since Spidey had no mentor, like a sidekick would have, he was all on his own, to make mistakes and learn from them. As well as being on his own Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man), has to face the normal issuses that come with going through high school, liking girls dealing with bullys and having homework. Spider-Man has one other little problem, his name is utterly unappealing, the fear of spiders being the third most popular fear (about 31% of Americans alone are scared of spiders), with this the Marvel publisher, Martin Goodman, was fearful of a low readership.But Spider- Man is only one of the many examples of Marvel's risk taking.
The Marvel Universe as a whole is just as vital to the company's sucsess as the constant updates because of how itracate each story line is. Unlike it's largest competator, DC Comics, every story line and every character is realated, this creates an entire alternate universe in which one characters acts can directly effect a compleatly otherwise unrelated character. For the reader, this universe is a highly imersive world for them to explore. For the company, the universe is the greatest marketing idea of all time, because a reader could be reading one comic, for example Avengers, and there could be a refrence to, say, Loki from Thor, and because of that now this reader is not only buying one comic but two. This can generate a huge amount of revenue as well as popularity.
On top of that Marvel offers truly complex characters that readers can relate to because the characters are not perfect they all have faults and problems that make it easy for everyone to find a character to relate to. And the heros face villans that are just as complex and are not all ways as bad as they come off as.
Another reason Marvel is so succesful is because they are willing to take risks and are willing to try new things. When Stan Lee, the former president and chairman of Marvel, proposed the idea of Spider-Man, the whole essence of the character was unheard of. Spider- Man was a teenager, teens in comics were never the main character only a sidekick. Also since Spidey had no mentor, like a sidekick would have, he was all on his own, to make mistakes and learn from them. As well as being on his own Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man), has to face the normal issuses that come with going through high school, liking girls dealing with bullys and having homework. Spider-Man has one other little problem, his name is utterly unappealing, the fear of spiders being the third most popular fear (about 31% of Americans alone are scared of spiders), with this the Marvel publisher, Martin Goodman, was fearful of a low readership.But Spider- Man is only one of the many examples of Marvel's risk taking.
One other reason Marvel is so succesful was the Merry Marvel Marching Society, or M.M.M.S.. The MMMS was a fan club for fans to keep them connected to the comic book universe, this gave readers a sense of belonging in the company. When a fan signed up for the MMMS they got tons of free merchandise this set the company apart because no other companies would incorporate their fans so much. Depicted above is the offical seal of the M.M.M.S., a botton that members receive when the sign up, the offical pledge, two adds for the M.M.M.S. and a certificate of membership.The fan club was something Marvel used to set the company appart from there biggest competition DC. The one dollar membership fee also generated revinue.