With the "The Avengers", "X-Men" and "Spiderman" franchises all reaching unprecedented amounts of popular attention, it's hard not to have heard of the comic books giant Marvel. 

Marvel Enterprises, now owned by Disney, has had nearly 75 years worth of history and is home to some of the best-known and most beloved superheroes and comics of all time, rivaling DC for popularity (a truly bitter dispute, at times). With its iconic characters and incredible resurgence in popularity over the past decade, it would be remiss of me not to try to cover the vast media empire. (Next week, naturally, I plan to tackle DC Comics and its fandom.)

Subject: Marvel Comics and resultant franchise

Marvel Comics was founded in the 1939 and was first called "Timely Comics", which specialized in superhero comics, including and perhaps best known for Captain America. Because he was introduced during World War II, and continued to be an extremely popular character when he was re-introduced in 1953. Post-World War II, Timely changed its name to Atlas Comics, and shifted its peacetime focus to battling communism, rather than Nazis. 

In 1961, Marvel Comics was introduced and, in the same year, introduced the Fantastic Four, which continues to be one of its most popular characters. Thor was introduced in 1962, and in 1963, Iron Man and secret identity Anthony "Tony" Stark followed thereafter. Thor and Iron Man would later become members of the Avengers, along with the Hulk (introduced in May 1962), and others, including Ant-Man, Wasp and additional superheroes, including Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow, who were members of the team in the 2012 film.

Also in 1963, "The X-Men" was introduced, featuring running themes of prejudice, racism and discussions of humanity. These "mutants" are humans who feature the X-Gene in their DNA, providing them superhuman powers. (Fun fact, it was originally supposed to be called "The Mutants" but it was believed that readers would not know what a mutant was, and therefore, the name was changed to "X-Men".) 

"Spider-Man" and his secret identity, teenager Peter Parker, were first introduced in 1962, breaking from the previous tradition, which featured teenage heroes relegated to the sidekick role with an adult, established hero. "The Amazing Spider-Man" is the longest running Spider-Man series, which was published since March 1963 until Dec. 2012. After his introduction, Spider-Man quickly reached commercial success and became a cultural icon, where he remains until this day. 

These well-known superheroes, created in the early-to-mid 1960s, were created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko; in spite of their superhuman abilities, these characters largely presented "human" characteristics that their comic hero predecessors did not. They were more flawed, with more struggles, that made the stories more compelling and interesting.

Although Marvel Entertainment filed for bankruptcy in 1986, where it was liquidated from its parent company, Cadence Industries, and sold to New World Pictures,  then was bought again in 1989 by MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings. It went public in 1991, and merged with toymaker ToyBiz in 1998 to become Marvel Enterprises. It changed its name to Marvel Entertainment, marking its continuing foray into movie production, and was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in Aug. 2009, where it remains to this day. 

Fandom name: None that is an overarching term, but some previous terms have included Marvel Zombies, True Believers and The Merry Marvel Marching Society

There's not really a universally agreed-upon nickname that describe fans of the Marvel universe. If anything, people are asked "Marvel or DC?" and respond with one. No pithy nickname has been established, although, if anything, "True Believers" is a more common nickname than the others. The name was first given by Marvel legend Stan Lee in the 1960s, where he would put, in his soap box page (or the "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins") the phrase "Face front, True Believers". 

Because of the age of the fandom, the age range is vast, from fans who have followed the comics since their incipience to younger fans, who were introduced through a variety of methods. Especially following the huge popularity of Marvel's film endeavors, interest in the original source material has increased. 

Fandom activity: Convention, cosplay, some fanwork, forum activity and discussion and mostly consuming the media (comics, films, television, et cetera)

Comic book conventions are the most popular locales for meet-ups, and even non-comic-focused cons are well-attended by fans and comic cosplayers. 

"Obviously, comic book cons are everywhere," said my source, Anna, who otherwise wishes to remain anonymous. "[Comic book cons] spanwed conventions as we think of them now. Cons are generally the biggest part of the comics fandom." 

Additionally, cosplay is one of the most popular art forms within fandom. Costumes, such as this one, have reached near-celebrity status. From childhood Halloween costumes to extravagant and intricate costumes, cosplay can be seen at nearly every con across the United States. 

Apart from the San Diego Comic Con, Wondercon (San Francisco), Dragon*Con (Atlanta) and Emerald City Comic Con (Seattle) are some of the most popular conventions. 

The team (or "good people to know"): Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Mark Waid (current writer of "Daredevil"), Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza (creators of "Deadpool"), Grant Morrison (DC and Marvel writer), Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman (both of whom have written for Marvel), Mark Miller (who wrote "Ultimates" and wrote "Civil War"), Elliott Kalan ("Daily Show" writer and well-known comics fan)

Relevant resources: Marvel's official website, Marvel Fanlore, Livejournal's Marvel newbie guide (which has a plethora of useful links to various LJ communities), Marvel Archive, Marvel Chronology Project, and r/comicbooks on Reddit are useful locations for research and fan resource.

Fun facts, fandom happenings and general miscellany for the budding fan: 

Check out a collection of absolutely amazing fanart here. And here. 

Or, if you'd prefer, see a collection of gifs showing all of the cameos by Stan Lee in Marvel films. 

Eminem drew this. The rapper Eminem, because I doubt there are that many other ones.

NBA player Wilson Chandler has a giant tattoo of X-Man "Juggernaut" on his back. (It's the Juggernaut, bitch!) 

The word "retcon" and variants thereof is a term used by fans when the writers of comics redact a storyline, canceling or deleting everything that happened. This happens more often and is a large source of fan confusion, kerfuffle or general irritation. 

Comics are often criticized for the objectification and sexualization of female characters. Many fans have contributed to the Hawkeye Initiative and Escher Girls to point out the distortion of women in pop media. The Hawkeye Initiative takes pages with hyper-sexualized females and replaces them with a hyper-sexualized version of Hawkeye/Clint Barton, which aims to show the inappropriateness, misogyny and sheer ridiculousness (spines don't bend that way!) of the depiction of female characters. 

When fans point out continuity errors, Marvel gives them the "No-Prize." Since 1964, Marvel has awarded this prize for "meritorious service to the cause of Marveldom", in other words, they receive nothing for pointing out continuity errors, other than that nice, warm, fuzzy feeling they get in their hearts for a good deed done, and possibly, their letter published in the comic. This practice has been on and off over the years, but in 2006, Marvel instituted the Digital No-Prize, awarding it to a group of fans who donated a large number of comics to troops stationed in Iraq. 

Also, Stan Lee's Bullpen Bulletin popularized the term "excelsior!" 

There is a ton of new media coming out from the Marvel 'verse, including the upcoming "S.H.I.E.L.D." series, bringing back Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson from his appearances in "The Avengers" and other films in the franchise. Additionally, recent trailers for "Thor 2: The Dark World" were released, and "Iron Man 3" will be released May 3. There is a "Deadpool" video game June 25, as well as a new LEGO game. 

A running memetic joke online, outside fandom and within, is taking stills from the 1967-1970 animated "Spider-Man" series and overlaying them with bizarre and ridiculous captions. If you want an overview of the meme, you can check here.

And finally, Deadpool doing bizarre and crazy things—both in comics and in cosplay form. 

 

Next week! See our columnist tackle DC Comics! Thank you to UC Davis student and comics fan Anna, my source for much of the information presented in this column. 

Columnist Christine Bancroft can be reached here or found on Twitter here. She used to sit in the attic and read her aunt's old comics when everyone else went out to ski during the winter because she has problems with gravity.