Marvel Comics

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Marvel Comics is the younger of the two most popular comics companies of all time. If you haven't heard of them, you've been living under a real rock. They are iconic for their work in the Supers genre, although /tg/ also likes them for their dabbling in Sword & Sorcery comics as part of Marvel including whatever licensed stuff they have into their continuity. This means Conan and Red Sonja are actually historical figures in Marvel's Earth, and Conan has actually met some superheroes due to time-travel shenanigans.

Universe

Marvel Comics arguably came into its own in the so-called "Bronze Age" of comics, when the restrictions of the Silver Age eased and comics could start showing more serious tone. Having struggled to really keep up with DC Comics during the Silver Age, the Bronze Age allowed Marvel to find a defining "feel" for itself as, essentially, "soap operas with supers".

Characters tend to be much less powerful in Marvel compared to DC - in particular, whereas DC heroes tend to have large powersets covering multiple superhuman abilities, Marvel heroes are more likely to focus on comparatively small powerset, or even just a single power. Perhaps as a result of this, Marvel heroes tend to be more likely to team up either informally or formally.

In contrast to DC's finite, countable, number of alternate realities (52+various one-off series+imprints+anti-mater universe Earths), Marvel has endless, near infinite, ones.

Notable Supers of World War II

Namor McKenzie, the Submariner

A tryst between an Scottish blooded American and an Atlantian princess has produced a half-Atlantian half-Human supermutant that's one of the oldest characters from what is now Marvel comics. Originally appeared as a villain that destroyed New York, which has since been retconned by certain environmental conditions causing him to go crazy. Later teams up with Captain America and the Human Torch after learning some recent environmental damage that threatened his home was caused by the Nazis. For some reason, despite being the off-spring of a Scot and an Atlantic Ocean fish, he has always been depicted with Asian facial features. Aquaman was a ripoff of him.

Effectively immortal (or at least long lived enough the near century doesn't matter much to him), Namor still shows up in modern comics.

Captain America

Rejected from normal military service for being too scrawny, all-American patriot and scholar Steve Rogers instead decides to serve his country by volunteering as test subject for an experimental super soldier formula. The formula works, transforming Steve into the "peak human" Captain America, but a spy kills the formula's creator and destroys the lab, causing the formula to be forever lost. Gets a shield made of super metal capable of reflecting stuff, which he can throw as a weapon with uncanny ability. He spends a few years fighting spies and criminals and after Pearl Harbor, he leads America's superpowered forces during World War II. His true, idealistic, belief in American values contrasts his commander-in-chief's views that the Constitution was "marvelously elastic", to the point of believing it was OK to suppress exonerating evidence in order implement crimes against humanity on American citizens.

Near the end of the war, Captain America was lost and frozen in an ice berg, surviving thanks to being a super soldier. He is recovered near the start of the modern age (whenever that currently is) and revived, where he's living anachronism in a world that has largely moved past his values, but he's still the best leader of supermen in the world (if not beyond). Presumably sterile, since clones have his powers yet he's never had his sperm harvested to created peak human superbabies.

The Human Torch

Before World War II reached the United States, the scientist Phineas Horton created a revolutionary intelligent android. A flaw in the components causes the android to ignite when exposed to oxygen, forcing Horton to imprison the android in a vacuum sealed capsule. The capsule's seal quickly decays and the android breaks out, learns to control its fire powers in an easily replicated accident with a common enough material, and become a superhero known as the Human Torch, taking the alias Jim Hammond. He would adopt Tom "Toro" Raymond, a trainwreck survivor with pyrokinetic abilities of his own (Toro had no origin story till he was retconned into being a mutant in 1977). This android and his sidekick would eventually fight in World War II and has the honor of killing Hitler in the Marvel universe..

Made a few appearances early in the modern age, but has largely been forgotten. For whatever reason the fact that, uncontrollable flames aside, the Marvel world has had intelligent androids that can pass for human since 1939 is rarely relevant, and normal people have technology that's only on par with the current stuff.

Notable Supers of the "Modern" Age

The Fantastic Four

One of the oldest and certainly the breakout stars of Marvel's early days, the Fantastic Four's star has waned somewhat since the Silver Age. When scientist Reed Richards persuades his old friend Benjamin Grimm to pilot an experimental rocket of his up into space, along with siblings Susan and Johnny Storm, the quartet are bombarded by mysterious cosmic radiation. Crashlanding back on Earth, they discover that each of them has been imbued with a supernatural ability; Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) has gain a body of living elastic, allowing him to stretch, squash, and reshape himself as he desires, whilst Susan (Invisible Girl/Woman) has gained the power of invisibility (and, later, invisible forcefield projection) and Johnny (The Human Torch, taking a name from a World War II hero that was actually a robot) can cover himself in a fiery aura that lets him fly and hurl fireballs. And poor Ben Grimm (The Thing) has been transformed into a monstrous, ogre-like figure made of rocky scales, imbued with fantastic strength and durability.

The Fantastic Four thrived in the Silver Age; their entire concept was, essentially, "explorers of the unknown", with Reed constantly inventing new rockets/time traveling machines/dimensional gateways/scanners that uncover long-hidden secret civilizations and the like. But even here the "super soap opera" formula was taking form. Reed and Sue's relationship is always somewhat rocky, since Reed has a bad tendency to focus on his science and neglect his wife, whilst Reed also feels guilty for Ben's incurable transform, and Ben resents him in turn. And all the while, Ben and Johnny squabble like brothers.

Seven years after their creation (surprisingly brief for superhero romances) Reed and Sue have a son they name Franklin after Sue and Johnny's father. Franklin had the power of Psionics, with the exact details as confusing and contradictory as pre-3.5 psionics. The most notable thing about Franklin is his aging makes the the sliding timescale weird: Born in 1968, he was barely more than a toddler (if that) when he joins Power Pack in 1986, and only hitting puberty in the late 2010s.

The X-Men

The second major team-focused product from Marvel, the X-Men are a group of mutants - a newly emerging human subspecies who possess powers and/or deformities as a result of an awakened "X-Gene". Led by the visionary civil rights activist Charles Xavier, they seek to promote peace and equality between humans and mutants, whilst battling against myriad mutant criminals - most prominently Magneto, a charismatic magnetism-controlling Jew who, having seen his human family destroyed by the Nazis, is determined to prevent similar atrocities from being carried out against mutants.

Floundering during the Silver Age, it was the Bronze Age when the X-men stepped forward and truly took off, since they combined the super soap opera formula with an ability to stand in for any of the various Civil Rights movements of the time.

Spider-Man

Arguably one of the most famous Marvel superheroes who actually isn't part of a team. Spider-Man was Stan Lee's attempt to get away from the "kid sidekick" trope, which he loathed, by creating a fully independent teenage superhero - Peter Parker, a brilliant but socially awkward youth from a blue-collar background who gained fantastic spider-like powers after being bitten by an irradiated spider. When his Uncle Ben is murdered by a robber that Peter could have stopped but selfishly chose not to, Peter vows to live up to his uncle's creed that "with great power, there must also come great responsibility", and attempts to become a superpowered costumed vigilante, whilst juggling a normal life around his secret life as a crime-fighter.

Surprisingly, he's spun out a rather large "family" of knock-off Spider-folk, something that you normally see more in DC Comics. A short list of Spideys, not counting alternate dimensional counterparts (like the famous Spider-Man Noir, who lives in a pre-World War 2 version of New York, or Spider-Man 2099, who is a Mexican-American from a dystopian future accidentally imbued with a semblance of Spidey's powers):

• Scarlet Spider: The original knock-off Spider-Man, this poor bastard was part of the infamous convoluted 90s mega-event known and loathed as "The Clone Saga". Long story short, there was a clone of Peter Parker created, nobody was sure who was the original at first, and the guy who thought he was a clone went off, dyed his hair blonde, changed his name to Ben Reilly, and created a new identify for himself as the Scarlet Spider - his suit was solid red, contrasting a blue hoodie (hood usually worn down) with a black spider emblazoned on the front. Most notable for wearing tricked out gauntlets that could launch "impact webbing" (basically webbing grenades) and spiked projectiles called "spider stingers".
• Kaine: A failed and deformed prototype clone, also from the Clone Saga. Basically Spidey's answer to Red Hood.
• Venom: A former rival journalist bonded to a slime-like alien organism that Spidey wore for a while as living battle armor, until he found out it wanted to permanently fuse with him on a genetic level. Has repeatedly flipflopped between hero and villain.
• Carnage: A serial killer bonded with the offspring of Venom's alien bio-armor. Such a crazy psychopath that Spidey and Venom regularly team up to kick his shit in.
• Spider-Woman: There have been multiple female counterparts to Spider-Man, and their backstories are all a mess.
  • Jessica Drew: The first Spider-Woman. Has had multiple contradictory backstories, including being treated with radiation and spider venom to save her from an incurable disease or being an actual spider hyper-evolved into a human woman. Wore a red and yellow suit. Can fly, fire bolts of bio-electricity from her hands, and emit pheromones that repulse women but enthrall men.
  • Julia Carpenter: Got superpowers by being tricked into entering a shady super soldier program. Gained super-strength, wall-crawling, and the ability to project "psychic webbing" from her fingertips.
  • Charlotte Witter: A psychic whose powers were involuntarily activated through torturous experiments inflicted upon her by Dr. Octopus. Possessed adhesive "psi-webs", the ability to produce telekinetic "limbs" that looked like ghostly spider's legs, precognition, telepathy, and psionic detection. The only villainous Spider-Woman.
  • Martha Franklin: Niece of Spidey's antagonist J. Jonah Jameson. Through magical bullshit, gained the combined powers of the first three Spider-Women above. Then got killed off.
  • Anya Corazon: Latina who belonged to a mystic society, which gave her a magical tattoo that she could use to summon a mystical carapace that gave her enhanced strength and durability. Lost that power and switched to spider-themed gadgets instead. Originally called herself Arana ("Arachnid"), now goes by Spider-Girl.
  • Cindy Moon: The most recent Spider-Woman, introduced in 2014. A girl who got bit by the same spider that bit Peter Parker, but she couldn't control her powers, so she was sealed up in a bunker for a decade until Spidey freed her. Same powers as Spider-Man, but produces organic webbing from glands in her wrists. Calls herself "Silk" rather than "Spider-Woman".
• Miles Morales: Technically comes from another dimension, but has been permanently moved to the mainstream universe, so he counts. Mixed race (Black/Latino) teenager who got bit by the same spider that bit his dimension's version of Peter Parker. Refused to become a hero, until his dimension's Spider-Man got killed. Then tried to take up the mantle in guilt. The skubbiest Spidey-clone; you either love him as a genuine affirmative action legacy character, or you hate him because he doesn't seem to have any character depth outside of "Teen Spidey, but BLACK!"

The Hulk

A throw-back to the earlier monster comics that Marvel had made its name from, the Hulk is brilliant but neurotic and emotionally repressed scientist Bruce Banner, who is exposed to the detonation of his own superweapon, the Gamma Ray Bomb, whilst trying to rescue a teenager who drove onto the military blast testing site. The radiation, rather than killing him, unlocks a split personality; a brutish, adrenaline-driven childlike creature, the embodiment of Banner's pent up rage and hatred. Now, whenever Banner gets angry, he transforms into a super-powered green giant with the mind of an angry child and torn clothing that always covers the private parts, known as the Hulk. And whilst Hulk just wants to be left alone, humanity refuses to stop provoking him.

His cousin, She-Hulk, is one of the few distaff counterparts in comics to grow beyond just a female version of an existing character. After his cousin Jennifer Walters is injured, Bruce is forced to give a her blood transfusion, which inadvertently turns her into a large green giant as well. Unlike Bruce however, Jennifer is largely in control of her abilities and takes great pride in being a huge, sexy musclegirl while also being recognized for her brains as an accomplished attorney.

Iron Man

Tony Stark, a genius weapon inventor who was also an eminently hatible asshole playboy who was kidnapped by [insert currently politically acceptable villain here]. After being forced to make weapons for his captor, he instead builds a suit of super-armor with which he escapes, although the experience leaves shrapnel dangerously close to his heart, which results in him needing to keep a part of the suit over his heart to keep the shrapnel from migrating.

Usually played as a heroic trainwreck: He fights the good fight, but he just as frequently is his own worst enemy. His control freak issues, general assholery, survivor's guilt, and alcoholism are the usual centers of his weaknesses.

The Avengers

Like DC, Marvel came up with a big meta-team for its superheroes. But whereas the Justice League was built around the idea of "people love these superheroes, so if we have them all adventure together, it'll be even bigger!", the Avengers originally began as a kind of dumping ground for B-lister and C-lister superheroes whom Marvel really didn't think could pull off their own comic lines. Characters like Iron Man, Ant Man, and Thor.

It should be added that the Avengers was originally more of a "place to stay" than a traditional superteam; there was a large mansion donated by Tony Stark, which was effectively the Avengers "clubhouse", with people cycling in and out as they needed a place to stay. The thing is, as so many characters cycled through, and so many minor characters who suddenly got popular had the Avengers in their history, their profile was raised until the Infinity Gems became a thing, at which point the Avengers became the big "all hands on deck" team Marvel used when they wanted to do a big "event" comic. (The Fantastic Four and X-Men both being restricted in membership to Four members and mutants, respectively.)

Nowdays, you'd be hardpressed to remember that they began as, basically, Marvel's league of losers.

Deadpool

A terminal cancer patient subjected to an experimental treatment that gave the subject Wolverine's regeneration ability. Unfortunately for him, the rapid destruction and reconstruction has caused him to go crazy, and has left him horribly disfigured to the point he looks like Freddy Kruger and Brundlefly's horribly mutated lovechild. Possibly the oddest character to get popular; among other things, referred to as "The Regenerating Degenerate" "The Merc with the Mouth", and various other, less printable things, Deadpool started out as one of Rob Liefeld's many pointlessly edgy villains, but was eventually adopted into a much more interesting character by later writers. Deadpool's popularity is built on a few major pillars:

1. Ultraviolence. The character came of age in an era when ultraviolence was popular, and between his regeneration and the fact that he's usually fighting generic criminal mooks, he's very much a "as much violence, blood, and guts as the rating allows" character.
2. He's a pathetic loser. He's usually depicted as living in a dingy apartment, hated by just about everybody who knows him, and in general, is frequently portrayed as lower class. And the same experiment that gave him powers also resulted in him becoming completely insane, and in constant pain (the only reason he survived it is because his terminal cancer interacted with the induced regeneration factor in such a way that he could survive, unlike all the other subjects of said experiment).
3. Wisecracks and random humor, especially weird pop culture references. Again, insane.
4. He breaks the fourth wall. A lot. And he occasionally actually directly interacts with it in very odd ways. Most other characters write it off as him being insane, so he can do so in mostly serious works. Tends to get really played up in non-comics appearances; for example, in the Marvel vs Capcom games, he hits his opponent with their own health bar from the game's GUI.

Power Pack

The four Power siblings were given superpowers by a dying alien who tried, and failed, to stop another group of aliens from kidnapping their father to learn the secrets of the destructive matter/anti-matter bomb he accidentally created. In addition to a common abilities of moderate regeneration (can heal broken bones in days instead of months) that can be augmented by combining for a trance (able to cure supernatural disease), and summonable costumes, each of the four has a unique power based on aspects of physics. Alex, the bossy oldest sibling, has the power of tactile gravity manipulation and takes the name Gee (later taking advantage of temporary power loss to quietly switch to Zero-G when he's told how stupid "Gee" sounds). Julie/Lightspeed, the bibliophile elder sister, has the power of motion... which is really just high speed flight with a rainbow trail. Jack, the over-confident and jerkish younger brother, has control over his density (allowing him to switch to an ultra-dense miniature version or an insubstantial cloud of flying gas) becomes Mass Master. Katie/Energizer, the immature youngest child, gains the power of energy allowing her to convert mass to energy at a touch (explicitly able to be used on living beings) then shoot it out a powerful exploding ball. Despite being a group of children, their stories were known to be extremely dark and heavily incorporated the regular crossover events, often to a greater extent than the series that was supposed to be the star (Inferno has had relatively little lasting impact on X-Men, but was catalyst for several major plot developments in the story of the Power children).

While merely B-Listers (if that) at their height, they stand out for being the newest Marvel heroes in the main continuity with actual relevance that didn't come from an existing property. While the group has since split up as most of the members have reached adulthood, the component members make regular appearances. The girls are also extremely popular in the western Loli fandom. Alongside the much older (in real world terms) Billy Batson, they're the model for superpowered children without adult superiors.

Hercules

Literally just the Hercules of myth who has returned to the modern world.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The largest franchise on Earth at the moment, the MCU has plenty of coverage elsewhere. We only mention it here because, again, most profitable franchise on Earth at the moment.

Weird Connections and Other Trivia

The Tokusatsu genre owes a lot to various Marvel projects: The Japanese version of Spider-Man, for example, was the first Tokusatsu show to feature a giant robot, and Marvel did some licensing that resulted in them being credited in three seasons of Super Sentai (better known as the series that would later be transformed into Power Rangers).

There was a fully licensed Star Trek/X-Men novel entitled "Planet X". It's as stupid as it sounds.

One particular X-Men character, Wolverine, became so well-known for gratuitous cameos that TVTropes named their page on "Brief cameos of a popular character that are heavily advertised but amount to nothing" "Wolverine Publicity".

/tg/ Relevance

Like its rival, Marvel Comics have produced a number of licensed tie-in RPGs, and even TSR partnered up with them to bring those games to the table.