Marvel Comics is a cultural phenomenon that has spread across the world like wild fire. What originally began as a simple comic book in 1939 in the United States, is now one of the most instantly recognizable brands on the planet, and you don’t even have to be a fan of comics or of movies to recognize it. The question that we’re posing right now is whether predicting the future of this mega-brand is a bit like gambling at a casino. You may think this is a bit of a reach, after all, we know that, when it comes to casinos, the ‘house always wins’, which may be a greater certainty than the future of a business where the core product is literally fictional.
What is the Marvel Universe?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you should at least have a passing familiarity with the concept of the ‘Marvel Universe’. But, for the sake of this article, let’s pretend for a minute that you have in fact been living under a rock and very briefly break down what the Marvel Universe actually is.
Firstly, it may be useful to examine the Marvel Universe as two different and connected components, the fictional Marvel Universe that serves as a basis and as a realm for all of the character developments and exploits, and secondly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which deals more with the actual real world platforms that portray these various characters and stories. Of course there are other media elements worth considering, including the comics themselves, graphic novels, merchandise, ‘comic cons’ (comic book world conventions), cosplay (dressing up like your favorite characters or making your own costumes) and so forth.
The Marvel Universe is essentially the fictional universe that encapsulates the places and spaces where all of the Marvel character-driven stories actually take place. In fact, the Marvel Universe goes a bit further and consists of a “multiverseâ€, made up of thousands of separate universes which are all part and parcel of the Marvel Universe.
From a more practical point of view, the shared universe concept was actually pioneered in the sixties by Stan Lee and a number of other Marvel writers and artists. They created a series of titles where certain events that took place in one story would echo on another, separate story. Furthermore, certain key characters in one story would often make cameo appearances in another story, further creating and strengthening the Marvel Universe.
Perhaps the biggest advance in the global popularity of Marvel has been realized through the second component, the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU for short. This is essentially a media franchise which connects a series of movies together and based on many of the key characters from the comics. These movies have been independently produced by Marvel Studios and include the first Iron Man release in 2008 which eventually led to the hugely popular crossover film The Avengers in 2012. Other films produced include the Spiderman, Captain America franchise, Ant Man, Daredevil and many others.
The Future of the Marvel Universe
When Disney acquired Marvel in 2009, many diehard fans were skeptical. After all, Disney has been known to wreck previously successful franchises in the past, (Star Wars anyone?). However, more recent developments have given impetus to Disney’s odds of success, with the acquisition of Fox Film Studios. This gives Disney a much wider scope, allowing them to merge iconic characters such as Wolverine and Deadpool, Scarlet Witch and others into the MCU. This in turn could create a plethora of new story lines and invigorate what many see as a flagging MCU. So, to answer the question if predicting the future of the Marvel Universe is like gambling in a casino, the answer is probably no, and yes. Casino gambling can be a lot of fun, and exciting, just like getting into the MCU, but too much gambling can also lead to dire consequences. Over exposure and risk has been known to ruin many great things and we certainly hope it won’t be the case here. Perhaps only time(and money) will tell.
Leave a Reply