My turn
True believers, be prepared to super power your knowledge of the comics industry.
Welcome to Watchmojo's top 5 facts
In this instalment we're counting down the 5 most illuminating things you probably never knew about the publishing house that built the Avengers.
These aren't facts about the feats of your favourite heroes,
but specifically about Marvel as a company
and all the uncanny years they've spent churning out incredible comics
When I was at Marvel, our whole place was about this big.
Yeah, we all wanna know who'd win in a war between the Justice League and the X-Men,
but I think what we all really wanna know is: What does Aunt May's cooking taste like?
Well, chefs at the Hong Kong restaurant Bo Innovation teamed up with Marvel for a superhero inspired menu in November 2015.
Fans of Blackwidow enjoyed bone marrow fritters with beluga caviar, chased with a shot of Vodka.
Peter Parker inspired a delicious steamed foie gras with spider crab.
If, for some reason, you'd rather drive like a hero than eat like one, Kia recently unveiled their new X-Men inspired Sportage
Unfortunately, even though it's painted to mimic the appearance of the shape-shifting Mystic, the Kia does not transform into a better car.
Oh snaaapp!!!
You know, I guess one person can make a difference.
Nuff said.
The iconic comic creator's synonymous with Marvel,
but that hasn't stopped his former company from trying to sue Marvel over merchandising and movie rights.
Stan Lee Media, which was an internet-based entertainment portal that formed in 1998,
but that Stan Lee later abandoned, took on Disney in court for a whopping $5.5 billion
They've tried more than once to claim that Stan Lee actually assigned the rights to all of his characters to them
But the case was dismissed pretty quickly.
Jack Kirby is the king of comic books, Jack Kirby did everything.
Jack Kirby, co-creator of many Marvel characters, also tried to gain back control of his assets,
but ultimately the judge ruled that only Marvel owns Marvel.
We won.
I have a pay check due this week.
You're a month late again. Again!
Marvel was facing dire straits in 1996 after filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy
and toy company executive Avi Arad lead the charge to save Marvel by selling the film rights to some properties while acquiring others.
In the end, 20th Century Fox came away with the rights to X-Men and Fantastic 4
and now it seems that Marvel is slowly pushing those characters into the background as if to stick it to Fox.
They've dropped some major mutant characters from posters and merchandise,
cancelled the Fantastic 4 comic franchise, and their new X-Men comic seemed deadset on keeping mutants out of the spotlight.
Where are the mutants?
But it may be a power move to lower the properties so that they can reacquire them from 20th Century.
If only it was as easy as waving your hand and whispering "No more Fox".
Ah comics, depicting monsters, crime, and scantily clad women to poison the minds of young readers everywhere.
Thank goodness Dr Fredric Wertham, a psychologist, wrote Seduction of the Innocent in 1954 to warn parents about the corrupting influence of comic books.
The alarmist polemic eventually lead the comic industry to voluntarily censor themselves under the Comics Code Authority
Marvel was the first major publisher to drop the seal altogether in 2001.
They debuted their R rated Maxim print shortly after, even though Stan Lee didn't seem to approve of the new stories.
Marvel may have been the main publisher to ditch the code, but all others have followed suit since,
and the code is now defunct.
Is Wolverine human? What about beast?
Since custom tarifs were higher on dolls depicting humans than on toys depicting monsters or animals,
Marvel subsidiary ToyBiz inc did what any business would do for their bottom line
They went to court to argue that characters like Fantastic 4, Spider-Man, and most notably, the X-Men did not represent humans, but are in fact monsters,
And so deserve to tax cut.
*Laughing*
You serious?
After years of literature defending mutant rights, you gotta wonder where Magnito is when you need him.
We are the future, we are the ones who inherit this earth
In the end, a judge agreed that every single one of them were monsters.
You want society to accept you, but you can't even accept yourself.
So, what do you think? Are mutants monsters?
I guess so.
And is Marvel trying to lower the value of its titles so that they can buy them back?
No doubt about it.
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Alright, good job guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day.