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85-466: While in college, Spencer wrote three pitches to Marvel soon after the launch of the Marvel Knights imprint in 1998. According to Spencer, " Joe [Quesada] didn’t like the first two but the third one was a Black Cat pitch that was a Jackie Brown kind of Tarantino -esque thing. He said he liked that one but they weren’t going to do anything with anybody new at the time." After another pitch

170-653: A Once Upon a Time graphic novel was announced for publication in September. With Disney, Marvel announced in October 2013 that in January 2014 it would release its first title under their joint "Disney Kingdoms" imprint "Seekers of the Weird", a five-issue miniseries. On January 3, 2014, fellow Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm announced that as of 2015, Star Wars comics would once again be published by Marvel. Following

255-414: A Cold War culture that led their creators to revise the superhero conventions of previous eras to better reflect the psychological spirit of their age. Eschewing such comic book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a "superheroes in the real world" approach, the series represented

340-748: A Jimmy Olsen serial that ran in Action Comics and featured the comic book debut of the character Chloe Sullivan from the TV series Smallville . In 2011, he wrote the modern revamp of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and was announced as the new writer of the Supergirl ongoing series, although he was taken off the title shortly thereafter. At the 2011 Emerald City Comic Con , it was announced that Spencer had signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, one that would allow him to continue writing his existing titles at both DC and Image. Spencer's first work for Marvel

425-862: A 10% fee from subscription payments. Substack earns no revenue from advertisements placed by publishers. In February 2019, the platform began allowing creators to monetize podcasts. Substack reported 11,000 paid subscribers as of 2018, rising to 50,000 in 2019. Substack raised an initial seed round in 2018 from investors including The Chernin Group , Zhen Fund , Twitch CEO Emmett Shear , and Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron . Andreessen Horowitz provided $ 15.3 million in Series A funding in 2019, some of which went to bringing high-profile writers into Substack's network. Substack has provided some content creators with advances to start working on their platform. In 2019,

510-617: A Marvelcon '76. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Jack Kirby , the artist co-creator of most of Marvel's signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics . In October 1976, Marvel, which already licensed reprints in different countries, including the UK, created a superhero specifically for the British market. Captain Britain debuted exclusively in

595-586: A brief time. During his time as president, he appointed his associate editor, prolific writer Roy Thomas , as editor-in-chief. Thomas added "Stan Lee Presents" to the opening page of each comic book. A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code published titles themed to horror ( The Tomb of Dracula ), martial arts ( Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu ), sword-and-sorcery ( Conan

680-541: A cash and stock deal worth approximately $ 4 billion, which if necessary would be adjusted at closing, giving Marvel shareholders $ 30 and 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they owned. As of 2008, Marvel and its major competitor DC Comics shared over 80% of the American comic-book market. As of September 2010, Marvel switched its bookstore distribution company from Diamond Book Distributors to Hachette Distribution Services . Marvel moved its office to

765-502: A change that proved to be a great success. Marvel often presented flawed superheroes, freaks, and misfits—unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in previous traditional comic books. Some Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters such as the Hulk and the Thing . This naturalistic approach even extended into topical politics. Comics historian Mike Benton also noted: In

850-518: A chord with the older readers, including college-aged adults. In 1965, Spider-Man and the Hulk were both featured in Esquire magazine's list of 28 college campus heroes, alongside John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan . In 2009, writer Geoff Boucher reflected that, Superman and DC Comics instantly seemed like boring old Pat Boone ; Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion . It

935-505: A controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. During Shooter's nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief, Chris Claremont and John Byrne 's run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller 's run on Daredevil became critical and commercial successes. Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market , institutionalized creator royalties, starting with

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1020-518: A crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four , and outsource them to the studios of two of the former Marvel artists turned Image Comics founders, Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The relaunched titles, which saw the characters transported to a parallel universe with a history distinct from the mainstream Marvel Universe, were

1105-524: A deal brokered by Malibu Comics ' owner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg . Three years later, on November 3, 1994, Rosenberg sold Malibu to Marvel. In purchasing Malibu, Marvel now owned computer coloring technology that had been developed by Rosenberg, and also integrated the Ultraverse line of comics and the Genesis Universe into Marvel's multiverse . Earlier that year, the company secured

1190-535: A deal with Harvey Comics , whereas Marvel took on the publishing and distribution of Harvey's titles. In late 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. Then, by

1275-620: A deal with Substack to publish creator-owned comics stories, essays, and instructional guides on that platform. Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City -based comic book publisher , a property of The Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman as Timely Comics , and by 1951 had generally become known as Atlas Comics . The Marvel era began in August 1961 with

1360-959: A friendly home for journalism, ... few of its newsletters publish original reporting; the majority offer personal writing, opinion pieces, research, and analysis." It described Substack's content moderation policy as "lightweight", with rules against "harassment, threats, spam, pornography, and calls for violence; moderation decisions are made by the founders". In 2019, Substack added support for podcasts and discussion threads among newsletter subscribers. Major writers on Substack include historian Heather Cox Richardson , tech journalists Casey Newton and Eric Newcomer , journalist Matthew Yglesias , economists Glenn Loury and Emily Oster , linguist John McWhorter , journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss , and authors Daniel M. Lavery , George Saunders , Blake Nelson , Chuck Palahniuk , Marianne Williamson , Salman Rushdie , Tui T. Sutherland , David Bentley Hart , and Skottie Young . As of November 2021,

1445-442: A line of digital comics , Marvel AR, a software application that provides an augmented reality experience to readers and Marvel NOW! , a relaunch of most of the company's major titles with different creative teams. Marvel NOW! also saw the debut of new flagship titles including Uncanny Avengers and All-New X-Men . In April 2013, Marvel and other Disney conglomerate components began announcing joint projects. With ABC ,

1530-591: A month, maybe more, and ... suddenly we went ... to either eight or 12 books a month, which was all Independent News Distributors would accept from us." The company was briefly renamed to Goodman Comics in 1957 under the distribution deal with Independent News . The first modern comic books under the Marvel Comics brand were the science-fiction anthology Journey into Mystery #69 and the teen-humor title Patsy Walker #95 (both cover dated June 1961), which each displayed an "MC" box on its cover. Then, in

1615-598: A monthly or annual subscription fee. At the December 2007 the New York Anime Fest, the company announcement that Del Rey Manga would published two original English language Marvel manga books featuring the X-Men and Wolverine to hit the stands in spring 2009. In 2009 Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying

1700-555: A more stable means to maintain readers through a more direct connection with writers. In 2020, The New Republic said there was an absence of local news newsletters, especially in contrast to the large number of national-level political newsletters. As of late 2020, large numbers of journalists and reporters were coming to the platform, driven in part by the long-term decline in traditional media (there were half as many newsroom jobs in 2019 as in 2004). Around that time, The New Yorker wrote that while "Substack has advertised itself as

1785-469: A new Atlas Comics line, but this lasted only a year and a half. In the mid-1970s a decline of the newsstand distribution network affected Marvel. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck fell victim to the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales when in fact the first specialty comic book stores resold them at a later date. But by the end of the decade, Marvel's fortunes were reviving, thanks to

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1870-525: A number of different titles. Goodman's business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these shell companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55 (May 1944). As well, some comics' covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12 (Winter 1946–47), were labeled "A Marvel Magazine" many years before Goodman would formally adopt

1955-860: A program known as Substack Pro. Substack has been criticized for not disclosing which writers were part of Substack Pro. Substack provides legal advice to its writers through its program Substack Defender. Lawyers provide a legal review of stories before they are published, and provide advice surrounding cease-and-desist letters related to writers' work. This includes stating that they will defend Jessica Reed Kraus if Amber Heard decided to sue her. In 2020, popular platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube began restricting or removing accounts that they claim spread COVID-19 misinformation , which violates those platforms' content policies. Some prominent authors accused of spreading misinformation have moved from those platforms to Substack. The Washington Post mentioned Joseph Mercola (whose content Imran Ahmed, CEO of

2040-543: A reputation for focusing on characterization and adult issues to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them, a quality which the new generation of older readers appreciated. This applied to The Amazing Spider-Man title in particular, which turned out to be Marvel's most successful book. Its young hero suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager, something with which many readers could identify. Stan Lee and freelance artist and eventual co-plotter Jack Kirby 's Fantastic Four originated in

2125-440: A response to changes at Twitter under the ownership of Elon Musk . The launch of Substack Notes resulted in criticism by Musk, and Twitter began censoring links to Substack on its platform. Authors can decide to make subscribing to their newsletter free or paid, and to make specific posts publicly available to non-subscribers. As of 2020 , the minimum fee for a subscription was $ 5/month or $ 30/year, and Substack usually takes

2210-404: A series of junk bonds that he used to acquire other entertainment companies, secured by MEG stock. Marvel earned a great deal of money with their 1980s children's comics imprint Star Comics and they earned a great deal more money and worldwide success during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, launching the successful 2099 line of comics set in the future ( Spider-Man 2099 , etc.) and

2295-1368: A small pool of writers in 2017 to acquire their first creators. Bill Bishop was among the first to put his newsletter, Sinocism, on Substack, providing his newsletter for $ 11 a month or $ 118 a year with daily content. As of 2019, Bishop's Sinocism was the top paid newsletter on the service. By late 2020, the conservative newsletter The Dispatch claimed the title of top Substack user, with more than 100,000 subscribers and over $ 2 million in first-year revenue, according to founder Steve Hayes. In May 2021, Substack acquired Brooklyn-based startup People & Company. In August 2020, Substack reported that over 100,000 users were paying for at least one newsletter. As of August 2021, Substack had more than 250,000 paying subscribers and its top ten publishers were making $ 7 million in annualized revenue. In April 2022, The New York Times reported Substack may be valued at $ 650 million. Substack dropped an effort to raise money in May 2022. The company had aimed to raise between $ 75 million and $ 100 million. On July 28, 2020, Substack sent out email notifications to all its users about changing privacy policies and notification about California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) compliance. In this notification email, email addresses of all recipients were inadvertently included in

2380-533: A solid success amidst a generally struggling industry. In 1997, Toy Biz bought Marvel Entertainment Group to end the bankruptcy, forming a new corporation, Marvel Enterprises . With his business partner Avi Arad , publisher Bill Jemas , and editor-in-chief Bob Harras , Toy Biz co-owner Isaac Perlmutter helped stabilize the comics line. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights , taking place “with reduced [Marvel] continuity,” according to one history, with better production quality. The imprint

2465-576: A time, drive-in film monsters another time—and even other comic books, particularly the EC horror line. Atlas also published a plethora of children's and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlo 's Homer the Happy Ghost (similar to Casper the Friendly Ghost ) and Homer Hooper (à la Archie Andrews ). Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with

2550-478: Is chief executive as of March 2019. Substack users include journalists, subject-matter experts, and media platforms. Among the high-profile writers to have used the platform are Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author Glenn Greenwald ; Seymour Hersh ; culture critic Anne Helen Petersen ; music essayist Robert Christgau ; and food writer Alison Roman . The New York Times columnist Mike Isaac argued in 2019 that companies like Substack see newsletters as

2635-473: Is headquartered in San Francisco . Substack was founded in 2017 by Chris Best, the co-founder of Kik Messenger ; Jairaj Sethi, a head of platform and principal developer at Kik Messenger ; and Hamish McKenzie, a former PandoDaily tech reporter. Best and McKenzie describe Ben Thompson's Stratechery , a subscription-based tech and media newsletter, as a major inspiration for their platform. Best

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2720-422: Is in spite of Substack's Terms of Service that supposedly prohibit hate speech . In an open letter, more than 100 Substack users implored Substack's leadership to stop giving bigotry a platform. Substack CEO Hamish McKenzie responded to the controversy by confirming that the company will continue to allow the publication of extremist views, saying that attempting to censor them would make the problem worse. In

2805-576: The X-Men: The Animated Series which was aired on Fox Kids , they later released Spider-Man: The Animated Series on the network as well. In 1993, Marvel teamed up with Thomas Nelson to create Christian media genre comics, including a Christian superhero named The Illuminator, they made adaptions of Christian novels too, including In His Steps , The Screwtape Letters , and The Pilgrim's Progress . In 1996, Marvel had some of its titles participate in " Heroes Reborn ",

2890-507: The American News Company —which shortly afterward lost a Justice Department lawsuit and discontinued its business. Atlas was left without distribution and was forced to turn to Independent News , the distribution arm of its biggest rival, National (DC) Comics , which imposed draconian restrictions on Goodman's company. As then-Atlas editor Stan Lee recalled in a 1988 interview, "[We had been] turning out 40, 50, 60 books

2975-924: The Avengers , X-Men , Fantastic Four , and Guardians of the Galaxy . Its stable of well-known supervillains includes Doctor Doom , Magneto , Green Goblin , Kingpin , Red Skull , Loki , Ultron , Thanos , Kang the Conqueror , Venom , and Galactus . Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe , with most locations mirroring real-life places; many major characters are based in New York City. Additionally, Marvel has published several licensed properties from other companies. This includes Star Wars comics , twice from 1977 to 1987 , and again since 2015 . Pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman created

3060-512: The Center for Countering Digital Hate , called "so bad [that] no one else will host it") and Steve Bannon (whom Elizabeth Dwoskin, writing for The Washington Post , accused of spreading "violent rhetoric and false claims about the [2020] election in the weeks leading up to the Capitol siege on Jan. 6 ") as conspiracy theorists who have moved their online presence to Substack. In January 2022,

3145-682: The Comics Code Authority (CCA) approval seal, due to the violence depicted in the issue. The CCA, which governed the content of American comic books, rejected the issue, requiring that changes be made. Instead, Marvel simply stopped submitting comics to the CCA. It then established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. Marvel also created new imprints , such as MAX (an explicit-content line) and Marvel Adventures (developed for child audiences). The company also created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel , that allowed

3230-515: The Epic Comics imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars ; and in 1986 launched the ultimately unsuccessful New Universe line to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics , a children-oriented line differing from the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful during this period, although hampered by legal action by

3315-533: The Fresh Start relaunch that July. Spencer's run concluded in 2021, with issue #74. In June 2021, it was announced that Spencer was working in an undisclosed leading capacity for Substack 's new comics publishing initiative. The following month, it was reported that Spencer led a group of creators, which included Scott Snyder , Jonathan Hickman , Saladin Ahmed , Molly Ostertag , James Tynion IV , that formed

3400-583: The Silver Surfer , and such memorable antagonists as Doctor Doom , Magneto , Galactus , Loki , the Green Goblin , and Doctor Octopus , all existing in a shared reality known as the Marvel Universe , with locations that mirror real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Marvel even lampooned itself and other comics companies in a parody comic, Not Brand Echh (a play on Marvel's dubbing of other companies as "Brand Echh", à la

3485-489: The United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry's self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority , refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming

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3570-526: The Atlas years, allowing him now to release as many titles as demand warranted. Late that year, he sold Marvel Comics and its parent company, Magazine Management , to the Perfect Film & Chemical Corporation (later known as Cadence Industries) , though he remained as publisher. In 1969, Goodman finally ended his distribution deal with Independent by signing with Curtis Circulation Company . In 1971,

3655-570: The Barbarian in 1970, Red Sonja ), satire ( Howard the Duck ) and science fiction ( 2001: A Space Odyssey , " Killraven " in Amazing Adventures , Battlestar Galactica , Star Trek , and, late in the decade, the long-running Star Wars series). Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, under its Curtis Magazines imprint. Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of

3740-577: The Barbarian title was canceled in 1993 after 275 issues, while the Savage Sword of Conan magazine had lasted 235 issues. Marvel published additional titles including miniseries until 2000 for a total of 650 issues. Conan was picked up by Dark Horse Comics three years later. In a cross-promotion, the November 1, 2006, episode of the CBS soap opera Guiding Light , titled "She's a Marvel", featured

3825-632: The Center for Countering Digital Hate accused Substack of allowing content that could be dangerous to public health . The Center estimated that the company earned $ 2.5 million per year from the top five anti-vaccine authors alone (who have tens of thousands of subscribers). Presumably in response to press inquiries, the three founders affirmed their commitment to minimal censorship in a blog post. Substack faced further criticism in November 2023 for allowing its platform to be used by white nationalists , Nazis , and antisemites . Critics highlighted that this

3910-456: The December 23, 2023, edition of his Substack The Racket newsletter, a post titled "The Social Network", Jonathan Katz provided details about dialogue he has had with the platform about the controversy noted in the aforementioned open letter, which was titled "Substackers Against Nazis". He took issue not only with Substack's promotion of extremist newsletters on the platform but also its subjection of subscribers to non-extremist newsletters on

3995-579: The Human Torch (art by Syd Shores and Dick Ayers , variously), the Sub-Mariner (drawn and most stories written by Bill Everett ), and Captain America (writer Stan Lee , artist John Romita Sr. ). Atlas did not achieve any breakout hits and, according to Stan Lee, survived chiefly because it produced work quickly, cheaply, and at a passable quality. In 1957, Goodman switched distributors to

4080-760: The Sports Illustrated Building in October 2010. Marvel relaunched the CrossGen imprint, owned by Disney Publishing Worldwide , in March 2011. Marvel and Disney Publishing began jointly publishing Disney/Pixar Presents magazine that May. Marvel discontinued its Marvel Adventures imprint in March 2012, and replaced them with a line of two titles connected to the Marvel Universe TV block . Also in March, Marvel announced its Marvel ReEvolution initiative that included Infinite Comics,

4165-520: The UK, and later appeared in American comics. During this time, Marvel and the Iowa-based Register and Tribune Syndicate launched a number of syndicated comic strips — The Amazing Spider-Man , Howard the Duck , Conan the Barbarian , and The Incredible Hulk . None of the strips lasted past 1982, except for The Amazing Spider-Man , which is still being published. In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Although

4250-519: The character Harley Davidson Cooper (played by Beth Ehlers ) as a superheroine named the Guiding Light. The character's story continued in an eight-page backup feature, "A New Light", that appeared in several Marvel titles published November 1 and 8. Also that year, Marvel created a wiki on its Web site. In late 2007 the company launched Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited , a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing, for

4335-492: The coming year. Two months later, Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to Existence 2.0 , to be developed through Platinum Dunes with Miles Millar and Alfred Gough as executive producers. Meanwhile, Spencer followed up on the Existence duology with three new titles launched in 2010: Forgetless , Shuddertown and his first ongoing series Morning Glories . In September 2010, Spencer made his Big Two debut with

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4420-584: The company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Goodman, who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, was expanding into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. Launching his new line from his existing company's offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, he officially held the titles of editor , managing editor , and business manager , with Abraham Goodman (Martin's brother) officially listed as publisher. Timely's first publication, Marvel Comics #1 ( cover dated Oct. 1939), included

4505-601: The company recruits less strongly in that market. In 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Substack extended grants of $ 1,000–$ 3,000 to over 40 writers to begin working on the platform. Substack expanded into comics content in 2021 and signed creators including Saladin Ahmed , Jonathan Hickman , Molly Ostertag , Scott Snyder , and James Tynion IV , paying them while keeping their subscription revenue. After their first year, Substack will take 10 percent of subscription revenue. The Substack founders reached out to

4590-668: The company to reboot its major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation. Some of the company's properties were adapted into successful film franchises, such as the Men in Black film series (which was based on a Malibu book), starting in 1997, the Blade film series, starting in 1998, the X-Men film series, starting in 2000, and the highest grossing series, Spider-Man , beginning in 2002. Marvel's Conan

4675-442: The company's entire publishing line. This branding pattern, being typically either a full-body picture of the characters' solo titles or a collection of the main characters' faces in ensemble titles, would become standard for Marvel for decades. In 1968, while selling 50 million comic books a year, company founder Goodman revised the constraining distribution arrangement with Independent News he had reached under duress during

4760-579: The context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with Goodman's approval, published the story regardless in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (May–July 1971), without the Comics Code seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA subsequently revised the Code the same year. Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and installed his son, Chip, as publisher. Shortly thereafter, Lee succeeded him as publisher and also became Marvel's president for

4845-541: The creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superhero comics created by novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker . In 1990, Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card maker SkyBox International . These were collectible trading cards that featured the characters and events of the Marvel Universe. The 1990s saw the rise of variant covers , cover enhancements, swimsuit issues , and company-wide crossovers that affected

4930-503: The duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal . Goodman hired his wife's 16-year-old cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. When editor Simon left the company in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber—by then writing pseudonymously as " Stan Lee "—interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II . Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to

5015-465: The email " cc " field rather than in the " bcc " field. This exposed the email addresses of many Substack users. The company acknowledged the issue on Twitter and said that it was remedied after the initial batch of emails but did not disclose the number of users affected. In March 2021, Substack revealed that it had been experimenting with a revenue sharing program in which it paid advances for writers to create publications on its platform; this became

5100-498: The events of the company-wide crossover " Secret Wars " in 2015, a relaunched Marvel universe began in September 2015, called the All-New, All-Different Marvel . Substack Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters . It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack

5185-526: The first appearance of Carl Burgos ' android superhero the Human Torch , and the first appearances of Bill Everett 's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner , among other features. The issue was a great success; it and a second printing the following month sold a combined nearly 900,000 copies. While its contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc. , Timely had its own staff in place by

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5270-402: The following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount. In 1973, Perfect Film & Chemical renamed itself as Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group. Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name for

5355-516: The following year. The company's first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon , teamed with artist Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America , in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). It, too, proved a hit, with sales of nearly one million. Goodman formed Timely Comics, Inc., beginning with comics cover-dated April 1941 or Spring 1941. While no other Timely character would achieve

5440-591: The launch of The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee , Jack Kirby , Steve Ditko , and numerous others. The Marvel brand, which had been used over the years and decades, was solidified as the company's primary brand. Marvel counts among its characters such well-known superheroes as Spider-Man , Iron Man , Wolverine , Captain America , Black Widow , Thor , Hulk , Daredevil , Doctor Strange , Black Panther , Captain Marvel , and Deadpool , as well as popular superhero teams such as

5525-495: The middle of the decade, the industry had slumped, and in December 1996 MEG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with Marvel —giving the company its own section of its comics catalog Previews . Marvel in the early to mid-1990s expanded their entries in other media, including Saturday-morning cartoons and various comics collaborations to explore new genres. In 1992, they released

5610-469: The most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than even Timely had published, featuring horror , Westerns , humor, talking animal , men's adventure -drama, giant monster, crime , and war comics , and later adding jungle books, romance titles, espionage , and even medieval adventure, Bible stories and sports. Goodman began using the globe logo of the Atlas News Company,

5695-416: The name in 1961. The company begin identifying the group of its comic division as Marvel Comic Group , on some comics cover-dated November 1948, when the company set up an in-house editorial board to compete with the likes of DC and Fawcett , even though the legal name is still Timely. The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion. Goodman's comic book line dropped them for

5780-501: The newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated November 1951 even though another company, Kable News , continued to distribute his comics through the August 1952 issues. This globe branding united a line put out by the same publisher, staff and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications. Atlas, rather than innovate, took a proven route of following popular trends in television and films— Westerns and war dramas prevailing for

5865-410: The overall continuity of the Marvel Universe . In early 1992, seven of Marvel’s prized artists — Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Spider-Man ), Jim Lee ( X-Men ), Rob Liefeld ( X-Force ), Marc Silvestri ( Wolverine ), Erik Larsen ( The Amazing Spider-Man ), Jim Valentino ( Guardians of the Galaxy ), and Whilce Portacio ( Uncanny X-Men ) — left to form Image Comics in

5950-403: The owners of the recently defunct Harvey Comics for purposefully plagiarizing their house style. In 1986, Marvel's parent, Marvel Entertainment Group , was sold to New World Entertainment , which within three years sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes , owned by Revlon executive Ronald Perelman in 1989. In 1991 Perelman took MEG public. Following the rapid rise of this stock, Perelman issued

6035-413: The platform said it had more than 500,000 paying subscribers, representing over one million subscriptions. Substack announced in January 2022 that it would begin private Beta testing video on its platform. In April 2023, Substack implemented a Notes feature, which allows users to publish and repost short-form content. This microblogging feature was compared to Twitter , and many outlets considered it to be

6120-500: The predominantly child audiences of the medium, thus ushering what Marvel later called the Marvel Age of Comics . Modern Marvel's first superhero team, the titular stars of The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961), broke convention with other comic book archetypes of the time by squabbling, holding grudges both deep and petty, and eschewing anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status. Subsequently, Marvel comics developed

6205-406: The previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux. Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 36 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel

6290-438: The rise of direct market distribution—selling through those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands. Marvel ventured into audio in 1975 with a radio series and a record, both had Stan Lee as narrator. The radio series was Fantastic Four . The record was Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero concept album for music fans. Marvel held its own comic book convention , Marvelcon '75, in spring 1975, and promised

6375-575: The site provided a fellowship to some writers, which included a $ 3,000 stipend and a one-day workshop in San Francisco. The decline of sports-oriented publications such as Sports Illustrated , Deadspin , and SB Nation , coupled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic , led to a surge in sports journalists moving to write on Substack in 2019 and 2020. Substack competes with subscription site The Athletic in this submarket, so McKenzie says

6460-611: The success of these three characters, some notable heroes—many of which continue to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks—include the Whizzer , Miss America , the Destroyer , the original Vision , and the Angel . Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton 's best-known features, " Powerhouse Pepper ", as well as a line of children's talking animal comics featuring characters like Super Rabbit and

6545-433: The then-common phrase "Brand X"). Originally, the company's publications were branded by a minuscule "Mc" on the upper right-hand corner of the covers. However, artist/writer Steve Ditko put a larger masthead picture of the title character of The Amazing Spider-Man on the upper left-hand corner on issue #2 that included the series' issue number and price. Lee appreciated the value of this visual motif and adapted it for

6630-439: The time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work. The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics , by issuing the one-shot Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 and a variety of other special issues. On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced it would acquire Marvel Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for

6715-530: The wake of DC Comics ' success in reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly with the Flash , Green Lantern , Batman , Superman , Wonder Woman , Green Arrow , and other members of the team the Justice League of America , Marvel followed suit. In 1961, writer-editor Stan Lee revolutionized superhero comics by introducing superheroes designed to appeal to older readers than

6800-587: The world of [rival DC Comics '] Superman comic books, communism did not exist. Superman rarely crossed national borders or involved himself in political disputes. From 1962 to 1965, there were more communists [in Marvel Comics] than on the subscription list of Pravda . Communist agents attack Ant-Man in his laboratory, red henchmen jump the Fantastic Four on the moon, and Viet Cong guerrillas take potshots at Iron Man. All these elements struck

6885-598: The writer of the Captain America: Steve Rogers ongoing series, in which Captain America was replaced by a version of himself loyal to the villainous organization Hydra . The storyline culminated in the company-wide crossover " Secret Empire ", with Spencer writing the eponymous mini-series that acted as the centerpiece. In March 2018, it was announced that Spencer would be writing a relaunch of The Amazing Spider-Man series set to debut that year, replacing long-time writer Dan Slott , as part of

6970-623: Was Kirby's artwork with its tension and psychedelia that made it perfect for the times—or was it Lee's bravado and melodrama, which was somehow insecure and brash at the same time? In addition to Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, Marvel began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and antiheroes as the Hulk , Thor , Ant-Man , Iron Man , the X-Men , Daredevil , the Inhumans , Black Panther , Doctor Strange , Captain Marvel and

7055-487: Was helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada ; it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Daredevil , the Inhumans , and Black Panther . With the new millennium, Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. X-Force #116 X-Force #119 (October 2001) was the first Marvel Comics title since The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 in 1971 to not have

7140-706: Was rejected, this time by Oni Press , Spencer went on to work in politics, running twice for the Cincinnati City Council as a candidate of the progressive Charter Party and working for a Democratic politician. After Spencer moved to New York City , he successfully pitched a series to Jim Valentino at Image Comics . The first issue of Existence 2.0 was released in July 2009 under Valentino's Shadowline imprint, while its follow-up, titled Existence 3.0 , launched in November. In January 2010, Newsarama named Spencer one of ten creators to watch for

7225-646: Was the Iron Man 2.0 ongoing series which debuted in February 2011. That same year, he wrote a short arc tying the Secret Avengers series into the company-wide crossover storyline " Fear Itself " and was one of three writers that worked on the relaunch of the Ultimate Marvel line, along with Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis , writing Ultimate Comics: X-Men . In 2016, Spencer became

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