Marvel Made Me.
I’ve been racking my brain over how to put this into words. And somewhere in the five or so long-winded drafts I produced, there came a really simple phrase that summarized everything I feel in just three words: Marvel made me.
And this is how.
The beauty of Marvel Comics in an age like this is that, instead of a handful of people knowing who or what you’re talking about, heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk have become household names.
And the power of Marvel Comics is that you can not only talk to people about those characters but that you can share how you feel about them in ways that feel real. These are characters we’re not just familiar with — they’re characters we care about.
In some cases, they’re characters that have helped shape who we’ve become.
My relationship with Marvel started back in 2000 when the first Spider-Man game was released on the PlayStation 1. My mom, my stepdad, and I had just moved into a cramped apartment outside of the suburban purgatory I’d known for the first 6 years of life and I was looking for bigger and better things to catch my imagination. (Something that could replace the hole left by having a backyard, a pool, and a neighborhood to explore back in my old town.)
And that’s when the opening line from Stan Lee played on a crappy old CRT in my bedroom: “Welcome True Believers and Newcomers alike!”
That game was a stepping stone to what would eventually become a full-blown obsession with Marvel. In addition to introducing me to Spidey, it ushered me into a whole world of bright characters and decades of woven history. It introduced me to figures like Doc Ock, J. Jonah Jameson, Scorpion, Rhino, Mysterio, Venom… almost all of the key players in Spider-Man’s web of characters. I had to know more.
And when I needed it, that’s when the newspaper delivered.
Prior to Spider-Man’s theatrical debut in 2002, a local newspaper started reprinting original copies of the starting issues to Amazing Spider-Man. This included the character’s first run-in with characters like the Lizard, Sand Man, and, my personal favorite, the Living Brain (pictured left, or above on phones). Almost all of this somewhat integral history came right to my doorstep when my step-grandfather delivered each copy to my apartment.
I remember blocking out a portion of my Sunday morning to isolate myself so I could spend some time alone, exploring a world rich in action and color. By the time movies started popping up, I was already so invested in the character.
This is not an exaggeration, so much as it is evidence to all of this being true… I’ve seen the first Spider-Man film over 100 times. (About 10 of those times were in theaters.)
Flash forward a few years and I had become a full-blown Marvel fanatic. Spider-Man had earned a permanent place in my high school bedroom in the shape of the only poster I felt confident enough to hang on my wall. Characters like Iron Man and Hulk had already earned a spot on the silver screen and Thor and Captain America were soon to follow.
Sure, there were disappointments along the road — I’m looking specifically at X-Men: The Last Stand — but for every letdown, there was an opportunity to go deeper and learn more about what went wrong. The mixed response to Ang Lee’s Hulk, for example, was a perfect starting point for learning about Peter David’s run on the character.
When you read David’s run, and when you learn more about Bruce Banner, his multiple personality disorder, the abuse he witnessed as a child… you start to see where Lee lifted the pathos for the movie. And reading something like that not only educates your opinion but makes you more appreciative of the source material. (For the record, I’d say Ang Lee’s film is the more faithful adaptation of the two.)
Every film, television show, cartoon, or video-game followed suit. These were all introductions to new characters, new ideas, or new stories that all had a precedent they were pulling from. Some story that, even if you didn’t make it out to the film or screening, you could appreciate from the comfort of your bunk bed (at least, that was my case).
By the time the core Avengers had seen their solo films, I was in the midst of reading things like Civil War, Annihilation, and Claremont’s iconic X-Men run. I was learning about things beyond Spidey’s rogue gallery, things that sold me on the importance of developing characters and stories that felt grounded or like the had stakes.
It also taught me the value of the spectacle.
Slight flash forward to 2012. I’m watching The Avengers beside two of my best friends from high school, the day before Senior Skip Day. It’s the only true midnight premiere I’ve ever been to. (The trend of a true midnight screenings in my area would end shortly afterward, in favor of adopting Thursday night releases instead. Incidentally, this is also when the MPAA determined that, for box offices, weekends actually start on Thursday nights. Probably not all that interesting for you. Sorry I’m keeping you in these parentheses a bit longer.)
My jaw was on the floor for most of the movie. I’m sure others can recall their first time seeing this but, for me, it was one of the most exciting viewing experiences since I had seen the original Star Wars movies re-released in the 90’s. Maybe it was the Mountain Dew, maybe it was the lack of sleep, or maybe it was the pure enormity of what I was viewing. Regardless of how you feel about the current state of superhero movies, this was a cinematic turning point.
And boy howdy did that hit me. Seeing something like this restarted the full span of creativity from my childhood. It was a reminder of the power of the splash page, the power of escapism and tights woven through colorful imagery and choreographed action.
Where Marvel Comics introduced me to the wonder of Kirby, Lee, Ditko, Byrne, Claremont, Miller, and every other iconic writer/artist’s world, Marvel Studios refined decades of vision. It put colossal stories across the world to reaffirm the idea that, yes, you really can tell a story of hope in the 21st century. And no, it doesn’t need to be a Christian movie.
Between 2012 and 2019, a few things changed. The Marvel Cinematic Universe expanded rapidly, Obama was re-elected, I went to college, dropped out of college, went back to college, got really sad, Trump was elected, I moved around a bit… just a few things, to be honest.
Outside of all of that, one of the biggest changes was my disposition. My attitude. My je ne sais quoi.
Work got in the way. Life got in the way. My bad behavior got in the way. A lot of things blocked me from having a good time or from having a fun good time. But that changed recently.
During a really low point last year, I picked up exactly where I had left off in reading Amazing Spider-Man. I had stopped reading weekly issues when Dan Slott killed Peter Parker off and had Doc Ock take up the mantle of Spidey. The pure concept of something like that aggravated me enough to stop reading altogether. Well that and college.
What I found when I started reading was the exact same of wonder from back in 2000. It was the excitement of reading something in one sitting, the fascination with the art, even just the air of a comic book and its ink… It’s the kind of anchor I’ve needed in times like these.
After reading Superior Spider-Man, I caught up with most of Marvel’s current titles. (Even the time Captain America turned out to be a nazi. Which, honestly, turned out to be a beautiful sequel to Civil War from Nick Spencer.) I realized that, more than anything else, superheroes give me hope.
These stories, no matter how fictional they are, have presented characters, heroes and villains, who have stolen my heart or racked my brain. They’ve given me people who feel lived. People who, in some weird way, I can model myself after, taking in the good and acknowledging the bad. (Which is a testament to Marvel’s characterization but also a convoluted way of saying I never got over “with great power, comes great responsibility”.)
Marvel helped make me a hopeful person. Someone who lives each day to put out just a little bit of good, regardless of the stakes.
This may have seemed long and rambly, but we made it through here. And, hey, there’s good news: Avengers: Endgame comes out tonight.
So to every True Believer and newcomer out there… Excelsior!
