All language subtitles for Marvel 75 Years From Pulp to Pop

Lee: I think Marvel will be known

as the company that has provided

some of the greatest super
characters for the public.

Man: We always believed
in the tremendous potential

of the Marvel brand.

It's the most dominant pop
culture on the planet right now.

They like making movies that
they would want to go see.

Marvel movies are the best.
They're the funniest.

The real cultural impact occurred

from that meeting of those great minds.

Stan and his flash of genius
that a superhero has problems.

Marvel takes it up a notch.

It's what's under the mask that counts.

I'm bringing the party to you.

Brevoort: We understand our characters

and the kinds of stories that
we do better than anybody else.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Vancamp: Marvel ...
the house of ideas,

creator of some of the
most exciting televised

and filmed entertainment
the world has ever known.

Join us as we celebrate the
75th anniversary of Marvel

from its early days as a small
publishing house in New York

to one of the most influential
companies in history.

This is
"Marvel: 75 years from pulp to pop!"

sync & correction by f1nc0

Hello. I'm Emily Vancamp,
or as you might know me,

Agent 13 from Marvel's "Captain
America: The Winter Soldier."

Welcome to director
Phil Coulson's office

in the secret headquarters
of the Strategic Homeland

Intervention, Enforcement,
and Logistics Division

or, as it's better known, S.H.I.E.L.D.

Located in a decommissioned
base from the 1940s,

this is where Coulson has
gathered a small group of agents

to rebuild the once storied organization
on ABC's hit television series

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

It's appropriate that we find
ourselves here in this building

where S.H.I.E.L.D.'s
future touches its past

as tonight, we'll go back in time
to behold Marvel's unrivaled history,

which all began in a
small publishing house

then known as timely comics in 1939.

But first, let's take a look
at something more familiar.

Today, I think the Marvel movies ...

everything they do, they do well.

We created Marvel Studios

to exercise more control
over our own characters.

The brain trust at Marvel decided

we were gonna found
our own movie studio,

we were gonna make our own movies.

Quesada: We don't just go out there

and throw movies against a wall
and hope it's a hit.

These all come out of
incredible collaboration.

And it's based on passion and
commitment to telling good stories.

We have no other agenda
but to make great films.

The thing that Marvel does best is
they pick the right directors.

- Lee: Good directors, good actors.
- When do you ever get to see this

group of actors come together
in this kind of fantasy world?

Whedon: You have all these parts,

but how can you possibly
bring them together?

Evans: Would Cap shoot a machine gun?

If Joss said it's okay, it's okay.

Man: The reason the Avengers
are so great in the comics

is 'cause they're such
different personalities.

Right, so you cast the best
person for those personalities,

you do your job right,
when you put them together,

it's gonna be as fun
as it is in the comics.

These are Marvel Comics,

so they're authentic when
Marvel makes a movie of them.

- Trying to get me back in the world?
- Trying to save it.

Man: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor ...

they've been continually
published for over 40 years.

Lee: The movies have
made these characters

so popular throughout the world
and have given them such glamour.

People know about them
and care about them

and want to see them.

The secret to Marvel's
current success is, I think,

not compromising on what the fans
want but also exceeding expectations.

I can't wait to see what they do next.

We want something new
and something unexpected,

not just something familiar.

And that's what led us to announce
"Guardians of the Galaxy."

Who?

"Guardians of the galaxy"?
Really?

Really? You guys are putting out a
movie called "Guardians of the Galaxy"?

Why would you choose "Guardians"?
It's so out there.

It has nothing to do with what's
going on in the Marvel universe.

And it's one thing to
take Captain America

and Iron Man and Thor.

"Guardians of the Galaxy"
could not be more,

"okay, what do we do with ...
you know, here is some chuck steak."

Who's going to a movie

with a talking raccoon
and a walking tree dude?

People saying, "this is going
to be Marvel's first failure."

Smith: Every once in a while, you'd
see the name Star-lord and be like,

"yeah, I remember when they
created that character."

Star-lord, man.
The legendary outlaw?

Guys?

Forget it.

Alonso: Bunch of misfits
that form a family.

The big difference is that
the world that they occupy

is out in the cosmos,
it's in outer space.

This is an opportunity for Marvel
to put its stamp on the space opera.

Pratt: We're seeing corners of space

that only the truest Marvel
fans knew even existed.

Instead of it being an origin
story of a particular superhero,

it was an origin story of a team.

I look around at us,
and you know what I see?

Losers.

Of course, there were a lot of
naysayers, but look what we have.

It's the most successful
movie of the year of 2014.

Yes!

Smith: Talk about brilliant.
You take something nobody cares about,

that isn't, like, viable
or one of your crown jewels

and you turn it into one.

Oswalt: "Guardians of the Galaxy"
was extraordinary.

This movie is a box of cracker
jacks, but it's all prizes.

Smith: They made this
beautiful motion picture

that is a modern-day "Star Wars."

Loeb: The decision to
make movies ourselves

transformed the company.

Alonso: The success of Marvel Studios

is a testament to their deep
respect for the source material.

Man: This is the culmination

of many, many years of work
for us at Marvel Studios.

Quesada: We look at our
entire library of characters.

How will this work
within the grand scheme,

the plan for Marvel?

Where do we see our
company in the next 5 years?

In the next 10 years?

Man: This now represents
just the first phase

of what these movies can become.

1939.

America has nearly recovered
from the great depression

only to find itself on the cusp
of another historical hardship ...

World War II.

At a time when newspapers had
little good news to report,

readers turned to the
back pages for escape.

The daily comic strips
were, at once, uplifting

and reflective of the
true american spirit.

Our story begins in New York City.

Martin Goodman was the original
founder of Marvel Comics,

which when he started it,
was called Timely Comics.

I like to describe him as
an opportunistic publisher.

He was never embarrassed
to hop on the hottest trend.

Marvel back then was
all funny animal comics,

war comics, romance comics,
not costumed Avengers.

And then came what's been
thought of as the killer app

for the comic book ...

the creation of superheroes.

Brevoort: Superman set
off this enormous gold rush

where everybody in the world
put out superhero comics.

Sanderson: Martin Goodman wanted
to capitalize on this new market,

and the first thing he
published was Marvel Comics #1.

Nicieza: Marvel Mystery #1 featured

a brand-new hero called
the Human Torch ...

a guy who was an android,

and he caught on fire to
be followed by Sub-Mariner,

who was a guy from underwater.

Here, you have two heroes
fighting each other,

which had not happened
or even been thought of.

Even by the standards
of the day in 1939,

Marvel was already making
superheroes that were very different.

Brevoort: Stan Lee was related
to publisher Martin Goodman.

Martin was actually
my cousin-in-law.

I learned that he had an opening
in the comic-book department,

and I use the word "department" loosely,

because the whole
department consisted of

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Sanderson: Joe Simon was
the first editor at Marvel.

He worked with artist Jack Kirby,

who is one of the great
figures in Marvel history.

Lee: I would fill their ink wells.

I would run down and
get sandwiches for them.

And if they needed a
dialogue balloon written

and they were too busy,
they asked me to put the copy in.

And little by little, I did a little
bit more writing as we went along.

The writers and artists of Timely Comics
were churning out

fantastically unique stories
that embraced the times,

like Burgos' the Human Torch
and Everett's Sub-Mariner.

But the times were about to change.

The world was heading to war.

Busiek: America was
conflicted over the war.

There were people who
wanted to be isolationist,

and there were people who said,
"this isn't going to just go away."

Brevoort: A lot of the early
comic-book professionals were jewish.

They were very, very concerned

about the things that
were going on in Europe.

Busiek: And as the story goes,

Martin Goodman wanted a patriotic hero.

Brevoort: Joe Simon
and Jack Kirby came up

with the quintessential
american soldier.

Sanderson: As a response to
what was going on in Europe.

Of course, patriotism ...

you just couldn't get much
more than Captain America.

Steranko: And he symbolized that
superheroes were american patriots.

Captain America Comics #1
was, in effect, a call to arms

to the american public
that we have to stop Hitler.

Busiek: People did not want
America involved in the war.

Kirby: My father and
Joe Simon, being jewish,

we started getting death threats
from the american nazi party.

They had this idea
for the first cover ...

that would be Cap bursting
in to some nazi headquarters

and smashing Adolf Hitler in the face.

For late 1940, that's a
very provocative image.

This is a man who is alive
and is the head of a nation.

Busiek: Once Pearl Harbor hit
and we were in the war for sure,

Captain America really
hit the zeitgeist.

Man: It was smash success. It
was timely's biggest seller.

It was a patriotic type of
book, and it was the right time.

"Yeah! He's our guy.
This is what we stand for."

And that's what Captain America
was to an entire generation.

Kirby: My father was always
a very patriotic person.

I think Captain America was
probably his favorite character.

Quesada: Cap is a
representation of those guys

who are actually on the front lines.

American soldiers were
voraciously reading comic books.

Brevoort: Servicemen serving
abroad were a huge audience.

Part of it was unsold comics
were used as ballast in ships.

The soldiers coming off the ships ...
they'll bring comic books,

they leave them around town.

Lee: They were just
what the soldiers wanted.

They were stories of good
guys fighting bad guys.

Sanderson: Symbols of
american resistance to Fascism.

Busiek: I had seen
figures that indicated

that Captain America comics
sold better than Time Magazine.

Announcer: Throughout the
world, throngs of people

hail the end of the war in Europe.

After World War II, we went right back

to doing the same kind of
books we had been doing.

Once the war ended,

I think people wanted less
of a reminder of the war,

and it was parents not wanting
the superhero stuff for their kids,

especially in light of
the Frederic Wertham debates

and all of the things that
came down on the industry.

Frederic Wertham wrote this book
called "Seduction of the innocent"

which, in effect, blamed
comics for juvenile delinquency.

They convened hearings to investigate

the effect of comic
books on America's youth.

Announcer: And the
issue becomes nationwide.

Should books like these be
banned from the newsstands?

Tell me how comic books
make you feel, Dave.

Well, they don't make me feel too good.

A couple of times, I read
a comic book, I threw up.

What the comic-book industry
did was say, "mea culpa.

Yeah, we're wicked. We're evil."

The publishers got together and set
up a self-censorship organization.

It's the comics code authority.

Lee: He had to send
every book to that group,

and they said, "well, this is too
violent," or, "that's too sexy."

And they would get the stamp
of approval on the cover,

which said this was
a decent publication.

The publishers were scared

to publish material that
would be deemed questionable.

Kirby: After Wertham published his book,

the comic-book industry, I
mean, really took a nose dive.

Over 800 people lost their jobs.

30 to 40 comic-book companies
went out of business.

Within months, it was
down to 10 or fewer.

And those were struggling.

So it was kind of a
down time for comics.

They were fading out like crazy.

Announcer: Tomorrow,
previewing our post-war world.

Let's look into a brand-new
development ... television.

Man: Television came in.
Kids were reading less.

Steranko: America was settling
down. Comics reflected that.

The war ended.

Every superhero went to purgatory.

Even Captain America closed shop.

Superheroes just didn't
seem to work in the 1950s.

Horror was more popular
than superheroes,

which is why the last few issues
of the Captain America series

are called Captain
America's Weird Tales.

At that time, all I did was
write the kind of stories

that the publisher, Martin Goodman,
wanted me to write.

Busiek: Goodman chased trends.

You know, tillie the toiler was
popular in the newspaper strips.

Goodman would say,
"give me some of those,"

and you'd get Tessie the typist.

- Lee: Nellie the nurse.
- Millie the model.

- Hedy of Hollywood.
- Comic books were just slumming.

O'Neil: The early guys ...
the guys before us ...

didn't grow up reang comics.
They invented the form.

They invented the form, and
they were ashamed of that.

I even changed my name
from Stanley Leiber,

which was a normal name,
to Stan Lee.

I didn't want Stanley Leiber to
be known as a comic-book writer.

O'Neil: If I was at a party,
and they said, "what do you do?"

"I work in comic books."
that ended the conversation.

I said, "I'm really sick

"of writing these
stories that mean nothing.

They're not well-written.
They don't have any characterization.

They're just stories.
People read them and forget them."

I told my wife that I wanted to quit.

Finally, in 1961,
I guess that's when ...

I guess they were on the verge
of just closing it all down.

Believe it or not,

some of our favorite heroes
and their beloved alter egos

may have never existed

had it not been for the
creativity and boldness

of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko,
and Stan Lee.

Stan had been in the business
for 20-some-odd years,

and he was looking to get out.

Sanderson: Stan himself says he
was embarrassed to tell people,

when he met them, that
he was working in comics.

And the way he tells it, and the
way he's told it for many years,

is he had a conversation
with his wife, Joan.

Lee: She said to me,
"if you want to quit, before you do,

why don't you write one story
the way you'd like to do it?"

"The kind of comic books you
would want to read yourself."

- And that set off the light bulb.
- "Instead of just one hero,

let's come up with a book
with a team of heroes."

And I decided to do it
the way I wanted to do it.

O'Neil: So Stan sat
down with Jack Kirby.

Man: And Jack came up with
the everyman designs of the characters,

O'Neil: And they came up
with the Fantastic Four.

Green: The Fantastic Four
is a really special story.

It's about a family that
was kind of bonded together

by this insane, unique circumstance.

Stan added a level of
realism to superheroes

that had never been seen before.

Lee: I tried to give each one
of them a separate personality.

Sanderson: It starts out
with these four characters

quarreling with each other.

These cosmic radiations
that gave them super powers.

Not, like, helpful powers, either.

Weird and kind of very
complicated powers.

Brevoort: The earliest
issues of Fantastic Four

actually do not look
like superhero comics.

Sanderson: They did not
have superhero costumes

in Fantastic Four #1.

These comics were just more engaging

and more electric to
an audience in 1961.

Man: One of the most popular
characters Marvel had,

who was the Thing ... was a monster.

I always liked the movie "Frankenstein."

To me, the monster was the good guy.

Brevoort: The other monster titles
that Martin was publishing at the time

all had these big, almost
man-in-a-rubber-suit monsters.

Lee: I thought if I could
write that type of guy

and make the reader like him,

I'd feel I had accomplished something.

Brevoort: So, the second character
that they did was the Hulk.

And the Hulk, too, is not
really a traditional superhero.

It was more about the guy who
transformed into the monster ...

Bruce Banner ... and his conflicts.

Your Marvel comic book characters ...

the pantheon of Marvel heroes
come from the atomic age.

Three... two... one...

Rather than concentrate
on the negativity,

let's make fantasy out of that.

Imagine you survived that
and became this grey Goliath,

who will later be green,

because grey is not really an
appealing color for the Hulk.

You know, things like that
captured the imagination.

Martin said, "hey, these are doing well.
Come up with another superhero."

I figured, "I want to make him
different than all the others."

It would be fun to make him a teenager.

And then, while I was thinking,
I saw a fly on the wall,

and I said, "gee,
wouldn't it be something

if a superhero could stick
to walls like an insect?"

"What could I call him? Insect-man?"
Didn't sound dramatic.

"Fly-man?" Didn't have it.
"Mosquito-man?"

And then I said, "Spider-man."

Spider-man is, in many ways,
the first teenage superhero.

Quesada: What Stan and Steve did was

Peter Parker put on a mask
and became Spider-man,

but when that mask comes off,

he still has all the
problems of Peter Parker.

Vancamp: We'll get to Spider-man,
but let's get to know Peter Parker.

This character felt the responsibility
to save his neighborhood.

Stan had Spider-man
launder his costume.

He had him get a cold.
No superhero had ever gotten a cold.

He wasn't rippling with muscles.

He was just a kid who
was bitten by a spider.

When I was attacked by a swarm of bees,
I did not become Bee-man.

He's just the typical teenager,

and nobody would know that
guy is really Spider-man.

If you think of the
kind of on-fire years

for Kirby and Lee and Ditko...

Kirby: Creating titles
just one after another.

Very rarely saw my
father after that point.

The next ones that they came up with ...
Thor and Ant-man.

In the same month
thereafter, Iron Man...

Oswalt: Dr. Strange...

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos,

which would later beget
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

- The Avengers...
- Brevoort: Brought a bunch

- of those characters together.
- ...the X-Men.

Brevoort: Again, both
coming out the same month.

So much invention, so many home runs.

- Boom, boom, boom, boom.
- Stan was basically writing everything.

However, he was working with
these immensely talented people.

Quesada: I don't think
there's enough that can be said

about Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

If there's a Mount Rushmore
of comic-book artists,

Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby
are definitely carved on it.

Well, Kirby and Ditko made
the overall world of Marvel.

Smith: Jack made things dynamic ...
big arms coming in your face.

You know, every character
was coming at you.

Kirby: My father ... he saw comic books
as story boards for movies.

He very early on saw the potential.

Green: Steve Ditko was the
definition of Spider-man.

The way that Ditko drew him,

he's so thin and gangly
and long and awkward.

Steve was Spider-man and Dr. Strange,
and everything else was Jack.

The fact that that many
came out of three guys ...

there was some alchemy going on.

Bendis: What's amazing is
how much of this came about

in such a short period of time.

There's not a creator in the world

that just doesn't sit
back and go, "wow."

The number of characters

that have gone on to the
prestige that they have ...

if all of us could do
two or three characters,

we would all be happy.

Here's a guy who created
a field of characters

that I find it hard to believe
anybody will ever be able to replicate.

- It's staggering.
- Lee: Martin was very happy,

and he never did say,
"go back to the old style."

He was a smart guy.

He wasn't about to say,
"let's change them."

No promotion,
the worst distribution in the world.

From nothing at all, they
built up this huge success.

America was ready for a
revival of the superhero.

It was called the marvel age of comics.

Lee: We were dreaming up our
own characters and our own

problems, but of course, you
can't help but be affected

by what's going on in the world.

Bendis: As our culture
gave way to counterculture,

things like government seals
on media and entertainment

were becoming less of a
plus and more of a negative.

Lee: So I went to my publisher.

I said, "Martin, I think we
ought to publish this book

without the approval
of the comics code."

Stan said, "eh. To hell
with the comics code.

I just won't put it on the book."

What was so revolutionary
about Marvel was

they weren't trying to be revolutionary.

They were just, "but
this is what's happening."

I remember, like, this great cover
of Captain America and the Falcon

running through the streets
of Harlem as it burned.

And Captain America is angry.

I love that the character
becomes almost, like,

the spiritual embodiment
of what the country feels.

Like, if the country's
angry, he gets angry.

When we had the cuban missile crisis,
we had stories about

"what if missiles were
unleashed in the country?"

And "what would we do?"

Man: There was racial equality,
there was women's equality,

and Marvel was very good about

the idea of doing women superheroes,

the idea of doing a black superhero.

I grew up in Jackson Heights.
I'm of cuban descent.

I'm first-generation born
here in the United States.

I remember picking up the Fantastic Four

and seeing a character
called the Black Panther.

He was the first black superhero.

Liu: It wasn't necessarily about
skin color and being a minority,

but it was about, sort of,

embracing the differences
that everyone has.

The X-Men, for example,
was for me very impactful

because of the fact
that it was a metaphor

for sort of being a
minority and being different.

Marvel has done such a good job
of being able to sort of reflect

the diversity of what's
existing in the world.

That really made Marvel Comics different

from all the other comics
and it made it such a ...

almost a rock 'n' roll explosion.

I learned about Stan Lee
right from the very beginning,

and not just about Stan,

but about Jack "King" Kirby
and "Jazzy" John Romita.

Kimmel: I made a drawing for Stan Lee
when I was seven years old.

There he is, manly Stan Lee.
I showed this to Stan.

He was, um ... I think
disturbed is the word.

Quesada: There was the
remarkable Stan's soapbox,

where Stan would tell you
about the goings-on at Marvel,

and you would feel as though
he was writing solely to you.

The unique thing about this was
that the kid right next to you ...

he was reading that soapbox,
and he was feeling the exact same thing.

For over 30 years,

Martin Goodman managed
to not only entertain,

but also guide Americans

through some of the happiest
and darkest days of their lives.

He was ready to retire as
publisher of Marvel in 1972,

but before doing so,
he had one last duty ...

to name a successor.

The man was now in charge.

Marvel continued to grow
rapidly throughout the 1970s,

and Stan Lee appointed
the forward-thinking story

editor Jim Shooter as
editor-in-chief in 1978

to shepherd Marvel into the next decade.

Starlin: Come the 1970s,

the industry was just filled
with young kids like me

because all the older guys
were retiring and going off to Florida.

I did my first work for
Marvel in the early '70s.

- I was about 16, 17 years old.
- Marvel was growing.

Narrator: Stan Lee and Archie Goodwin
are working out the schtick.

Starlin: They were going
from like 6 books a month to about 23.

So, quite frankly,
they were hiring anybody

who could come across the
state line and hold a pencil.

Goodwin: It was an amazing, weird place.

There were days we would do things

where we'd probably be arrested
if we tried doing them now.

Man: You know, it was
like we're just having fun,

and they were willing
to see what would work.

There was ... everything was expanding.

Punisher came out of a very
dark period in american history.

Thanos is my baby, he was the
first character I ever created.

They offered me a monthly
book ... Iron Fist.

Shooter: When Marvel expanded

and the number of titles went
from like around a dozen to 50,

Stan was doing everything.

Lee: Jim Shooter had been
one of the youngest guys in comics.

I think he was writing them
when he was 13 years old.

And I was looking for an
assistant editor, and I hired him.

First of all, I raised
the rates ... doubled them.

And I was able to get away with this
'cause we started selling some books.

Buckley: That does parallel

with the radical shift in
distribution for comics that happened

when comics started being
sold directly to hobby shops.

The first time I heard
of a comic-book convention

was years and years ago,

and it just grew and
it grew and it grew.

Woman: How many comic
books do you have now,

and what are you gonna do with them?

Keep them until they get, like,
a lot ... worth a lot of money.

Buckley: The stores and the conventions

represented something
that was, in some ways,

an extension of what
you saw come out of Stan.

They were the chat rooms.
You know, it wasn't cool

to pull a comic book out of your bag
and read it in the lunch room.

Green: There was a comic-book
store in my neighborhood.

That became my favorite place to be.
That became my community.

As a result, we got sort of
the most creative period out of Marvel

short of when Jack and Stan
really started the whole thing.

There was nothing that
Marvel really wouldn't do.

Shooter: Well, it wasn't so
much that Hollywood came calling

as that we were knocking
on every door in Hollywood.

We started out, several
times, on promising projects,

and then, for one reason or another,
they didn't work out.

Lee: We did a lot of cartoons,

and they had the Hulk
and they had Iron Man.

They even had theme songs like,

"he is a Hulky, kind of sulky,
kind of bulky superhero."

That terrible Spider-man show.

A guy ... his hair was very '70s.

The TV people had decided
to improve on the product.

And unfortunately, they didn't have

the special-effects ability
that they have today.

Shooter: I remember there
was a Captain America movie.

We were pretty excited about it,
and then they sent us a video tape.

It was so disappointing.
It was so awful.

I don't think there was anybody
who made any of those movies

who wanted to do, like, a
really cool comic-book movie.

But the best thing that happened
was we got the Hulk on TV.

McFarlane: As a 40-, 50-year-old man,

you look at some of the
stuff and go, "what?!"

When Bill Bixby sort of
put those contacts on,

and all of a sudden,

the sort of bad-wigged
Ferrigno came on there ...

When you are eight years old,

which is what I was
watching it, it was magic.

Vancamp: As the 1970s came to a close,

conventions came to life

and retail stores began
popping up across the country,

selling not only new
issues of comic books

but also back issues and collectibles.

Shooter ushered Marvel
right into the fast-growing

direct market and into the next decade.

The 1980s were a very interesting time,

because what you saw was the
emergence of the anti-hero,

pioneered by a number of very famous
seminal comic-book creators ...

Alan Moore, Frank Miller.

And Chris Claremont and John Byrne
and Walt Simonson.

Suddenly you had a bunch of
people raised on all those

wonderful comics old enough
to write those comics,

and they started writing

gritty, graphic, wonderfully
grown-up Marvel Comics.

Then you bring in an
artist like Jim Lee,

Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane.

Alonso: These were creators
that took the superhero

and sort of turned him on his head,

examined their flaws,
and it was very popular.

What was happening is
that characters like

the Punisher and Wolverine
were just super popular,

not because it was a degradation
of society or whatever ...

because I just think, I got to tell you,

that I'm 7, 8, 9, 10 years old,

and I got a guy that's gonna
go out there and kick some "a."

- That guy's cool to me.
- Comics, you know, took another shift.

As we go into the '80s,
it was just another level of realism.

Hama: I remember there
was a lot of reaction

about "it's getting too dark."

A lot of that flak was great flak.

I mean, you had three books
within a year, graphic novels,

hit the New York Times bestseller list
for the first time ever.

It was a time when the
industry was really booming.

The direct market was buying
more and more of everything.

Smith: This was an era
of rediscovery of comics

with the artist as rock star.

Everything important that
was happening in illustration

was happening in comics.

Shooter: It was also Marvel's
most financially effective period.

Marvel finally surpassed DC in sales.

I had a piece of Marvel stock,
so I was like, "yes! Oh, my god!"

And then suddenly, it was worthless.
They were going bankrupt.

Man: The real rumors of a bankruptcy
started in the '80s and '90s.

Their characters were
doing very, very well,

but there was something
wrong at the business end.

Smith: How do you go bankrupt
when you have Spider-man?

You know, how do you go bankrupt
when you have Captain America?

The guys in charge at that
point came to me and said,

"Spider-man will always
sell, thus you're expendable.

other people are expendable."
And boom.

Bendis: Stan had always, you
know, made this picture ...

the bullpen is rockin' and rollin',

and when I showed up at the bullpen,
the lights were off

and the filing cabinets
were piled up in the corner

and they were selling them for money.

There was a sense like,

"uh-oh. Am I writing
the last Marvel comic?"

All it did is help cement the
anger I had towards the people

who basically ruined the company
that I had loved to work for.

Buckley: If you went
into complete bankruptcy,

then the assets would be the pieces
that people get paid back with,

so would someone buy Spider-man
and not buy the Avengers?

The characters would have survived.

Them surviving together
was a different question.

Loeb: You know, it's only
when the hero is at his lowest

can he actually become the greatest.

That, to me, is the greatest
superhero story of all time.

There was a chance that the
lights were gonna go out.

The people at Marvel, however,
decided that wasn't the case.

Around the year 2000,

Marvel then hired me to
become editor-in-chief.

Bendis: Joe is an artist and,
in many ways, a visionary.

Truly, like ... almost like the
spiritual embodiment of Stan Lee.

I have a reputation for
being eternally optimistic.

Bendis: We love these characters.
We love our art form.

And we wanted just to
follow Joe into the light.

Joe is the real deal,
because he's a businessman

and he's a writer and he's an editor,

but he can also sit down and draw.

Quesada: We had forgotten
what got us to where we were.

The goal was to get back to those roots,

to get back to the things
that made Marvel great.

The easy part about it was

that somebody had already
written the rule book.

Just go back to the time
of Stan, Jack, Steve.

Look at what went on here.

Marvel had been Marvel, you know?
Creative freedom, fun.

Stan would look out his
window and see the real world.

Jack would look out his
window and see the real world.

We decided, "you know what?
We're gonna write about our world."

Alonso: It was shortly after 9/11,

and one of the most pervasive
debates at the time was,

exactly how much of your liberty
are you willing to give up

for more safety?

And we decided to
tackle that issue head on

in a comic book called Civil War.

Bendis: They gave me Daredevil,

and then, like, the next
weekend, called me up and said,

"hey, we're thinking about
starting Spider-man over from scratch.

Is that something you
might be interested in?"

Some great storytelling
was happening at that time.

Man: We were always expanding.

I mean, Stan had started
it, but it was always like,

"here's where we are.
Where can we go next?"

Man #2: Out of the ashes of
the bankruptcy came a company

that was much stronger and more
more able to think about itself

as beyond a
comic-book-publishing company.

Brevoort: Up until 2004, 2005,

the way movies were made ...
Marvel movies ...

were you would option a particular
character or a particular title

to some other production company.

You have to give all
the credit to Alan Fine.

We always believed

in the tremendous potential
of the Marvel brand.

Alan would come to
our publishing summits.

We get together about twice a year

with all our key writers and editors
and, you know, brainstorm

and talk about what we
want to do with the books

- for the next year to 18 months.
- Quesada: Alan was fascinated by it.

He thought it was a great way
to work as a creative company,

and he thought that
maybe this is a good way

to start applying the
way that we come up with

not just ideas for comic books
but for everything else creatively.

Man: Marvel decided we
were gonna take the leap.

We're gonna make our own movies.

Marvel financed their own movie,
and the risk they took was "Iron Man."

That's the first movie
from Marvel Studios.

Brevoort: Marvel called
in everyone they thought

was an expert on the
character on some level.

They flew us out
to the airplane hangar they

were making "Iron Man" in
and they sat with Jon Favreau

and just went through the whole thing.

Buckley: It was our first movie,

so we did not know what
it would do at that point.

People doubted us.

Man: You know, you
have the headline like,

"Marvel rolls out the 'B' team."

Brevoort: All they have left
is the dregs of their catalog.

This is clearly never gonna work out.

Iron Man is, like, a
lower-tier Marvel character.

Tony Stark? Who cares?

Loeb: Robert Downey Jr. and "Iron Man" ...
in 2008, both were very risky.

Smith: If "Iron Man" don't work,
it all may fall apart.

I kept telling people,
"you know, watch out."

Marvel had taken its biggest gamble yet

in bringing the story of Tony Stark
to the silver screen,

and the big question
on everyone's mind was

"would Iron Man fly at the box office?"

Man: At Comic-Con,
when they first showed "Iron Man,"

the place erupted in applause.

The buzz traveled outside of the
Convention Center, directly online.

Man: I think people knew this
was gonna be something big.

Lee: I couldn't believe
how wonderful it was.

Shooter: They understood
the sensibilities.

They caught the spirit of it.

Here was a representation of Iron Man,
and he looked like Iron Man.

All the iconography
that you recognize ...

they made it look like
it exists in this world.

The character Tony Stark,
played by Robert Downey Jr.,

is as iconic as the red
and gold armor itself.

It was the right film at the right time.

Brevoort: It was bigger
than anybody expected,

bigger, I think, than we expected.

From there, it's just been
one success after another.

What we like about Marvel
is the idea of the universe.

Green: Kids today are wearing
Thor and Cap and Spider-man

out in the open without
fear of persecution.

- What it shows you is the draw of Marvel.
- They pulled it off.

Maisel: We were fortunate enough,
with the success of "Iron Man,"

to have many options.
One of those was the sale to Disney.

They instantly put
Marvel on a global stage.

It has given us muscle that
we've only dreamed of having.

Man: They're storytellers.
That's what we do, too.

And that commonality has
enabled Marvel to thrive.

Man: We do something
that they don't have.

Smith: Disney had princesses galore,
but Disney never had a boy thing.

Now, thanks to the Marvel universe,

they can, like, go into
the world of superheroes.

Lee: Add Disney to Marvel,
you have a company that nobody can beat.

It starts with the comics.

It always has, and I
think it always will.

We've just tapped
into the female market.

It's exploded in the
last couple of years.

I think the female market

is also just really proud
to be comic-book fans.

Secret war is a huge event
being carried across multiple platforms

with game-changing ramifications.

They can do no wrong, so
I'm ready for "Ant-man."

I'm really excited to
see the new Avengers.

Loeb: What's going on
at Marvel Television ...

we went to Netflix,

and we brought them
Daredevil, Jessica Jones,

Iron Fist, Luke Cage ...

what are affectionately referred
to in the Marvel universe

as the street-level heroes.

Turning that into
"the Defenders" on Netflix ...

like, that's a comic-book
fan's dream come true.

Then we have Marvel Animation.

Takes you on an adventure unlike
anything else that's out there.

It really allows for your
imagination to run wild.

It's just magical.

Of course, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Gregg: Trying to bring what's
magical about Marvel to TV.

We're very excited about
what we're starting to do

in this second season.

Man: Hayley Atwell was a
tremendous asset that we had,

so we decided to make a
television show about Agent Carter.

Atwell: There's a lot
of support for Peggy.

There has been since the
first Captain America film,

and it's because of the fans'
interest in her that I'm standing here.

As for the future, we'll continue to do

what we've been doing
for over 75 years ...

to tell good stories
about extraordinary people

doing incredible things
against enormous odds.

That kind of describes
the Marvel story, as well.

We never can stop.
Me need to constantly move forward.

- No guts, no glory.
- Lee: Everything that they do

brings people entertainment, enjoyment.

Gregg: It's giant, epic,
pop-culture mythology that many of

us grew up on and now new
people feel like they grew up on.

The Marvel universe
conquered the planet.

We're taking you on a roller coaster.
That's what Marvel is.

It's easy to imagine that
Marvel's future will be as

successful, bright, and rich
as its unparalleled history.

And now for what you've
all been waiting for.

Here is a sneak preview
of
never-before-seen-footage

from Marvel's "Agent Carter."

Carter: Where are you headed?

Stark: Some of my babies have
already sold overseas.

I'm gonna pay them a visit.

The rest of them are here somewhere,
which is where you come in.

Word is one of the nasty ones

is hitting the market
in the next day or two.

- What is it?
- Just a piece of paper ...

my formula for molecular nitramine.

Technically, we're
not even sure it works,

but, well, let's face it ...

I invented it, so it works.

- If that stuff were ever fabricated...
- Boom.

This much would level a city block.

- I'm going to regret this, aren't I?
- Absolutely.

But when you're not humiliating him,

that fellow up there's
my butler, Edwin Jarvis.

I owe you one, pal.

There are only a dozen fences
that can handle something this hot.

You just got to learn which one.

And I figured you'd never
have any trouble finding a man.

The trick is finding the right one.

Nice to see you, too, Howard.

The next time you approach
a woman in a dark alley,

you might introduce yourself.

I shall endeavor to remember that.

provided my concussion isn't too severe.

Should you need me.

- You're new to espionage, aren't you?
- Far from it.

Last summer, I caught the
cook pocketing the good spoons.

- What now, Miss Carter?
- Now I go to work.

Vancamp: Marvel has
evolved beyond just a brand

as evidenced by our
love for the characters

that not only entertain us ...
but live within us.

Thank you for taking this
journey with us, and good night.

sync & correction by f1nc0