I know this isn't really a one shot, don't be mad at me for tricking you. This is the second draft of a research paper I am writing about the history of Marvel. I thought it might be fun to have you guys read it and make suggestions before I write the final draft.

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The Marvel universe,with all its heroes and adventures, has been enjoyed and loved by people for generations, but Marvel has changed lot over the years, It used to be a very different place than it is now.

Before Marvel was even an inkling in anyone's mind, there was a man named Martin Goodman. Martin was a successful publisher of Pulp Magazines. He along with his partner Louis Silberkleit, published these fiction magazines in all genres including western, mystery, sci-fi and more. Some issues even had the name Marvel Science, or Marvel Mystery; perhaps a little hint at what was to come. Not long after Goodman and Silberkleit built up their company, the age of pulps had ended and publishers everywhere we're now coming out with comic books. After some falling out between the partners, the two decided to go their separate ways, Goodman stayed with the company, while Silberkleit left. It didn't take long for Goodman to jump on the comic bandwagon, especially since pulps weren't making him much profit anymore. So in 1939 he hired a good team of writers and artists including Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, and seventeen year old Stan Lee, and started his comic book company, Timely Comics.**

During the rise of comic books came National Comics (Later D.C. Comics) ushering in the era of super heroes, and of course Goodman had to keep up by beginning to publish superhero comics, starting with an issue titled, guess what? Marvel Comics! The issue featured their first superhero, the android Human Torch created by Carl Burgos.

Timely Comics was the first name that Goodman's company went through, and this is the name that it stuck with all the way through World War II. This of course was the time when Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the iconic character, Captain America! The first Captain America comic had a picture of the hero, punching Hitler in the face, on its cover. As you might expect, Captain America was hugely popular during the war time.**

After the war, in about 1950, many companies moved away from the superhero fad and began printing a wider variety of genres. And Goodman, being the expert imitator that he was, followed this trend leaving superheros behind, and changing the name of the company to Atlas. if he saw other companies printing westerns, he told his staff to write westerns, if everyone else was printing romance, his staff printed, guess what? Romance. But some of Martin's writers, Stan Lee included, got tired of following the trends, so they wrote a comic about a team of heroes called the fantastic four. Goodman allowed it to be published, and it sold like hotcakes, to borrow the phrase. That's when the company really became set on super heroes, coming out with X-men, and the Hulk. It wasn't long after this, around 1960, that Goodman changed the name to Marvel comics, and the company was well on its way to becoming the Marvel that we know today. But it took lots of talented people other than Martin Goodman, to make this company a success. 

Jack Kirby for example, is seen by many as one of the most important people in comic book history, right up there with Stan Lee. When Kirby first started out in the comic business, he was working together with his partner Joe Simon. The duo didn't become well known until they started working for Timely Comics, where they eventually created the iconic World War II hero, Captain America. Their run with Captain America wasn't very long, and they had written only ten issues before deciding to leave Timely, in order to take a higher paying job at National Comics. During their time at National Comics, the two partners decided to go their separate ways. Kirby ended up going back to work for Timely, now called Atlas, and assist Lee in the creation of the fantastic four. He also played a key role in the creation of many other iconic heroes at that time.*

The next person we have to talk about is Steve Ditko, who didn't step into Marvel history until the Atlas era. He worked on many comics in different genres, and eventually worked with Stan Lee on the creation of Spiderman. After Spiderman however, Ditko began working on his own hero, someone unlike any superhero the world had seen so far, Doctor Strange. People were fascinated by the story of an arrogant Doctor, turned Sorcerer. And besides minor input from Lee, Ditko had the credit for this hero all to himself, he wrote the story, he came up with the characters, and he made the amazing whimsical art we see in the comics. Ditko eventually stopped working for Marvel and did other freelance jobs in other places, he now remains a reclusive man, refusing interviews, and staying away from fans as much as possible.**

It is quite a different story for another marvel artist, Joe Sinnott, who is more than happy to talk to you about his work. Although he didn't create any of the characters we love, Sinnott played a huge part of how we see our favorite heroes. He was an artist. Most people know him as an inker, that's someone who puts the ink in over the sketches for the final pictures we see in the comics. But if you ask him, Sinnott will tell you that he did much of his own penciling as well. But as far as the Marvel writers are concerned, they all wanted Sinnott to ink their sketches. Now, at the age of 90, Joe Sinnott continues doing what he loves as a freelance comic artist.***

Another man we need to acknowledge is Carl Burgos. He was a writer and artist for Timely comics, starting in 1939. Burgos created several superhero's in his lifetime, but the one that he is most famous for is the very first Marvel superhero, an android, called The Human Torch. In a way, you could say that Burgos started Timely on its path to greatness. Unfortunately, Burgos left Timely in 1942 in order to go to war. After several years, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, revised Burgos' character, making him actually human, and putting him in their new team, the fantastic four. Burgos was not happy about this, and threatened to seek legal action against them for using his character this way. However, very little came of this, and he seemed to give up the notion of suing Marvel. 

While we're talking about the Human Torch, we might as well let some of the other well known Marvel characters get some credit. So let's talk about the hero who is probably the most iconic figure in Marvel history, Captain America. This hero was created during WWII as a symbol of hope and freedom. a scrawny kid from Brooklyn, longing to make a difference, signs up for an experiment which turns him into the super soldier that America needed. The first Captain America Comic had a picture of the hero, punching Adolf Hitler in the face. And in every issue after, he continued to fight for America and take down Nazis, as well as a fictional villain called The Red Skull. Even today, 76 years after Jack Kirby put him on paper, Captain America continues to inspire kids and adults alike.

There is another character, who, unlike Captain America, didn't ask to be a superhero, in fact, he gained nothing but hardship from his alter ego as Spiderman. Created by the illustrious Stan Lee, Spiderman is just a normal kid, struggling to balance his new super responsibility, with school, friends and love. Making him an extremely relatable and popular character for the teen demographic, even to this day.

And if we're talking about heroes who don't want their powers, then we can't leave out the Hulk. Doctor Bruce Banner, created by Lee and Kirby, is a science genius, with two different backstories. His original backstory that his creators gave him, states that he was hit by a gamma bomb while saving a boy from the explosion. His second backstory comes with the 2003 Hulk film, where he inherits his powers from his father, who attempted to turn himself into a super soldier. But no matter the back story, we all know that Bruce Banner was turned into an angry, rampaging, yet kindhearted, monster, The Hulk. He went on to become a member of the Avengers, and I'm sure that nearly anyone you ask these days will tell you, that The Hulk is not a monster, but a hero. 

Now we've talked about heroes getting their powers in many different ways, but what about heroes who don't have powers at all? Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, owner of his father's weapons company, (created by Lee, Kirby, and others in 1963,) becomes a superhero when he's captured and told to build a weapon. Instead he builds a suit of armor to get himself out. Once home and safe, Tony's outlook on life has changed. He decides to stop making weapons and, devote his time to helping people. Iron Man wasn't the most popular Marvel character at the time, in fact,Stan Lee intentionally tried to make him as rude, arrogant, and unlikable as possible, just to see if people would still read about him. And they did, though Tony Stark didn't really step into the limelight until his first film in 2008.

In the late 60s, Martin Goodman sold his company to Perfect film and Chemical, who ran the Comic company until 1986 when it was bought by New World Pictures. Then, only three years later, sold to a businessman named Ron Perelman. Through all the changes of ownership, Marvel was still doing great, and selling well, thanks to the amazing writers and artists who still loved their jobs and did them well. But a few years, and a couple of bad business deals later, in 1996, Marvel went bankrupt. Almost all the staff was laid off, including Stan Lee, who went on to start his own company. Marvel was now at its lowest point since its beginning, with no obvious way back up, they tried several plans, including trading cards, interactive CDs, and even a Marvel themed restaurant. But all of these plans flopped, leaving Marvel just as bad off as it was before. This seemed by all evidence to be the end of Marvel.

In another desperate attempt, to climb out of the hole they were in, Marvel began selling some of the rights to their characters to Film companies in order to make at least a little money. They sold X-Men to 20th Century Fox, and Spiderman to Sony Pictures. The movies that came out about these characters did extremely well, with X-Men grossing over 200 Million, and Spiderman over 400 Million, unfortunately Marvel didn't get any of this profit.

Seeing how well their ideas did in cinema, the Marvel board members came up with a plan to start their own film company, Marvel Studios. If it worked out, it would get them back on their feet, if not, they would lose the rights to many of their most famous characters. It was a risky move, but considering the state they were in at the time, they decided it was worth the risk. Now some time before this, Marvel had sold the rights to their character Iron Man, to Universal studios, who intended to make a movie, but never did, and sold the rights to 20th Century Fox. the same thing happened here, and a movie was never made, and the rights we're sold to New line Cinema, once again, they never got around to making the movie, and the rights we're sold back to Marvel. Marvel took the opportunity and ran with it, hiring Robert Downey Jr. who many of us now see as the living embodiment of the comic book Tony Stark, and making Iron Man their first film in 2008.

The film was a huge success, grossing over 500 million worldwide. I think it's safe to say that with this film, Marvel had secured its future. Just a year later in 2009 Marvel was bought by Disney, and went on to make Iron Man 2 in 2010, and in 2011 they came out with Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor. Fast forward to the present day, and Marvel has made billions on these heroes, who started out as nothing more than a passing comic book fad, and have now become some of the most well known and well loved Heroes in the world.

Marvel has captured our attention and held our hearts for so long, by creating relatable characters with real lives, and real problems. Creating Superheros such as deaf Hawkeye, or blind Daredevil, gives kids with similar disabilities someone to look up to, and someone who shows them that they can still do great things. Marvel is definitely a fan of making socially awkward characters such as Peter Parker, and Leopold Fitz. These flawed characters, are not only relatable, but extremely lovable. Which is why, even through all the years of change, people young and old continue to love the classic stories and look forward to the new movies.

Marvel, just like the heroes it created, has had its share of ups and downs. But in the end they came out on top, going from small comic publisher, to multi billion dollar film company. And along the way, changing the world, and our lives forever.

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Please give me your, thoughts and suggestions, it would mean a lot to me!