How Marvel took over cinema and TV

SINCE 1939, Marvel Comics has told hundreds of fantastic tales of superheroes battling to save the planet. But its fight to dominate pop culture is an epic in itself, involving censorship and a bankruptcy that left the company without many of its prized characters. Its latest film, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, took in $90m in box-office sales in the United States and Canada over the Labour Day weekend, despite the spread of covid-19 dampening cinema-goers’ enthusiasm. That is three times the previous Labour Day record, set by “Halloween” in 2007. How did Marvel come to rule the movies? And can its superheroes stay on top?

Marvel’s first decades were rocky. The comic-book publisher struggled with constant management changes, often over-extending itself and having to cut back. It was also restrained by the Comics Code Authority, a de facto industry regulator which sprung up in America in the 1950s to avoid more intrusive government meddling. Among its many limitations were bans on vampires, “excessive” gunplay and portraying villains sympathetically. In 1986, the company ended up in the hands of Ronald Perelman, a billionaire who took Marvel public three years later. Mr Perelman had big ambitions, calling the company a “mini-Disney”.