by James Harvey

Created on: January 21, 2009   Last Updated: February 08, 2010

I can remember Marvel Comics way back in the 1960's when I was a youngster. It was truly, as the expression was used back then,"The age of Marvel".

Marvel Comics, of course,was not new. It actually dated back to the late 1930's under another name: Timely Comics, in which two of it's legendary artists, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby got their start. It was then called  "The Golden Age"  of Superheroes, which started with the first appearance of Superman in 1938 followed by Batman a year later at DC Comics.

Capitalizing on that craze, Timely had its own superheroes, some of who would re-emerge in the 1960's in an entirely different context, such superheroes as The Human Torch  (The Original Human Torch created by Bill Everett in 1939, and Torch's youthful sidekick,  Toro). Captain America and his original sidekick Bucky; and Sub-Mariner.

But by the 1950's the superhero craze had somewhat died down a bit, being dominated primarily by Westerns, Romances and stories about aliens, not to mention the growing concern from some sources that comic books were considered corrupting to youth, to which ends that such publications as the legendary book "Seduction of the Innocents" (1954) by Fredric Wertham strongly argued that continued comic book reading was a contributory factor to the growing trend of juvenile delinquency And so Timely Comics took a tumble because of declining sales.

Timely Comics (or Atlas, as it was called by the 50's), realized that in order to survive in the Comics industry, it had to refurbish or re-define its image.  And so, in 1961, it re-emerged with a new name: Marvel Comics, as well as a line of brand-new superheroes that would prove to be unique for its genre and would prove to be unlike the previous generation of superheroes.

The first of these new characters made their debut was "The Fantastic Four", which debuted in Fantastic Four #1, (November 1961).  The main characters mainly focused on as indicated by its title, four persons, namely Reed Richards, who had the power to stretch or bend his body into any shape; Sue Storm, his fiancee,  (whom he later married) ,"The Invisible Girl",  Johnny Storm, her rash., impetuous kid brother, the new  "Human Torch"  and the seemingly pugnacious but inwardly soft-hearted Ben Grimm, better known as "The Thing".

The Fantastic Four became an instant hit, immediately catching the public's fancy. But the following year, they would be joined by two other prolific characters

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