 | Labeled "Earths Mightiest Heroes", the Avengers originally consisted of Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and The Hulk (Captain America did not join until issue #4, although he was given the status of an honorary founding member). The rotating roster has become a hallmark of the team, although one theme remains consistent: the Avengers fight the foes no single superhero can withstand — hence their battle cry, "Avengers Assemble!" The team has featured humans, mutants, robots, gods, aliens, supernatural beings, and even former villains. |
 | The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941. Over the years, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books have been sold in a total of 75 countries. For nearly all of the characters publication history Captain America was the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a sickly young man who was enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed with an indestructible shield that can be thrown as a weapon. |
 | Living in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, Matt Murdock is blinded by a radioactive substance that falls from an oncoming vehicle. Despite losing his sight, the radioactive exposure heightens his remaining senses beyond normal human ability. His father supports him as he grows up, though he is later killed by gangsters after refusing to throw a fight. After donning a yellow and black, and later a dark red costume, Matt seeks out revenge against his fathers killers as the superhero Daredevil, fighting against his many enemies including Bullseye and the Kingpin. |
 | Debuting in Strange Tales #110 in 1963, a "split book" shared with fellow Marvel character the Human Torch. Strange appeared in #111 and then, skipping two issues, #114 before getting his origin story in #115 (1963). Strange is established as a world-renowned if selfish neurosurgeon, until a car accident damages his hands, preventing him from conducting surgery. Sunk into depression and scouring the world for a cure to his condition, he locates a hermit, the Ancient One in the Himalayas. After Strange selflessly tries to thwart a traitorous disciple, Baron Mordo, who would become one of Stanges most enduring antagonists, the Ancient One teaches Strange the mystic arts. |
 | Created by Frank Miller, the character first appeared in Daredevil #168 in 1981. Elektra is a ninja assassin of Greek descent. She wields two bladed sai as her trademark weapon. She is a love interest of the superhero Daredevil, but her violent nature and mercenary lifestyle divide the two. She is one of Frank Millers best-loved creations, and subsequent writers use of her is controversial as Marvel had originally promised to not resurrect the character without Millers permission. She has also appeared as a supporting character of the X-Mens Wolverine. |
 | The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 in 1961, which helped to usher in a new naturalism in the medium. The Fantastic Four was the first superhero team created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby, who developed a collaborative approach to creating comics with this title that they would use from then on. As the first superhero team title produced by Marvel Comics, it formed a cornerstone of the companys 1960s rise from a small division of a publishing company to a pop-culture conglomerate. |
 | The first supernatural Ghost Rider is stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze, who, in order to save the life of his mentor, agreed to give his soul to "Satan". Instead, his soul bonded with the entity called Zarathos. When utilizing Zarathos powers Blazes flesh is consumed by hellfire, causing his head to become a flaming skull. He rides a fiery motorcycle and wields trademark blasts of hellfire from his skeletal hands. In mid-2000s comics, Blaze again became the Ghost Rider, succeeding Danny Ketch who was the Ghost Rider from 1990-98. |
 | Created in 1962, The Hulk is cast as the emotional and impulsive alter ego of the withdrawn and reserved physicist Dr. Bruce Banner. The Hulk appears shortly after Banner is accidentally exposed to the blast of a test detonation of a gamma bomb he invented. Subsequently, Banner will involuntarily transform into the Hulk, depicted as a giant, raging, humanoid monster, leading to extreme complications in Banners life. Lee said the Hulks creation was inspired by a combination of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein. |
 | Born Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark, he is an industrialist playboy and genius engineer who suffers a severe heart injury during a kidnapping in which his captors attempt to force him to build a massively destructive weapon. He instead creates a powered suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. He later decides to use the suit to protect the world as Iron Man. Through his multinational corporation, Stark Industries, Tony created military weapons and his own metal suit is laden with technological devices that enable him to fight crime. |
 | The identity he started out with, Marc Spector, was a mercenary, who, as the origin story opened, was working for terrorist Roald Bushman. They had a falling-out, which made the two mortal enemies and led to Spectors superheroization. After Bushman left him for dead near an Egyptian archaeological site, Spector was rescued by workers who happened to be worshipers of Khonshu, the local Moon god, who doubled as a god of vengeance. He underwent a near-death experience at the foot of Khonshus statue, then woke up suddenly, declaring himself the Moons knight of vengeance. |
 | The Punisher is a vigilante who considers killing, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence, and torture to be acceptable crime-fighting tactics. Driven by the deaths of his family, who were killed by the mob when they witnessed a gangland execution in New York Citys Central Park, the Punisher wages a one-man war on the mob and all criminals in general by using all manner of weaponry. His familys killers were the first to be slain. A war veteran, Castle is a master of martial arts, stealth tactics, guerrilla warfare and a wide variety of weapons. |
 | She-Hulk (Jennifer Susan Walters) is a Marvel Comics superheroine. Created by writer Stan Lee (who wrote only the first issue, and was the last character he created for Marvel) and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1 (February 1980). She-Hulk has been a member of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Heroes For Hire, Defenders, Fantastic Force, and S.H.I.E.L.D. A highly skilled lawyer, she has served as legal counsel to various superheroes on numerous occasions. Her cousin is Bruce Banner, better known as The Incredible Hulk. |
 | Norrin Radd, a young astronomer of the planet Zenn-La, made a bargain with the cosmic entity Galactus, pledging in order to save his homeworld from destruction. Imbued in return with a portion of Galactus Powers, a new version of his original appearance, and a surfboard-like craft on which he would travel at speeds beyond that of light. Now, the Silver Surfer, he roams the cosmos searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels took him to Earth, the Surfer came meets the Fantastic Four, who help him to rediscover his nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was punished in return by being exiled there. |
 | Spiderman (The Amazing Spiderman) Spiderman first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962). Lee and Ditko conceived of the character as an orphan being raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben as an ordinary teenager, having to deal with the normal struggles of youth in addition to those of a costumed crime fighter. Spider-Mans creators gave him super strength and agility, the ability to cling to most surfaces, shoot spider-webs using devices of his own invention which he called "web-shooters," and react to danger quickly with his "spider-sense", enabling him to combat his foes. |
 | The Marvel Star Wars series of comic books was the first ever comic series created for the saga. It spanned 107 issues, with three special Annual issues. The series was relatively long-running, lasting from 1977 to 1986. It was published by Marvel Comics. The series was such a smash hit for Marvel in an otherwise dismal sales year that many who worked at Marvel in 1977 consider it to have singlehandedly saved them from financial ruin. |
 | On a mission from his father, Odin, Thor acted as a superhero while maintaining the secret identity of Dr. Donald Blake, an American physician with a partially disabled leg. Blake would transform by tapping his walking stick on the ground; the cane became the magical hammer Mjolnir and Blake transformed into Thor. Thor often battled his evil adoptive brother Loki, a Marvel character adapted from the Norse god of mischief, and was a member of the superhero group the Avengers. Apart from this superhero Marvel featured a number of Thors (and similar characters) based on him. |
 | The Transformers comic by Marvel was the first and arguably the best known Transformers comic. Although it was originally intended to be a 4-issue limited series, it expanded into an ongoing series, which ran for 80 issues before being cancelled. The final cover read "80 in a 4 issue limited series". Issues #1–56 were written by Bob Budiansky, with Marvel UK writer Simon Furman taking over for the remainder of the comic. |
 | General Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. establishes a strike force of government-sponsored metahumans which includes Captain America; scientist couple Henry and Janet Pym (Giant-Man and the Wasp); Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Tony Stark (Iron Man). Together they are based at the S.H.I.E.L.D facility, the Triskelion. When Banner injects himself with the super-soldier serum and goes on a bloody rampage as the Hulk, he is eventually stopped by the other metahumans with the aid of Thor. The team then join forces with the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and agents Hawkeye and Black Widow against the alien shape-shifters the Chitauri, who are defeated. |
 | Venom is a sentient alien with a gooey, almost liquid-like form. It requires a host, usually human, to bond around for its survival. In return the Venom creature gives its host enhanced powers. In effect, when the Venom Symbiote bonds with a human to form a super-villain, that new dual-life form itself is also often called Venom. The symbiote, with or without a host, is one of Spider-Mans archenemies. Spider-Man was the first host it merged with before its evil motives were clear. After Spider-Man rejected it, the symbiote went on to merge with other hosts and so began its reign as the villain known as Venom. |
 | The first Wolverine was a limited series written by Chris Claremont with pencils by Frank Miller, inks by Joe Rubinstein, letters by Tom Orzechowski and colored by Glynis Wein. Marvel Comics published the series from September to December 1982. It was revived in 1988 as an ongoing series and lasted until 2003 when it was relaunched after issue 189. As part of Dark Reign the series was renamed Dark Wolverine in 2009 and starred Wolverines son, Daken. |
 | The X-Men were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1 (September 1963). Under a cloud of increasing anti-mutant sentiment, Professor Xavier created a haven at his Westchester mansion to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit of humanity, and to prove mutants can be heroes. Xavier recruited Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Jean Grey, calling them "X-Men" because they possess special powers due to their possession of the "X-Gene", a gene normal humans lack but which gives Mutants their abilities. |
 | Marvel Zombies is a five-issue limited series published from December 2005 to April 2006 by Marvel Comics. The series was written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips and covers by Arthur Suydam. It was the first series in the Marvel Zombies series of related stories, the story starts when a virus comes to earth and turns all earth heroes and some humans into zombies, they were trapped in a dimension by Magneto, who was eaten by the zombies. |