In the 1960’s Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created many successful comic book characters such as the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and the X Men. This period of success was appropriately called the Marvel Age of comic books. The comics of the 60s were definitely based around the events of the decade such as the space race and the civil rights movement, and this is clearly shown through such characters as the Fantastic Four and the Black Panther. These events certainly made more interesting characters that more people could relate to. However, I believe that the real reason for Marvel’s success in the 60s was the development of its characters.
Before the 60s superheroes were pretty much just men in suits fighting crime. The characters were missing an important element-personality. Perhaps the closest hero to having personality was Batman who was very troubled by his parents’ death, and felt guilt for not being able to do anything about it. In the 60s, Marvel’s Lee and Kirby came up with dozens of characters who were fully developed in personality. Whether it is the Thing feeling down about being a monster or Johnny Storm showing off his flame tricks, the Fantastic Four had personality.
Most notably of Marvel’s characters is Spiderman. A teenage kid with superpowers, he feels compelled to fight crime after the guilt of not stopping his uncle’s killer. Aside from this, Peter Parker is a typical boy with problems in school and relationships. I believe Spiderman’s success was due to readers being able to relate well to Parker.
The X Men are similar to Spiderman in that people can relate to them. They are the perfect metaphor for any minority group that may feel like an outsider in the American society. Of course, the characters of the X Men later develop quite unique personalities, such as Professor Xavier and Magneto. This gives a more realistic explanation for why the two are enemies. Indeed, it is often hard to tell whether Magneto is the ‘bad guy’ once we learn his background.
I believe the development of superhero personality by Marvel’s Lee and Kirby in the 60s was the biggest contribution to their success in comic books. Along with character development, the duo reflected the events of the time in their storylines. Readers of the comics of the Marvel Age are definitely able to relate well to the superhero characters.
I would have to agree with you, by say that Marvel Comics made it easier and more fun to read comics for their readers. I was never one to read comic books before, and I'm working on reading them now (I must say I do enjoy them quite a bit) but I have an easier time reading and understanding the characters in the comics. One thing to question the comic book artists before the 60s would be, why didn't they give the super heroes more in depth personalities? I think if you make a character that it would make sense to have personalities.
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