Marvel Comics was founded back in 1961 and originally kicked off as a decently successful enterprise,

after several decades under a different name and with different people running it,

with the advent of the Fantastic Four,

a superhero team meant to appeal more to teenagers and older readers,

in contrast to work focused first and foremost on children.

A demographic focus also embraced

by most other comic book publishers at the time, including rival DC comics and their Superman,

Batman, and Wonder Woman properties.

The introduction of other characters, which were more human seeming than the two-dimensional

godlike heroes that had dominated comic books

until that period. New entries like Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the X-Men, likewise resonated

with a larger audience across more demographics, which helped Marvel's sales numbers surge,

and which led to the development of more and more characters, many of them initially

introduced in established publications, only to go on to get their own spin-off series later.

This approach to introducing new heroes and villains and super teams and so on allowed Marvel

to use existing franchises to try out new ones, and then boost them by promoting them to their existing audience via channels that were already relatively successful.

By 1968, the company was selling 50 million comics a year and eventually pulled ahead of rival DC comics in 1972 on the strength of its interconnected superhero publications and expansion into

sci-fi, satire, martial arts, and horror-themed properties.

The company expanded into audio with a few 1975-era superhero-themed radio series, and then events as well,

with its own Marvel-Con comic book convention. In the mid-1980s, Marvel, which by then was

owned by a parent company called Marvel Entertainment Group, was sold to the owner of cosmetics company,

Revlon, and he took the company public in 1991, using it as collateral for debt that he used to acquire

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