Marvel Comics in the Silver Age changed everything for the supehero, planting the seeds for some of the biggest success in entertainment in the years to come. The success of DC in the 1950s saw the publisher decide to get back into the superhero game, with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby dropping Fantastic Four #1 on readers. In the next few years, one of the greatest runs of introductions ever started – the Fantastic Four, Hank Pym, Wasp, Hulk, Thor, the Avengers, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, the X-Men, and more villains than you could shake a stick at. These characters were able to become the favorites of readers, with Marvel entering the ’70s in a somewhat dominant position.
Everyone praises the ’60s, pointing to all of the amazing characters and stories that created the foundation of the Marvel Universe. However, looking at the history of the company over the last 66 years, you can see that one era led to the present of Marvel much more than the swinging ’60s. The 1970s were a very different time for the company, as a whole generation of fans came into the industry and started to work in the Marvel Universe. Things expanded in all kinds of ways, new types of heroes started popping up, and the House of Ideas branched out in a way that they never had before. As much as everyone loves ’60s Marvel, the ’70s changed the company – and the comic industry – and presaged the company’s future.
So, whenever you talk about ’70s Marvel, you have to talk about anti-heroes. Marvel was always the world outside your window and the heroes were a bit more hard-edged and realistic than their DC counterparts. In the ’70s, anti-heroes started to become more prevalent in the pop culture, men and women who used the methods of their enemies against them. In 1974, Marvel introduced two of the most popular characters ever – Wolverine and the Punisher – bringing the anti-hero to the page. Both of them would go on to massive success in the ’80s, jumping over many of the greats who came before them, leaving the floodgates open behind them. Anti-heroes have been massive over the last 52 years and you can thank Marvel for them.
Marvel took notice of film genres like blaxploitation and kung-fu and created Luke Cage, Iron Fist, White Tiger, and Shang-Chi. Marvel got more diverse in a variety of ways during this period, with a rash of female heroes popping up – Carol Danvers as Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman – and we got the Gerry Conway run on Spider-Man. In the ’70s, crime was on people’s minds and Marvel introduced more street-level vigilantes, giving their books a gritty, realistic tone that you didn’t get from their distinguished competition.
In the ’60s, the Fantastic Four were the biggest team, but in the ’70s, they took a back seat to the Avengers. Roy Thomas took over for Stan Lee and basically made the Avengers into the team they are today, with “Kree-Skrull War” casting them as Earth’s cosmic defenders. That story came early in the decade, but it was only the beginning for the group. The team would have its greatest expansion in the ’70s, with Thomas’s run giving way to Jim Shooter and David Michilenie, leading to artist George Perez coming on board the book and giving readers classics like “The Korvac Saga”. The Avengers became the epicenter of the Marvel Universe in the ’70s, a position that would lead them inevitably to the MCU.
Another big thing that happened in 1974 is Giant-Size X-Men #1, which was the key to the X-Men becoming the most popular Marvel team. Chris Claremont was given the reins of the group and they had some amazing adventures through the late ’70s, dealing with the M’Kraan Crystal and the Shi’Ar Empire, beginning the saga of the Phoenix, the introduction of Alpha Flight, and John Byrne becoming co-plotter/penciler. The X-Men’s rise was the key to Marvel’s success in the ’80s and beyond, something that wouldn’t have been possible without the ’70s.
Marvel also worked to expand the reach of comics. The publisher did 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars adaptations, leading to the rise of licensed comics. They started publishing Conan the Barbarian stories, bringing the warrior back to prominence and leading to his movies in the ’80s. They played a big role in bringing back the horror comics, with Tomb of Dracula leading the way and the introduction of Blade, the character that would show that Marvel could rule the multiplex, and Ghost Rider creating new horror icons. Marvel never rested on its laurels in the ’70s and it paid off.
The 1960s will always be integral to the success of Marvel Comics. You don’t get the ’70s without the successes of the ’60s. However, Marvel was able to show the success of the prior decade wasn’t a fluke and they did that by constantly changing what it meant to read a Marvel comic. They took superhero comics in darker directions, something which appealed to the readers of the time. They made the Avengers and X-Men into superstars and introduced numerous characters that would go on to great success. So much of what you’ve seen in modern Marvel has its genesis in the ’70s.
Marvel in the ’60s was all Cold War chic, Stan Lee’s corny dialogue, and Kirby’s imagination. It laid the foundations perfectly, readying readers for the changes that the House of Ideas would bring to the table in the ’70s. Marvel always wrote its stories for older readers and the ’70s felt like they were trying to get even older readers to read comics. Their stories were grounded and often dark, embracing the darkness at the heart of the decade of disco. Superstars were created and the Marvel Universe was never the same.
You don’t really hear too much about Marvel in the ’70s anymore, which is extremely unfair to the amazing work that the creators did back then. I think a lot of times, the ’70s gets glossed over for the ’80s, which is when Marvel really started to take the lessons of the ’70s to the next level and put out some of the greatest stories ever, leading us down the road to today. None of this would be possible, though, without the classics of ’70s Marvel.
