[FEATURE]
Marvel trivia game!

[REVIEW]
Capt. Marvel, Capt. America, & Daredevil!

[OPINION]
The characters of the MU!

[VIEWS]
What Marvel heroes represent!

[NEWS]

[COVER]

Stephen Strange, Adam Warlock, Jean Grey, Ben Grimm, IIlyanna Rasputin, Carol Danvers, Steve Rogers, Shang-Chi, Bruce Banner, Kitty Pryde, Jim Rhodes, Rick Jones. These are some of the names that line the halls of Marvel Universe mythology. Because no matter what else is happening in the Marvel Universe, it's the characters that keep bringing us back. No matter if it's a casual walk down Yancy Street to visit old friends, an exploration the depths of the Negative Zone where no man or woman has gone before, or anywhere and everywhere in-between. It's the characters the first brought us to the Marvel Universe, and it's the characters that keep us returning. Through bad comics, good comics, and great comics, through towering story telling mastery and through failed experiments, it's the characters that live and breathe on those four-color pages.

From the start--and this is what fundamentally made them revolutionary-Marvel heroes and villains were more human than any comic book characters before or since. A lot has happened to those characters since then, but thanks to their resilience and the creativity of the writers and artists who have made them live over the nearly four decades since most of the stable of Marvel heroes were first conceived, they have survived. I would like to have been there when Stan, Jack, and Steve first brought the MU to the world. To see the FF, Hulk, and Spidey cut a swath through the one-dimensional comic book universes that were extant previous to the Marvel revolution. Truly, it was a revolution. Of all the celebrated comics that have been published since then, how many would have seen the light of day without Marvel blazing a trail for them? Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow, The Watchmen, Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, or even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might never have been printed if Marvel hadn't started telling stories about human heroes operating in a real world. And don't forget those villains and supporting characters either!

Of course, in the Marvel Universe, it's the characters first and the characters last. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the magic, the attraction of Marvel comics…is in the characters. I've said it before, but it's worth repeating. That's the once point I've hammered throughout the life of this column. Marvel's wealth is in Captain America and Cyclops and the Wasp. The proper care and feeding of those characters are the way Marvel built its foundation and its reputation. That same care and feeding are what will carry them into that distant temporal horizon.

But, I don't like to concentrate too much on the economics of the industry. I'd rather focus on, as I'm sure you guessed, Marvel's characters and their adventures. These are the characters I grew up with and after a long absence, reacquainted myself with early in my adulthood. Years later they still resonate, they still speak to me and invite me into their world. Sometimes back issues speak that invitation more loudly, but that's not nostalgia talking. To my mind, and at the risk of sounding old and in the way, it's because current Marvel story lines too often stray from an understanding of the nature of Marvel characters. For reasons of financial gain or creative boredom, the characters stop being recognizable after awhile. Or worse, they become uninteresting. At that point, I start to question my attachment to Marvel Comics. Still, I find reassurance. When I read Paul Jenkins HULK stories where he takes the character to exciting new places without losing even an ounce of Greenskin's essence. Or, a Kurt Busiek Avengers story where he moves the group dynamics in sync with the moods and emotions and situations of the characters involved. Than I feel reassured and reconnected to all things Marvel.

For both new and old readers, Marvel Comics provide a cohesive universe where the psychologies and perceptions of our "real" world are played out in a larger than life drama. The heroes and villains we see there drive straight from our own light and dark imaginations. Adolescent power fantasies? Maybe. But, there is more there, too. Good days and bad days, defeats and triumphs, all played against a world where technology changes before our seldom blinking eyes. Our favorite characters in the MU are us, made big and green, splashed with cosmic rays and mutated into outcasts. When those characters cease to become recognizable as such and start to represent profit making formulas, the dream starts to fade. But, when the essence of those characters is allowed to flourish and grow as we readers of all ages grow with them, they become us again.

That's why I say Make Mine Marvel