It's always important to celebrate the classics. Presenting the mainstream Marvel Universe! 1961-1963 was Marvel's "Silver Age", marking a transition out of Timely Comics, into the Marvel Comics name we know today. Readers were introduced to creators Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and the original Bullpen, with stories that embraced a modern brand of hero. This is where it all began!
The series most credited for kick-starting the Marvel Universe, Fantastic Four proved a commercial success due in large part to its three-dimensional characters. It's also credited as the comic that put Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on the map! In the opening issue, Marvel's first family goes head-to-head with Mole Man and his subterranean monsters.
Marvel's most tortured hero, the Hulk represents the latent beast in all of us. Witness the birth of the Gamma Green Giant, as mild-mannered Bruce Banner get a dose of radiation he can't quite shake.
Thor first appeared in the pages of Journey into Mystery, a 1952 horror series created under Atlas Comics. When Marvel creators took over the series, the tone took a shift towards the fantastical. The comic that introduced the God of Thunder to Marvel's True Believers!
Like Journey into Mystery, Tales to Astonish was another pre-Marvel series picked up in the Silver Age. Creators Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby present 'The Man in the Ant Hill', origin story of Hank Pym! Check out Ant-Man's first appearance, as he discovers an insect-sized world of possibility.
Shellhead's first appearance! Although he wouldn't get a solo series till 1968, Iron Man starred in Tales of Suspense, a Cold War Era comic of a science-fiction bend. In a moment of duress, industrialist Tony Stark achieves his full potential.
After a successful first appearance in Amazing Fantasy (1962) #15, Spider-Man got his own series the following year. Readers have always resonated with high school student Peter Parker, a goodhearted kid who gains the abilities of a spider. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko bring the web slinger to life, reminding us that there's more to heroism than super powers and a mask.
The X-Men are the archetypal 'Outsiders', hated and feared by a society that does not yet understand. In their inaugural issue, Charles Xavier's first class of mutants takes on Magneto, Master of Magnetism. Telepath Jean Grey also joins the gang, making her an X-Woman among X-Men!
Perhaps the most anti-heroic of the Silver Age heroes, Daredevil has always had personal reasons for donning the mask. By day, he is blind attorney Matt Murdock, but in his suit of red he is Daredevil, Man Without Fear. Check out the hero of Hell's Kitchen in his very first appearance, wearing a (very) yellow costume!
In this special What If? issue, Marvel's Original Bullpen is reimagined as the Fantastic Four. Stan Lee as Mister Fantastic! 'Fabulous Flo' Steinberg as Invisible Woman! Jack Kirby is the Thing, and Sol Brodsky the Human Torch! The early days in the Marvel office captured in a super hero comic.