It seems hard to believe right now - when they're on top of the world in the realms of comics, films, video games, and every point in between - but no less than twenty years ago, the future of Marvel looked bleak. In fact, it seemed like they might not even exist into the new millennium, owing to some bad business practices and a changing market place they had failed to adapt to. After going all in with the speculator market of the early nineties (all lenticular 3D covers and other such gimmicks) and rather overstepping the mark, since then the entire industry collapsed in on itself and Marvel was left holding the baby, so to speak. Yep, for the majority of the nineties and into the early noughties Marvel was mired in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That marked the beginning of one of the biggest and most ongoing scandals in comic book history, as the publishers tried everything possible to try and turn a profit: in the boardrooms ownership over Marvel and all of their properties were traded between stockbrokers and action figure company Toy Biz, while in the thick of it the company were licensing the rights to their characters to whoever asked, which is why gamers of the era were treated to the likes of Marvel Vs Capcom, and why the flagging company had to shell out another million dollars to stop Roger Corman releasing his awful low-budget Fantastic Four film. Not a good time for anyone.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
