10 Major Milestones In Comic Book History

10. Lee, Kirby, Ditko & Co. Create Modern Marvel

Avengers #1
Marvel Comics

Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita are all names that every comic book fan should be aware of, because they - along with some other exemplary talent at the company during the sixties - created the Marvel Universe we know today.

Prior to this quartet's involvement at the company, Marvel had mainly been known as Timely Comics, with their most successful character having been Captain America - the Nazi-smashing embodiment of American anti-fascism - along with other wartime characters, like the Submariner.

Simon, Kirby, Lee, Ditko and Romita all had a hand in creating the likes of Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to name but a few - characters that have, in no small way, fundamentally changed the way audiences looked at comic books. Modern Marvel made an effort to create relatable characters defined as much by their own humanity as they were their superpowers, their strengths and their weaknesses; the X-Men themselves were a famous analogue for the Civil Rights Movement too.

With these characters, Lee, Kirby et al. established a precedent that would ensure that the company remained socially conscious (for the most part), and that relatable characters were the norm. These elements are intrinsically linked to Marvel's DNA, and without the involvement of these guys, well, it's safe to say that Marvel wouldn't be the company it is today.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.