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As Marvel turns 75, what does the future hold?

As Marvel turns 75, what does the future hold?

By Gopal Sathe | Updated: 5 March 2014 21:40 IST

"The House of Ideas" turns 75 this year and while Marvel Entertainment will be celebrating the milestone throughout the year, it kicked things off on Wednesday with a trailer promoting things and promising fans that there's a lot of content coming down the line.

Even before the trailer was released, Marvel announced that Alex Ross will be working with the company to create special 75th anniversary covers; news that gladdened many fans most justifiably. But the trailer itself also showed how much Marvel's Cinematic Universe has come to define the company.

The various montages of characters focus heavily on heroes who are part of the MCU; or are at least featured in other movies. That isn't to say that non-movie characters are ignored, but there's a definite slant in that direction.

You can see this in particular with the heavy focus on characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy - hugely popular among some fans, these characters are still "niche", even within the small world of fans of superhero comics. At the same time, Marvel is going to release a Guardians of the Galaxy movie this year, and that means that they get named and shown in a trailer where other characters who have a bigger following get sidelined.

The trailer is narrated by Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso, who previews what the company has planned for the celebration, including interviews, podcasts, videos, and galleries featuring the characters and creators in Marvel. The video is promising, and also helps highlight the multimedia juggernaut that the comics business has become; the actual comic books are just one of the legs of the stool supporting the company, and video games, movies, and television are all given a mention.

In terms of digital media, Marvel deserves praise for both the enthusiasm they've shown for video games and also for the steps they have taken in digitising their collection of comics. However, it's worth noting that the company hasn't had a big success in games at the same level of Rocksteady's Batman game for a while. The recent Deadpool game was a blast (Mark Waid agreed) but with Batman: Arkham Asylum, DC struck gold.

On the other hand, the MCU is going strong, while Superman didn't really do nearly as well. The movies have seemed like a license to print money, but that's the result of years of careful planning and excellent movies that were standalone successes as well.

The juggernaut is rolling on with Captain America: Winter Soldier coming in this month. Comic book fans will already know what to expect thanks to that title but the larger audience out there might be in for a bit of a shock. If the trailers are any indication though, then Marvel is again looking at making bank, and then some.

Captain America will also - it is believed - tie in a storyline where we get to see the dark side of SHIELD. This will tie in with the TV show that the company is currently airing - Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. The show got off to a slow start, and drew low viewership numbers, but by now (halfway through the 22nd episode of the first season), it's starting to look a lot more interesting, and it has also started to build up a "good SHIELD/ bad SHIELD dynamic between the protagonists and HQ".

While Agents of SHIELD seems to have found its feet, the rest of the season will prove if there's such a thing as a Joss Whedon curse. However, this year might also be the first time that the MCU hits a stumbling block.

That's because the Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be a lot more challenging to sell to an audience than Iron Man, Captain America, or even Thor. Yes, most people probably haven't been reading the Thor comics and probably weren't that familiar with the character, but the basic concept at least can be summed up in a smooth elevator pitch.

Summing up the Guardians of the Galaxy takes a little time, and explaining characters like Groot and Rocket Raccoon? Okay, it's possible, it isn't something you're going to manage with the MCU's wide audience without drawing a lot of funny looks.

And if the MCU stumbles will the rest of the Marvel universe recover? Judging by today's trailer, the fleeces would be felt at all levels, but if anyone can sell us on the movie, it's the people who made the best Hulk movie of the millennium. Sure, they called it the Avengers, but we know what it really was.

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