It is hard to imagine what Marvel Comics would be like today if the Marvel Cinematic Universe hadn’t become a cultural force over the last two decades. It’s a “What If?” question that can lead in a lot of directions, but one that is absolutely worth exploring in order to understand the extent of the MCU’s impact.
Starting with Iron Man in 2008, the MCU changed the landscape of comics and pop culture. It also fundamentally changed how Marvel Comics does business, and also how it approaches storytelling.
While some readers are irked by these changes, it’s worth noting that there’s no guarantee Marvel Comics would still exist in its present form without the MCU.
The MCU Changed Pop Culture Forever, But Marvel Comics Feels Its Impact The Most
Iron Man And Marvel Studios Set The Course Of Modern Marvel Comics
There was a time before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a pop culture institution and a billion-dollar global industry unto itself. By the mid-2000s, Marvel franchises had experienced both box office success and failure, but Marvel was growing dissatisfied with licensing out its heroes to film studios, as was traditionally the case with comic book movies.
Marvel’s idea to produce its own films was ambitious, and the idea of tying them all together into what would become the MCU was aspirational. The decision to start with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man was met with a lot of skepticism among Marvel fans, yet when it was released, the film’s unexpected success was revolutionary.
Iron Man ushered in the modern era of comic adaptations overnight. That’s the perfect hinge point in history for a “What If?” Iron Man could have just as easily been a commercial flop, or at least, have not made enough money for the MCU to get off the ground. As a result, both movies and comics today might look significantly different.
Marvel Comics Has Gained Prestige Thanks To The MCU, But Not A Huge Influx Of Readers
Marvel Movies Make New Fans, But Not Necessarily New Comic Buyers
First, it’s important to consider the relationship between Marvel Comics and the MCU. The comics serve as source material and inspiration, but the connection also goes the other way. Though Marvel doesn’t like to admit it, the MCU’s plans often dictate which characters get the spotlight from the publisher, in an effort to produce synergy between the films and comics.
Part of the idea is that a hit MCU film will generate interest in the comics, boosting sales. Meaning it is important that a character like, say, Red Hulk, have a title out at the same time that Captain America: Brand New Day is in theaters. Or Deadpool and Wolverine have a team-up book out when they’re appearing on-screen together.
Data indicates that sales for MCU-related books do spike around film releases, but it’s open to debate how many new long-term readers this creates. What does that suggest? That since 2008, the MCU has made Marvel Comics, as a publisher, a more widely recognized brand by mainstream consumers, but not substantially more commercially successful.
In other words, Marvel Comics might not be generating significantly increased revenue because of the MCU, so the question then becomes: how would Marvel be doing financially if it weren’t for the movies? Would it be making roughly the same profit, or would numbers be way lower than they are now?
If Marvel Had Survived To 2025 Without The MCU, Its Stories Might Be Better, But Sales Wouldn’t
The MCU Has Sustained Marvel Comics
Let’s return for a moment to Marvel Comics’ primary relationship to the MCU: source material. Marvel Comics serves as the breeding ground for new story ideas, new characters, new costumes, etc. In fact, most casual Marvel fans’ first question about a comic story arc is whether it could end up being adapted into the movies.
Some readers have argued that this has effectively reduced Marvel Comics to a “feeder system” for the MCU, and that storytelling with the MCU in mind robs the comics of a kind of prediluvian authenticity. That is, before the flood of MCU films, Marvel stories felt different. Creative decisions were made based on an entirely different set of parameters.
Even if the MCU is not directly dictating what happens in the comics, it has an indirect influence, a gravitational pull the comics cannot escape. The MCU is now the centerpiece of Marvel Entertainment as a whole, and everything else, including Marvel Comics, revolves around that, for better or worse.
So, asking what Marvel would look like in a world without the MCU involves questioning if Marvel Comics’ stories would be better. However, a supplemental to that question is: if Marvel’s stories were better, but even fewer people were reading them than they are now, would that be worth it?
Without The MCU, Marvel Comics Might Not Even Exist As Fans Know It Today
Marvel’s Value Is More Than Financial; Minus The MCU, It Might Not Have Been Worth It
Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009, on the heels of Iron Man’s success and the dawn of the MCU. It’s worth questioning whether the House of Mouse would have absorbed the House of Ideas if Iron Man hadn’t made Marvel such an attractive acquisition at that time. Still, for the sake of argument, let’s take for granted that this happened regardless.
In the grand scheme of Disney’s global revenue picture, Marvel Comics, as a publisher, brings in a relatively small piece of the pie. Its value is not primarily financial, but rather in the constant stream of source material it provides for its IP, which is what Disney actually paid for.
If the MCU never got off the ground, there might have been less incentive over time to keep the publisher going. At some point over the last fifteen years, it might have become more profitable to shutter the company, divide up its IP assets, and license them out to other publishers.
That is, Marvel fans might have seen Deadpool end up in the DC Universe alongside Deathstroke, or Iron Man suddenly popping up as a supporting character in the Invincible franchise. As far-fetched as it sounds, these are the potential end results of asking “What if the MCU hadn’t been such a gamechanger?”
The Advent Of The MCU Meant Marvel Was Never Going To Be The Same, But At Least It’s Not Gone
Marvel’s Survival Has Depended On Films, Merchandise, And More Than Just Comics
There was no way Marvel Comics could be what it once was in the wake of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s success. Comics have always been a business, an industry, which produces a creative product, just like film and television. Industries have to evolve in order to survive, just like a living thing.
The changes to Marvel Comics’ business model and its storytelling ethos precipitated by the MCU have involved some growing pains, but there’s a good chance they were necessary in order to ensure the long-term survival of the publisher. These days, Marvel trails its biggest rival DC in sales, but continues to be the leader in comic films.
James Gunn’s Superman might have signaled a shift there as well, but only time will tell. Still, that means there is also a good chance the pendulum will swing, and Marvel Comics will become the industry standard-bearer on the page once more, and it will only have the opportunity to do so because of the existence of the MCU.
