The Marvel Age of Comics

The Marvel Comics Universe of the 1960s was set in the real-world as opposed to fictional, not only in their locales but within their narratives as well. Iron Man helped fight the Cold War, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man played roles in the Space Race, Namor the Submarine joined the environmental movement, the X-Men hung out in Greenwich Village, and a Mary Jane Watson got a job as a go-go dancer. By remixing the factual with the fictional, these narratives offer a unique and insightful overview of the decade.

Marvel and the Military-Industrial Complex

The military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned against played a pivotal role in the Marvel Comics Universe, including the creation of the Hulk and Iron Man.

Mary Jane Watson: Go-Go Dancer

The self-proclaimed party girl and friend of Spider-Man alter ego Peter Parker dressed in the latest fashions during the 1960s and even briefly got a job as a go-go dancer in a local nightclub.

Medusa: Fashion Model

British photographer David Bailey and model Jean Shrimpton changed the fashion industry during the 1960s, something the Inhuman Medusa learns as a model for Heavenly Hair Spray.

The Mighty Thor and Hiroshima USA

The Cold War and threat of nuclear Armageddon made their way into Marvel Comics during the 1960s, as well as Collier’s magazine and its reporting of a fictitious nuclear attack on New York.

Namor: The Santa Barbara Oil Spill

In conjunction with the first Earth Day and one year after an environmental disaster struck off the coast of California, the king of Atlantis warned surface-dwellers against polluting the oceans.

Nikita Khrushchev: I Will Bury Iron-Man!

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev made occasional appearances within the pages of Marvel Comics during the 1960s, and even lobbed his famous “I will bury you” phrase against Iron Man.

Spider-Man and Project Mercury

The amazing Spider-Man helps a crippled space capsule return safely to Earth while the real-world Mercury Seven astronauts wait for the opportunity to travel into the vast unknown.

Black Panther: Making a Stand in South Africa

Members of the Fantastic Four travel to the segregated African nation of Rudyarda to assist the Black Panther, a journey similar to one made by Robert F. Kennedy to South Africa in 1966.

The Fantastic Four Meet the Beatles

Benjamin “Thing” Grimm and Johnny “Human Torch” Storm of the Fantastic Four get caught up in Beatlemania the year after the Fab Four arrived in New York City and conquered America.

The Hulk, Bruce Banner, and Robert Oppenheimer

Both Bruce Banner of the fictional Marvel Comics Universe and real-world physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer were suspected and investigated of being Soviet spies during the 1950s and 1960s.

Iron Man: Behind Enemy Lines

Iron Man and New York Times journalist Harrison Salisbury both traveled to North Vietnam in the late 1960s, encountering different views of the U.S. bombing effort during the Vietnam War.