Logo Research Paper

Marvel Logo History

Marvel is one of the well known publishing groups of American comics and related media such as games, animated or live action tv shows, and live action movies. But through the years, they have gone through significant changes. Changes specifically made to their logo. At first, Before they were called Marvel, they were called Timely Comics. Timely comics was founded in 1939 by the name of Martin Goodman who was the first American publisher of the corporation. 

This logo consists of white and blue colored shield or badge, coat of arms, and a tiny rectangle with the word inc. It looks very similar to Captain America’s shield in terms of the colorway and the shape of the shield. During this time, Captain America was one of Timely best sellers(Jung 4). In 1950, The company had its first rebrand, the name was changed to Atlas. Significant and obvious changes were made to the logo. For instance, The badge was taken out and a globe was added in its replacement. The typeface went from a white colored Transitional font to more of a black colored bolder font, and The red and blue colorway is no longer there, in fact, the colorway of the Atlas is mainly black and white. 

Atlas comics was once again founded under Martin Goodman in November 1951. Atlas became the successor of timely comics. The logo lasted for six more years, ending in October 1957. Eventually, The corporation would get another rebrand four years later into the iconic title called Marvel Comics.

In 1957, Marvel Comics rebranded their logo to what most of the world is more accustomed to now. Created more rigorously and with significant changes. There’s a lot to discuss about this logo. For instance, The colors are red, yellow, and black.There’s a capitalized “M” placed in the back where the word comics is placed. Also, the word Marvel is placed above the letter “M”. A few years later, The company showed another version of the logo with the initials “MC” printed above one another. Unfortunately, That logo was unmemorable and it wasn’t as unique as their competitor’s logo “DC comics.”(Jung, 5). As the Marvel Age of Comics began with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and other greats creating more beloved and iconic characters, The title would receive a slight name change called “Marvel Comics Group.” However, The title didn’t really change drastically for a while. “Marvel Comics Group”  or “Marvel” would basically look the same for about Twenty more years with different fonts and sizes. During the early 90s, the logo would eventually gain a stylized look. The word “Marvel” was printed over the large “M” and comics were displayed over the “M” in a playful font. In the late 1990s, Marvel comics decided to create a separate universe for new viewers to get them started on a modernized continuity, rather than having the fans read numerous years worth of comics. So, this new universe was called “Ultimate Marvel”.

The Ultimate Marvel Universe was an alternate universe created by Marvel comics.  This logo is far different from the logo of the original marvel comics. The font of the “Marvel” is Benton Sans, The word “Ultimate” however, I am unaware of what the name of the font is. The colors of the logo are White, Red, and Grey. During the 2000s, Marvel decided to finally launch their new logo. This logo is very similar to that of the Ultimate Marvel logo. The only difference is that the word “Ultimate” is not placed in the original Marvel logo, mainly because it is the primary and original comic continuity. This new logo wouldn’t be produced until titles such as Uncanny X-Men and New X-Men. Eventually, all of the titles that were produced in 2002 would inevitably adopt the logo. The first featured film to produce the new logo is X-Men, but was listed in the end credits. Spider-Man However, was able to adopt the logo sequence.

The logo you see above is the iconic logo we’re all accustomed to now. We see this logo featured in movies, games, live and animated television. Just like the Ultimate Marvel logo, the colors are almost the same, only this time the logo was modified by Rian Hughes.Red, and White is featured, but grey is taken out. Benton Sans is still the font used for their logo. And if you look closely, There is a very slight change in the current logo and the previous one. The letter “M” in the previous logo is less caved in, while the current logo is caved in more. As for the letter “A”, the triangle that’s placed in the middle is shorter compared to the newer version. The current one has increased and looks larger. Finally, The spacing between the letters “E” and “L” has changed. The kerning between the two letters are very close to one another regarding the current Marvel logo, while the old logo has them fairly spaced out between each other. 

Jung, Michael. “The History of The Marvel Comics Logo.” 

    Home, Comic News, The History of The Marvel Comics Logo, https://screenrant.com/marvel-comics-logo-history/, Accessed 13 May 2020

Webber,  Aimee. “The Most Interesting Changes in the Marvel Logo Design History.” CEOWORLD magazine, The Latest, Executive Education, The Most Interesting Changes of The Marvel Comics, https://ceoworld.biz/2018/03/28/the-most-interesting-changes-in-the-marvel-logo-design-history/ Accessed 28 March 2018

Geek Stuff. “Marvel Logo History”, comic-cons.xyz.

Marvel Logo History

Forbes, Emily. The Tech News, Design, “Everything you didn’t know about the Marvel logo design history.” 

    https://thetechnews.com/2018/03/14/know-marvel-logo-design-history/#:~:text=THe%20first%20Marvel%20logo%20in,Martin%20Goodman%20as%20key%20member. Accessed 14 March 2018

Fandom. Logopedia, Marvel Comics

https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Comics