A comic-book tour through the MCU timeline & Marvel history
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Powered by AI — for fun, not official Marvel canon confirmation.
Before there were Avengers, there were guys in a cramped New York office making comics on a deadline.
Publisher Martin Goodman launches Timely Comics. Its first issue introduces the Human Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner — pulpy, two-fisted heroes for a Depression-era audience hungry for escapism.
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Captain America Comics #1 hits newsstands with Cap decking Adolf Hitler on the cover — months before the U.S. even entered WWII.
Writer-editor Stan Lee, tired of formulaic heroes, teams with artist Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four #1 — flawed, bickering heroes with real personalities. The company rebrands as Marvel Comics.
In a two-year sprint, Lee and his collaborators (Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others) introduce Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the X-Men — the bedrock of the entire Marvel Universe.
Marvel licenses out characters (X-Men, Spider-Man) to other studios for cash while near-bankrupt. In 2005 it mortgages its own heroes to fund films directly — producer Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios are born.
A mid-budget movie about a lesser-known hero, starring a comeback-story Robert Downey Jr., becomes a smash hit — and ends with Nick Fury uttering "Avenger Initiative." The MCU is officially underway.
Editor, writer, and Marvel's public face for six decades. Alongside artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee co-created a universe of imperfect, relatable heroes — and made a habit of cameoing in nearly every MCU film, from a security guard in Iron Man to a Watcher in What If...?.
In chronological (in-story) order — movies and Disney+ series together. Exact placement of overlapping post-Blip stories is approximate; click any title for the full page.
A few of the faces that built this universe.