ABSTRACT
Since the release of Columbia Pictures’ Spider-Man in 2002, the superheroes of Marvel Comics have come to not only dominate the screens of movie theaters but those of our home televisions and portable devices as well. Central to today’s commercially successful resurgence of superheroes is the depiction of characters as beings whose superpowers do not make them immune to basic human foibles but instead make their lives more difficult owing to the complexities inherent in the balancing of the public and private personas. As the 1970s began, Marvel sought to strengthen its market position by expanding the number of comic books it published to the point that they would dilute the presence of other publishers’ titles on the newsstands, essentially crowding them out of the market. Chief among factors contributing to the end of the Bronze Age of Comics frequently cited by comic book historians is the increasing prevalence of story arcs concurrently told in several titles.
