10 Marvel Tropes Every New Fan Needs to Know

Marvel has taken some hits lately, but they’re still the biggest name in entertainment. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made Marvel a household name like never before, and sometimes there’s some bleedthrough from the MCU to the comics. The MCU often got praised for being “comic accurate” in its early days, but that was more a vibe than anything concrete like having comic-accurate stories or comic-accurate origins. Marvel’s comics and Marvel’s movies are two different beasts and one place where that is most apparent is the tropes that they use.

A new fan is going to find some glaring differences in the tropes that both use. Marvel has developed their storytelling language over the decades, which has allowed writers and artists to tell all kinds of stories. Knowing these tropes before going into the comics is quite useful because some of them are mystifying on a first readthrough.

10 New York City Has A Million Superheroes

New York City was the home of the Marvel offices. Many of the publisher’s creators were New Yorkers, and that bled through in their work. Most of Marvel’s Silver Age heroes are either in New York City or New York adjacent. The Big Apple was the center of the Marvel Universe – Peter Parker lived in Queens and Spider-Man fought crime around the island of Manhattan. Daredevil protected Hell’s Kitchen. The Avengers were based out of the Starks’ mansion on Fifth Avenue. Doctor Strange was on Bleecker Street. The Punisher fought crime in all five boroughs.

Marvel’s headquarters in the Silver Age was on Madison Avenue, and the creators used the streets of the city as inspiration for their stories Older Marvel comics are very New York-centric, as up until the ’90s boom period, most of Marvel’s heroes were still in or near the city Spider-Man has more related heroes than anyone else in the city, making the city very much like Gotham for the Wall-Crawler

This continues to this day. Marvel’s New York City isn’t as much the center of the Marvel Universe as it used to be, but there are even more heroes than ever in the city. Most of the older heroes are still there – both Spider-Men, Captain America at times, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones – as well as a whole bunch of lower profile heroes. New York City and its sensibilities played a big role in shaping the Marvel Universe, and many of its biggest heroes still reside there.

9 Martial Artists Are The Equivalent To Superhumans

This isn’t only a Marvel thing, but it feels like Marvel does it more than anyone else. Martial artists in the real world come from all walks of life, with some training in them as an athletic pursuit, others as a way to unwind, and for some professional reasons. This is the same in the Marvel Universe, but the martial arts still have an air of magic and mysticism to them. The Marvel Universe is home to undead ninja clans like the Hand, mystical cities ruled by dragons and kung-fu masters, and ancient martial arts masters.

The Hand have been established as an ancient ninja sect ruled by the Beast, a demon lord who has his own Hell Daredevil was trained as a ninja and can easily defeat enemies with superhuman physical attributes like super strength Shang-Chi and Iron Fist have mastered using their chi energy, allowing them to pull off moves and attacks no one else can

Martial arts in the Marvel Universe is basically a superpower training school. Sure, not every dojo in the world is going to be home to a master who has learned immortality and perfected martial arts over the centuries, but more of them exist than most people can imagine. The combined onslaught of the kung-fu movie craze of the ’60s and ’70s and the ninja boom of the ’80s hit the Marvel Universe like a ton of bricks, and the comics show it.

Marvel was full of super scientists from the beginning. Bruce Banner, Hank Pym, Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Hank McCoy, and Peter Parker were all scientists of some sort, using their knowledge to create new technology that helped them in the battle against evil. Later, more and more characters debuted with super intelligence, hero and villain. For years, Marvel’s super scientists were presented as the best of the best, but a funny thing started happening in the last few years – many of them started to get a little bit villainous.

For years, characters like Hank Pym and Iron Man did some questionable things but it all came to a head during the Civil War, when Iron Man, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards became the leaders of the pre-Registration side of things, and created the Negative Zone prison, cloned Thor to create the murderous cyborg Ragnarok, and came up with a host of other ideas for the superhero community Around the same time as Civil War was being published, the concept of the Illuminati was conceived, with super scientists like Iron Man and Reed Richards acting as leaders of a secret society of intelligent people working together to defeat threats before they got to Earth The only Marvel super scientist who hasn’t been affected by this trope is Spider-Man

For some reason, in the 21st century, many of Marvel’s most intelligent heroes have developed a pragmatic streak that has made them into pseudo-villains. Tony Stark and Reed Richards became the poster boys for this, as much because of their stature in the Marvel Universe as anything else, but most of Marvel’s Silver Age geniuses have all done very questionable things, from Iron Man’s role in Civil War and as Director of SHIELD to Beast being given the reins of X-Force and becoming a mass murderer.

7 Many Of The Most Popular Villains Get Redemptions

Marvel has created a legion of amazing villains, and in the early days of the Marvel Universe, it did something unprecedented. Four villains – Black Widow, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver – all became heroes. None of the four were A-list villains, but this change was a big deal in the history of the comic medium. In the 1980s, something interesting started happening in the pages of Uncanny X-Men, as Magneto, long the team’s worst enemy, got a sympathetic origin and eventually became an ally of the X-Men, even taking over the training of the New Mutants for Xavier when he left Earth to be with Lilandra.

Marvel pioneered villains turning to heroes and has been experimenting with it since the Golden Age with Namor the Sub-Mariner It started with the X-Men’s most popular villains but spread into the rest of the Marvel Universe as the ’00s wore on Even villains like Galactus and Thanos have gotten redemptions

Soon villains like Doctor Doom were being looked at in sympathetic lights, and someone like Norman Osborn, long portrayed as a murderous psychopath, could become a hero and work with their arch-nemesis. The X-Men took this to the next level in the Krakoa Era, with basically every A-list X-Men villain working with the heroes to protect the mutant nation of Krakoa. Apocalypse, long the big bad of the X-Men corner of the Marvel Universe, was revealed to have been something of a pussy cat, with his origin getting additions that revealed him to be more altruistic. If a villain hits a certain level of popularity, the odds of them becoming sympathetic and getting a solo book are nearly one-to-one.

6 There Are A Lot Of Supersoldiers

Way back in 1940, Marvel created a hero that would change the game for them – Captain America. Steve Rogers was the ultimate weapon against the Nazis and became the linchpin of Golden Age Marvel. Captain America was among the first supersoldiers created by a government program and quickly became the most popular. When the Marvel Universe returned in the 1960s, Captain America was not far behind, the first of Marvel’s mighty and multifarious supersoldiers.

Government programs that gave people superpowers in the Marvel Universe became pretty common Captain America is technically considered Weapon I, making him an antecedent to Wolverine The original Ultimate Marvel Universe revealed that everyone with superpowers was in some way related to a supersoldier program

The Marvel Universe is inextricably linked to the Cold War in ways its distinguished competition wasn’t, with many of the original Silver Age Marvel heroes being Cold Warriors of some type, from Reed Richards trying to beat the Russians to space, Tony Stark’s arms manufacturing, Bruce Banner’s bomb research, and more. It makes a lot of sense that the military-industrial complex in the Marvel universe would eventually grow into a superhuman industrial complex, and there are a multitude of Marvel characters who owe all or some of their powers to supersoldier programs.

In the MCU, Captain America is the ultimate weapon of the United States. Captain America: Civil War saw Cap disagree with the law of the land, although technically he was disagreeing with a UN Accord and not a US law, leaving the US and the mantle of Captain America behind. This isn’t what happened in the Civil War comic – Cap surrendered and was eventually assassinated before going to trial – but comic Captain America has found himself at odds with the US government many times.

Captain America first grew disillusioned with the US government in the 1970s, when it was revealed the Secret Empire ran the US with the President – who was Richard Nixon although they could only hint at that – being a member and killing himself in the Oval Office This led to Captain America giving up the mantle and becoming Nomad The next major instance of Cap going rogue would lead to him being replaced by Johnny Walker as Captain America, with Steve Rogers becoming the Captain

Captain America is the ideals of the US personified, so there have been multiple times when Cap felt that the government wasn’t living up to what it should be. These periods saw Captain America abandoning his role and continuing the fight against evil in another heroic mantle. Captain America isn’t some jingoistic soldier who always thinks America is right and has taken the US government to task many times in a way other versions of the character haven’t.

Dystopian futures were popularized by novels like Nineteen Eight-Four, Brave New World, and We. Comics often copied classic literature, but it wouldn’t be until the Bronze Age that superhero comics would reach a level of dystopian futures. Uncanny X-Men #141-142, the classic “Days Of Future Past”, introduced the most famous dystopian Marvel future, with the Sentinels having killed everyone with superpowers in their war to destroy mutants.

The “Days Of Future Past” future isn’t even the worst alternate future the X-Men have encountered Every popular Marvel hero or team has had a dystopian future story of some type The ’90s saw multiple characters from dystopian futures come back to the present to keep their future from happening

For some reason, there are very few good Marvel futures. Nearly everyone seems to be overrun by Sentinels, or some other AI-powered terror, and several, like Hulk: The End and Punisher: The End, end with the destruction of humanity. Marvel popularized the dystopian future in superhero comics and continues to ride it to the bank, with recent comics like Rise Of The Powers Of X and Avengers Twilight showing terrible new futures to readers.

3 Multiple Classic Marvel Stories Revolve Around Superheroines Going Crazy

This trope isn’t used as much as it used to be, but there was a time it was a mainstay of Marvel. For a long time, starting in the late ’70s, Marvel would create stories where powerful women would lose control of their power and end up attacking their teammates. This story formula was highly misogynistic, and its use continued into the 21st century.

“The Witch Of Wundagore Mountain” from Avengers (Vol. 1) #186-187 was the first big example of this trope Scarlet Witch is the character who has been most defined by this trope, with her often going crazy when she gets a power upgrade or has her mind manipulated by someone like Chthon The Dark Phoenix Saga is probably the most popular example of this trope, although it isn’t as sexist as other stories based on the trope

Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey, Invisible Woman, Polaris, and more all had stories that had them become evil, usually due to either the manipulations of men or their power levels increasing so much they couldn’t control it. Scarlet Witch by far has the most versions of this story and the trope was kept alive into the ’00s by her, when stories like Avengers Disassembled and House Of M dropped. Marvel has mostly moved away from this trope, but it’s been a part of so many important events in the Marvel Universe that it has to be discussed.

2 Humans Hate Mutants But Not Other Superhumans

Superhumans have long been a part of the Marvel Universe. In the Marvel Universe, the myths of yesteryear all revolved around gods, aliens, and superhumans. People with powers shaped the history of the Earth. Mutants began to manifest millennia ago, with early examples like Apocalypse, Genesis, and the mutants of Okkara appearing in the days of Ancient Egypt. Fast-forward to the present, and genetic scientists discovered that mutants were the next evolution of humanity, unleashing a wave of racism.

Humans have invented ways to tell the difference between someone with an X chromosome and someone who has superpowers in another way Humans can create mutates, artificial mutants that are often used for slavery of various types The US government has long been the most efficient in creating anti-mutant agencies and technology

In a world where superpowers have always existed, it’s quite strange that people would hate mutants. There’s very little difference between Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, with the main difference being one is born with their powers and the other isn’t. There’s a certain existential aspect to fear of mutants – it’s believed that they will replace humanity – but the unreasoning hate for mutants can be confusing for new readers.

1 Spider-Man Can’t Be Happy

This trope has existed in some form or another since the beginning of Spider-Man’s comics, but has come to the forefront since the divisive story known as One More Day. Spider-Man’s existence has been defined by tragedy, beginning with the death of Uncle Ben. Peter Parker always had money problems, girl problems, and a major New York City newspaper calling him a menace. Spider-Man got the girl in the form of the beautiful Gwen Stacy but eventually lost her in battle with the Green Goblin when his own web line was responsible for breaking her neck.

Spider-Man’s sad life started years before gaining his powers, with the death of his parents while on a mission for SHIELD Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary Jane, despite being a fan favorite, was never liked internally at Marvel because most writers, artists, and editors grew up with teenage Spider-Man Spider-Man’s marriage to Mary Jane was seen as a problem because it took away his money problems and girl problems, but even back then Spider-Man still had worries

One More Day saw Marvel retcon Spider-Man’s marriage from existence and go all in on making Spider-Man an older version of the high school/college-age Peter Parker. For some reason, Spider-Man always has to be on the cusp of misery; even when something good happens, he has to lose it all and go back to being a lonely screw-up. Other Marvel characters have gotten to grow, but Spider-Man has only regressed, which can be infuriating to long-term fans.