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PARTNER BROCHURE AN EXHIBITION BY IN COOPERATION WITH SC-EXHIBITIONS.COM/MARVEL SC EXHIBITIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA: @SHOWBIZCULTURE © MARVEL 2020 IT SETS A NEW BAR FOR MUSEUM A NEW EXHIBITION SHOWS OF COMIC ART. CELEBRATING ICV2 80 YEARS OF The Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), SC Exhibitions and Marvel Entertainment SUPER HEROES, have teamed up to produce an inventive, exciting show celebrating the artistic FROM EYE- production of »The House of Ideas.« World Premiere Exhibition opened POPPING PRINT 21 April 2018 in Seattle. TO BIG-SCREEN 780,000+ VISITORS 376,000 visitors at the MoPOP, 300,000 at Spider-Man is one of Marvel's most BLOCKBUSTERS iconic characters, and occupies The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and a central role in this exhibition. This friendly neighborhood hero 105,000 at TELUS World of Science in Edmonton. first appeared in print in 1962, and joined the Marvel Cinematic Uni- verse in 2016's Marvel Studios' AND BEYOND. Coming to Dearborn and Chicago in 2020/2021. Captain America: Civil War. 2 THE EXHIBITION BROADLY APPEALS TO PARENTS AND KIDS, FANS AND NEWBIES. IT IS SUPER FUN FOR COMICS NERDS AND NOVICES ALIKE. THE SEATTLE TIMES For people around the world, Marvel conjures up images of one thing: Super Heroes. Whether in the vibrant colors of comic books, or the all-consum- ing brilliance of the big screen, Marvel characters have captured imaginations for the past 80 years. Readers and viewers alike have been catapulted into a vibrant alternate universe of characters and stories that defy belief. The launch of Marvel’s am- bitious movie franchise has only heightened this fascination, and as comic books gain a firm foot- hold as a legitimate part of our visual culture and heritage, there’s a unique opportunity to look back on the publisher’s enduring, and incomparable, legacy. This also presents a chance to recognize the so- called “imaginauts” – such as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko – behind the stories that have made the Marvel saga one of the most expansive Our exhibition explores the generations and legacies of fictional universes ever created.Marvel has honed a the Marvel Universe that have signature storytelling style that’s drawn millions of led to characters such as Ms. visitors to cinemas around the world. Marvel, Marvel's first Muslim Super Hero to headline her own comic book. 3 KEY SC Exhibitions has partnered with an outstand- ing curatorial team, including three renowned scholars of comics, that led the show’s develop- The Marvel Cinematic Universe burst onto the ment. Benjamin Saunders is curator of the show, FEATURES scene in 2008 with Marvel Studios' Iron Man and working in close collaboration with Matthew J. OF THE EXHIBITION kickstarted a Super Hero fervor that’s still raging. Smith and Randy Duncan, all of them university In 2016, six of the 20 top films worldwide were pro fessors and experts in this field. MoPOP cu- Super Hero movies, and four of them featured rators Brooks Peck and Jacob McMurray, as well Marvel characters. as comic book writers Annie Nocenti and Danny IMMERSIVE EXPLORATION OF SECTIONS DESIGNED TO GIVE Fingeroth, complete the curatorial lead team. THE MARVEL UNIVERSE THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA ENTHUSIASTS THEIR 2018 marks 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic SOME OF ITS BEST-LOVED AND PERFECT SNAPSHOT MOMENT Universe, and 2019 is the company’s 80th an- Alongside their expertise, acclaimed composer niversary. There couldn’t be a better time for a Lorne Balfe has created the exhibition’s sound- MOST GROUNDBREAKING well-rounded museum exhibition that brings the scape. Produced in partnership with Marvel CHARACTERS story of the company, and its cast of Super He- Themed Entertainment and Seattle’s Museum of AN EXPLORATION OF THE roes, to a legion of visitors – families with Pop Culture (MoPOP), the exhibition made its PROCESS THAT GOES INTO children, pop culture and comic book enthusi- world premiere at MoPOP in April 2018. RARE ORIGINAL ARTIFACTS, CREATING MARVEL’S asts, keen collectors, and anyone who’s been INCLUDING COLLECTIBLE CHARACTERS AND COMICS awed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the OBJECTS, ORIGINAL ART last 10 years. AND EARLY COMIC BOOKS SC Exhibitions and world class designers Studio EXHIBITS ILLUSTRATING THE TK developed a concept for an exhibition that CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ORIGINAL uses rare and original artifacts – including some MULTIMEDIA COMICS AND BIG-SCREEN STORYTELLING of the publisher’s most iconic pages, as well as USING VIDEO, AUDIO AND ADAPTATIONS film costumes and props – to bring Marvel’s Uni- IMMERSIVE SET DESIGN verse to life, exploring its heritage in both print and onscreen. Many of these artifacts have never MOVIE PROPS TAKEN FROM been seen by the public before. These exhibits EXPLORATION OF HOW MARVEL SOME OF THE BIGGEST MARVEL shed light on individual characters and their narratives, as well as the development of the HAS RESPONDED TO HISTORICAL BLOCKBUSTERS TO DATE, company as a whole and its influence on contem- EVENTS AND ADDRESSED WIDER APPEALING TO BOTH porary visual culture. ISSUES, SUCH AS RACE, GENDER DIE-HARD COMIC FANS AND AND MENTAL ILLNESS CASUAL MOVIEGOERS 4 CURATORIAL STATEMENT The Marvel name represents one of the most recognizable and powerful transmedia entertain- ment brands in the world, bolstered by the most ambitious, extended movie-cycle in the histo- ry of cinema. Over the last decade, Marvel has Finally, it is worth noting that the tale of this launched a series of blockbuster motion pictures, little company, that grew into a world-dominat- each capable of being enjoyed as a free-standing ing media empire, has a dramatic arc to match story in its own right, but set in a fully elaborat- the content of one of its own comic books. It ed, interconnected universe. In conjunction with rises, falls, and – just when all seems lost – rises this box-office success, Marvel’s comic book di- again to become even greater than it was. It is a vision has also been revitalized, old characters story with its own heroes – the talented creators have enjoyed makeovers, while a more inclusive who first breathed life into these iconic charac- and diverse cast of newer creations has taken up ters – and its own share of dramatic conflicts, a prominent position alongside the original pan- bitter battles and moments of heartbreak. We tell theon. that story in our exhibition, too, paying tribute to the laborers of the imagination who first brought Marvel’s marquee characters are superhumans these characters to life. who still embrace their human nature. The exhibit explores the dialectical relationship between “the Ben Saunders, Ph.D. cosmic and the quotidian”: the presence of the extra ordinary embedded in the ordinary, and vice versa. Sometimes this tension is comedic, some- times tragic, but it is always there. The opposi- tion between the sublime and the banal is central Jane Foster has proven herself to the narrative of Marvel’s most successful sin- worthy to wield the power of gle character Spider-Man – whose life as Peter Thor; female fans and creators have become a powerful force Parker is every bit as important to the drama of in the comics industry. his stories as his battles with Doctor Octopus Original artwork Jane Foster and Green Goblin. as Thor by Esad Ribic. 5 A MUST-SEE DIVE INTO SOME OF THE RAREST, DECADES-OLD MARVEL MATERIAL IMAGINABLE. ARS TECHNICA The visitor is taken on an ad- venturous journey through the 80-year history of Mar- vel. The exhibit is brought to life through numerous walk-in scenes, borrowed straight from the comic world. It all begins with a leap back in time, to a New York City-style street scene of the 1940s, housing a classic newsstand – the key venue that paved the path to success for Marvel's comic books. 6 MARVEL: UNIVERSE OF SUPER HEROES IS A MUST-SEE FOR FANS OF MARVEL COMICS AND MARVEL FILMS … WHICH IS JUST ABOUT EVERYONE THESE DAYS, ISN'T IT? NERDIST.COM For people around the world the Marvel name immediately conjures up images from the most ambitious movie franchise in modern entertain- ment history. But the origins of this extraordinary cycle of interrelated films and television shows are to be found in the inno- vative comic books published by Marvel over the past 80 years. Since 1939, Marvel has catapulted imaginations from the mundane into the extraor- dinary worlds of Super Heroes, and inspired gen- erations of fans to discover within themselves Lively Marvel statues invite the ability to overcome life’s most daunting chal- visitors to interact and become lenges. With a catalog of over 8,000 characters, part of the scenery, with great including icons such as Spider-Man, Iron Man and photo opportunities for shar- Black Widow, there is a Marvel hero for everyone. ing on social media. 7 THE SET-UP AND PRESENTATION OF THE EXHIBIT ITSELF IS AS IMMERSIVE FOR VISITORS AS POSSIBLE. THE COMICS BEAT In the postwar years, Marvel diversified its offer- ings, emulating trends in comics publishing that Marvel began as a venture of Martin Goodman, a ranged from funny animals and satire to West- pulp magazine publisher who entered the comics erns and science fiction. Marvel’s editor and prin- market just as the medium was rising in popular- ciple scribe at the time, Stan Lee, experimented ity. From the start, there was something a little with characters and concepts that would even- different and dangerous about the characters in tually find a home in the Marvel Universe, from a the pages of Marvel Comics, whether that was man in an iron suit to a talking tree named Groot, Carl Burgos’s android Human Torch or Bill Ever- originally bent on world domination.