Marvel Comics teenager, something with which many readers could identify. Lee and freelance artist and eventual co-plotter Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four originated in a Cold War culture that led their creators to revise the superhero conventions of previous eras to better reflect the psychological spirit of their age. Eschewing such comic-book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a "superheroes in the real world" approach, the series represented a change that proved to be a great success. Marvel often presented
Marvel UK Panini Comics obtained the license to print Marvel material in 1995 and took over the UK office's remaining titles. Reprints of American Marvel material had been published in the UK during the 1960s by Odhams Press under their Power Comics imprint. Titles such as "Smash!" and "Fantastic" featured a mix of Marvel reprint material and original non-Marvel work. This lasted till 1969 when the last superhero strip was removed from "Smash!", leaving no Marvel titles being reprinted in the UK at all. In 1972, seeing a gap in the popular weekly comics market of the UK, Marvel Comics formed their