It's September 1963. President John F. Kennedy is still in office. Fewer than 16,000 American military personnel are in Vietnam. The Beatles are weeks away from recording “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” And readers at newsstands around the country are being introduced to two very special groups in the pages of Marvel Comics. One is an all-star team composed of the company's biggest names, and the other is a wholly new team from a very special school. They are the Avengers and the X-Men, and they will one day be part of the biggest brand in entertainment.
It all started, as many Marvel things did then, with writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. The veteran pair had launched the “Marvel Age” of comics in 1961 with Fantastic Four. The two would go on a multi-year tear that saw them create characters like the Hulk, Black Panther, and the Silver Surfer. Stan's brother Larry Lieber joined them in creating Ant-Man and Thor. That trio, along with Don Heck, created Iron Man. Lee and artist Steve Ditko also created SpiderMan and Doctor Strange, while Lee and artist Bill Everett created Daredevil.
And in the midst of the company's creative surge, Lee and Kirby put together (or, one might say,
