The marvel behind Marvel: How did a group of B-list comic stars come to dominate the world of movies and television?

“Directors, writers and stars have come and gone, but as producer and president of Marvel Studios, he has been the one consistent element in every one of their films,” says Ben Fritz, an editor at the Wall Street Journal and author of the book The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies. [...]Feige is making shows about Iron Man’s former sidekick (Armor Wars) and the Hulk’s lawyer cousin (She-Hulk). Marvel scored a Best Picture Academy Award nomination for Black Panther, and it may have similar ambitions for this fall’s Eternals, based on an obscure comic by Marvel Universe co-creator Jack Kirby; the story of an ancient race of god-like aliens living on Earth was assigned in 2018 to indie director Chloé Zhao, this year’s winner of the Academy Award for Best Director for Nomadland (also distributed by Disney).