With “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” Marvel has dominated theaters around the world this year. Now Marvel is branching out their comics division on a global scale.
Marvel teamed up with NetEase Comics, one of China’s largest online comic platforms, to roll out their first official Chinese superheroes this week.
Until now Marvel has only featured Chinese characters in a supporting capacity or as villains. Two of the newest heroes are Aero, a woman able to control air currents (pictured above), and Lin Lie, a boy who obtains a powerful ancient sword to battle evil (pictured below).
Marvel’s collaboration with NetEase leaned heavily on artists and writers from China with the intention that these new stories would be “based on Chinese culture and mythology but set in the modern world,” according to Marvel Editor-In-Chief CB Cebulski.
For now, these new graphic novels are only in Chinese, but the joint venture potentially means a dramatically expanded Marvel Universe for comic fans in both the U.S. and China.
NetEase hosts a few Marvel comics already, including Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Avengers.
In 2016, DC Comics made the effort to diversify their heroes by introducing New Super-Man, a China-based superhero with Kryptonian powers like those of Superman.
Marvel films have certainly outdone DC films in theaters. Could they be set to do the same in the comic book world?