More To Marvel At

No, this post isn't about Disney acquiring Marvel. Instead, it is going to talk about how awesome the Marvel Create Your Own Super Hero website is.

Using the basic building blocks of a few major characters, the site allows you to customize your own superhero with all the flashy comics and crazy weapons or accessories that are the stuff of comic books.

The ability to mix and match and even to change the costumes of your favorite characters (creating a yellow Spiderman, for example) really shows that Marvel wants their fans to have fun with their brand. I can't help but feel other companies might let you build your own character with stock accoutrements but not do anything to change their image of the main characters.

Once you're finished, the site lets you sign in with a Marvel.com free account or create one so that you can save your customized hero or share it via e-mail.

Unfortunately, the ability to download it didn't work on either of the computers or times I tried (giving me the message "There Was An Error" when the download reached 95%). It would also be cool if Marvel had tied it into Twitter or made a Facebook app out of it. I might be wrong, but I think that you were able to do this from the website for The Watchmen film.

If FaceYourManga was the go-to avatar generator a few months ago, and the Mad Men Yourself one is hot right now, I wonder if this Marvel one will blow up next?

Below you'll find avatars that the BlogCampaigning team created—feel free to psychologically evaluate us based on those (and those of you that know Jens won't be surprised that I had to ask him to redo his TWICE in order to make it appropriate for posting here).

Check it out at, create your own super hero, and let us know!

-Parker

PS: You should also totally check out the Marvel Universe wiki that I wrote about a few years ago.

Marvel At This!

While doing some research about which superhero I'd like to be, I came across the Marvel Comics website. I was pretty amazed at what I found.

Marvel has created a wiki, called the Marvel Universe, letting fans contribute to the biographies of each character. There are thousands of characters, each one with an incredibly complex story behind him or her (or it), and it makes sense to leave the reporting to the people who know the history best and care the most: the fans.

I feel that for many of these fans, being able to contribute to the Marvel universe in this way is a reward for their support. In a way, it probably allows them to interact with their favorite authors, illustrators and (in a way) characters that isn't possible via the standard mailbag and conventions.

Official character bios are offered alongside the fan-created ones, proving that user generated content can peacefully coexist with corporate-sanctioned content. Similarly, each character has a bar graph representing their various skills (you know, real life ones like speed, strength and energy projection). For each attribute, there is the official Marvel statistic alongside fan-voted statistics.

In an ideal social media world, Marvel will be taking a look at what fans offer on these pages, and may even create wiki pages appealing to their fans for new content. For now, they've simply put together a great social media program.

I've never been a huge fan of comic books, although I do like the stories and characters. However, taking a look at the Marvel website and being reminded about the intricacies of the stories has inspired me to stop by a comic book shop sometime in the next few days and pick up one of those books collecting an entire story arc.

In short, their use of social media has created a new customer.

Well done, Marvel.

-Parker