Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Marvel Comics

  • The Untold Story
  • By: Sean Howe
  • Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
  • Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (167 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Marvel Comics cover art

Marvel Comics

By: Sean Howe
Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Superheroes! cover art
Supergods cover art
American Comics cover art
Outrageous Marketing cover art
True Believer cover art
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years cover art
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From the Next Generation to J. J. Abrams cover art
Garth Marenghi’s TerrorTome cover art
X-Men: Days of Future Past cover art
Superman cover art
The NBA Story cover art
Dirty Pictures cover art
The Boy Who Loved Batman cover art
Becoming Dr. Seuss cover art
Hollywood vs. The Author cover art
The Second Coming of Steve Jobs cover art

Summary

The defining, behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and dominant pop cultural entities in America’s history - Marvel Comics - and the outsized personalities who made Marvel, including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.

“Sean Howe’s history of Marvel makes a compulsively readable, riotous and heartbreaking version of my favorite story, that of how a bunch of weirdoes changed the world…That it’s all true is just frosting on the cake.” (Jonathan Lethem)

For the first time, Marvel Comics tells the stories of the men who made Marvel: Martin Goodman, the self-made publisher who forayed into comics after a get-rich-quick tip in 1939; Stan Lee, the energetic editor who would shepherd the company through thick and thin for decades; and Jack Kirby, the WW II veteran who would co-create Captain America in 1940 and, 20 years later, developed with Lee the bulk of the company’s marquee characters in a three-year frenzy.

Incorporating more than 100 original interviews with those who worked behind the scenes at Marvel over a 70-year-span, Marvel Comics packs anecdotes and analysis into a gripping narrative of how a small group of people on the cusp of failure created one of the most enduring pop cultural forces in contemporary America.

©2012 Sean Howe (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

What listeners say about Marvel Comics

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    106
  • 4 Stars
    43
  • 3 Stars
    14
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    79
  • 4 Stars
    46
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    94
  • 4 Stars
    36
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good, but...

It's an interesting insight to the history of Marvel, but after listening to Slugfest this was quite tough to listen to as the narrator is so boring.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story

Where does Marvel Comics rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

over all this is a great story about marvel

What other book might you compare Marvel Comics to, and why?

good to hear just one side after hearing slug fest

How did the narrator detract from the book?

the narrator was very monotone made listening to the audiobook a struggle

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Hi

I thought it was amazing to listen to marvels history as a fan I found it very interesting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

very interesting

The book was well read and quite informative.
gives a lot of history and backstop to the company.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

This is a story that you may not want to know

A very how the sausage is made tale. Heartbreakingly honest, but fascinating in equal measure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Book about Marvel

History of Marvel. Get's a tad boring, MCU not really mentioned just an end chapter. Stan Lee has lived a charmed life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Marvel Comics Review

I loved this audio book and I wanted more like this in the future.
By Orkneyislands

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

No thread to keep you engaged.

I find really good histories of companies or historical figures have a thread and one story links well in to another. This was missing in this and so it just because a series of events which have little bearing on each other. I just drifted through most of the book. It had its moments but not enough to hold my interest unfortunately.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

few inaccuratecies about Marville

could have done with more background on the none big characters and seemed to miss the whole Marvel Japan and Marvel UK and hardly mentioned Alan Moore or the massive effect of Watchmen and adult comics like American Splender or love and rockets on the comic market or any mention of Sam Raimi's first Marvel Comic film Darkman or emergence of hero films due to the Matrix film or any mention of the 90's hero films like the rocketeer Dick Tracy the shadow or the phantom or any mention of how batman and robin nearly killed hero films and worst for me no real mention of the computer games made with marvel character, it's an ok book it could have been better if sliced in to 4 books covering the 4 ages of comics

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!