As we excited to watch Avengers: Infinity War the would be the 19th MCU movies. It was hard to believe that 20 years ago Marvel almost in a brink of Bankruptcy if not because of our Avengers Superheroes came to rescue.
Just like about every great comic book story has a darkest hour moment: a point in the tale where all seems lost. The heroes are on their knees, the city's a smoldering ruin and the villains are closing in for the kill.
In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker, Spider-man nerdy alter ego, says, " I like to think Spider-Man gives people hope."
In real life, Peter Cuneo is the the Spiderman that give Marvel a hope in 1999.
He ask the question what is Marvel Superpowers?
By taking a hard look at itself, it found numerous hidden gems. One such gem it found came in the form of a web-slinging teenage misfit, a group of mutants and a scientist who turns green when he gets angry. Marvel had the most amazing collections of superheroes and super-villains, but had never realised the goldmine it was sitting on.
The Avengers, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, X-Men and super-villains like Venom, Loki, Dr Doom and others that accompanied the heroes were a large bed of comic celebrities that Marvel had ignored and under-leveraged for so many years. Marvel began to see its internal stable of more than 8,000 comic characters and stories, that many former readers of comic books felt a strong nostalgic attachment to (myself included), as an opportunity to transform itself.
What save them was an idea to bring together a group of comic characters to turn it to become something more
It moved from being a comic-book franchise to a licensee of characters and stories, turning Marvel’s popular characters into movie stars. By 2005, Marvel made more than US$120mil in profits. All along, Marvel’s transformation story was inside the company.
Marvel’s resurrection shows that superheroes are not the only entities with hidden powers. Businesses have them, too, in the form of under-utilised or under-appreciated assets. The key is to discover these gems and leverage them as Marvel finally did.
That was the turning-point for Marvel to become Zero To Hero. Looking internally made Marvel recognised their hidden gems (Marvel Characters) and used it to their advantage. What is your company Infinity Stones ?