Whenever a Marvel film comes out, my parent always comments on how they used to read the comics when they were young – probably they belonged to the first generation of comic readers in this country (and I have to confess over the years I salvaged quite a few “relics” from the attic at the old house). Thus, when the exhibition Marvel: Universe of Superheroes opened, I thought I would bring them along. I booked us tickets on the 28th of November at 10:00 for the event, which was happening in the convention centre IFEMA in Madrid.

By pure chance, my parents received an invitation to Feriarte, a collectionism fair – that is what we thought at that moment. They were not particularly into it, so I asked if I could have the invitation. When I checked it out, I realised that we could visit Feriarte on the same day as Marvel: Universe of Superheroes, since the dates overlapped, and it was also at IFEMA, just a couple of pavilions down. My parent agreed after some coaxing. Finally, I offered to take them to a “fun place” for lunch, and we had a plan.

Marvel has traditionally been one of the most important comic publishing houses in the US. Its key writer / creator was Stan Lee, who came up with some of the most iconic characters in the medium – Spiderman, Thor, Iron Man… It is true that the first superheroes to succeed on the big screen belonged to Marvel’s competition, DC – Christopher Reeve’s Superman in the 1970s and Michael Keaton’s Batman the following decade. However, Marvel kicked off a golden age of cinema superheroes. While DC festered in the darkest, more depressed Batman, Marvel released Iron Man, which took superhero films in a new direction – they turned from fun-for-fans to funny-for-all (of course, purists would never be satisfied, but what are you going to do?). Robert Downing Jr. had a lot to do with this boom, dominating the scene whether the film carried the name of his character – Iron Man – or not. For about a decade, Marvel dominated the blockbuster season, with explosions, one-liners and good-triumphs-over-evil plots. Eventually the bubble burst, as they always do, and things went downhill. However, companies are still willing to milk out any cash cow, and as long as Marvel makes money, it will be producing stuff.

Less known than the film boom is the fact that with the launching of Marvel Studios, the parent company also became a transmedia master. The idea of transmedia is not new, and refers to tying stories in different publishing methods (Hasbro was doing this with GI Joe back in the 80s already). However, Marvel has it down to an art. Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Nick Fury because a comic artist based the revamped character on him, so now Nick Fury statuettes look like Samuel L. Jackson. Since Disney acquired Marvel Studios, the so-called MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is so interwoven with the Disney+ shows that neither can be followed on its own. Funnily enough, this has not washed over to the comics that much, save for the special Alligator Loki that I kept looking for in London earlier in 2024.

Well, one of the many facets of Marvel’s outreach octopus is organising exhibitions. I suspect that they are all the same under different names though. The one which took place in the IFEMA convention centre in Madrid was Marvel: Universe of Superheroes. The exhibition runs through the history of Marvel from its beginning, hailing the works of Stan Lee and running through the influence of the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which censored the content of the media – and made the evolution of American and European comics diverge forever. The pages from that time are mostly lost, so elements like the first issue of a Marvel comic ever, or original Spiderman and Fantastic Four dating back from the 60s are kind of amazing – and belong to private collectors who have lent (or rented out, one guesses) them to the organisers. Most of the exhibition, however, focuses on the MCU, with quite a few costumes and items from the films and Disney+ series. There were life-sized statues, too – or at least to scale for characters like The Thing or Hulk. There was an interactive game where an on-screen you would wear Iron Man’s suit and practice-shoot with it.

We hilariously ran into a preschool day trip, with the teacher completely made things up as she went and kept trying to keep a bunch of rowdy kids in line – without much success.

The first area ran through the history of American comics and Marvel itself, purely as a comic publisher. Then, it moved into the film area, starting with Black Panther, revindicating his status as the first black superhero. Then there was a room on Spiderman, one of the most beloved characters, even if he was almost not made because editors thought a spider-related superhero would not sell. This was probably the last room focusing heavily on comics. Hulk got a small room to share with She-Hulk. Afterwards, the MCU took over, with film memorabilia of Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. The following area was a bit of a mix, with Wandavision, X-Men, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider… which ended in a very psychedelic room for Doctor Strange. The final room was “Marvel in Space”, with The Marvels (Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau and Ms. Marvel) and Guardians of the Galaxy. Considering the huge hit that Agatha All Along was, I was surprised not to find any references to it, but then I realised that the exhibition predates the series.

I would have wanted a memento, but none of the items in the shop appealed to me. Besides, everything was too expensive, I thought. I had no idea. We left the exhibit and marched into the inner pavilion where Feriarte took place. Feriarte is way more than the collectionism event I had originally thought – it is an antiques and art fair, with items that range from archaeological artefacts to the most modern pieces. Our minds were blown. There were 64 art galleries and archaeology specialists from all over the world carrying prehistoric items, Egyptian mortuary artefacts (including a whole sarcophagus), Grecian sculptures and vases, Japanese samurai armours and weapons, paintings, contemporary art (Miró, Dalí, Chillida, Sorolla…), furniture, jewellery and watches, reproductions of Medieval manuscripts… And I thought that the Marvel shop was expensive! I could have afforded… a tiny Egyptian scarab smaller than the nail on my little finger. I was shocked when I saw the first three paintings by Miró (a surrealist painter from the beginning of the 20th century), but it turns out they sell like doughnuts among the collectors…

There was a “collectionism for beginners” area, with tips to “start collecting with pieces under 5,000 €”. When thinking about private collections, I’ve often gone with Indiana Jones’ line “it belongs in a museum”, but lately, with the attacks on art by climate activists, and the fact that most of Marvel’s memorabilia was recovered from private collectors… I’m not so sure. I might have started changing my mind. Then again, not really, because when the original fossil of Tyrannosaurus rex Stan was auctioned and I was sad it would end up in private hands and I would never seen it – good news, it was sold to a museum, though I’m not sure I’ll ever make it to the soon-to-open Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi. Needless to say, we left Feriarte empty-handed, and very amused that you go through security and X-ray when you go out, not when you go in. A couple of days after, I read that an organised gang had stolen jewels and watches worth 390,000 €…

We retrieved the car, and got lost trying to get to the shopping centre La Vaguada to have lunch at Runni In Market, the first of the Running Sushi franchise I visited (and got lost trying to get there too, so… maybe it’s just difficult). My parent loved the concept. However, I was peeved that the table before us kept getting all the lychee and mochi when the time came for dessert. Mean!

We left afterwards to head home, having caught a glimpse of the secret life of superheroes and what kind of décor rich people have in their houses. Parallel universes indeed…