Big as the Marvel Universe is, keeping tabs on all of its characters is easier than ever. Marvel Entertainment has cooked up a new web series on YouTube this week, Marvel 101, which provides a primer on all things related to the superhero comics to help those who didn’t grow up at the comic book store stay in the know.
The company describes the shorts in the series as “one minute episodes that give you that give you a crash course on the background of a Marvel Character, storyline, weapon, location and more.” The videos are meant for everyone from Marvel newbies who are learning everything for the first time to diehard fans looking for a refresher. So far, there are 20 installments centering on characters that include the Avengers, Iron Man, Black Widow, Jessica Jones, and many more.
The web series serves to promote both the comics and Marvel’s movie and TV properties; the initial launch seems to lend extra focus to characters who are involved with the latest on screen ventures. As THR points out, all but one of the characters currently featured in Marvel 101 are either already part of a movie or TV series, or are in development to appear in one. Ms. Marvel is the sole outlier.
Missing from the videos are characters and concepts related to the Fantastic Four and X-Men. Marvel doesn’t have movie or TV rights to those characters at present (which are under lock and key at 21st Century Fox), so it’s unclear if they’ll ever be featured as part of the web series. Fortunately, fans have plenty of other content to distract themselves, plus more on the way.
Marvel has plans to add new episodes each Tuesday to both its YouTube page and Marvel.com. Characters set to be featured include Hawkeye, Punisher, Wasp, Quicksilver, Angela, Venom, and other deep characters in the Marvel squadron.
To start brushing up on your Marvel knowledge, you can watch one of the new webisodes, Time to Assemble featuring The Avengers above.
