Marvel Studios

Logo descriptions by James Fabiano, Matt Williams, Adam P., LJK193, and Liwakip

Logo captures by Eric S., snelfu, Shadeed A. Kelly, EnormousRat, V of Doom, and mr3urious

Editions by Shadeed A. Kelly, V of Doom, Stephen Cezar, Liwakip, and BoyOnTheMoon

Video captures courtesy of JimHawkind03411, andzyber9, moviemaniacsDE and Opus Vita FANDOM

Background: This incarnation of Marvel was founded in 1996, when Marvel signed an agreement with 20th Century Fox to bring some of their properties to the big screen. Marvel would eventually license their properties to other studios, which was distributed such as Warner Bros./New Line Cinema (for Blade), Universal Studios (for Hulk), 20th Century Fox (for X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra, and Fantastic Four), Paramount Pictures (for Iron Man and The Avengers), Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment (for Spider-Man and Ghost Rider), and the mini-major studio Lionsgate Films (while Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment also distributed outside of U.S. for The Punisher) for films and television. On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel; the transaction was finalized on December 31. However, due to grandfathered contracts, Fox retained the film rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises until 2019, when the rights went back to Marvel due to Disney’s purchase of Fox. Marvel/Disney made a deal with Sony to share control of Spider-Man in 2015 while the rest of the characters' licenses lapsed and reverted back to Disney. Ironically, Disney already had the rights to the Marvel Productions library due to their acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide eight years before the purchase.

1st Logo (May 3, 2002- )
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Nicknames: "The Flipbook", "The Zoom Out", "Phase One"

Logo: On a red-tinted background, we see a series of Marvel comic book panels flipping downward second by second like a flipbook. "MARVEL", now in its current logotype, zooms out, fading in as a black outline. As the panels fade into a simple red gradient background, the "MARVEL" logo fades into a solid white color. As the background is finished, "MARVEL" continues to zoom away as the logo fades out.

Trivia: This logo was made by Prologue Studios and Imaginary Forces.

Variants:
 * Sometimes, the comic pages shown in the logo are customized for whichever Marvel character(s) is/are shown, such as Hulk, Fantastic Four, and The Punisher (a la Hanna-Barbera's All-Stars logo). In addition, again depending on whichever character(s) are shown, the background is sometimes a different color other than red (i.e., on Hulk, the background is green, and on the Fantastic Four movies, the background is blue).
 * A short/sped-up version of this logo was seen at the end of MTV's Spider Man: The New Animated Series from 2003. Some Marvel video games use this variant.
 * Starting with Iron Man in 2008, the logo was given an "enhanced" look, and more animation was added: For films produced by Marvel Studios, a line draws itself underneath the logo, which then splits into another line and the word "STUDIOS" spreads out. The line and the word lower themselves below the original line.
 * There is a warp-speed version on Iron Man: Armored Adventures.
 * "MARVEL" is occasionally enclosed in a white rectangle, with the normally gradient red background being a solid color. Sometimes, the words "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" appears above the rectangle. The regular version of the rectangular variant was seen on Marvel's The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man 3, and early episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The version with "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" above the rectangle was seen on Venom and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.
 * A closing variant was introduced at the end of Marvel's The Avengers, which has the logo zoomed in and completely still. This is also seen on the Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy animated series. In the show's intro, the logo is seen, however when its animation is mostly finished, the logo zooms out to reveal the show's title. The Marvel logo finishes its animation, and the show's intro finishes.
 * An in-credit variant is seen at the end of X-Men and X2.

FX/SFX: The pages flipping downward, the forming and zooming of the Marvel logo.

Music/Sounds: None, the movie's opening theme, the end title theme from any show, or the sound of pages flipping.

Availability: Common. It's seen on all Marvel-based movies, TV shows, and video games from 2002 onward, beginning with Spider-Man. Was also used as a de-facto home entertainment logo on the DVD/Blu-Ray releases of The Avengers and Iron Man 3 (along with the Paramount Home Media Distribution logo). After Thor: The Dark World introduced the new Marvel Studios logo below and Marvel Studios regained control of Spider-Man in 2015 and the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool characters in 2019 (as a result of Disney's purchase of Fox), the only Marvel films still using this logo are those released by Sony, like Venom and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.

Editor's Note: While simplistic, it's very effective. The longevity of the logo is quite remarkable and attributes to how well-known it is among Marvel and logo fans. However, since Marvel Studios assumed control of 20th Century Fox's Marvel film rights and will implement them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's likely that the only films still using this logo will be the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters.

2nd Logo (October 22, 2013- )
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Nicknames: "The Flipbook II", "The Zoom Out II", "The 3D/CGI Flipbook", "The 3D/CGI Zoom Out", "The Letters", "Phase Two"

Logo: Same concept as the previous logo. Red-filtered Marvel comic book panels are still flipping downward, only this time it zooms out to reveal white shapes. The comic panels fade into white and the shapes are flipped 180 degrees upward to reveal the white shapes are the letters of "MARVEL" in its current logotype. As the logo zooms out, a white rectangle draws itself around the text. The letters are in CGI, and the word "STUDIOS" appears below in silver before turning to white like the rest of the logo.

Variant: A shortened version, without the word "STUDIOS", appears on TV shows and video games.

FX/SFX: The pages flipping downward, the zooming, and the CGI letters. Like the previous logo, this was created by Imaginary Forces.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic fanfare as composed by Brian Tyler. However, some films used the opening theme of the movie.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * The shortened television version uses the page flipping sound effects from the previous logo.
 * On Guardians of the Galaxy, the fanfare is rearranged.
 * Ant-Man uses "Borombon" by Camilo Azuquita as the logo's music (and when the logo abruptly cuts to the next scene, the music abruptly stops as well).
 * A silent version exists, used as a home entertainment logo for DVDs of Marvel/Netflix series.
 * On Marvel's Spider-Man, the game's opening theme composed by John Paesano is heard.

Music/Sounds Trivia: Brian Tyler, who composed this logo's fanfare, also scored Thor: The Dark World, the film on which this logo debuted, as well as the 2012 Universal Pictures logo.

Availability: Current for TV shows. Appears on the movies Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, and Captain America: Civil War, and all Marvel Studios TV shows starting with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Also appears as a de-facto home entertainment logo on DVD/Blu-Ray releases, starting with Thor: The Dark World. The shortened version also appears on Marvel's Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4.

Editor's Note: A fantastic CGI re-imagining of the previous logo.

3rd Logo (November 4, 2016-)
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Nicknames: "The Flipbook III", "The World of the MCU", "The Marvel Cinematic Universe", "A Universe of Heroes", "How to Build a Universe", "Phase Three"

Logo: We start with the first five seconds of the previous logo. Then, the pages fade into 3D images of various Marvel Studios characters accompanied by script text describing them (in order of appearance: Iron Man, Hulk, Black Panther, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Groot, Star-Lord, Thor and Captain America), culminating with a shot of Captain America throwing his shield from Captain America: The First Avenger. This segues into footage of Marvel Studios films being projected onto what is revealed after a camera fly-by to be the word "MARVEL" in its current logotype, now carved in a silver rectangle (the footage can vary depending on the film). As the camera zooms out, the stock footage and background fade into solid red and two lines next to "MARVEL" expand outward to reveal the word "STUDIOS". The logo ends with a faintly visible shine.

FX/SFX: Amazing CGI, done by PERCEPTION.

Variants:
 * On Avengers: Infinity War, it ends with the solid red background turning to black, and with the "IO" in "STUDIOS" turning into a red number 10 (as "MARVEL STUD10S"), celebrating its 10th anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This variant also appears on Ant-Man and the Wasp, as well as the trailers for Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
 * On Captain Marvel, the MCU movie clips are replaced by footage of Stan Lee's various cameos as well as some behind the scenes footage. The logo finishes on a black background and fades out before the words "Thank You Stan" appear on screen. This is a tribute variant for Stan lee who died before the movie's release.

Closing Variant: A still version with a solid red background and solid white text appears at the end of every MCU film starting with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Music/Sounds: A heroic orchestral fanfare composed by Michael Giacchino. Starting with Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, the fanfare is slightly re-orchestrated with an emphasis on percussion.

Music/Sounds Trivia: As with Brian Tyler and the previous logo, fanfare composer Michael Giacchino also scored Doctor Strange, the first film to feature this logo, as well as the music for the 2012 Paramount Pictures logo.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Avengers: Infinity War, the opening theme of movie composed by Alan Silvestri is playing and towards the end of the logo, Thor director Kenneth Branagh's faint voice from the opening of the movie can be heard.
 * (Transcript: This is the Asgardian refugee vessel Statesman. We are under assault. I repeat, we are under assault. The engines are dead, life support failing. Requesting aid from any vessel within range. We are 22 jump points out of Asgard.)

Availability: Current. Officially premiered at Marvel Studios' San Diego Comic-Con 2016 panel and released online on the official Marvel Studios Twitter feed. As mentioned above, the first film to use this logo is Doctor Strange and has appeared on all MCU films since.

Editor's Note: This logo was commissioned primarily at the behest of Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios. It was intended to celebrate how expansive the Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchise has become. It's a spectacular logo on many levels, and is probably one of the best logos of the mid 2010s.