Marvel Studios/Summary

This page is dedicated to the memory of Stan Lee (1922-2018) -- the greatest comic book writer of all, and Chadwick Boseman (1976-2020) -- our original, beloved Black Panther.

May you both Rest in Peace.

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, such as Warner Bros./New Line Cinema (for Blade), Universal Studios (for The Incredible 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, Ghost Rider and Venom), and the mini-major studio Lionsgate Films (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 still retained their X-Men and Fantastic Four film licenses, until when Disney announced its purchase of Fox in 2017 where the rights returned to Disney/Marvel, while they did a deal with Sony to regain 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 3rd, 2002-)[]

Nicknames: "The Flipbook", "The Zoom Out"

Logo: On a red-filtered 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 & 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).
For X-Men: The Last Stand the standard red background is used as with all X-Men films produced by 20th Century Fox, but with the comic pages featuring the Phoenix who was the final antagonist in the film.
A short/sped-up version of this logo was seen at the end of MTV's Spider Man: The New Animated Series from 2003. Marvel video games even 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. Sometimes, the words "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" appear above the rectangle. The regular version of the rectangular variant was seen on Marvel's The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, 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 The New Mutants.
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 all 20th Century Fox-distributed Marvel films.
On Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the IN ASSOCIATION WITH variant is used and the logo is glitchy, with past Marvel logos briefly present.

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 the original Spider-Man film series. Was also used as a home video 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, the only Marvel films still using this logo were the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool film franchises produced by 20th Century Fox before its acquisition by Disney in 2019, as well as films set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and the animated Spider-Verse film franchise.

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.

2nd Logo (October 22, 2013-December 10, 2019)[]

Nicknames: "The Flipbook II", "The Zoom Out II", "The 3D/CGI Flipbook", "The 3D/CGI Zoom Out", "The Letters"

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 we Pan past the "R" in the company name, 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.

Variants: A shortened version, without the word "STUDIOS", appears on TV shows.

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 is heard.

Availability: Appears on the movies Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, The 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 home video 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 and the TV premiere of Cloak and Dagger aired June 7, 2018 on Freeform.

Editor's Note: A fantastic CGI evolution of the previous logo, and definitely a more cinematic effort.

3rd Logo (July 2016 -)[]

Nicknames: "The Flipbook III", "The World of the MCU", "The Marvel Cinematic Universe", "A Universe of Heroes"

Logo:

Opening: 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, a SHIELD Helicarrier, Star-Lord, Thor and Captain America), culminating with a shot of Captain America throwing his shield (scene 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.
Closing: We see the white print logo on the red background.

FX/SFX: All amazing CGI. This was done by Perception.

Variants:

On Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, it ends with the solid red background turning to black.
A special anniversary variant also debuted on Infinity War, with the "IO" in "STUDIOS" turning into a red number 10 (as "MARVEL STUD10S"), celebrating the 10-year-anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This variant also appears on Ant-Man and the Wasp, as well as the trailers for Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame (the latter of which also has the logo disintegrating).
On Captain Marvel, the first Disney-involved Marvel release since the death of Stan Lee, he appears in place of the characters, with the footage being his cameos. After forming, the background fades to black, and the logo is replaced with the text "THANK YOU STAN", in the same font as the main-on-end title for Infinity War.
At the beginning of Avengers: Endgame, the logo animates as usual, but, due to the Snap wiping out half of all life at the end of Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp, some of the characters are missing, and other footage has been altered that only have same scene without characters (e.g. "Wanda opens the door" scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron but Wanda was removed from the scene).
On the Disney+ version of Black Panther (as well as the TV version on BBC One in the UK), King T'Challa, often in his Black Panther disguise, appears in place of the characters, with the footage being his MCU performances and the script text replaced by his lines, and the background is purple. This serves as a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who played the Black Panther throughout Phase 3 of the MCU, and passed away in August 2020, at the age of 43 from colon cancer. As such, it is also seen on Black Panther: Wakanda Forevor.
On Phase 4, starting with WandaVision, the character images become black and white, and most of the clips are replaced by scenes from newer MCU movies, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel, and Endgame (expect for Black Panther's, which is the exact same footage on the Disney+ Black Panther variant). (However, Black Widow, since it had been delayed from a 2020 release to after WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had already aired, still uses the previous variant.)
On WandaVision, there are two variants:
- On episode 1, "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience," as the logo ends, the aspect ratio shrinks into fullscreen, and the logo turns black and white.
- On episode 8, "Previously On...," as the logo ends, the background turns from red to purple, and black smoke covers it, setting up the first scene of the episode (Agatha [Kathryn Hahn] being tied to a stake in the Salem Witch Trials).
On Loki, the logo turns green and gold with the background being black.
A short version appears at the start of the disc releases of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Music/Sounds: A heroic orchestral fanfare composed by Michael Giacchino. Starting with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the fanfare is slightly reorchestrated to make the percussion stronger.

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

Music/Sounds Variants:

On Spider-Man: Homecoming, an orchestral version of the classic Spider-Man theme is heard. This was also done by Giacchino.
On Avengers: Infinity War, the movie's opening theme starts over it and towards the end of the logo, a faint voice (Kenneth Branagh) from the opening scene can be heard.
On Avengers: Endgame:
- Opening: We hear a thunderstorm and the beginning of Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy".
- Closing: Four metal clangs are heard over it, with two more over the following WDSMP in-credit logo.
On the WandaVision episode "Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience," much like the visuals, the audio also changes to accompany the 1950s sitcom style of the ensuing episode, in that it becomes monophonic.
On the season 1 finale of Loki, "For All Time. Always.," the logo is accompanied by "It's Been a Long, Long Time" by Harry James, as well as various sound effects and quotes from the MCU's Infinity Saga.
On Thor: Love and Thunder, a pop-metal version of the fanfare is used, starting off with a quiet guitar riff, then becoming louder midway through.

Availability: Current. It officially premiered at Marvel Studios' San Diego Comic-Con 2016 panel, and was later released online on the official Marvel Studios Twitter feed. As mentioned above, it premiered on Doctor Strange and has appeared on all MCU films and TV shows since.