Really, who were those masked men? New series of books probes backstories of Marvel superheroes

NEW YORK — If you love movies or comics, you’ve likely followed the adventures of Spider-Man, Iron Man and other superheroes. A new line of books will let you explore the back stories of their creation.

On Wednesday, Bloomsbury and Marvel announced a multi-year, multi-volume licensing agreement for “Marvel Age of Comics.” The books will combine history and personal narrative, starting this fall with Stuart Moore’s “Doctor Strange,” Paul Cornell’s “The Mighty Avengers of the 1970s” and Chris Ryall’s “Daredevil.” The illustrations will feature original work from Marvel’s digital archive.

Initiated by Marvel, the new series was inspired in part by Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 books, short and compact works about popular music ranging from the Clash and Judy Garland to Madonna and Kendrick Lamar.

“We’ve been tremendous fans of Bloomsbury’s work on projects like 33 1/3, and we can’t wait to see them take a similar approach combining their reverence for the material, academic expertise, and unique insights with some of our greatest publishing moments for the new ‘Marvel Age of Comics’ series,” Sven Larsen, vice president of licensed publishing at Marvel, said in a statement.

Haaris Naqvi, director of publishing at Bloomsbury USA, said he had been a fan of Marvel since childhood and welcomed the comics empire’s proposal for a “smart” series on its history.

“I remember me and my brothers reading Marvel issues when they came out in the ’80s,” he said during a recent interview. “Working on this series has brought me back to that time. I would love it if the series had that effect on readers.”