The comic book industry plunged in the early 1950s owing to the criticism regarding inappropriate content for children, which gave rise to the creation of the Comics Code Authority. Around these years, Marvel’s target audience was children, who were pleased by comics with little original content. Marvel started its journey in 1939, when it essentially produced comic books, starring superheroes (5).

Marvel’s Red Ocean Competition with DC Comics A blue ocean, on the other hand, is one where demand is created rather than fought over, and this is where industry competition stands irrelevant (2). This is where cutthroat competition exists. A red ocean is where industry boundaries are established and well defined. Red Ocean and Blue OceanĪccording to Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne, all markets consist of two types of oceans, red and blue. However, almost a decade after filing for bankruptcy, Marvel established a blue ocean for itself. Marvel initially started off in a blue ocean, but shortly adopted red ocean strategies, leaving the company in debt. Has Marvel always been as buoyant and successful as it is today? Certainly not. But if you’ve heard about it and have not spent a significant fraction of your time obsessing over it, you’re consciously missing out on one of the greatest cinematic experiences of all time. A pleasant, readable journey.If you haven’t heard about Marvel, you’re probably living under a rock. While the structure of the novel does feel somewhat unoriginal-it begins with the airport, ends with the plane home, and the chapters in between are days of the trip-Straub uses the simplicity of the organization to her advantage. The pacing is quick but satisfying and the characters themselves feel genuinely complex, interesting, and knowable. Straub ( Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures) seems to have found her stride. Every couple, and indeed every individual, arrives with a mix of optimism and trepidation, along with a host of uncertainties that, by book’s end, are satisfyingly resolved. Joining them are Sylvia’s older brother and his girlfriend, as well as Franny’s best friend Charles and his husband. The couple’s youngest daughter, Sylvia, has just graduated from high school and her parents are anxious to have one last family holiday before she becomes an adult. The Post family is going to Mallorca for two weeks of vacation, but for them clouds are forming over the sunlit destination: the tickets were already booked when it came to light that Jim, Post père, has recently committed transgressions grave enough to get him fired and infuriate Franny, his wife of 35 years.

The Vacationers by Emma Straub