As the home of Spider-Man, Captain America, and other iconic characters, Marvel has long been the comic-book world's biggest player. Marvel was born in 1939, but it was only in 1961 that the company launched its superhero titles. These superheroes became very popular, capturing the imagination of an entire generation of children. But in the mid-1990s, the comics market crashed due to the advent of gaming devices and such products, along with a decreasing general preference for printed books. Marvel went broke, and there was no superpower strong enough to stave off bankruptcy by December 1996. But Marvel undertook a restructuring and changed its approach, focusing on movies rather than paper and ink. Today, Iron Man, the Avengers, Spider-Man, and X-Men are all billion-dollar franchises, and the company's master plan—to connect many of its characters in a single cinematic universe—has turned it into one of pop culture's most powerful brands.