Category:Marvel Super Hero Island

Marvel Super Hero Island is an area featured at Islands of Adventure. It is themed to the characters of Marvel Entertainment, specifically the various comic book series these characters are featured in. However, elements of the films based on these characters can be seen in some parts of this area. The area opened with the park in 1999, and although generally unchanged since its opening, several rides in the area have since received major refurbishments.

History
During the construction of Islands of Adventure, Universal originally wished to use the characters of DC Comics, following the success of the Batman film franchise that had began in 1989, as well as multiple animated television shows featuring the character, in addition to others such as Superman. Multiple plans of concept art were created, that included a Superman dark ride, a dueling coaster themed to Batman and the Penguin, and a coaster based on Batman's arch nemesis, The Joker. It was never revealed why Universal failed to obtain a license to the characters from Warner Bros. Entertainment, but it was most likely due to the characters already being featured at multiple Six Flags theme parks in North America. However, several concepts from this scrapped land would later be reused for other attractions at the park. Many concepts of the Superman ride would eventually be used for The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, while the dueling coaster themed to Batman and the Penguin would be created without a intellectual property theme as Dueling Dragons in The Lost Continent section of the park, and later rethemed to the Harry Potter film franchise as Dragon Challenge before closing in 2017.

With a DC Comics themed area scrapped, Universal turned to DC's primary rival, Marvel. Marvel accepted Universal's offer, and plans for Marvel Super Hero Island went into effect. At the time, this had been before the characters of Marvel had become well recognized in film, though animated television shows based on Spider-Man and X-Men were currently airing at the time.

Marvel Super Hero Island would later open with the rest of the park on May 28, 1999, and quickly became a major section of the park due to the success of The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, a dark ride that combined live sets with 3D projections, and the area's signature attraction. The ride's success led to a clone opening at Universal Studios Japan.

In 2009, Marvel was acquired by The Walt Disney Company, leading to future films of the current Marvel Cinematic Universe that began with 2008's Iron Man being distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. However, due to the agreements made with Marvel prior to the acquisition, Universal Parks and Resorts is able to keep the Marvel license as much as they wish, but are prevented from opening new attractions at their parks. Meanwhile, The Walt Disney Company has begun to integrate the characters of Marvel into various parks, but it should be noted that only certain characters such as the Guardians of Galaxy can be featured in parks such as Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland, due to the rival Universal parks in the same regions not using select Marvel characters.