After being forced to create Marvelman and Young Marvelman as replacements for Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. respectively as a result of DC Comics' legal action against Fawcett Publications in 1954, publisher L. Miller & Son had seen their superhero sales go from strength to strength,[1] with both characters running in successful weekly comics and growing fan clubs.

[9][10] Both Alan Moore[11] and Denis Gifford[12] would later speculate that this was due to the book's target audience of young boys being uninterested in a female character.

While the Marvelman Family name was briefly revived for a 1961 annual the team was only featured in a single story, a reprint from one of the monthly comics.

Among the threats the Family battled against were Garrer and his army of time-travelling renegades,[15] a combined alliance of Marvelman's arch-enemy Doctor Gargunza and his nephew, Young Marvelman rogue Young Gargunza,[16] the King of Vegetableland[17] invaders from the planet Vardica,[18] would-be dictator Professor Batts and his speech-scramber,[19] a crime boss intent on sinking Pacific City below the ocean,[20] the cruel, slave-driving King Snop of Atlantis (which the story revealed would eventually become Australia),[21][22] an attempt by Gargunza to declare himself King of the Universe,[23] cruel 14th century knight Simon de Carton (and clearing the name of Amadis of Gaul in the process),[24] a monster accidentally collected from the planet Droon[25] and Professor Wosmine's shrinking ray[26] All three characters were revived in 1982 for the Warrior strip Marvelman, written by Alan Moore and published by Quality Communications.

The trio's original adventures were retconned as dreams induced by scientist Emil Gargunza, with the term "Marvelman Family" being used to refer to the three superhumans created by RAF intelligence agency Spook Show as Cold War weapons.

[27] Quality Communications also published a Marvelman Special in 1984, containing vintage reprints with a framing sequence by Moore and Alan Davis to make it fit with the revised premise.