While Marvel Comics is the home of superheroes and villains explicitly created by the company, there are also several characters in Marvel books that originated somewhere else. This has been happening since the 1970s, when Stan Lee decided that it would be a good idea to stretch the Marvel footprint by licensing characters from movies, toy lines, and TV shows, and making them part of the continuity. Sometimes, the characters remain mostly separate, such as in the Star Wars universe, and other times they end up pulled directly into the 616 timeline, such as the classic fantasy character Conan the Barbarian.
From popular characters from literary fiction to characters created in other formats, here are eight characters you won’t believe are part of Marvel Comics.
7) Angela
Angela is an interesting character with a very complicated publication rights story. This comes from a copyright dispute where a creator felt his publisher was acting hypocritically and pushed the issue in court. When Todd McFarlane helped create Image Comics, he claimed his goal was to help strengthen creators’ rights. However, when Neil Gaiman created a new divine antihero in Spawn #9 named Angela, McFarlane tried to claim Gaiman had no creator rights to the character. Gaiman fought McFarlane in court, pointing out the Image co-founder’s own words when creating Image Comics, and eventually Gaiman secured full ownership of Angela. Gaiman then sold the character to Marvel Comics, and she was integrated into the Asgardian storylines.
6) Conan the Barbarian
Robert E. Howard created Conan the Barbarian in his pulp novels in 1932, and he wrote 21 stories about the warrior before he died in 1936. Over the years, other writers took their turns writing about Conan, and he became a legendary fantasy hero in several iterations. Before Arnold Schwarzenegger took on the role in a movie in the 1980s, Marvel Comics had licensed comic publication rights to the character in the 1970s. However, unlike properties like Star Wars, which Marvel also has countless comics for, Conan ended up on Earth-616 and teamed with Marvel heroes. He was in the Savage Avengers and has teamed up with everyone from Wolverine and Elektra to Venom.
5) Red Sonja
Fans of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Conan the Barbarian are probably also familiar with the spin-off film, Red Sonja. What some fans might not realize is that Robert E. Howard didn’t create this character in his original Conan stories. He didn’t have any strong female characters. Instead, in 1973, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith created the character of Red Sonja for Marvel Comics. They then published books about the character until 1986, often featuring her fighting alongside Conan the Barbarian. The Red Sonja movie was based on the Marvel Comics character, and while Dynamite Comics secured her rights, Marvel created the heroine.
4) G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe got its start as a Hasbro toyline celebrating the military. They initially represented the four branches of the U.S. armed forces, and the toys were just ways for kids to play with soldiers in whatever stories they came up with in their heads. While some might think the cartoons created the lore, they didn’t start until 1984. G.I. Joe was featured in comics before that, with Marvel Comics securing the license in the 1980s. Larry Hanna wrote the books and created the lore for almost everyone on the team, including Duke and Snake Eyes. The cartoons and movies used Marvel Comics’ ideas to further the stories. Duke even showed up in The Amazing Spider-Man #268 to put the Joes in the official Marvel Universe.
3) Transformers
Unlike G.I. Joe, which only existed in Marvel Comics, the Transformers crossed over with major Marvel heroes. Just like G.I. Joe, the Transformers started as a toyline, and nothing more. However, in the 1980s, Hasbro wanted to create an actual story for their robots that turned into vehicles, and they had Marvel Comics do it for them. Marvel editor Bob Budiansky then created almost every Transformer character fans know today, from Optimus Prime (for whom Jim Shooter came up with the name) to Megatron. The team even worked with Spider-Man in their third issue and had crossovers with Captain America and Wolverine as well.
2) Predator
People reading Marvel Comics today are likely familiar with the fact that Predator is now in the Marvel Universe. However, for anyone else, this might come as a shock. Marvel acquired the license to the movie monster in 2022 and has since begun to create books based on the hunter-killers. However, unlike other licensed properties, Marvel wanted to throw the Yautja right into the mix with Marvel heroes and villains. After three original stories surrounding the Predator, Marvel has also published Predator versus Wolverine, Predator versus Black Panther, and Predator versus Spider-Man.
1) Godzilla
Godzilla pops up in Marvel Comics a lot, and the giant kaiju is always a danger, no matter which superheroes are there to face it. This has been going on since the 1970s. By this time, Godzilla was a legendary horror monster, a Japanese creation following the horrors of the atomic bomb ending World War II. In the ’70s, Marvel licensed Godzilla and brought the creature into the mainline with Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe creating the stories. Godzilla ended up fighting SHIELD, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and more. Marvel didn’t bring in any other Toho monsters, so it was primarily just Godzilla versus the Marvel Universe. Eventually, Marvel lost the rights at the end of the ’70s, but for big monster fans, Godzilla returned in 2025 to terrorize Marvel heroes again.
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