History EstablishingCharacterMoment / MarvelUniverse

* ''Dark Avengers: ComicBook/{{Ares|Marvel}}'' introduced titular character when he is subjecting group of soldiers to TrainingFromHell by getting drunk while shooting at them with a Gatling gun.

%%* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica [[http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/captain-america/1-2.jpg summed up real quick.]]
* Issue #1 of ''The ComicBook/FantasticFour'': It all begins with one strange man shooting a signal flare into the air -- a flare announcing, "The Fantastic Four!" Sue Storm was hanging out with a {{socialite}} friend at the moment the flare went off. She promptly turns invisible and walks out into public, testing her powers by taking a cab and attempting to pay the unsuspecting cabbie the fare. Ben Grimm, who is at a clothing shop in heavy disguise, hears of the signal flare and sheds his constricting clothing, revealing himself as the monstrous Thing. His debut catches the attention of the police, who open fire on him and thus force him to escape through the sewers. Johnny Storm is at a service station getting his car fixed when he learns of the flare (which by now had turned into the number 4). He flames on and flies through the air as the Human Torch. The Nation Guard attacks him with a nuclear warhead hunter missile. Two stretchy arms grab the missile before it could obliterate him and disposes of it via the sea. By now Johnny's flames had worn out and is plummeting to his death, but the strange man from before saves him, revealing himself to be Dr. Reed Richards, AKA Mr. Fantastic. And this is all before the SuperheroOrigin!

* ''ComicBook/NewMutantsLethalLegion'' reintroduces an old Marvel villain to a new audience. Count Lucchino Nefaria first appears in his mansion, standing in front of a huge portrait of himself and wearing an old-fashioned suit, a waistcoat, cape and monocle. He plays a vinyl record (implied to be opera or classical, given the image on its sleeve) and fills his wineglass from a decanter. He laments the fact that people have forgotten to be ''afraid'' of him these days. And then he brutally executes an intruder who's tied to a chair. All of which establishes that he's an old-fashioned card-carrying villain... but a genuinely dangerous one.

** ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 starts with a shot of Peter Parker being snubbed by his friends, then Uncle Ben playfully teasing his nephew and Aunt May feeding him a healthy breakfast. Then Flash pushes Peter over and steals the girl he was introducing himself to.
** In the first issue of the series, J. Jonah Jameson comes onto the scene writing one of his infamous anti-Spider-Man editorials. It could be said, however, that the ''real'' Establishing Character Moment is the day after Spidey successfully saves Jameson's son from a malfunctioning aircraft, when he runs an article about how Spider-Man sabotaged the aircraft himself and broke several laws in rescuing his son.

** Mary Jane Watson's "Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot!" line, which she utters in her first appearance, makes quickly clear that she is a cheerful, feisty, bold girl.
** In his very first appearance, Carnage kills a man by suffocating him and forcing tendrils down his throat, while explaining to his victim that he chose him by literally flipping through a phone book until he found somebody he thought had a stupid name.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan''

** For the series as a whole, Issue 13, when Peter tells MJ his SecretIdentity becomes this.
* ''Franchise/XMen'':
** From Bendis' ''Uncanny X-Men'':
*** Magneto is introduced when he fearlessly attacks a horde of killer robots. He goes on to lament the deterioration of his power over metal and simultaneously establish that he is still a formidable opponent: these facts set up his [[DePower character]] and [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters plot]] arcs.
*** Cyclops interrupting a scene of PoliceBrutality and insisting that the victim has human rights.

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica [[http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/captain-america/1-2.jpg summed up real quick.]]

** [[http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2173/2178662096_5e771d5455_o.jpg This]] shows just about everything that you need to know about Doctor Doom.

* Franchise/SpiderMan:
** ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 is all about this. It starts with a shot of Peter Parker being snubbed by his friends, then Uncle Ben playfully teasing his nephew and Aunt May feeding him a healthy breakfast. Then Flash pushes Peter over and steals the girl he was introducing himself to.

** By far one of the most famous lines in all of comics, "Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot!" It is almost mandatory for ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson to say some form of that line in any later incarnations and parodied an homaged by many artists. This panel quickly established MJ as ''the'' LoveInterest for Spider-Man and no matter how many times Lee and Romita tried to shill ComicBook/GwenStacy, it never stuck against what Creator/GerryConway called, "the most interesting woman in comics".
*** If that moment didn't quite stick for some, there's the single-page epilogue to "The Night Gwen Stacy Died". In the aftermath of Gwen's death and in the face of a grieving Peter who thinks she doesn't care, instead of leaving, MJ quietly shuts the door, and stays to help him get through his grief. It was the first step towards MJ becoming more than just the one-dimensional character she had been up until that point, and completely sealed the deal on her being Peter's most prominent love interest.

* ''Dark Avengers: ComicBook/{{Ares}}'' introduced titular character when he is subjecting group of soldiers to TrainingFromHell by getting drunk while shooting at them with a Gatling gun.

-->''And it never ends. [[BrokenBird Never]].''