Stan Lee passed away on November 12, 2018, at the age of 95. For over five decades he created and piloted the Marvel superheroes into the global phenomenon they have become. For more than a decade, the Marvel superheroes have featured in branded video slots. Unfortunately, these slots are no longer available. But this is an appropriate occasion to go down memory lane.

Cryptologic was the first online casino games supplier to launch a Marvel superhero branded slot through an agreement with Marvel Comics. As a result Spider-Man went live in December 2007. Over the next two years Cryptologic released more than fifteen branded slot games based on the different Marvel Comics super heroes. At that time this series of online slots was drawing humongous traffic and featured in many promotions at online casinos like InterCasino. The other Marvel superheroes to feature in Cryptologic branded slots included Blade, Captain America, Elektra, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and The Hulk.

Around that time something went wrong between Cryptologic and Marvel Comics. Clear information was not put out in the public domain, but arbitration proceedings were initiated. In 2010 a settlement was reached that made the agreement non-exclusive. Marvel could partner with other games suppliers to online casinos and Cryptologic could develop slots based on Marvel’s competitors as well. Ultimately Cryptologic was bought over and lost its identity altogether. Most of the Cryptologic games have been now discontinued.

In 2009 Playtech announced an agreement with Marvel Movies and began releasing branded slots. These drew content from Marvel Movies, whereas the Cryptologic slots had content from Marvel Comics. The animations and the graphics in the Playtech slots were visually more appealing. The same range of superheroes was covered by Playtech in its Marvel slots that were over 20 in number. Often the releases were time with that of new Marvel movies to get extra mileage. Playtech took the Marvel brand beyond video slots. There were a range of scratch cards that also carried the same graphics and content. All the Playtech Marvel slots were networked to the same multi-tier progressive jackpot. Playtech launched Marvel Roulette that was also linked to the same progressive jackpot.

During this period Disney bought Marvel. Disney caters to the children’s market worldwide through its movies and merchandising. It did not want any association with online gambling. However, Disney decided to let the Marvel contract with Playtech run its course. The agreement ended on March 31, 2017. All Marvel games and branding were taken off on that date. It is unlikely that Disney will have a change of heart. But if someone else buys Marvel, then maybe Stan Lee’s legacy would return to online casinos.