Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple Inc. AAPL, -1. 36% in September, said Marvel was dedicated to fighting misogyny, separating "the street from the workplace" and promoting "audience first" instead.

It is Apple, the world's most valuable technology company, that will address the challenge posed by the outbreak in any forthcoming superhero movie—but Marvel cannot sign off on every casting decision.

"We have a hard time [appointing] an actress without knowing [her] background," says Christopher Markus, co-president of Marvel Studios.

"We look at [volunteered] color consultants, hair stylists, makeup artists ... It's a long story. There's a process and it's hard."

Working with Marvel antitimes, Mr. Jennereng November expects costume designers can balance poses for "high-impact" action scenes—like the scene in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" when the heroes discover the Scarlet Witch's wands are actually powered by child slaves—and more familiar scenes, such as on a date or a sports team road trip.

Apple co-hosted Marvel's resort to launch its iAd digital purchasing service in Walt Disney World in Florida, while Facebook Inc. FB, -1.22% raised $50 million in June for 360° video and mobile fundraising for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Image How Marvel will use numbers to promote its products.

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.00% , through its Xbox ad network, is another force spreading the superhero franchise.

There is also, as Amazon rhapsodizes in an ad for its Prime membership, a "quiet superhero" movement. PG-13 and older hero movies, aimed at females, such as "Captain Underpants" and "Beetlejuice," show kids take heroes seriously, gleefully encouraging heroes to risk general destruction to help save the world. Both start people crying.

Disney's Marvel superheroes have grown up a bit. Re-imagining Spiderman in a comic book, so he looks 2 cm (0.8 in) taller than in other films, "against the will of the filmmakers, aggravates the effect compared to a standard-definition image," analysts at UBS Research say. The webslinger and his web quiver, hitting further dents in the principle of profitability for Disney.

Activist, mocked

Unlike the Marvel movies who have benefited from all the money built up by their studio, Comcast Corp.'s NBCU,
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